There are a lot of very fun bits in the final season of The Umbrella Academy. But one bit that isn’t fun? Spoilers past this point, but the cheating storyline with Five (Aidan Gallagher) and Lila (Ritu Arya) was a big mistake. And not just for the age gap romance, but also because there weren’t enough episodes to make the plotline work.
Here’s the brief version of what goes down throughout the six-episode season, at least where this romance is concerned. Diego (David Castañeda) and Lila are married with kids in this season’s new timeline. They’re both pretty unhappy with being powerless suburban middle-classers, so Lila is spicing things up by investigating a group called The Keepers. There she bumps into Five, who is also investigating them, albeit for the CIA. Diego, meanwhile, is suspicious of Lila’s frequent disappearances and follows her one night to see her talking to Five… Who he thinks is a “little Greek guy.”
Once they all get their powers back, Diego and Lila seem to hit a new, better level in their relationship. That is until the end of Episode 3, “The Squid and the Girl,” where Lila tells Diego she wants a break from their marriage. And oh boy, do they get a break.
Five’s powers have changed slightly in the new season… He’s able to jump through time, but now he starts in a weird subway station that accesses different timelines. One otherworldly express train later, Five and Lila are trapped in the multiverse with no way to get home. Per the name of Season 4, Episode 5, “Six Years, Five Months, and Two Days,” they’re stuck together for nearly seven years in the multiverse, while mere hours have passed for everyone else. And over the course of that time, the two fall in love.
So, let’s discuss this age gap thing, first.
How Old Is Five In Umbrella Academy? How Old Is Lila?
Just to get this out of the way, Aidan Gallagher is, in real life, currently 20 years old. Ritu Arya is 35 years old. They’re also actors, just FYI, and reportedly filmed when Gallagher was 19, and Arya was 34.
The characters’ ages are much more difficult to figure out because over four seasons they’ve not just been jumping through timelines, they’ve also been jumping through time. This is despite the fact that they were all born on the same day: October 1, 1989.
In Season 1, it’s established that Five was 13 years old when he jumped to an apocalyptic future. He was stuck there for 40 years, then got a job working for the Commission (the organization that polices time travel in the show), then jumped back to 2019. When he did, he found himself back in his 13-year-old body. In Season 2, he jumped back to 1963, then was sent 10 days back to stop an apocalypse. And Season 3 happens over a pretty compressed timeline as well. So by the time Five enters Season 4, he’s still 13 years old.
However, there is a time jump at the beginning of the season… We cut to six years after the closing scene of Season 3, where the Umbrella Academy all split up. That means Five is now 19 years old, the same age Gallagher was in real life when they filmed. And by the time he and Lila kiss in the multiverse, it’s a few years past that; he’s in his twenties by that point.
As for Lila, it’s somehow even more confusing: she worked for The Commission for years, so we don’t know how old she is. That said, assuming she’s around the same age as the rest of the Hargreeves siblings, she’s mid-30s after the Season 4 time jump and mid-40s by the time she and Five leave the subway station(s).
The Age Gap Isn’t The Only Mistake With Five and Lila’s Relationship
As fans have reacted to online en masse, the issue with the age gap has as much to do with the age of the actors, as the age of the characters. To be clear: Gallagher and Arya are doing a job. This is not on them. But it is uncomfortable to think about Gallagher being 15 in season 2 when Arya first joined the show — to what happens in Season 4. Putting actors in this position is not great, to say the least.
However, I’d argue the storyline doesn’t work, even ignoring that icky element.
The biggest issue is how the whole thing is plotted out. We begin with Diego and Lila on the outs. Then they get their powers back, and it seems like they are getting their individual and couple mojo back. Diego’s renewed powers as Knife Daddy make him more confident, more in charge, and able to be the man that Lila frequently clashed with, but loved anyway. Similarly, Lila is getting the adventure she wanted and has been lacking by being a stay-at-home mom.
Then there’s the sudden swerve at the end of Episode 3, leading to a classic sci-fi trope: trapped in a time loop/bubble/whatever, two characters who shouldn’t fall in love… Fall in love. It’s something that was played to for great effect in the classic The Magicians episode “A Life In The Day,” and to much lesser effect in a recent Amazing Spider-Man storyline from Marvel. Here, they hit the same thing… There’s a very long time as these two characters are stuck together before they succumb to their desires. And when they do, leaving the bubble cracks the romance.
But there aren’t nearly enough episodes to deal with the fallout. In the final act of the final hour of the series, Diego discovers Lila and Five cheated. He and Five come to blows. When they discover they need to sacrifice themselves to save the multiverse, Lila holds both Five and Diego’s hands as they disappear forever. The end.
There is a resolution. But is it a satisfying one? Definitely not. There’s no real conversation. Lila, Diego, and Five being cool with all of this as they’re wiped clean from the timeline doesn’t even follow what happened 10 minutes earlier. They just stop fighting, and that’s it. Mind you, I’m not sure having extra running time would have excused the other issues with this storyline (see above re: the age gap). But at least we would have had more time to reach a real conclusion if these characters could have talked things out. That’s what family does, right?
Oh yeah, also they’re family. What is this, Game of Thrones?
The point is that this is a critical error in the final hours of the series. It’s clear what the show was trying to do here, and why they thought it would be interesting. But it’s the sort of thing you can maybe try in the middle of a 10-episode season if you’re prepared to deal with the ethical issues of the age gap and the emotional fallout of a brother cheating with his sister on their other brother. Six episodes isn’t nearly enough time, and it not only distracts from the ending, it makes it viscerally uncomfortable to watch. Here’s hoping there’s a better version of the Umbrella Academy‘s final season — or at least this plotline — in another timeline.
Hey Alex, I just discovered your podcast last week and have been watching S4 this week and enjoying your recaps.
But I have to disagree with some of your points about this storyline.
My understanding was that Five is in his 60s and I’ve always felt that Gallagher really does a good job of acting a mature age despite his appearance.
What Five doesn’t have is emotional maturity with people.
So I actually loved this storyline because I think he really invests in this what is for him the first proper human relationship and if you think back to that for yourself, it a huge moment.
Lila has other reasons and we see that when she just immediately wants to him once there is a choice.
Five is transformed in this timeline even the suit is gone and he is relaxed and thoughtful in a gentle human way we don’t see before this.
My heart absolutely breaks for him here because he doesn’t understand about the children, he doesn’t understand about their marriage and that isn’t his fault, his life just hasn’t presented him with those opportunities.
He doesn’t give her the book right away because I think he intellectually knows her reaction and for the first time he’s not reacting logically or with his head.
Can you blame him for doing exactly as Ben does? Ie when Ben says it’s the first time he’s happy and he won’t leave Jennifer?
Both Ben and Five have had a rough time although arguably Ben brought a lot of his misery on himself even as an adult whereas Five stuffed up as a little kid.
I don’t blame either of them, Five or Lila and it also gives Diego the opportunity to show growth (which he does).
Also although Lila is part of the family she didn’t grow up with them so I find this less weird than Luther and Allison, which was way more ick to me.
As to why they stop fighting I think if anyone understands what is happening it is Five and he realises the pointless fight that he doesn’t really want to have with his brother.
Anyway my two cents and for me this was such a moment that I haven’t been able to stop thinking over.
Thank you guys for your podcast and articles which I really enjoy.
Not into all of the material you cover but liking your conversations and insights on this in particular.
Thank YOU, so much, for your thoughtful response, listening, reading, and supporting the podcast! I’ll admit it worked a bit better for me the second time through as a storyline. Still not in love with the ending, but knowing what was coming definitely smoothed it over for sure.