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March 28, 2024

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Top Ten Tuesday: Celebration Of Umbrella Academy Season 2 Pick-Up: Top Ten Moments From Season 1

 

Good Morning Lovelies! Yes it has happened! Umbrella Academy has been renewed for season two! In celebration of this INCREDIBLE news and a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GERARD WAY I have decided to pay homage to season one of the Umbrella Academy by giving you my top ten favorite moments (obviously some spoilers will abound BUT NOT THE REAL BIG ONES- I purposely left those off)However having said that, if you are on the fence about watching season 1? Watch a couple clips and I hope it sucks you in and you decide to give it a shot. As always (although I’m doing my spin on Top Ten Tuesday) the original is hosted and originated by The Arts Reader girl!

Truthfully this list also honors the brilliance of Gerard Way’s… well everything… but specifically his musical knowledge across genres, generations and the fearlessness to align them across scenes. Lord knows it shouldn’t work but it does. Perfectly.
One more note – some of this I had to tape myself (all rights reserved to Netflix) so please excuse any tv glare and meowing in the background from the boys… and Gomez sneezing.. he is still fighting his upper respiratory infection.  Obviously having said that all rights belong to the Umbrella Academy/Netflix (as linked above and who hopefully don’t come after me since this is in honor of them)? Not that I have anything worth suing for either way…which is just depressing but beside the point.
Now of course this is my top ten, and truthfully I had a hella hard time jus picking ten so take it with a grain of salt but… #2?
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10) Dance like No Ones Watching- I think We’re Alone Now- Tiffany– Here me out. It isn’t that this fantastical dance scene among the reunited Umbrella Academy shouldn’t be ranked higher, because technically it should. It is just so iconic to the show, so recognizable and so overly utilized that I couldn’t rank it higher out of fairness to other parts of the show that deserve to be highlighted.

9) Diego finds Patch Shot/Ultimately Honors Her Memory by not killing her assassin (This Year’s Love by David Grey)
This scene comes from so much and leads to so much. Diego has an on again off again tenuous relationship with Detective Eudora Patch who ends up saving his brother, #4/Klaus, but in doing so is set- up by assassins Cha-Cha and Hazel. She is shot and dies where she is found by Diego in a heart breaking scene set to David Gray’s “This Year’s Love”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ1fgdbSuFE
This also leads to an amazing story arc for Diego after getting some sage council from #5:

I am curious. Your girlfriend Patch. What did you like about her? – #5
A lot of things. A cute butt. Nice Legs- Diego/#2
Anything a little more profound than that? -#5
She believed in people. No matter how much shit and filth she saw in the streets. She always saw the good inside  -#2/Diego
Well. I’m sure she’ll be proud to know you are killing Hazel and Cha-Cha as a way to honor her memory. – #5

For once Diego heeds his advice and when given the chance to kill those responsible for the death of those responsible for her death, Diego instead chooses to honor her memory.
8) #5 sees the entirety of the Umbrella Academy Dead in the Apocalypse/Never Tear Us Apart Remake (Episode 2- Not the spoiler you might think)
When you  know a scene is coming and it still wrecks you to the core? You know it is everything. And this scene was all that and more. Not to mention that it took one of my favorite songs ever and remade it (a sin beyond that is unforgivable and well it worked).
While in his time travels, #5 sees a premonition during the apocalypse: along with everything else being burned down to nothing, is the Umbrella Academy itself. While walking through the rubble #5 sees each of member of the Academy dead and so ends episode two.
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7) Hazel and Cha-Cha burn all the eyeballs high on Klaus’ special chocolate-Tom Swoons Shingaling
After kidnapping “the worst possible member of the academy because no one tells me shit”<–ok I’m paraphrasing. They realize there is no breaking Klaus until  they find his secret stash of drugs and what seems like some innocent snacks. Unfortunately for Hazel and Cha-Cha they decide to eat these snacks and are shot into a stratosphere of ultimate highs. AND WE ARE ALL HERE FOR IT!
Klaus meanwhile, finally gives them a piece of information that he seems to think is harmless or at the least, not trackable, but unwittingly is very much of the utmost importance and definitely trackable. So off Hazel and Cha-Cha go to not just get information. THEY. BURN. THE. WHOLE. PLACE. DOWN. And all to Tom Swoon’s Shingaling.
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6) The return of #5
What makes this scene so fantastic isn’t actually the moment he returns but the banter that happens just after he returns. It establishes a few things essential pieces to the plot that you may have to rewind a couple of times to catch.

  1. #5 is a 58 year-old conscience caught in a 13 year-old body
  2. He has been to the future and it is shit.
  3. He has not time, ability or need to explain much to his siblings
  4. Quite obviously he looks down on everyone (maybe or maybe not rightfully so) because of what he’s been through in his travels (which at this point we know nothing of).
  5. Establishes the incredibly dysfunctional relationship between the entire group despite the appearance of #5, most who have thought to be long gone and never to return.
  6. The incredible acting of Aidan Gallagher who literally has to play a 58 year-old conscience caught in a 13 year-old body that has suffered through an apocalypse, been a trained assassin, seen the future, believes he is better than and seen more than everyone else, but yet has an underlying vulnerability to him. And while he would love nothing more than say screw it to his dysfunctional family, admits to #1 later in the series, has come back to save them… and then seeing Klaus rob a corner store for snacks… sighs and wonders if that was a mistake.

 

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5) 17 Years Ago: The Foiled Bank Robbery-/Fitz and the Tantrums- “The Walker”
To get a flavor for what the Umbrella Academy started out as… before Ben died (my only gripe with the show is that unlike with the comics, this is not addressed but I’m going to assume it will be in the second season), before #5 disappeared, before it all went bad, we are showed what The Umbrella was capable of and it was spectacular. From #1’s/Luther strength, #2/Diego’s knife wielding accuracy, #3/Rumor’s ability to get anyone to do what she wants by saying … “I heard a rumor…” #5’s spacial jumping and #6/Ben’s unleashing of the monster. They were a team children with enhanced capabilities bought by Sir. Reginald Hargreeves. Taken to a boarding school, they were trained at a boarding school to fight a new class of villains.
Also of great importance,we are introduced to the backstory of #7/Vanya’s childhood torture; being told often and without fail that there was just “nothing special about her.”
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4) #4/Klaus and #5 Play an Insane version of Pappa and Son
Klaus’s story is complicated and deep despite his constant provision of comic relief throughout the show. You love him and scream at the show’s need to torture #4 to just plain stop. So when #5 actually comes to Klaus needing his help Klaus jumps all over the opportunity, finally feeling needed. And he plays it to the hilt.
Together they go to the laboratory creating the fake eyeballs that #5 has concluded plays an integral part in stopping the pending apocalypse- if he can just figure out who it belongs to. Knowing he is trapped in a 13  year-olds body, he needs an adult. So, of all the choices he has, he picks Klaus. Not even #5 sees what Klaus is about to bring. Let the shenanigans ensue.
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3) The Ice Cream Truck Foil- Two of Us- Covered by Gerard Way
Go ahead and say you saw this coming and you are lying. Everything is about to go horribly wrong when #1/Luther and #5 are trying to exchange the traveling briefcase with Cha-Cha and Hazel in return for #5’s chance to speak with “The Handler.” He wants nothing more to protect his family from the impending apocalypse (although by now if you know anything about #5, you realize he isn’t about to hand the briefcase to anyone).
What he doesn’t see coming is Diego, Klaus and the ghost of Ben (who of course is ALWAYS with Klaus the Seance) barreling into the situation so Diego can exact revenge on the assassins that killed Detective Patch (that revelation I noted above hasn’t come to fruition at this point). The result? Spectacular. Except for the disappearance, yet again, of #5.
And truthfully Ben’s WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, Klaus’ smile/ middle finger and Cha-Cha’s SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT steals the whole scene.
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2) S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y- Bay City Rollers/Bowling Alley
Who knew the Bay City Rollers could make any shootout scene in a bowling alley better? Apparently, Gerard Way did. And thank God for it. From running down the lanes to Klaus launching a birthday cake at the gun wielding assassins this scene is pure goal. The timing to the music is spot-on. The fight is brilliant. Seeing this dysfunctional mess of a “family” come together makes you laugh, root for them and pray it isn’t too late for them to save… well something/someone (I’m not giving everything  away. In fact there are scenes that should be in this list I purposely left off to not spoil EVERYTHING). 
This scene is pure gold.
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1) Donut Shoppe Fight out between The Handler’s Henchmen and #5 – Istanbul- They Might Be Giants
Poor #5. All he wanted was a decent cup of coffee. First the waitress assumes he is the child of the man sitting next to him and offers him milk. To which he has to correct her, ordering coffee, black.
Then the Handler’s henchmen catch-up to him and start the first of many insanely brilliant action packed fight scenes to Istanbul by They Might Be Giants. I’m not sure any there is anything I can say that would even begin to do justice to the scene below- ok I tried to use an official clip but that didn’t work… so this is updated…! Sit back, hit play and enjoy poor #5 just try to get a cup of coffee.

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That is it! My top ten scenes from Season number one of the Umbrella Academy (minus a certain storyline that would completely blow up and spoil all the things)… I can not wait for season two… if you have favorite moments from season 1 please share below… questions you want answered in season two or thoughts about where it is going? Share them below!!!! I’m thinking Hotel Oblivion has to come into play on some level, even if not fully integrated.

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