Kugelblitz

In Umbrella Academy, Harlan’s journey up to the events in the main atrium is shown through a montage of his movements. Thanks to his powers, Harlan moves around a lot and along the way, knocks out (or kills) numerous people. When his mother ends up with cancer, she passes away in 1989. Since then, it appears he’s kept quiet and used this ASMR as a way of controlling his emotions.

Klaus comes into the house, shocked at what’s happened. When Sloane wakes up, she sees both Alphonso and Jayme’s dead bodies and immediately bolts.

Luther chases after Diego and Allison, but it’s the big man who is forced to watch as Allison uses her powers to scream at Sloane. When blood oozes from her nose, Luther finally jumps in and stops them from torturing the scared woman. Sloane admits that the Sparrows don’t actually know about the briefcase, so her whole endeavour was for nothing. ..

Luther speaks openly to Sloane about how he feels, admitting he doesn’t really have many friends but their romance is something he’s very much invested in. The pair share a really nice moment together. ..

Viktor is caught up in the Umbrellas’ proximity and admits that it feels like a tuning fork in his head every time they get closer. The blast down in the hallway was a result of getting too close to them and unleashing his powers. Since that time back on the farm, they’re connected. Viktor promises to try and make this right.

Fei and Ben are at loggerheads over who should be the new leader of the Sparrow Academy. Their half-siblings have all died, so their relationship is tense. They’re also fighting over who should take on the role. Fei is more in favor of his friend Ben, while Ben is more in favor of his brother Fei.

As the Grandfather Paradox continues to play out, Lila and Five find themselves in a world where they are not the only ones with special powers. Others have also discovered the paradox and are trying to figure out how to fix it.

Five is not happy until he stumble upon an Operations bunker in the basement. He gains access but he’s clearly suffering, given that he keeps farting and is sweating profusely.

Inside the glass tank, they find a five-year-old version of themselves. This explains why Five is acting this way as he’s experiencing side effects being so close to his future-self. It also turns out that he’s the one who actually founded this place, serving this Bunker as a panic room.

The Five members of the group are discussing how to save the world from an impending Kugelblitz. Older Five warns them not to save the world, but instead to find a way to undo it. He dies with a tattoo on his chest that he believes may be a clue. Younger Five decides to cut it off him in order to find out more. ..

At the Hotel Obsidian, Luther and Sloane work together to try and resolve the Sparrow conflict. Namely that of returning Alphonso and Jayme to the Academy, with Sloane convincing them that Harlan wasn’t part of their plan and a wildcard. ..

While they head out, Stan and Klaus break into the White Buffalo room, and marvel at what’s inside. Stan messes about with a harpoon gun though and accidentally shoots Klaus through the chest. As he tumbles over, Stan is shocked and calls out for help.

Harlan hears a commotion coming from Viktor’s room and decides to investigate. He finds out that the papers he saw earlier were about the mothers who died after Harlan lost control after Sissy’s death in the hospital. This reframes the earlier flashbacks, which explained why all of them had passed away. ..

Elsewhere, the trade goes ahead but Ben decides to hand over Harlan in order to sweeten the deal. If they do this, the whole conflict will be over. If not? Well, it means war. ..

The Episode Review

The Umbrella Academy is starting to get interesting now, with an intriguing dilemma thrown at us in the form of this Grandfather Paradox. It would appear that Five is destined to make it into this glass tank for his younger self to show, like a perfect time loop, but we’ll have to wait and see if that actually holds any weight or whether the timeline will diverge. And why does his older-self not want him to save the world?

Meanwhile, there are some nice moments involving the Umbrella Academy, especially that involving Harlan and the big reveals about how he’s the catalyst for what’s happened to their mothers and, presumably, the root cause of this paradox occurring too. How are they going to stop him? Will they turn over Harlan to the Sparrows?