[Editor’s note: Spoilers for The Umbrella Academy Season 2 and its ending follow below.]

If you’re reading this, then you’ve reached The Umbrella Academy Season 2 ending. First of all, congrats! You surely had a joyous ride. Second of all, we know you have questions – we have answers. The second season of the Netflix series, which is based on the comics by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, was a marked improvement over the first. Not that Season 1 was bad, but the 1960s-set Season 2 was just so tightly constructed, so emotionally fulfilling, so narratively satisfying that it really is one of the best seasons of TV that Netflix has produced thus far.

The continued adventures of Five (Aidan Gallagher), Vanya (Ellen Page), Luther (Tom Hopper), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Diego (David Castañeda) and Ben (Justin H. Min) were an absolute delight this time around, blending action with humor, emotion, and progressive character development to result in a supremely satisfying batch of 10 episodes.

But the Umbrella Academy Season 2 finale also ends on a cliffhanger that is slightly confusing and incredibly tantalizing, setting up a tremendously delicious potential Season 3 (which Netflix hasn’t officially ordered yet). So without further ado, let’s break down that ending, what exactly happened, and what it means for the road ahead.

The Finale

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Photo by Christos Kalohordis/Netflix

Before we get to the ending ending of Season 2, let’s backtrack slightly to recap what we learned in the finale episode, aptly titled “The End of Something,” which is a reference to something The Handler said to Five in Season 1 when she first met him in the apocalyptic future.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 finale takes place largely on Sissy’s (Marin Ireland) farm, where her son Harlan is having a full-on powers breakdown. You see, when Vanya revived Harlan after he drowned, she imbued in him some of her powers. And when Vanya was being tortured by the FBI, she basically mind-melded with Harlan and set him off, creating a “Rogue from X-Men 1”-type situation.

But as the full Umbrella Academy team arrives at Sissy’s farm (the family members having learned their lesson last season and now deciding to support and help Vanya instead of treating her like Frankenstein’s monster), so too arrives The Handler (Kate Walsh) and Lila (Ritu Arya) to “eliminate the suspects responsible for the assassination of JFK and the murder of the Commission’s Board of Directors.” Lila is fired up and ready to straight-up murder the Hargreeves kids, having learned that Old Man Five is the one who killed her parents.

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Photo by Christos Kalohordis/Netflix

After Vanya does her Silver Surfer thing and eliminates a cadre of Commission agents, it’s revealed that Lila too has powers. She floats up, just like Vanya, and begins laying waste to the farm. As it turns out, Lila can mirror the powers of each individual Umbrella Academy member, and proves a formidable foe. Why? Because she was born on October 1, 1989 – the same day as the Hargreeves children. She’s special, just like them.

It takes a lot of fighting for a conversation to ensue, but ensue it does. Five admits he killed Lila’s parents, but only as part of a contract – a contract that The Handler faked. How often does management go on kill jobs, as The Handler did the night Lila’s parents were killed? Never. The Handler faked the kill order because she wanted to steal Lila – she knew she was special. Diego tries to appeal to Lila’s heart, as the Hargreeves kids empathize with Lila’s abusive parent and try to convince her she’s one of them.

“We can be your family if you just let us,” Diego says to Lila. But just then, The Handler comes in and shoots everyone but Lila. She asks her mother if it’s true, if she faked the kill order to snatch Lila. “I need to know that we can get past this, be a happy family again,” The Handler replies coolly. Understanding The Handler is straight-up no good, Lila responds, “They’re my real family.” Bad idea. The Handler shoots her dead. And then the last remaining Swede (remember those three creepy assassins that were commissioned by The Commission to kill the Umbrella Academy kids?) shows up and kills The Handler.

Just when it seems like The Umbrella Academy is wrapping up with an incredibly dark finale, A dying Five remembers what his father said to him when they confronted Reggie earlier in the season. “Seconds, not decades,” Reggie said to Five, suggesting he try to hone his time travel ability by traveling only small bits at a time.

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Photo by Christos Kalohordis/Netflix

And indeed he does. He time travels back a minute or so, before everyone was murdered in the barn, and is able to disarm The Handler before she shoots everyone. This time, Lila still asks The Handler if it’s true that she killed her parents, but before The Handler can answer, The Swede shows up and shoots her dead. In the confusion, Lila reaches for the time-traveling brief case and jumps outta there. Five convinces The Swede to drop his weapon, saying simply “enough,” and they go their separate ways. The Umbrella Academy is alive and well. The violence, finally, has ended.

Vanya is able to take back whatever power she had given to Harlan (or so she thinks), bringing an end to the chaotic energy swirling around him. Commission-wise, Herb arrives and informs Five and Diego that he’s now the acting chairperson of the organization until they elect a new Board of Directors. He happily lets them have a briefcase to jump back home.

But as the Hargreeves family prepares to jump in time back to 2019, Sissy informs Vanya she and Harlan can’t come with them. If they get separated in the jump like last time, she’s worried what will happen to Harlan alone in a strange place. But she does tell Vanya that she intends to move to California and tells her, “if you ever find a safe way back to me you take it.” Our final look at Sissy and Harlan reveals that he retains some of Vanya’s powers, as he’s making one of his toys levitate in the backseat. Allison, meanwhile, leaves a note for Ray saying that while her time in the 1960s changed her, she doesn’t belong there.

Vanya, Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, and Five all join hands as Five opens the brief case and they make the jump to 2019…

That Time Jump

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Photo by Christos Kalohordis/Netflix

The jump at first seems like it worked. The Umbrella Academy kids land in April 2, 2019, the day after the apocalypse, and the Hargreeves mansion still stands. They celebrate and make their way to the living room, where they’re at first flummoxed to see a painting of Ben over the mantle instead of Five. Then they notice Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) is there, alive and well. “I knew you’d show up eventually,” he says which suggests he remembers them from when they confronted him in 1963. But when the kids call the mansion their home, Reginald replies, “Home? This isn’t your home.” What is it then? “This is the Sparrow Academy.”

Just then, five individuals appear on the balcony above, faces obscured, and next to them a cube floats in the air. Then Ben (Justin H. Min), also alive and well, walks in… except he looks extremely different. “Dad, who the hell are these assholes?” Ben asks, hair shaggy and sporting a gnarly scar over the front of his face. In unison, the Umbrella Academy kids say, “Shit.” Roll credits.

So what, exactly, is going on here? There are two possible scenarios. The first, which feels like the most likely, is we’re in a Back to the Future Part II situation. By virtue of the fact that the Hargreeves children were moseying around 1960s Dallas, Texas for a few years, they irreparably changed the timeline. It’s a butterfly effect. Except instead of stepping on a butterfly, they tracked down their father and proceeded to tell him all the things he hadn’t done yet – adopted them, trained them, and died to try and bring them together to prevent the apocalypse. All of that happened, and because it happened, when 1989 rolled around it appears as though Reginald Hargreeves made some different decisions than the ones he made in the original timeline.

Because Reggie already knew he would adopt Vanya and Five and Luther and Allison and Klaus and Diego, it appears as though he specifically chose not to adopt Vanya and Five and Luther and Allison and Klaus and Diego. And because Reggie was told he started a school for these gifted youngsters called “The Umbrella Academy,” it appears as though he chose not to call it The Umbrella Academy. Their actions made an impact on his actions, altering the timeline. Like when Biff got hold of the Sports Almanac and created the “darkest timeline” version of 1985 in Back to the Future Part II. You know, the one with Trump Tower Biff Tower.

The other possible scenario is that when the Umbrella Academy kids jumped “back” to 2019, they actually jumped to a parallel dimension in which everything is different. Although this scenario would hinge on the Commission’s briefcase being faulty (because we’ve seen folks jump all over the same timeline throughout this show with no problems) and the existence of multiple dimensions within The Umbrella Academy universe.

So What Happens in Season 3?

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Image via Netflix

What happens next? Assuming the Back to the Future 2 scenario is the correct reading of this ending, the Umbrella Academy kids are now the only ones who remember the “original” timeline. The big question now is, who are the Sparrow Academy students? Are they “shadow” versions of Vanya, Luther, Klaus, Allison, Diego, and Five, or are they different characters altogether? I’m inclined to think it’s the latter – that Reggie specifically did not adopt the Umbrella Academy kids in an effort to change the timeline, which means either different versions of them are out there, or the Vanya, Luther, Klaus, Allison, Diego, and Five who just arrived “back” in 2019 are the only versions of those individuals existing. Because – and hear me out – in the time between 1963 and 2019 in this altered timeline, they didn’t exist. They jumped directly from 1963 to 2019.

Questions abound, specifically with regards to Lila. She has a briefcase, so is she hopping around the timeline? Is the the Big Bad in Season 3? Is she one of the Sparrow Academy kids? And what about Harlan? Last we saw he was a kid in 1963, but in 2019 he’d be a fully fledged adult – with powers. We can probably assume Vanya will make some sort of attempt to track him down.

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Image via Netflix

Collider reporter Christina Radish interviewed The Umbrella Academy showrunner Steve Blackman recently and asked him how this altered timeline might affect a potential Season 3 (which hasn’t yet officially been ordered by Netflix). Unsurprisingly, he was tight-lipped:

“Well, I don’t wanna give anything away. If we’re lucky enough to get a Season 3, I know what it is. I already have a plan for it, in my mind. I know the beginning, middle and end of Season 3. I know it’s gonna be a very challenging season for them. Clearly, the Umbrella Academy is no more and their brother, who should be deceased, is standing right in front of them. So, I think there’s gonna be some changes. And Hargreeves, who should be dead, is alive. I don’t wanna give anything away, but it will be obviously be a fun and tragic season for them to understand what’s happening and how it came to be.”

Blackman did confirm that they intentionally blocked out the faces of those in the Sparrow Academy, so their identities will remain a mystery until Season 3.

In a separate interview with Christina, Five actor Aidan Gallagher spoke about how the Season 2 ending sets up Season 3 and theorized they the characters have changed the timeline enormously:

“Think about it, if you solve one thing in the timeline, you therefore change the timeline again. You have an endless butterfly effect. You can never fully get back to the original timeline. When they jump back to 2019, for all they know, everything’s different. They assume everything’s fine, but when they see that it’s now the Sparrow Academy, that’s a hint of the mayhem in this different world. They’re now in an unfamiliar landscape, yet again, and they’re all in it for the first time.”

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Image via Netflix

Klaus actor Robert Sheehan, meanwhile, told Collider that for Klaus, the biggest thing going into Season 3 is this new version of Ben:

“In terms of the Sparrows, I would imagine there’s gonna be some fighting. Knowing our show as we do, I would imagine there’s gonna be some property destruction. Ultimately, for Klaus, it’s gonna concern Ben. It’s gonna concern this new leader Ben quite a lot. It’s also gonna concern the fact that Dad met us when he was a younger man, and then chose not to keep us together, not to adopt us, and basically avoided us like the plague. I don’t know how disappearing up its own ass the time travel can get, but it does make you wonder, if we were in the 1960s, and then we time leapfrogged back to 2019, did those women still have us in 1987? And then, you’re opening up a whole different can of worms because then there are mirrors of us, walking around. But that’s too much folding in on itself. But I think the Sparrows are the new version of us.”

With regards to the Sparrow Academy students, Min concurred in an interview with Collider that it sets up a new formidable antagonist for the team:

“Let’s talk about that green floating cube. There’s a lot going on in that last scene. Even daddy, Reggie Hargreeves, feels very different with his demeanor. I’m very curious to explore that relationship and see what that leads to. It just set up for an amazing potential Season 3 because it will really be the first time where the Umbrella Academy is facing themselves, almost, or a version of themselves. The last two seasons, the antagonists have been these assassin type people, and no one really with supernatural abilities, except Lila. But now, they’re facing an exact replica of themselves, in the Sparrow Academy, so it sets itself up for something really exciting.”

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Photo by: Christos Kalohordis/Netflix

Min added that he and the Umbrella Academy cast were kept in the dark about that final scene until a few days before they shot it. Meaning he and everyone else thought he was leaving the show:

“When I shot that final scene with Ellen Page and Vanya in Episode 9, I actually thought that was my final scene on the show. It was quite an emotional scene because Ben is saying goodbye to his family, but Justin, as the actor, I felt like I was saying goodbye to the show, as well, and my actual crew family that I’ve grown to love and care for, for the past six months, and even some of our continuing crew members, for the last two years. We’d received the draft of Episode 10, at that point, when I shot that scene with Ellen, but the last three pages had been omitted, so none of us knew. And then, a few weeks after that, um, I got a ping on my phone for a top secret email from Steve Blackman, who had just emailed the seven Hargreeves children and said, ‘Here’s the last scene. Hope you enjoy it.’ I remember it vividly. It feels like yesterday. It was 8:48pm in my Toronto apartment, and I read it and just started screaming at the top of my lungs in there. I was completely shocked and flabbergasted and gobsmacked and overjoyed, to be allowed to come back and be a part of this show, especially if we get renewed for another season.”

The actor also noted that he worked to differentiate Sparrow Academy Ben from Ghost Ben:

“Even from his appearance to the scar on his face to his hair, we wanted Sparrow Academy Ben to feel completely different from Ghost Ben. I even grew out what I could of my incredible mustache, so he could seem a bit rougher. We had about 20 iterations of that hair that we were experimenting with. We just really wanted to make it messier and longer, and there’s even a couple of blue streaks… I’m so excited. As an actor, these are the most fun things to play, when it’s a bit of a stretch from yourself. Ghost Ben, in a lot of ways, feels very comfortable for me. Those are the types of characters that I’m good at playing because they are, to a certain extent, similar to my essence, as a person. But Sparrow Academy Ben is completely not that. I’m so excited for that challenge and to get to do what I can with that character.”

Here's hoping he gets the chance, and we get the chance to find out what this Sparrow Academy is all about. We’ve seen and loved Season 2. Now we’re ready for The Umbrella Academy Season 3.

For more on The Umbrella Academy Season 2, check out our cast and characters guide.

Reporting by Christina Radish contributed to this article.

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Image via Netflix