The following contains spoilers for The Umbrella Academy Season 3, Episode 10, "Oblivion," now streaming on Netflix.
The Umbrella Academy Season 3 left audiences bewildered about where the story will go from here. Despite its cliffhanger ending and showrunner Steve Blackman's plan for four seasons, The Umbrella Academy has yet to be renewed by Netflix. But if Season 3 goes down as the ending of The Umbrella Academy, the series will still have told a complete -- albeit devastating -- story.
The Umbrella Academy Season 1 ended with a massive cliffhanger. The Hargreeves siblings successfully stopped one apocalypse but created another, resulting in a split-second decision to travel through time while the Earth was engulfed in flames. Season 2 opened with the siblings far from home and ended with them returning to an incorrect timeline. Season 3 was about adjusting to the new timeline or dooming it in an attempt to restore theirs. By the end of Season 3, the heroes had no choice but to abandon the new timeline. They were forcibly placed in another new timeline where they had no powers, Allison got everything she wanted and Reginald Hargreeves reigned supreme.
Season 3 is not intended to be the ending of The Umbrella Academy. In an interview with The Wrap, Blackman revealed he had plans for a fourth and final season that would be "very satisfying for the audience" and "going towards an endgame." According to Blackman, Season 4 has already been pitched to Netflix, after a strong third outing. Season 3 garnered 124.5 million hours of viewership in its first five days according to Variety, making it the only Netflix show to beat Stranger Things in June 2022. Despite this, the company's recent financial losses and budget cuts (as documented by IndieWire) may spell bad news for The Umbrella Academy and other unrenewed Netflix originals.
Fans would be justifiably angry should The Umbrella Academy end with Season 3, but that doesn't mean it was necessarily a bad ending. The overly fast-paced third season does work as a conclusion -- it's just a very somber and devastating finale. The members of the Umbrella Academy have satisfied their purposes. The world is no longer ending and they're (seemingly) no longer held back by their adoptive father. What more could these characters want at this point?
The show's character arcs were mostly wrapped up, too. Luther was lied to and living for a heartless man; now he knows the truth, has renounced his father and learned to properly love over the course of many years. Viktor felt insignificant and didn't know who he was; now he not only knows who he is but how important to the universe he is. Diego had serious "daddy issues" in both Season 1 and Season 2, along with some serious commitment issues and resentment towards his family. By Season 3, he was expecting to be a father himself and had become the heart of the Hargreeves family.
Klaus has been through a roller coaster from the beginning -- but by ridding himself of his guilt by helping deceased Ben fulfill his purpose, it's safe to assume he will land happily on his feet. He always does. Allison's character arc in Season 3 left her in a dark place that's not the most fulfilling, but she seemed mostly happy in her epilogue. Allison will never rid herself of her guilt, but she's finally gotten everything she had lost back and presumably has rid herself of her accursed powers.
Last but not least, Five can now live in a timeline with no set deadline and no Time Commission, since he no longer has time-traveling abilities to create the Commission to begin with. Assuming Dolores exists in the new universe, Five and most of the other Umbrella Academy members do get a happy ending in Season 3 -- even if it only leaves them slightly happier than they were at the beginning of Season 1.
In an ideal world, The Umbrella Academy will be renewed for its fourth season. But in the unfortunately possible event that The Umbrella Academy gets canceled, Season 3 still provides audiences with an ending that works. The characters are content and can fade into the obscurity they never knew. It's not the best ending, but it's the ending fans will have to accept if Netflix doesn't greenlight the siblings for one final apocalypse.
The Umbrella Academy Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.