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This article is about Number Five from the Netflix series. You may be looking for other versions of Five.

"People like us, we will never save enough lives to make up for the ones that we take."
—Number Five[src]

Number Five was an obsessive, short-tempered, and intelligent member of the Umbrella Academy, and one of the superpowered children conceived from the Marigolds. Possessing the ability to teleport through space and time travel at will, he found himself trapped in a post-apocalyptic future for forty-five years, and his trip home warped his fifty-eight-year-old body back to thirteen. However, he retained his much older consciousness.

Recruited by the Temps Commission in the apocalyptic wasteland, Five became one of their most revered agents, a skilled killer maintaining order across the timelines, but when he left them to reunite with his family, he became their primary target as he and the Academy traveled throughout time to prevent various apocalyptic threats.

Biography

Childhood

The Umbrella Academy

"That's one badass stapler."
—Five to a robber[src]

Five was born on October 1st, 1989, in Dublin, Ireland[citation needed] to a butcher named Efa,[3] who had shown no signs of pregnancy at the start of the day. Like the rest of the Umbrella Academy members, the newborn adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who, along with Grace, raised Number Five and the rest of the Hargreeves siblings.[4]

He was seen in a flashback during a crime scene. Sir Reginald had him and the others wear their professional attire (black suits with white masks) and head to the active crime scene. From there, they entered the bank, most likely through a back door entrance or through Five's teleportation. The remainder of his siblings had subdued most of the criminals. One robber told them to stay back. Five teleported behind him and questioned what the Robber would do if they didn't. The robber, shocked, attempted to shoot Five, but Five teleported behind him again. The robber spun around to use his gun but was surprised to see he now held a stapler in his hand. Five took the stapler and pushed it into the robber's head. After most of the robbers were subdued, Five and his siblings watched as Ben used his power to kill the rest of the robbers. The Umbrella Academy was showcased outside of the crime scene, surrounded by news reporters and journalists.

Time travel gone wrong

One day, Five is eating lunch when he suddenly thinks of time traveling. He approaches his father and announces that he wishes to travel in time. Reginald is shocked by his sudden exaggeration and explains that Five has not yet tamed his own ability. Five is agitated by Reginald's comment, which provokes Reginald to underestimate him. With that, he leaves his home. With his ability to jump through space and time not yet perfected, Five found himself transported to a near future in which the world had been destroyed. Five attempts to travel back to the present but finds himself unable to do so.

Surviving the Apocalypse

Isolation

Five finds the Hargreeves manor turned to rubble, with all of his siblings, except Viktor, dead. Luther's corpse holds a prosthetic eyeball, which Five acquires. He accepts his fate of doom and seclusion and strives to survive in the Apocalypse as long as possible. He procures a newspaper with the date of the Apocalypse. While searching through the wreckage of a local convenience store, caused in the wake of the apocalypse, Five lays his eyes upon a tattered mannequin, whose lower body was removed by means that remain unknown. Five, alone and yearning for company, drag the mannequin with him, naming her "Delores." Together, they venture into the wrecked and ruined earth. For over 40 years, Five remains alone in the ruined place, longing for no plastic or inanimate company. He still investigates the cause of the apocalypse, always bearing the prosthetic eyeball and Delores. Soon, he is greeted by a peculiar woman who calls herself "The Handler." Five acquires his shotgun and positions it towards the Handler, demanding why she would be so rude as to trespass into his territory. The Handler assures him that she does not mean to hinder him or his time, but she comes with an offer or ultimatum in a sense. She informs him that she is a member of the Temps Commission, an organization created to maintain the proper flow of time and remove threats that terrorize the timeline. She declares that he will maintain a safe home away from the apocalypse if he accepts her offer. Five, with nowhere else to go, accepts.

Five's New Job

Five is transformed into an expert hitman, working to serve the Temps Commission. He secretly uses this opportunity to probe the cause of the apocalypse further. While investigating, he calculates how he can travel back into the present time and return from whence he came. Soon, The Handler hires Five to be a marksman on the day of J.F.K.'s death. Positioned behind a desk, Five takes this opportunity to travel back in time. He forms a wormhole, which he escapes into, being transferred back into his teenage body.

Back In The Umbrella Academy

Having managed to travel back to the present, Five explains the events but finds that Viktor does not believe him, citing that time travel has messed with his mind, just as their father had warned.[5] Five has trouble convincing his siblings of the events too, but is eventually able to convince them when they're confronted by Hazel and Cha-Cha, who attack them.[6]

With the rest of his siblings on board, Five is eventually forced to reveal their future deaths to his siblings, who question why he did not tell them sooner. Later, a flashback to the future — in which all of the Five's siblings are dead — Five is recruited by the Temps Commission, who agree to allow him to retire to a time of his choosing after five years of service; he agrees, but secretly uses this time to travel to the present, eight days before the apocalypse.[7]

With the revelation that Viktor is responsible for destroying the Academy — not the apocalypse — Five is conflicted with his siblings on how best to handle the situation. Eventually, they decide that they shouldn't abandon Viktor. A fight between Viktor, Five, and the Umbrella Academy members breaks out, and all hope seems lost. Five reveals that he has a plan: he will take all of his family with him through time to avoid the apocalypse. Despite not being sure of his abilities, Five is successful in traveling through time with his family.[8]

Second Apocalypse

TheUmbrellaAcademy Season2 Episode1 00 06 35 22R

Hazel tells Five about the second apocalypse.

Following his attempts to avert the apocalypse, Five finds himself transported to Dallas on November 25, 1963, amid another apocalypse. He witnesses as his siblings, the Umbrella Academy, fight the Russians before a nuclear explosion that ends the world. Moments before the world ends, however, Hazel arrives and tells him to come with him if he wants to live; Five obliges, and Hazel takes him back in time to before the apocalypse and explains that he caused the apocalypse by bringing his siblings back in the timeline. Hazel tells him to save the world again but cannot explore more before he is assassinated by the Swedes.

Five tries to get his siblings on board with his attempt to save the world for the second time, but is instantly rebuked by both Luther — who has built a life for himself — and Diego, who is attempting to prevent the assassination of President JFK.[9] Five is later able to convince Diego to help him save the world, and the two try and talk with the 1963 version of their father about his involvement in the assassination of JFK.[10] Five can convince Viktor to his side shortly after he offers insight into their past, which Viktor is happy to receive due to their amnesia.[11]

After Five can get all of his family back together and on his side, he realizes that his only option is to work with the Handler in exchange for a briefcase from the Temps Commission that will allow him to travel back with the Umbrella Academy back to their rightful place within the timeline. Five discovers shockingly that Lila Pitts is the Handler's adoptive daughter. The Handler offers Five a proposition: she will give him a briefcase if he agrees to assassinate the members of the Commission board; he agrees.[12]

Five's attempts to get his family back to their timeline fail, however, and he is forced to abandon the briefcase before it is activated.[13] Five explains to Luther that the only option is to go face a previous version of himself in the same timeline and plead with him to hand over the briefcase. Older, previous Five is initially reluctant to give Five the briefcase, but Five can convince him in exchange for the correct math that would return him to 2019 in his original body; however, Five is annoyed to find that the briefcase is destroyed in the process.[14]

After the members of the Umbrella Academy can save Viktor from destroying the world for a second time, Five and the other members of the Academy face off against the Handler and the Commission. They are successful in killing the agents, but all of the members of the Academy — except for Five — are shot to death by the Handler. Scared, Five remembers advice given to him from Reginald about traveling back in time minutes rather than decades. He can travel back in time, prevent the Handler from killing his siblings, and make a deal with Herb to allow him to take a briefcase and return his family to their rightful place within the timeline.[15]

Personality

At age 13, Five became trapped in the apocalyptic future for more than 40 years. When he found a way back, his body regressed to that of his 13-year-old self while his mind stayed the same. As a result, he has the personality of a 60-year-old and is frustrated at being trapped in a child's body. He is shown to have a genius intellect, often dismissing others, including his family, as stupid or inferior and expressing disinterest in their personal affairs. He is also shown to be sarcastic, pragmatic, and incredibly prideful. He also exhibits impulsive behavior due to his prideful nature. This is seen when he brazenly uses his time-traveling powers as a boy despite Reginald Hargreeves' warnings that he was not fully prepared to wield them.

Five is also shown to be a ruthless and incredibly efficient killer. While he does not enjoy killing, he seems to have no qualms about the people he has killed. He is more than willing to eliminate anyone, even innocent people, whose deaths may stop the apocalypse from happening. He even displays nonchalance when making plans to murder them. He gained fame in his time as an agent of the Temps Commission for his success in killing countless individuals on missions, which he did as part of his contract to get back home to the present. Overall, Number Five has shown to be perfectly willing to eliminate anyone who stands in the way of his goals.

Despite his antisocial behavior, he does have compassion and cares deeply for his family. He works tirelessly, both in the past and future, to prevent the apocalypse and is seemingly the most devoted member of the family to stopping it. He even refuses to involve his family most of the time out of fear they will die. When he "renegotiates" his contract with the Temps Commission, he demands that his family be saved as well.

Additionally, as the series progresses, he becomes disillusioned with killing. When he agrees to assassinate the Commission's board of directors, he only does so, believing it's to save his siblings. Following this particular massacre, he swears off killing, and he does follow through with this promise, only fighting back when it's to defend himself or his family.

In the third season, he seeks a life of retirement and peace and expresses the desire not to intervene in any more time travel, refusing to mess up the lives of himself or his siblings any further. He is only forced back into work when the threat of yet another apocalypse emerges, and even then, he decides that the best option is to step back and accept his fate.

Powers and Abilities

After inadvertently consuming Marigold after Ben spiked his drink with it, Five regained the ability to jump through time, albeit with a few adjustments.

Powers

  • Space-Time Manipulation: Five has been shown to manipulate space and time, which allowed him to teleport through space and time, travel through time, and even manipulate time. Whenever he uses his powers they manifest as a blue energy. However, after consuming marigold his powers changed to purple.
    • Teleportation: Five has the ability to teleport both short and long distances, which he frequently used to evade Hazel, Cha-Cha and the Temps Commission. Despite being able to travel at will, multiple travels within a short time exhausted Five frequently, and the Handler noted that "even you [Five] have limited". In addition to teleporting himself, he is also able to take other people with him when he teleports, as shown when Diego teleported with him as they were running from Commission agents.[15] He is also able to teleport objects without physical contact, which is shown where he replaces a robber's gun with a stapler. In the same episode, he could also teleport his tie around one of his attackers' neck.[4]. After regaining his powers, the color of Five’s power warped, turning it blue to purple. After consuming marigold, his powers changed slightly, instead of being able to blink wherever he wanted he would teleport to the timeline subway station. However, he was able to overcome this weakness and blink normally again.
    • Time Travel: Five is able to travel through time. However, he had not yet mastered this ability, and the first time he used it, he accidentally traveled to the end of the world and was unsuccessful in traveling back. Despite being less adept at time travel, Five was a quick study and could travel through time and take his siblings with him on his first attempt.[8] Five could reverse time by a couple of minutes, undoing events during that time so that only he remembers them and can alter events.[15]

Abilities

  • Master Combatant: Five is a great combatant even as a child. After teleporting into the future, he learned advanced techniques from the Commission. He became a skilled assassin and fighter.
  • Master Assassin: Five was the most deadly assassin in the Temps Commission, able to use his powers and kill multiple people in a matter of seconds, even after regressing his body to his teenage form.
  • Genius-Level Intellect: Five is extremely intelligent and wise, mostly regarding his tactical and scientific skills.
  • Expert Tactician: Five is a brilliant tactician capable of quickly formulating battle strategies and new plans if the situation changes, like elaborating different complex plans to defeat different enemies in difficult situations and be victorious.
  • Expert Intimidator: Five knows how to be quite intimidating; because of his mental instability and aggressive way of acting, he manages to intimidate others even after he assumes his adolescent form.

Relationships

See also: Five and Dolores and Number Five and Viktor

Trivia

  • In the Netflix series, Five can teleport through space and travel through time. Five can only time travel in the comics, though he uses this ability to mimic superhuman speed.
  • Luther and Five are biological twin brothers in the comics, but have different mothers in the Netflix series.

Appearances

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Concept Art

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Season 1

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Season 3

Season 4

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References

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