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in: Season One Episodes, Episodes

We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals

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"We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals" is the first episode of the first season of The Umbrella Academy. It aired on Netflix on February 15, 2019.

Synopsis

Years after they rose to fame as young crime-fighting superheroes, the estranged Hargreeves siblings come together to mark their father's death.

Plot

SPOILERS AHEAD

Reginald obtains seven children.

On the twelfth hour of October 1, 1989, forty-three women give birth to forty-three children at the exact same time. The extraordinary thing about the births is that none of the women were pregnant when the day began. In Russia, a young woman flirts with a man at a swimming pool then jumps into the water. As she emerges, she is surrounded by blood and heavily pregnant, giving birth on the side of the pool moments later.

Enter Sir Reginald Hargreeves, billionaire inventor. He sets out to adopt as many of the children as possible. Sir Reginald manages to get seven of them.

Reginalds death is brought up during a newscast

Years later, the now-grown children live their own lives. Vanya plays a selection from Phantom of the Opera at a violin audition. Luther watches the Earth from his base on the moon. Diego saves a family from a home invasion. Allison attends the red carpet for a film premiere. Klaus is let out of rehab and immediately goes back for taking drugs. In their own way, each learns that Sir Reginald Hargreeves has died.

Vanya and Allison reunite

The remaining members of the Hargreeves family converge on the Academy in the wake of their father's death. The reunion is fraught with tension. While Allison and Pogo are pleased to see Vanya, Diego is not since she wrote a tell-all autobiography about her childhood. Luther suspects that one of the others killed their father; despite the coroner's report stating he died of a heart attack, Luther suspects foul play since Sir Reginald's monocle is missing. Luther asks Klaus to contact their father in the afterlife to find out the truth.

The Umbrella Academy present themselves to the reporters.

Seventeen years ago, the Umbrella Academy make their first public appearance, stopping a robbery at the Capital West Bank. As the rest of the Academy deal with the thieves, Sir Reginald watches from above with Vanya. When she asks why she is not joining her siblings, Sir Reginald tells her it is because she is not special. Once the Academy has successfully stopped the robbery, Sir Reginald introduces the world to the inaugural class of the Umbrella Academy, but only mentions that he adopted six children, rather than seven.

The siblings dance to "I Think We're Alone Now."

At the Academy, Luther goes into his childhood room and puts on some music. As the music plays, each member of the Hargreeves family begins to dance in private, showing that although they are vastly different people, there is an underlying connection between them. The dancing is interrupted by a lightning storm. Heading into the courtyard, they watch as Number Five re-appears through a temporal anomaly.

Number Five explains the anomaly.

Number Five tells them about his trip to the future and his return, revealing he is really a 58-year man trapped in his 13-year old body. The Hargreeves, Pogo, and Grace hold a funeral for Sir Reginald in the Academy's courtyard. The proceedings are fraught, leading to Luther and Diego coming to blows. During the fight, Ben's memorial statue is destroyed and Diego cuts Luther's arm with a knife, causing him to hide the wound and leave.

The siblings train.

A flashback to seventeen years previously shows the members of the Academy training, and Sir Reginald monitoring their sleep. All of the children, except for Vanya, are given umbrella tattoos on their wrists. Vanya draws one on in pen on her own wrist.

With the funeral done, the Hargreeves begin to break up. Vanya leaves in a taxi after saying goodbye to Pogo, while Number Five goes in search of coffee. Diego leaves and Klaus hitches a ride, leaving Luther and Allison at the Academy. Grace, the children's robot "mother," recharges her systems.

Number Five is surrounded by guards.

Number Five ends up in Griddy's Doughnuts, where after asking a local tow truck driver for an address, he is confronted by a group of mercenaries. They want to take Number Five with them, but Five proceeds to kill them all. He realizes that they found him using a tracking device implanted in his arm, which he removes with a knife before dumping it into a puddle. At the river, Diego is revealed to have taken Sir Reginald's monocle and lets it drop into the river. In the car, Klaus talks with his deceased brother, Ben.

Diego at the riverside.

Hearing the police report about the massacre at Griddy's, Diego heads off to investigate. Vanya arrives home to find Number Five waiting for her. As she patches up his wound, he tells her the truth about his time in the future; when he arrived he found the human race had been destroyed in an apocalypse. Five have no idea what caused it, only that it occurs in eight days' time.

Cast

Starring

AND

Guest Starring

Co-Starring

Appearances

By type 
Characters Creatures Events
Locations Organizations and titles Sentient species
Vehicles and vessels Weapons and technology Miscellanea

Characters

Locations

  • Earth (First appearance)
    • Russia (First appearance)
    • The City (First appearance)
    • United States (First appearance)
      • Texas (First appearance)
  • The Moon (First appearance)
    • Moon Station 01 (First appearance)

Organizations and titles

Miscellanea

Trivia

  • "We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals" is also the name of the story in the second issue of The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite.
  • During her audition, Vanya plays a medley of music pieces from The Phantom of the Opera, including "The Phantom of the Opera theme," "Angel of Music," "Think of Me," and "The Music of the Night." The music itself is played by violinist Lindsey Stirling.

Changes from the Comics

  • This episode begins the adaptation of the first comic arc, The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite. However, several changes are made for television.
    • The more fantastical elements from the comic, such as the space-squid from Rigel X-9 are absent completely.
    • The characters of Abhijat and Ben the robot are not present in the series.
    • While Luther is still stationed on the Moon, the base is designated Moon Station 01 rather than Annihilation Control.
    • Luther's ape-like physique is apparently kept hidden from his siblings as they all remark on his size as if it is a relatively new development, and he retreats from the fight with Diego once his arm is cut.
    • Diego does not display his comic counterpart's ability to indefinitely hold his breath. His powers appear to revolve around his accuracy with throwing knives, including bending them in mid-flight.
    • Klaus is not shown to be able to levitate or have telekinesis like his comic counterpart.
    • In addition to being able to travel through time, Number Five can teleport through space as well.
    • Ben Hargreeves is introduced as a spirit in communication with Klaus. In the comic, Ben does not appear to his brother in this way, and is only seen in flashbacks.
    • Unlike the comic, Vanya is shown to have a somewhat closer relationship with her siblings and joins them for Sir Reginald's funeral. The comic Vanya is not present at the funeral and has limited interaction with her siblings prior to becoming The White Violin.
    • Mom is also known as Grace, and is a fully artificial robot. It is revealed that she named the children.
    • Pogo appears to be the only sentient chimpanzee in the world, unlike the large number of sentient chimpanzees in the comic stories.
    • In the comic, the first mission for the Umbrella Academy is against the Eiffel Tower and Zombie-Robot Gustave Eiffel when they are ten years old. Number Five has already run away to the future, leaving only Numbers One, Two, Three, Four, and Six to go on the mission. This episode establishes that the first mission for the Academy was foiling a bank robbery when they were thirteen years old, and the mission was enacted before Number Five went to the future. However, the Eiffel Tower mission is referenced with photos of the team in front of the monument shown both on television and the front page of a newspaper.
    • During the flashback to seventeen years previously, Ben is referred to by name, not number. As this is before Number Five disappears, the children should not have names yet.

Soundtrack

  • Picture Book by The Kinks
  • From The Phantom of the Opera:
    • Phantom of the Opera
    • Angel of Music
    • Think of Me
    • The Music of the Night
  • The Walker by Fitz and the Tantrums
  • I Think We're Alone Now by Tiffany
  • Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by They Might Be Giants

Gallery

External Links


The Umbrella Academy Season One
"We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals" • "Run Boy Run" • "Extra Ordinary • "Man on the Moon • "Number Five" • "The Day That Wasn't" • "The Day That Was" • "I Heard a Rumor" • "Changes" • "The White Violin"
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