"Dad couldn't handle your anger. That doesn't mean you can't."
— Ben
"743" is the ninth episode of The Umbrella Academy's second season.
Klaus, Diego, and Allison all try to reach Vanya, but to no avail. However, Ben steps in and is able to possess her. He is able to converse with Vanya, who has remembered everything, and comforts her enough for her to calm down. Ben moves on, and is able to bid Vanya goodbye as he passes.
Luther tries to balance the Fives' psychoses. After both get distracted by a brawl, Five sends his past self back to 2019, but they are unable to snag the briefcase.
Having learned of Diego's betrayal, the Handler sends Lila to kill Diego. Meanwhile, AJ has left a message in his fishbowl — the number 743. Herb looks up this case number and shows it to Lila. The file is about the death of Lila's parents, which the Handler played a key role in — but Lila fails to realize this, and only learns that AJ authorized the hit and Five carried it out. The Handler is able to turn Lila against the Hargreeveses with this.
Back at the Coopers', Carl tries to take Harlan away, but Sissy pulls a gun on him. In the ensuing struggle, Carl nearly shoots Harlan, but Harlan deflects the bullet much as Vanya does and Carl is killed.
Kennedy rounds the corner, and Diego runs towards a man he thinks is Reginald (but is only carrying a note from Reginald saying 'told you so'). The assassination proceeds and the Majestic 12 salute themselves on a job well done. However, Hargreeves expresses his disapproval, and his involvement is explained — he gives the government rocket tech; they protect his 'interests' on the dark side of the moon. When they threaten to reveal his identity, Reginald takes off a mask to reveal an alien head... and then the screams start.
The Handler is alerted to an anomaly and kills the agent who shows it to her. She then declares war.
Tropes for this episode include:
- All Up to You: Diego tells Klaus that it's up to him to reach Vanya. There's no way he and Allison can make it. Klaus gets far enough to send Ben into the room, before the backlash knocks him away. Ben goes without an issue because the blasts don't affect ghosts.
- Bittersweet Ending: The apocalypse is prevented, but Kennedy's assassination isn't. It also turns out that Hargreeves was misinformed about the exact nature of the plot against Kennedy, and he wastes no time in dishing out some justice to the people's response when he not only finds out, but they attempt to continue blackmailing him over his true nature.
- Blackmail Backfire: See Mugging the Monster below. When Hargreeves tells off the Majestic 12 for lying to him about the assassination and orders them never to contact him again, they smugly counter that he has to keep giving them his advanced technology or they'll reveal his true nature. Unfortunately for them, all this move does is convince Hargreeves that he needs to take more extreme measures to make his resignation stick.
- It's also indicated that when the man said "we'll tell the world who you really are," he merely meant Reginald working with them. His stunned reaction at the "man's" true face shows they had no idea what his real secret was.
- Blade Brake: As he's being pushed backward by Vanya's energy blasts, Diego tries to use his knives to anchor himself on the floor and move forward. He doesn't last very long.
- Both Sides Have a Point: The tragedy is that Sissy and Carl's argument about taking Harlan to a hospital gives legitimate credence despite Carl being a Jerkass. Carl's point-of-view is that Harlan just had a seizure, and they don't have the resources to care for him if he dies on them. Sissy, on the other hand, knows that Carl is doing it because Harlan called for Vanya, and he has a grudge against the nanny; also, once Harlan is committed, they'll never see him again.
- Call-Back:
- Drugs and Vanya are not a good combination; she starts melting down and losing control of her powers. Now remember what happened back in season one when she was dealing with the withdrawal.
- Diego charges toward whom he thinks is his dad, only to discover that it's a decoy. After Kennedy is killed, the decoy hands Diego a note from Sir Reginald that reads, I told you so. In this season's second episode, Five told Diego that he could hear his father say the same thing every day that he was in the apocalypse.
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Lila's threat to Herb:Lila: Tell me where Diego went or I'll staple your colon to your nose and let you die on your own farts.Herb: That's... so... vivid.
- Deader than Dead: Ben moves on during his talk with Vanya, saying that he was dead for seventeen years and it's finally time for him to truly go.
- Defence Mechanism Superpower: A Gun Struggle between Carl and Sissy leads to a bullet coming off the rifle going in Harlan's direction. He blocks it using his newly acquired superpower but the bullet then hits Carl lethally.
- Eaten Alive: The Handlers swallows AJ whole.
- Entertainingly Wrong: The FBI agent incorrectly assumes that Vanya is a Russian Communist spy and Faking Amnesia because she speaks a little Russian, has a Russian name, and shacked up with the family related to the cops. Vanya doesn't want to tell him about the time travel because it's too bizarre to be believed.
- Fading Away: After saving Vanya, Ben goes Deader than Dead by slowly fading away in her arms.
- Gory Discretion Shot: We don't see just what Reginald does to the Majestic 12, with the camera instead focusing on his discarded mask.
- Groin Attack: The Fives kick Luther in the nuts so they can fight it out while he's distracted.
- Grew a Spine: Sissy gets out of her damsel role and tells her husband to watch his mouth while pointing a rifle at him.
- Have You Told Anyone Else?: The Commission tech who detects the anomaly reassures the Handler she's the first person he told before she stabs him.
- I Am a Monster: Vanya cries that she's a monster and a terrible person after she regains her memories. Ben gently comforts her.
- Idiot Ball: The FBI agent knows that Vanya can generate her powers. So he makes her angry on purpose by asking who she is and accusing her of lying while electrocuting her. This leads to her nearly strangling him and eventually killing him and the nurse.
- If I Dont Return: Played for Laughs; as they might be killed by Vanya's blasts, Klaus tells Diego he looks like actor Antonio Banderas.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: Of a sort; Ben is able to enter Vanya's consciousness while she's having a superpowered meltdown — which she and later Ben sees as a warped family dinner — and have a talk with her.
- Latex Perfection: Hargreeves' human face when removed has the appearance of a mundane mask that doesn't look like it would even fit over the ridges of his real face.
- Mama Bear: Sissy ends up pulling a shotgun on Carl when he tries to take Harlan to an institution. She says he already took enough from her.
- Misplaced a Decimal Point: It turns out that the mistake Five made in his time travel calculations was putting a decimal point one digit too far to the right, causing him to get a result of 5.7 when it should have been 0.57.
- Mugging the Monster: The Majestic 12 try to blackmail Hargreeves—who, mind you, is already furious with them—and while it's not made clear exactly how much they knew about his true nature, they clearly didn't realize he was so physically dangerous.
- Obliviously Evil: Carl seriously thinks that offering to take Sissy on a vacation will make up for the fact that he got Vanya arrested and tried to kick her out while wanting to send their son to an institution. It doesn't take long for Sissy to pull out the shotgun while calling him out for being stupid and selfish.
- Once More, with Clarity: The scene of Lila's parents' murder is shown again, showing the identity of the killer — Five.
- Parental Bonus: Herb tells Lila that he has to show her something ... something big. Then he fumbles his crotch and Lila expects the worst. But Herb produces...a letter.
- Pet the Dog: Even while prepared to commit his son, Carl takes care to be gentle with him when carrying Harlan, and at least is worried the seizure nearly killed him.
- The Reveal: Reginald has never been a human being.
- Rewatch Bonus: The revelation that Reginald is some sort of alien puts scores of his actions throughout the series from a new perspective.
- Skewed Priorities: Justified; Reginald thinks that Kennedy's death is a bigger priority than that his future adopted children are on the run and one is threatening to bring the apocalypse early. He said apocalypses happen, but he decides who lives and who doesn't.
- Super-Power Meltdown: Vanya is unable to stop unleashing her powers until Ben intervenes.
- Taught by Experience: All the siblings, Ben included, remember how well stopping Vanya went in the second timeline. They instead try to reach her to talk to her rather than attack. Ben is the only one who can make it as a ghost, and he enters her mind to calm her down.
- Tempting Fate: The spokesman of the Majestic 12 sarcastically quips "Uh oh, someone's ready for a fight" as Hargreeves removes his coat, and turns out... yeah, he was.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: Sissy threatens Carl with a shotgun for trying to take their son to an institution. Did he see homosexuality as a disease and a crime? Then she'll become an actual criminal.
- Troubled Fetal Position:
- Klaus is crouched in fear when Allison and Diego leave him in their attempts to reach Vanya.
- Later on, Ben finds Vanya huddled within her psyche with her knees to her chest.
- Villainous Face Hold: The Handler holds Lila's cheeks between her fingers when she asks her if she can be trusted.
- We Are Not Going Through That Again: Realizing that he doesn't want his siblings to die again thanks to Vanya, Ben goes into her mind to possess her and calm her down.
- Wham Shot: Both in-universe and the viewer as Reginald (always seen as an arrogant human) peels off his face to reveal an alien visage.
- You Are Not Alone: Ben tells Vanya that their siblings are risking everything for her and that she's not alone like before.
- You Can Talk?: Harlan has been mute for all of his life. His parents are stunned when he says, "Vanya."
