"Marigold" is the sixth episode of The Umbrella Academy's third season.
A flashback shows Pogo overseeing a training exercise between Ben and Jayne. Pogo disagrees with sending the children to "the other side", and is fired by Reginald for it. In 2019, Pogo tells Five about Reginald's "Project Oblivion"
Luther confides in Sloane, while Ben offers him a place in the Sparrow Academy. Also at the Sparrow HQ is Klaus, come to spend time with Reginald, who has become more lucid ever since he learned how to fake taking pills from Klaus.
In search for Stanley, Diego and Lila go down a mysterious tunnel in the White Buffalo Society room and wind up in a different version of the same room. They learn they're trapped in the Hotel Oblivion. Lila reveals that Stan isn't Diego's son. Diego rings the bell at the front desk and the two are attacked by a mysterious creature. They return to the Hotel Obsidian just in time to see Stan dissipate in a kugel wave.
Allison gives Viktor until night to figure out a solution for Harlan. The two attempt a power transfer, while Allison warily oversees, and succeed. Allison learns Harlan was responsible for the deaths of the Umbrellas' mothers, kills him, and delivers his body to the Sparrows.
Tropes:
- Cigarette of Anxiety: While watching Harlan, Allison is smoking a cigarette, likely due to guilt from what she did to Luther the night before.
- Continuity Nod: When Diego finds out that Lila lied about Stan being their son, he becomes very upset and behind stuttering, repeating "You... you..." over and over until he gets frustrated and throws a chair. The first season showed us that Diego struggled with stuttering as a child, and it still crops up when he’s emotional.
- Dramatic Irony: In succeeding scenes, Reginald is revealed to have become more lucid since Klaus taught him how to avoid taking pills, while Pogo tells Five that he gave Reginald the pills to keep him feeble so he wouldn't send the Sparrows on a suicide mission.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: In the flashback to 2014, Fei has hair in long ringlets as opposed to the short hair she sports in the present.
- Fingore: A thrown blade slices off two of Diego's fingers.
- Hero Stole My Bike: Five asks a biker to give up his motorbike so Five can chase Pogo. It doesn't work, so he instead teleports onto the bike and pushes the rider off, continuing the pursuit.
- Internal Reveal: Allison finds out Harlan killed the Umbrellas' mothers. She does not take it well.
- Nature Versus Nurture: Having known a kinder version of Ben in his timeline, Luther tells Sparrow Ben (who is a Jerkass) that he's genetically the same but just raised in a different environment, and that some version of Luther's Ben must still exist in him.
- Noodle Incident: During his Nature Versus Nurture speech to Ben, Luther mentions the "Jennifer incident" as an indicator to how the original Ben died, but nothing further about it is discussed in this episode.
- The Reveal: Stan isn't really Diego's son, just some relative's kid Lila "borrowed" as a "stress test" for Diego as a dad. When Diego yells about messing up a kid by making him think he's met his dad, Lila laughs Stan's in on the whole thing.
- Stable Time Loop: Five gets the tattoo from Pogo that he found on his older self's body, even referring to it as "completing the loop".
- Title Drop: The episode's title, "Marigold", is how Harlan described being in tune with the vibrations of things around him, comparing it to how bees find pollen.
