Tear Jerker / The Umbrella Academy (2019)

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

Season 1

We Only See Each Other At Weddings and Funerals

• Despite the fact that Sir Reginald was an abusive parent to all of them, he was still the only father they ever had, and it shows on the siblings' devastated reactions when they hear about the news of his death.
• The flashback to the children sans Viktor getting their tattoos. Allison and Klaus have already gotten theirs and are crying in each other's arms. Diego is in the chair, whimpering and wincing at the pain but refusing to take Grace's offered reassuring hand. Luther, Five, and Ben are sitting and awaiting their turn. Luther is trying to keep a stoic expression but the camera lingers on him anxiously clawing at his sleeve. Ben's forehead is sweaty and his lower lip is quivering. Five visibly swallows a lump in his throat. Meanwhile, Viktor, watching from the stairs, draws himself a tattoo in marker, jealous of something that's traumatizing for his siblings just because it's yet another thing he's left out of. It's truly a horrible moment for all of them.
• Diego and Luther's fight during Reginald's memorial, ending with Luther accidentally knocking over and breaking Ben's statue.
  Allison: (tiredly) Aaaand there goes Ben's statue.
• Diego is preparing to leave the mansion, saying how they'd probably see each other again in ten years for Pogo's funeral. Allison snipes that's only if Diego doesn't get killed first, and while Diego says "love you too, sis" he adds:
  Diego: Good luck on your next film. Hope it turns out better than your marriage, huh?
• The first time the viewers see where Grace's "room" is: just her and an abundance of paintings. She tries to imitate the pose of the only other woman with her: a woman in a painting.

Run Boy Run

• We see how Number Five discovers the Bad Future, including the burnt-out ruins of the Academy and his siblings lying dead in the rubble. Especially bad because at that point, he's not a world-weary 58-year-old trapped in a child's body, but an actual child.
  • Additionally, it's such a Mood Whiplash-inducing scene because one minute, Five is having fun and enjoying his powers for the first time. Then we blink, and he's suddenly surrounded by fire and ruin where there had previously been buildings and people. Just the desperate way he yells "Come on!" as he tries to go back—and falls to his knees when he fails—is particularly heartbreaking.

Extra Ordinary

• It's brief but if you rewatch the scene where Grace compliments him on his violin playing, one can see that Viktor has the smallest room in the mansion.
• Diego seeing Grace having sewn through her arm and disabling her. Her Dissonant Serenity as they talk through this is especially heartbreaking because he reverts to his childhood stutter and she repeats her guidance to get him through what he wants to say.
• Viktor's reaction when Diego tells him to leave, because he's a liability. He's clearly broken down from yet another thing that makes him different.

Man on the Moon

• Luther's scene at the beginning. He's the last of the siblings at the house, and it's clear he's very lonely. And that's before Reginald injects with the serum that gives him his gorilla-like torso.
• Not just Patch's death, but Diego's reaction to it. The music, his heartbroken expression, his desperate scolding, all of it. Keep in mind that his surrogate mother has just died, and now, his ex—whom he clearly still has feelings for—has passed as well. And all because he told her to try doing things his way.
• Klaus in the Mausoleum as a young boy. He’s clearly terrified to be locked up with these demonic ghosts, and it shows in the way he keeps screaming to be left alone. But when his father finally shows up, it’s only to tell him he has to stay another three hours and actually shuts the door in a begging Klaus' face. If you’re paying attention to the child actors, it’s a younger child than is normally shown, meaning the abuse probably started as soon as they could walk and talk.
• Klaus does not consider it a possibility that his family could even realize that he’s gone. Worse—he's right.

Number Five

• Not exactly played for tears, but the Fridge Horror of Five growing up from a thirteen-year-old boy to a world-weary adult in the apocalypse over decades, having no one but a mannequin for companionship.
• Klaus returning to the present, grieving over Dave’s death. He’s clearly traumatized, his fingers are coated in blood, and he just stares ahead blankly, with tears in his eyes. The music sells it.
  • As soon as he's off the bus, he immediately starts smashing the briefcase to bits and screaming in rage, before he collapses on the street and curls into the fetal position, sobbing his heart out. To make matters worse, none of his siblings—aside from Diego and Five, who is more concerned about the briefcase than what Klaus saw—even notice that he's going through something, simply chalking it up to him being high or wasted once more.
• While they wait at Griddy's, Diego and Klaus bond over having recently lost loved ones: Patch for Diego and Dave for Klaus. In a moment of rare vulnerability, Diego quietly tells Klaus how lucky he is to have his gift, while Klaus simply stares straight ahead with nothing to say for once.
  Diego: Well, you're luckier than most. When you lose someone, at least you can ... see them whenever you want.

The Day That Wasn't

• Luther finding out that he was sent to the moon for four years just because his father pitied him and didn't want him around is heartbreaking. Luther was the only member of the Academy to always have faith in their father, but that gets thrown back into his face as well.
• Almost everything relating to Klaus after he comes back from the trip to the past, but especially his desire to get sober so he can use his powers because he's that desperate to see Dave again. Made worse by the fact that, in "The Day That Wasn't", he managed to succeed at seeing Dave again but as the day is rewound and erased, he doesn't manage it a second time. Instead, when he unlocks his powers, he gets Reginald while expecting Dave.
  • The scene where Klaus returns in episode 5 is particularly notable for its Rewatch Bonus Tearjerker. The first time you watch the series, you're concerned for him because he's clearly been through something traumatic, but aren't yet sure what. On a rewatch? It immediately becomes clear that this is Klaus probably only moments after Dave's death—his hands are still covered with blood, and he sobs and claws at the ground just like he does in every scene of him cradling Dave's body. Klaus isn't just traumatized, he's grieving.
• As sweet as Allison and Luther's dance in the park is, there's some fridge tearjerker to be found: while a Doylist reading for why Luther is normal-size for the dance as opposed to his ape-body would be because Tom Hopper probably can't dance very well in all that padding, a Watsonian reading is that Luther feels so out of place in his ape-body he doesn't—or can't—consider it his 'real' body. And he's lived with it for four years. Imagine the body dysmorphia he must be suffering, on top of his four-year isolation, and Luther's behavior—while not excusable—becomes more understandable.

The Day That Was

• The mere comparison to where the characters were at the end of this episode to where they were at the end of last episode. Klaus gets to see his father instead of Dave, Diego gets arrested for his ex girlfriend’s murder, and Viktor is destined to learn the dirty details of his powers in... less than ideal circumstances.
• The flashback to Harold’s childhood at the beginning. As sociopathic as he is an adult, it’s still sad to him as an Adorkable child being raised with an Abusive Parent over a situation he had no control over, and sent away and laughed at when he tries to meet with his childhood heroes. What’s even sadder is the look of adoration his father gives him at his birth before his mother dies.

I Heard A Rumor

• The conversation between Allison and Viktor leading up to their confrontation about the latter's powers, while heartwarming, is ultimately quite one-sided. With the timeline changed in "The Day That Wasn't" and the years they've been distant from each other, Viktor is still practically unwilling to let Allison into his life as his sister or hear her out about Leonard since he's still processing his Traumatic Superpower Awakening from the previous night. And when Allison realizes and reveals that she had been complicit in manipulating Viktor into believing the latter was inferior for being "ordinary"... no wonder the argument went down badly.
  • After accidentally slicing her throat, Viktor falls to the floor and tearfully apologizes to Allison, saying that he didn't mean to hurt her. And even when Leonard drags him out of the house, Viktor refuses to leave Allison to die.
  • When the rest of the Hargreeves find Allison at the house, the brothers' reactions range from shocked to downright horrified, especially in Luther's case.

Changes

• Luther locking Viktor up. His other brothers want to let him go and even argue with Luther on the matter. When Luther refuses even Allison, you can see how upset both Allison and Viktor are with his decision.
  • Klaus is particularly vocal about Viktor's imprisonment. No doubt, he's remembering all the times Hargreeves locked him up as a child as well, and he knows firsthand what it feels like to be trapped somewhere and to be that powerless.
• While his brothers discuss his fate, Viktor can be seen begging and sobbing behind the glass. When his siblings finally leave, he starts to pound his fists against the glass even harder, clearly on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Despite knowing what he does later on, it's especially heartbreaking to see him like this, especially since us viewers know that him hurting Allison had been completely accidental.

The White Violin

• After he embraces his White Violin persona, Viktor revisits painful memories of being rejected by his siblings as he destroys each of the bedrooms and the whole house. He truly believed his siblings hated his whole existence and the revelation that Sir Reginald hid his powers from him and had ostracized him for no reason at all didn’t help.
• Viktor confronting and murdering Pogo after the latter reveals that he knew about Viktor's powers all along. Pogo was basically a father figure to all seven siblings growing up, and he had good intentions, but Viktor, already angered and out for blood, wasn’t about to listen to reason anymore.
• Diego desperately calling out and attempting to go back inside to save Grace from being taken down with the Academy. As he’s being pulled away by Klaus, all he can do is scream and watch the mother he just got back wave sadly from the window as she’s about to die again.
• During the final confrontation, Allison manages to get the drop on Viktor, just as he has the other Hargreeves siblings pinned and is slowly killing them. She looks utterly torn and heartbroken as she tries to decide whether to shoot or not. Luckily crosses over with Crowning Moment of Awesome as she comes up with another solution that manages to save all of them, and then that third option causes the moon to blow up and destroy the world.

Season 2

The Frankel Footage

• Raymond telling Allison he heard her mutter, "I heard a rumor" and asked what that was about. Allison quickly tries to change the subject while promising to get her husband out as soon as she could.

The Swedish Job

• Ben realizing Klaus came back to see a younger but alive Dave, and while he calls his brother out on his stalking and selfish desires, he quietly asks him to promise him that no matter what, he will not spiral down into a depression. Klaus pauses for a bit before assuring Ben he'll be okay. One episode later, and he isn't...
• Allison screaming at the cops to stop hurting her husband before she has had enough and rumors him to walk away. However, Raymond is now terrified of his wife, as he starts hysterically asking her, "Who are you?"
  • Klaus has to drag Allison away from the riot with her screaming for Ray.

The Majestic 12

• Klaus confronting Dave in front of his homophobic uncle who tells him to "punch the queer". After that happens, Klaus quietly walks outside and nearly breaks down in the car. He then falls off the wagon after three years of sobriety and goes on a drinking spree.
• Diego getting to meet his mother again, although it was likely the woman who Grace was based on. Given what happened the last time Diego saw Grace, it's clear he was almost moved to tears to see her alive.
• Allison's reaction to Klaus showing up on her doorstep drunk after three years of sobriety. She is truly heartbroken at the sight as she allows him in for the night.

Valhalla

• As his siblings walk out to go about their business, Ben is sitting alone on one of the chair saying, "I missed you all, so much." However, it's clear he's deflated and feels alone since his siblings hardly acknowledged his existence as a ghost.
• The two remaining Swedes mourning the death of their brother via a Viking Funeral. It's the first time they've shown any emotion all season, and it's clear how much they care about their own.

A Light Supper

• Allison falling into the 60's and unfortunately finding out that her mere presence puts herself in danger wherever she goes. She has to run from a group of white men until she finds a hairdresser's store and quickly runs inside, tearfully grabbing one of the women as she silently pleads for help. After they all scare the men away, Allison's legs start to give way and they gently coax her into a chair and try to get her to calm down.
• Raymond asking Allison to show him her rumor powers, and Allison goes a little too overboard as she burns the hand of the server who poured coffee on her at the diner. Back at home, Raymond quietly asks his wife if she had ever used her rumor powers on him and if he would have even known if she did. Allison is clearly reminded of her previous husband and her daughter Claire, but doesn't say anything and Raymond quietly nods.
• Klaus finding out to his horror that Dave is enlisting earlier than before, and even though he tries his hardest to dissuade him from throwing his life away, Dave tells Klaus that dying for his country is the greatest honor he could have before leaving and coldly telling Klaus to keep his sob story for another recruit.
  • Klaus is so affected by this that even one of his cult followers meekly walks up to him with Reginald's invitation, and Klaus' hands continue to shake as he takes it and opens the letter.
• It's a Blink-and-You-Miss-It background shot, but after Allison makes Diego punch himself in the face and as Reginald addresses Viktor, Klaus can be seen attempting to comfort Diego, only for the latter to angrily knock Klaus' hand away.
• Reginald absolutely decimates and eviscerates Diego's psyche and motivations throughout the first and second seasons, and Diego, in tears, can only meekly stutter, "You're wr-wrong." While others have made note of and joked of his "daddy issues", you can tell Diego himself is extremely effected by hearing it straight from the man himself to the point that he falls back into his childhood Speech Impediment. His siblings, who have been snarking at each other up until that point, go dead silent and give each other worried looks.
  • Even worse is as the siblings all pile back into the elevator, Diego remains silent until Viktor asks if he is okay. Diego turns to face him but ultimately directs his bitter reply to everyone else as well.
  Diego: So much for having my back in there. Team Zero, my ass.
• Elliot's death. He was an innocent man that accidentally got wrapped up in the Hargreeves' business, and is brutally tortured and murdered by the Swedes', who think Diego killed their brother. Luther and Diego's reactions when they find Elliot's corpse is to wince.

Oga for Oga

• Allison Rumoring the older Swede, "I heard a rumor, that you killed your brother." Once he comes back to himself after doing the deed, he lets out a horrified wail as he then runs out of the house.

The Seven Stages

• The eldest and last Swede brother nearly chopping his arm off in grief because that was the same hand that had killed his brother due to Allison's rumor.

743

• Harlan's first word is him calling for Viktor as the latter's powers start to affect him. Especially so because Sissy's husband (who has since found out that Viktor and Sissy were having an affair and planning to elope) reacts badly to this, and tries to abduct Harlan and institutionalize him.
• Ben looks back at an unconscious Allison, Diego and Klaus, and he decides to sacrifice himself in order to save Viktor, despite the blowback from Viktor's powers and the electric torture causing him pain.
  • The comforting exchange he has with Viktor is both this and heartwarming. Especially as they embrace for the first time in decades as he slowly fades away.
    Ben: Can I ask you a weird favor?
    Viktor: Anything.
    Ben: ...Can you hug me as I go? It's been a long time since— [cuts off on his talk as Viktor obliges him, and returns his embrace]
• It's a brief moment, but when Luther pretends he's going to shoot Five (so that he can catch the old Five off guard and knock him out instead), Five just sits there and takes it, not even trying to defend himself. For all of Five's abrasiveness, it's clear he values his siblings' lives above his own, and could never bring himself to intentionally harm one of them.

The End of Something

• At the beginning of the episode, everyone is talking about a plan except for Klaus who is lying in the next room clearly despondent about Ben being truly gone. They may have bickered a lot but they were clearly close enough for Ben to be around even when Klaus was high or drunk. Klaus brought him back because he didn’t want to go on without him and losing him after 16 years of being tethered together must of felt like having a piece of himself ripped away.
• Lila's final confrontation with the siblings, in which she realizes that her adoptive mother was the person who authorized the order to kill her biological parents. While the Handler was definitely a horrible mother to Lila, it's clear how much her daughter loved and admired her, and Lila's realization that her entire life has been a lie is heartbreaking to watch. And then, just as she turns her back on the Commission and accepts the Hargreeves as her family, the Handler shows up and murders all of them in front of her.
• Five watching his entire family die for a third time in the barn (before he figures out he can rewind time to save them).
• Sissy choosing to stay in the sixties so that she can protect Harlan, and her final goodbye with Viktor.
• Due to the sudden ending, it's easy to overlook, but the Sparrow Academy version of Ben showing up at the end throws all of the siblings but especially Klaus. He'd lost Ben, presumably for good, a day before and seeing the Sparrow Academy version is visibly upsetting for him, even more so than it is for the rest of the siblings.

Season 3

In General

• Just any time the sibling have to deal with the new Ben. Their Ben was a compassionate, careing, selfless, and (when it comes to Klaus) endlessly patient soul who they lost two times. Once when they were kids which was a catalyst for them all going their separate ways, and a second time when he sacrificed himself as a ghost to save Viktor. Then they see that he’s back, but he’s not the kind person they knew, but instead an antagonistic, casually cruel, petulant temperamental bully who insulted them at every turn and enjoys when they fight. Sometimes they’re by habit expecting to be consoled by him in their down moments, only to be reminded otherwise as he kicks them when they’re down. Luther didn’t invite Ben to his bachelor party. Not just because he’s an unrelenting asshole, but because he’s a heartbreaking reminder of the man that he isn’t.

The World's Biggest Ball of Twine

• After getting back to the present, all Allison can think of is finding Patrick and being with him and their daughter. She does...only to discover in this altered timeline with the Umbrellas never born, Patrick is married to someone else and Claire doesn't exist. The look on her face as she realizes her husband has no idea who she or Claire are is heart-rending.

Pocket Full of Lightning

• Klaus finding this Reginald is far more feeble and pathetic than the one from their timeline, stuck in a room given pills by his kids to keep him more absent-minded to sign over control and practically a prisoner in his own home.

Auf Wiedersehen

• Allison and Viktor's fight is hard to watch after seeing how forgiving Allison was of Viktor in season 1 and their interactions in season 2. Their argument gets more heated and ends in Allison choking Viktor with her powers and Viktor punching her in the face after she tells him that they should've left him in the basement. Even Luther and Diego, siblings who were more against Viktor in season 1, are upset by what Allison does and says to him.
  Sparrow Ben: Sweet. You guys fight just like us.
  Diego: Nah, man. We don't fight like this.

The Wedding At the End of the World

• Viktor’s attempt to patch things over with Allison goes terribly, with Allison flat-out refusing to forgive Viktor for his role in this season’s events and accuses Viktor of always casting her as the villain before storming off.
  Viktor: Is this really how you wanna end things?
  Allison: Don’t worry. I’ll sleep just fine.

The Seven Bells

• Sir Reginald killing off Luther. The look on Luther's face right before he dies, realizing the fake reconciliation and hug just before was only an act of ultimate betrayal. The dramatic score that plays as Luther drops to the floor, during which all Luther can do is call out Sloane's name, makes the scene that much more heartbreaking.
  • And then there's Klaus, who gets locked out of the tunnel, after he had spent much of the season trying to work with Sir Reginald to enhance his powers and bringing him back to the family fold. The screen fading to white as Klaus' body gets consumed by the Kugelblitz, followed by the credits appearing in black print on a white screen, is an extra touch.

Oblivion

• Out of everyone's reaction that "Klaus didn't make it," Diego is the most crestfallen, since he had spent time dealing with Klaus being dead halfway through the season.