‘The Umbrella Academy’ season 4 finally solves its Ben mystery

Season 4 of The Umbrella Academy recently premiered and finally confirmed the answer to one of the show’s longest-running mysteries: how Ben Hargreeves (Justin H. Min) died.

The Umbrella Academy follows the superpowered adult Hargreeves siblings, who reconnect following the death of their father, Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore). Sir Reginald adopted the seven Hargreeves siblings as children and trained them to be a superhero team. Not all the Hargreeves siblings survived childhood, though. Season 1 reveals that Ben died during a mission. Instead of going to the afterlife, though, he decided to stay, keeping his brother Klaus (Robert Sheehan) company, since his brother can see ghosts.

Eventually, Ben sacrificed himself to stop the apocalypse, and his spirit departed to the afterlife. However, after a timeline change occurred, an alternate version of Ben arose, who was part of the Sparrow Academy and far more crueler than the original Ben. Still, across three seasons, the show oddly never went into detail about how he died in the first place.

How did Ben die in The Umbrella Academy?

For the first three seasons of The Umbrella Academy, all that is established is that Ben died in childhood in what was referred to as “the Jennifer incident.” Additionally, Sir Reginald used to blame the Hargreeves siblings for their brother’s death. However, viewers likely picked up that something wasn’t quite right about his passing. After all, Sir Reginald rarely showed emotion and wasn’t fond of any of his children, but he seemed uncharacteristically affected by Ben’s death, displaying sadness and anger at his funeral and erecting his statue at the Hargreeves’ mansion. When he had the chance to rewrite the timeline, Ben was the sole original Hargreeves child he re-adopted in the alternate reality.

Season 4 finally reveals that Sir Reginald’s actions may have been done out of remorse. In “The Cleanse,” the Hargreeves siblings realize that their father wiped their memories of the day Ben died. However, they eventually manage to retrieve the memory and are shocked at what they find. They return to October 14, 2006, when the adolescent Hargreeves are called on a mission. Sir Reginald is quite cryptic about the mission, simply sending them to raid a warehouse where a mysterious weapon container is held. His one request is that they do not open the container no matter what.

On the mission, though, Ben suddenly hears pounding coming from inside the container and realizes a human might be inside. Despite warnings from his siblings, he defies Sir Reginald’s warnings and opens the container. He’s surprised to find Jennifer, an adolescent girl, inside. She doesn’t seem dangerous, so Ben immediately reaches down to free her from the container. Electricity sparks as their hands meet, and he pulls her out. Upon climbing down from the container, Jennifer and Ben smile at each other. However, the sweet moment is cut short when Jennifer is shot in the head from behind, followed by Ben. The pair die instantly, collapsing to the floor in front of their shocked siblings. Meanwhile, the man who fired the shots is Sir Reginald.

Although Sir Reginald fired the shots, his wife, Abigail (Liisa Repo-Martell), says she’s responsible for the deaths. She explains that Ben’s body contains marigold, as do all the Hargreeves, as this element gives them their powers. However, she later created another element, durango, which is inside Jennifer’s body. The problem is that when marigold and durango come into contact, they set off a chemical reaction with apocalyptic consequences. Hence, Sir Reginald immediately killed Jennifer and Ben to cut off the reaction in its tracks.

Once again, all of The Umbrella Academy‘s problems come down to Sir Reginald and Abigail making pointless decisions and messing with the Hargreeves’ children’s lives. The real cause of Ben’s death is a bit of disappointment, as it likely could’ve been easily avoided if Sir Reginald hadn’t sent him on that mission. However, it does add more power to the season 2 moment when he chooses to sacrifice himself and go to the afterlife, as it meant he at least technically got a second chance to die on his own terms as a true hero.