The Umbrella Academy Theory Explains Why Jennifer Was Found Inside a Squid

Summary

• The mystery behind Jennifer’s connection to Ben and the Cleanse deepens, leaving key questions unanswered.
• One theory suggests that Jennifer’s life is a cyclical event, explaining her knowledge of the Cleanse as a child.
• The lack of closure for Jennifer’s character in
  The Umbrella Academy
  The ending is a frustrating aspect of season 4.

Warning: This article contains spoilers from season 4 of The Umbrella Academy.The Umbrella Academy Season 4 finally introduced Jennifer and explained how the original Ben died, but many questions about Jennifer were left unanswered. Ben’s death and Jennifer’s incident were some of the biggest mysteries of the series and were ultimately tied together by the end of the series. Among the new questions the final season raised about Jennifer was why she was found inside a giant squid as a child, speaking ominously about the Purification.

Episode 3, “The Squid and the Girl,” began with an old newscast showing the discovery of the giant squid and young Jennifer inside, while Reginald Hargreeves stood to the side and watched these shocking events unfold. Although it highlighted the connection between Ben and Jennifer, and the nature of The Umbrella AcademyAlthough Jennifer was surprised by the giant squid and the durango, it’s never explained how she ended up inside the giant squid, or how she already knew about the cleaning. While the show doesn’t explicitly answer these questions, there is a theory that could provide answers.

Theory: Jennifer’s life is a cycle in Umbrella Academy

This might explain how she heard about rehab as a child.

The cleansing caused Jennifer and Ben’s bodies to merge, with Jennifer becoming part of Ben’s squid body while his marigold and durango merged and transformed them into a giant apocalyptic monster. Immediately after the cleansing, Jennifer may have been reincarnated inside the giant squid in all past timelines and was in the squid because of his body being combined with Ben’s in his past life. This could be a way for the universe to try to correct its course before being fully restored following the Hargreeves’ sacrifice.

The Hargreeves not only died, but were erased from all history when they sacrificed themselves to restore the universe.

If Jennifer’s life is a cycle and she is reborn in all the old timelines, this could explain why she already talks about the Purification as a child, because a part of her knows something about it from her past life. There is nothing in the news footage to indicate that it happened in a single timeline, especially since Reginald has existed in multiple timelines and the version that he watched the incident could have come from any of them. The theory fits well with The Umbrella Academy‘s take on time travel and how different timelines break up the universe.

Durango’s mysterious nature makes Jennifer’s cycle theory possible

Durango is still largely unexplored

The Umbrella Academy Season 4 explained that Abigail Hargreeves had synthesized marigold, an element containing the essence of the universe itself. What Abigail didn’t anticipate was that the durango particle would also be created, and that the destructive nature of marigold and durango together would be apocalyptic. Since not much else is known about durango beyond that, its mysterious nature potentially explains Jennifer being stuck in a cycle where she emerges from the giant squid as a child.

Most of what is known about durango concerns how it interacts with marigold, but its isolated effects remain mostly unexplored in the series.

If Durango is part of the reason this happened to Jennifer, it also explains why it didn’t happen to the Hargreeves. While Jennifer had durango in her, the Hargreeves had only worry in them, the durango trapping Jennifer in a vicious cycle.but marigold did not cause this phenomenon in the Hargreeves’ children. Most of what is known about durango concerns how it interacts with marigold, but its isolated effects remain mostly unexplored in the series.

Jennifer’s lack of answers is a frustrating part of The Umbrella Academy’s ending

This is part of the biggest problem with The Umbrella Academy season 4.

The lack of closure regarding Jennifer’s story is one of the many problems with The Umbrella AcademyThe end of season 4. Episode 3 opening with her emerging from the giant squid was an intriguing and memorable scene, but by the end of the series, there wasn’t enough payoff to make the scene a meaningful addition to the story. This goes back to one of the major problems with season 4, which was the reduced episode count, with only six episodes to wrap up the story after each previous season had 10.

Four more episodes would have given more time to develop Jennifer and her connection with Ben before they were transformed into Cleanse. Further episodes could have also provided the missing payoff for a young Jennifer inside the giant squid, as well as other plotlines, including the unexpected romance between Five and Lila, that needed more episodes to properly execute. Jennifer’s life cycle theory may answer some of the The Umbrella AcademyThere are still many unanswered questions about his character, but the lack of answers in the series itself is still frustrating.