Xuenou > Movies > The Umbrella Academy’s Lila Return Fixes A Season 2 Ending Problem
The Umbrella Academy’s Lila Return Fixes A Season 2 Ending Problem
Scenes from Netflix's The Umbrella Academy season 3 trailer shows the returning Lila Pitts, and solves a lingering problem from season 2's finale.

The Umbrella Academy’s Lila Return Fixes A Season 2 Ending Problem

The Umbrella Academy‘s season 2 ending left a host of unresolved questions over Lila’s fate, but season 3 is already fixing its Pitts problem. Played by Ritu Arya, The Umbrella Academy introduced Lila Pitts as a brand new member of the 43 super-powered children. Plucked from loving parents by the Commission’s evil Handler, Lila was raised into a strong, loyal agent possessing the power to replicate other superpowers. Meeting her brothers and sisters in the Umbrella Academy sparked a change in Lila, and they ultimately helped her navigate The Handler’s labyrinth of lies.

The Umbrella Academy season 2 ends with Lila turning against her adoptive mother and siding with the Hargreeves siblings. In an emotional reunion, Diego even promises Lila they can become the true family she always dreamed of, but hell breaks loose before she can properly answer, and Lila’s final contribution to The Umbrella Academy season 2 is vanishing into the unknown using a Commission briefcase. This open-ended farewell left Lila Pitts’ story frustratingly ambiguous. Would she accept the offer of becoming an honorary Hargreeves sibling, or would she resent them for The Handler’s death? The Umbrellas might even resent her for rudely abandoning them in 1963 without a time-hopping briefcase.

Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy season 3 trailer already dispels season 2’s Lila issue. Among the Ballroom Blitz of Sparrow shenanigans, Ritu Arya’s now light-haired Lila Pitts can be seen discussing the latest apocalypse with Five and Luther at Hotel Obsidian. Lila explores some strange, dark room alongside a short-haired Diego, then joins her knife-throwing boyfriend and Five when they question the Sparrow Academy at Sir Reginald’s mansion. Most significant of all, Lila Pitts is shown using her empath power to amplify Viktor Hargreeves’ sound manipulation in a hugely exciting team-up scene. Every time Lila appears in The Umbrella Academy‘s season 3 trailer, she’s either helping the Hargreeves siblings or standing proudly by their side. Bringing her into the fold finally gives the emotional closure season 2 withheld.

After The Umbrella Academy‘s 1960s showdown, Ritu Arya’s character might’ve spent season 3 soul-searching; reflecting over her mother’s death, the truth of her upbringing, and whether the Umbrella gang are trustworthy enough to be called family. That will-she-won’t-she angle was handled (no pun intended) pretty thoroughly by The Umbrella Academy season 2, as Diego and Lila’s constantly tripped over each other’s mistrust. Rather than another season of doubting each other, Lila immediately feels like a proper Hargreeves sibling in The Umbrella Academy season 3’s trailer – especially when fighting alongside Viktor. After the heartbreak of season 2’s finale and Diego’s unanswered offer to join their family, it seems Lila finds the sense of belonging she always craved, and the Umbrella Academy gets a seventh member again. Closure is very much on the menu, and everyone’s getting a slice – including viewers who were desperately disappointed Lila didn’t return to 2019 with Diego’s family at the end of season 2.

Lila Pitts effectively becoming a Hargreeves sibling in The Umbrella Academy season 3 (The Mirror? The Chameleon? Mrs. Kraken?) could prove their key to victory over Sir Reginald’s Sparrow Academy. Between a fear-inducing cube, a highly-trained Ben, and superior teamwork, the Sparrows have the Umbrellas beaten. Luther’s super-strength isn’t very super, Allison and Klaus are both yet to realize their full potential, Five has only recently figured out time control, and Viktor remains the loosest of musical cannons. Unless the Sparrows all possess a crippling weakness to expertly-thrown projectiles, the Umbrella gang are in trouble. Lila Pitts, however, gives them a fighting chance, since she’s not only capable of amplifying her friends’ powers, but stealing the Sparrows’ too…