Spoilers ahead for The Umbrella Academy Season 4!
The incident that led to Ben Hargreeves’ death was kept a secret throughout the series. Although the Hargreeves siblings referred to it several times as the Jennifer incident, they never revealed the details, leaving viewers curious. The mystery was finally revealed in the final season!
Ben, played by Justin H. Min, was present in the series as a ghost behind Robert Sheehan’s Klaus. In the final season, he played a different version of the character who had a similar fate, finally unraveling the mystery that had haunted the show from the very beginning.
This event occurred when Ben met Jennifer (Victoria Saval), a woman created by Durango. Since Durango and Marigold (who created Ben) can’t get along, this creates a severe reaction that could swallow the timeline.
After Ben and Jennifer’s disastrous encounter, there was no hope for them to survive without destroying the world. Therefore, Reginald chose to let his adopted son die and brainwashed the other siblings by erasing their memories of the incident. Ben’s death caused the original Umbrella Academy to disband and it took Reginald Hargreeves’ death to reunite the siblings.
The most surprising part of all this was that no matter what the time zone, Ben always met Jennifer, and was unaware of the relationship between them. In earlier seasons, Min had to create a story in his mind from the available material to create a connection between his and Saval’s characters.
The actor revealed that neither he nor the cast knew about Ben’s horrific and tragic death. Fans believe the actors know their characters’ fates, but they didn’t know until a few months before production on season four began.
“This is a real discovery for us, just like it is for the fans,” he told PEOPLE. He recalled reading the script for the final showdown and the shock he experienced. “I was in my apartment in Toronto, in shock, but I’m so happy to finally solve this mystery,” he said.
The Umbrella Academy is now streaming on Netflix!
