The Umbrella Academyhas employed some pretty fun settings over its run. Each season seems to find the Hargreeves family a magical art deco mansion to serve as their headquarters. The third season largely takes place in the enigmatic Hotel Obsidian, which gradually unveils a series of hidden layers. Every layer seems to get less explanation, but Hotel Oblivion is one of the most important aspects of the story.
Arguably,The Umbrella Academyhasnever been straightforward. Multiple timelines, at least a dozen main characters, and tons of strange elements that appear without explanation. As the story grows more complex, the third season unveils the Hotel Oblivion, which appears to be the peak it was always building towards.
RELATED:The Umbrella Academy: “New” Ben Explained
What is the Hotel Oblivion inThe Umbrella Academy?
In the early 1900s, Reginald Hargreeves arrived on Earth. His unnamed home planet was devastated by a nuclear war, forcing him to retreat elsewhere. Before the end of Reginald’s home world, his beloved wife Abigail succumbed to an unspecified disease. On Earth, he discovered a reset button that would allow the user to shape the entirety of time to their whim.Reginald could finally savehis bride, but he swiftly discovered that he wouldn’t be able to use the reset button on his own. He couldn’t get past the guards, and he couldn’t activate all seven bells by himself. He tried hiring soldiers, only to see them butchered by the denizens of the void. So, Reginald built a multi-story hotel around the entrance, hiding the path to the void in his personal suite.
The Hotel Obsidian is a functioning hotel known for its discretion and leniency.Klaus coincidentally leads theHargreeves family to its doors, choosing it as a base of operations after they discover the Sparrow Academy in their usual digs. As the world comes to an end again, Hotel Obsidian swiftly becomes the only safe place to enjoy one’s final days. The hotel is a cover for the void, but it’s also the predestined location for the culmination of Reginald Hargreeves' grand plan. The Hotel Oblivion is the crux of Reginald’s entire lifelong goal. It’s the reason he founded the Umbrella Academy and the Sparrow Academy. Whenthe season 2 iterationof Reginald meets the Umbrellas, he discovers the error of his other self’s ways and changes his behavior. This second version of the character hones his kids into the perfect force to get him to the reset button. His plan works, but there are some consequences.
What happened in Hotel Oblivion inThe Umbrella Academy?
The finale ofThe Umbrella Academyseason 3is an unmixed victory for Sir Reginald Hargreeves. His kids successfully defeat the seemingly immortal beings who guard the button, at great personal cost. Along the way, Reginald repeatedly endangers or sacrifices his kids. His children succeed, allowing Reginald to do what he’s wanted to do for years. He brings his wife back from the dead and appears in a massive skyscraper overlooking the city. He has clearly taken a place of prominence in the new world and saved the love of his life. This ostensibly noble goal has left a mountain of human shrapnel in its wake. With no use for a bunch of superhuman children, Reginald robsthe Umbrella Academy of their powersand leaves them to figure things out on their own. Thanks to the old man, the Hargreeves have all the trauma of their upbringing without any of the benefits.
Entering the fourth season, the Hargreeves siblings face a world in which their abusive father has everything he wants, and they don’t have their powers. It’s not all bad though,some members of the familyappear to be excited to live their lives. The world doesn’t appear to be ending at the moment and the responsibility of heroism is absent from them. The reactions are different across the family, but Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, Ben, Viktor, and even Lila finally have an opportunity to live normal lives. It’s a fresh start in a restored 2019, and though they lost a lot, the Hargreeves siblings are pretty good at dealing with bad news.
It’s hard to know how the fourth season will go. It’s exciting to imagine how some of the cast are getting along without their powers. Allison got everything she wanted,Diego seems excited toget out there, Luther has his body back, and there are a lot of other weird new details. Just like the previous ones, season 3 ended with a mountain of questions and endless possibilities. Hotel Oblivion wasn’t mentioned once throughout the early seasons, but it quickly becomes the most important place in the story’s universe. The concept of a reset button that immediately undoes all of known time doesn’t get quite as much of a spotlight as it deserves, but the Hotel Oblivion storyline has set the franchise in an interesting direction.
MORE:The Umbrella Academy Season 4 Cast Adds The Last Of Us Star And His Wife
