Netflix binges: The Umbrella Academy season 1 recap

The Umbrella Academy season 1, episode 3: “Extra Ordinary”

Vanya remains ordinary as “Extra Ordinary” begins. She copes with it by writing a book about her life at the Umbrella Academy. The rest of her family reads the book, although they might not be thrilled with the fact that she wrote it. In the present day, she’s late to her practice.

Meanwhile, Luther and Allison try to figure out what happened to their father. Luther thinks that their mom may have poisoned him, but Allison isn’t so sure that she’s capable of it. Her memory is pretty precise, but her programming makes it so she seems to only have one level of emotion.

Vanya approaches one of the other violinists, who also tells her that’s she’s not special. Back at the house, Klaus is dumpster diving to look for the stuff of his father’s that he threw out. Five heads off on his own (with Dolores, the mannequin) to stake out the company that makes the eyeball he found.

Vanya seemingly has a good connection with her new student, Leonard, who she goes to visit at his shop. He even made her a carving of herself playing the violin. However, Allison interrupts just after Leonard asks Vanya to dinner. Despite how dysfunctional the family is, they keep turning to each other when necessary. Even Five, who is the smartest of the group, needs help every now and then. The family meeting doesn’t go all that well when Luther finds out that Diego took the monocle.

Thanks to Vanya, we learn that Grace was not only programmed as a caretaker for the family but as a protector. We see Pogo after the meeting breaks off and we shift into a past moment where Grace helps Diego through a speech impediment and we shift back to the present day. Diego gets upset when Grace still defends their father.

Cha-Cha and Hazel are still on the hunt for Five and break into the house. Klaus puts headphones on just before the two walk by the bathroom he’s in. Diego isn’t so lucky and he’s the one who’s being shot at before the others even know that anyone broke in. During the fight, we get a look at what Luther really is and it’s the first time the family finds out. Diego realizes that no one checked on their mom, who is threading string right through herself. He ends up shutting her down because he’s accepted that something is off with her. Her ability to protect them has diminished greatly.

After the fact, we see that Klaus has been taken. He’s been seeing Ben, even though he’s dead, and Ben tried to warn him. Diego pushes Vanya away again, and she finds herself at Leonard’s place because she has nowhere else to go.

“Extra Ordinary” puts Vanya in the spotlight as a liability in the eyes of her family and she’s also going nowhere with her violin career. Even though she’s not a bad violinist by any means, she’s not good enough to be the first chair. The constant put-down that she goes through feels never-ending even when she does try to help.

The level of dysfunction in this family almost makes it seem like they didn’t even grow up in the same house. You can see that Allison is trying to hold everyone together, despite going through hard times of her own. There’s no doubt that this is one weird family.