‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 2: Ben’s brilliant farewell has us rooting for his relationship with Klaus
'The Umbrella Academy' Season 2 sees a lot of relationships progress in different ways and the one that we have loved the most is that between Ben and Klaus. Ben depends on Klaus for visibility and every time that the family has enquired about Ben, Klaus ended up telling them that he is not around, or that he didn't make it to Dallas. On the surface, this seems unfair considering the only person who Ben can interact with is Klaus. It has been 18 years since his death, and it has been 18 years since Ben put off moving on from his life on Earth.
Klaus putting himself through different kinds of rock bottoms has effected Ben and currently, he is frustrated. Instances including falling off the wagon this season, confessing to a man who is still unsure of his sexual orientation by telling him about how the two of them love each other in the future only prove Ben's point that Klaus needs to pull his act together soon. Yet, when it matters the most, it is Ben who manages to save his family.
When Vanya is about to lose her sh** after she gets captured by the FBI who torture her to tell the truth about herself, it is Ben who gets close to her and calms her down. He trades his life for hers as he sits down with her and tells her that everyone has a right to feel angry, sad and emotional and that Vanya shouldn't become a prey to her emotions but learn to take control of them instead. The understanding that Ben offers, including for the times that Vanya was left to deal with their father's indifferent attitude towards her makes all the difference.
What really saddens us as we watch episode 9 unfold is how each family member has finally understood the meaning of working together for each other only to lose one of them. After Ben calms Vanya down, he begins to dissipate slowly. He asks Vanya to hug him as he bids her farewell and asks her for a favor. He tells Vanya to give Klaus a message and it is this message that really made us ship the relationship with Klaus and Ben hard.
Before Vanya tells Klaus what Ben wanted him to know, we see a flash from the past. We are taken back to the day Umbrella Academy holds a funeral for Ben and the young students stand around a coffin as Reginald Hargreeves berates his adopted children for failing one of their own. The kids blame one another for failing Ben during one of the missions, but Klaus who has the power to speak to the dead ends up talking to Ben. When Ben says that he needs to go back, walk to the light, Klaus convinces him that this can be done anytime; and so Ben ends up staying behind.
In the present, Vanya tells Klaus that Ben wanted him to know that it was not Klaus who convinced Ben to not take his ticket to heaven and walk towards the light, but that Ben was afraid of it. All these years, Klaus had thought that it was his fault that Ben was stuck shadowing him around but turns out his brother had had a mind of his own and this message weighs heavy on the viewers but it lifts a burden off of Klaus that he seemed to carry for a while.
'The Umbrella Academy' Season 2 released on July 31 and all episodes can be streamed on Netflix.