Who Is Abigail Hargreeves In Umbrella Academy Season 4? Her Full Backstory Explained

9 August 2024, 14:41 | Updated: 9 August 2024, 16:18

Umbrella Academy season 3: Who is Abigail Hargreeves? Picture: Netflix

By Katie Louise Smith

Abigail Hargreeves, the mysterious woman who appears with Reginald Hargreeves at the end of Umbrella Academy season 3 first appeared in season 1 – and now she's back in season 4. Here's everything we know about her.

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Safe to say that none of us saw that Umbrella Academy season 3 ending plot twist coming, huh? Everyone being transported to a new timeline? All the Hargreeves siblings losing their powers? Sir Reginald Hargreeves' previously dead wife now alive?! Whew!

Alongside a whole load of twists and turns in season 3, The Umbrella Academy brought back a very mysterious character that we hadn't seen since the final episode of season 1: Abigail Hargreeves.

Abigail returns in The Umbrella Academy season 4, as the Hargreeves sibs navigate the new timeline. So, in case you need a refresher on who the hell she actually is and what happened to her, here's everything we know about her – and her connection to Sir Reggie – so far.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

Who is Abigail Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy season 4?

The very first time we ever seen Abigail in The Umbrella Academy is way back in season 1, in a very weird flashback scene that takes place 'Long Ago...'.

In the season 1 finale, we see Sir Reginald Hargreeves visit Abigail on her death bed. He brings her a white violin, and she instructs him to find "someone who’ll love it as much as I have." Devastated that she's going to die, Reginald then says: "I can't leave you, there must be another way."

After Abigail tells him to go, Reginald releases a jar of golden particles into air, as rockets take off outside Abigail's room in the background.

Who is Abigail Hargreeves in Umbrella Academy season 3? Picture: Netflix

We don't see, hear from or even get a little bit of a reference to Abigail until season 3 episode 9, when the objective of Luther's lunar mission finally becomes clear.

Remember Reginald's obsession with the dark side of the moon? Well, we finally know what he was hiding, and tasking Luther to protect, over there...

During one of his roaming missions, Luther discovers a field that prevents him from travelling any further across the surface of the moon. As the camera zooms out and across the landscape, we see a huge crater that houses another 'Hargreeves Enterprises' base.

Inside that base is the cryogenically frozen body of the deceased Abigail Hargreeves.

Umbrella Academy season 3: Abigail Hargreeves' body is hidden on the dark side of the moon. Picture: Netflix

At the end of season 3, Abigail pops up again. This time, she's very much alive as she comes to stand next to Sir Reginald as he overlooks the Hargreeves-dominated city that now exists thanks to the reset of the universe.

While we'll probably get more answers as to how, why and at what cost Abigail is now alive in this new universe in season 4, one thing we can assume is that Hargreeves had actually set his Oblivion plan in motion a long, long, long time ago.

Umbrella Academy season 3: How is Abigail Hargreeves alive in the new universe? Picture: Netflix

The golden particles of marigold that he released into the air way back in the season 1 flashback are the very same particles that entered the unsuspecting mothers who gave birth to the Umbrella and Sparrow Academy children in 1989. They're also the particles that gave the siblings their powers.

Those very particles are then needed to power the Oblivion machine, which Hargreeves uses to reset the entire universe – all so he could be with his dead wife once again. Talk about playing the long game.

Abigail Hargreeves instigates 'The Cleanse' in season 4 in order to correct the timeline once and for all. Picture: Netflix

In season 4, Hargreeves and Abigail, who is very much alive, have been living peacefully in their timeline. However, she plays a huge part in the climax of the final season.

It turns out that Abigail accidentally and unknowingly created a particle called Durango at the same time she created Marigold. When the two particles combine, it causes a mass extinction event called The Cleanse.

Despite the fact that Hargreeves was the one who released the Marigold (and subsequently, the Durango), Abigail believes it's her fault the world keeps ending and she sets about correcting it once and for all.

In season 4's new timeline, Abigail works to bring about The Cleanse. She poses as a man called Sy Grossman to ensure the siblings locate Jennifer, who has Durango in her system and is currently being hidden by Hargreeves himself. Then steals Gene's skin to ensure The Cleanse begins.

Once she's completed her mission, she reveals all to Hargreeves, explaining that she had no other choice and had to set the timelines straight. She believes that dying was her penance for creating something so deadly.

At the end of the series, Abigail and Hargreeves are consumed, side-by-side, by The Cleanse. Ultimately, Abigail not only destroyed the world by starting the Cleanse, but also helped saved the one true timeline.