Spoiler warning: this article covers the complete fourth and final season of The Umbrella Academy, including its finale.
In Season 4, Five and Lila move from open hostility to romance after a long stretch together in the subway timeline. Showrunner Steve Blackman says the pairing works because the two characters are more alike than they admit. Co-star Aidan Gallagher, who plays Five, said the relationship gives Five a purpose he lacked. Ritu Arya, who plays Lila, said she was surprised by the storyline and wished it had more room to develop. The actors are discussing fictional characters; this is not a report about their own relationship.
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Umbrella Academy: Season One | $12.06 | Buy on Amazon |
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The Umbrella Academy: Season Two [DVD] | $13.34 | Buy on Amazon |
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Umbrella Academy Season 1 [DVD] [2019] | $22.84 | Buy on Amazon |
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The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1 | $9.99 | Buy on Amazon |
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Tales from the Umbrella Academy: You Look Like Death (Deluxe Edition) | $45.00 | Buy on Amazon |
How the relationship begins: a separation in the subway
Lila is not a newcomer to the series. She was introduced in Season 2, when the Handler trained her as a covert Commission agent and sent her to 1963 to approach Diego. She fell in love with him instead, and after the Season 3 reset she and Diego seemed ready to settle down with a child on the way, according to Netflix Tudum’s Season 4 cast guide.
Five and Lila spend the new season together, and the chronology matters to the romance. As TVLine reports, the two get lost in the subway system and are away for seven years of subway time while only a few hours pass above ground. What begins as an uneasy partnership becomes a pseudo-friendship, and then affection and romance. When they return, Lila is back in the life she left behind with Diego and her family.
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The time frame is the storytelling engine. Ordinary television would need many episodes of gradual contact to make this believable; the subway detour compresses that into a long, isolated period in which the two characters have nobody else to rely on.
Why Blackman built the pairing this way
Blackman’s explanation, given in the Netflix Tudum finale interview published Aug. 8, 2024, starts from an apparent contradiction. Five and Lila are opposites who clash constantly. Blackman argues that they are also remarkably similar:
“I wanted him to kiss Lila because they’re extreme opposites and they hate each other. But really, they are remarkably similar. They’re both assassins, and they both went through the Commission. So they really do understand each other.”
That shared background is the core of his reasoning. Both characters were shaped by the Commission and both have killed for it, so the attraction is grounded in recognition rather than chemistry alone. Blackman says it would take years for two people like this to appreciate one another, and the subway setting supplies that time.
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What Aidan Gallagher said about Five
Gallagher reads the relationship through Five’s arc rather than through the romance itself. In the same Netflix interview, he describes Five as someone without a purpose and says that being there for someone he relates to gives him one:
“It makes this season really beautiful because his character arc [goes] from not having a purpose to the relationship with Lila giving him a purpose.”
This is a performer’s interpretation of the character, not a statement about the writers’ plans. Its value for viewers is that it explains why the emotional payoff lands on Five’s loneliness and search for meaning, not just on the romantic milestone.
What Ritu Arya said about the storyline
Arya was not expecting the turn. In the TVLine interview dated Aug. 10, 2024, she reacts to the seven years the characters spend together:
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“They’ve spent seven years together? Away from life, just them two? I’m sorry, but you’re going to feel incredibly connected with someone, no matter what. I feel like, of course there’s love there.”
In a Collider interview, syndicated by Filmibee on Aug. 12, 2024, Arya is more candid about her first reaction:
“It was a big surprise. I was not expecting it at all. When I found out, I thought it was a joke, and it wasn’t.”
She found the progression satisfying, though she said she would have liked more time to explore it. Earlier coverage from Forbes, published Aug. 2, 2024 before the final season’s release, also describes Arya’s account of the characters moving from hatred to mutual respect and admiration.
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How long were they together?
The sources do not give the same figure, and the difference is worth stating precisely:
| Source | Figure given | Context |
|---|---|---|
| TVLine, Aug. 10, 2024 | Seven years | Subway time; only a few hours pass above ground |
| Steve Blackman, Netflix Tudum, Aug. 8, 2024 | Seven and a half, almost eight years | The showrunner’s own description of the separation |
“Seven years” is the shorthand most coverage uses. Blackman’s wording is more precise about the length, so readers who want an exact figure should use his phrasing. Both describe a fictional duration inside the story, not a real-world measurement.
Lila, Diego and the return
The romance does not resolve Lila’s situation. When Five and Lila come back, she returns to Diego and to the family she had built, which means the newly formed bond with Five runs directly into an existing commitment. That tension is the personal conflict the story carries into the final episodes.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the finale resolves it
The series ends with the Hargreeves siblings, including Five and Lila, agreeing to be consumed by the Cleanse so that the one true timeline can be restored. Blackman explains in the Netflix Tudum finale interview that they cease to exist in the restored world, while the family that survives keeps the memory of them.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThe ending therefore does not give the couple a conventional happy ending. Readers looking for a romantic epilogue will not find one in the sources, and the outcome should be read as sacrifice and restoration rather than a love story reaching its destination.
Three ways to read the storyline
| Lens | What it shows | Who is speaking |
|---|---|---|
| Creator intent | Five and Lila are opposites who share assassin and Commission backgrounds, and the long separation gives their bond time to grow | Steve Blackman, showrunner |
| Actor reaction | The romance was a surprise that Arya found satisfying but wanted more time for; Gallagher connects it to Five’s search for purpose | Ritu Arya and Aidan Gallagher |
| In-story outcome | Seven years of subway time, Lila’s return to Diego and her family, and a finale in which the siblings are consumed to restore one timeline | Netflix Tudum and TVLine reporting on the season |
Each lens is attributed to a specific speaker. The showrunner’s account explains the writing, the actors explain how they approached the scenes, and the plot details come from the season itself.
About the source material
The television series is based on the comic books by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, according to Netflix Tudum. The available reporting does not establish that the comics contain the Five and Lila storyline seen in Season 4, so it should not be assumed to appear there.
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