The Umbrella Academy's Emmy Raver-Lampman explains why Allison made that deal
"She's willing to risk it all"
The Umbrella Academy season 3 sees the Hargreeves siblings return to 2019 after their accidental stint in '60s Dallas, but things still aren't completely back to normal. For one thing, Allison is mourning two different lives – the one she left behind in 1963, where she was married to civil rights campaigner Ray (Yusuf Gatewood), and the one she failed to get back with her daughter Claire thanks to the paradox affecting the 2019 timeline. This grief clouds her actions for the duration of the season, and Emmy Raver-Lampman, who plays Allison, has explained the motivations behind one decision in particular.
There are major spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 3 ahead, so click away now if you haven't caught up with all the new episodes yet.
In episode 8, Five (Aidan Gallagher) overhears Allison making a deal with their father, Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore). We still don't know the exact terms of the deal, but we can imagine it has something to do with Allison somehow reuniting with both Ray and Claire in the same timeline (it was previously revealed that Ray died in 2010).
"We spend the whole season with Allison kind of spiraling the drain with the loss of Claire and Ray, and then dear old Reggie kind of opens up a window and is like, 'Hey, you could change all of that and get not just Claire back, but potentially Ray as well,'" Raver-Lampman explained during Netflix Geeked's The Umbrella Academy: Unlocked. "And I think at that point, she's so done with her family and she's so done with Viktor and she's so done with all of them that she's willing to risk it all."
Allison and Viktor (Elliot Page) come to blows when she realizes her brother has been lying to protect Harlan Cooper (Callum Keith Rennie) – Viktor knows that Harlan is responsible for the paradox that caused their timeline to fall apart, the side effects of which include Claire ceasing to exist.
"In the moment where they make that deal, I think it's really malicious on her part and also very selfish. But then, I think, from that moment on, she starts to see the repercussions of that," Raver-Lampman continued.
"Like Luther dying, and not really knowing what Reggie's plan is, and kind of feeling like, 'Oh, okay, it might be spiraling out of control.' Now the marbles are loose and she can't really gather them up fast enough to get ahead of it. But I think it's still in the back of her mind that this is [Reginald's] plan and if she just trusts him, she'll have Claire and Ray regardless of how devastating it is and watching her brother die and the world fall apart and the people that she loves get hurt."
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The Umbrella Academy season 3 is streaming now on Netflix. For more on the Hargreeves, check out our guides to The Umbrella Academy season 3 ending explained, The Umbrella Academy season 3 timeline, and The Umbrella Academy season 3 post-credits scene.
I’m an Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.