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The Umbrella Academy Season 4: Who Are Gene and Jean Thibedeau? Characters Explored
Gene Thibedeau (Nick Offerman) and his wife, Jean (Megan Mullally), are seen early on in The Umbrella Academy Season 4 operating a cult.
The Umbrella Academy might be one of the most-viewed superhero shows in the world right now, but on an equal scale, its strength always came from bone-chilling villains, not ones to take easy routes in order to attain what was meant for them. Be it Sir Reginald Hargreeves, the Temps Commission, or Handler, Season 4 will introduced the audience to The Keepers.
Gene and Jean Thibedeau - characters explored
The leaders of the cult called The Keepers are Jean and Gene Thibedeau, who theorize something they call the Umbrella Effect: that some kind of chain of events from past seasons is slowing down the process in their timeline. So they start collecting junk to prove they're in a false timeline such as relics, toys, and VHS tapes. They have been the laughingstock amongst their friends because they say things like memories waking people up in some sort of facade. Some members report having nightmares about past life, and some purchase stuff to show that, indeed, the timeline has changed.
The Thibedeaus even kill a dealer to get evidence for a barn they have. The museum is an homage to the past, featuring information on the Umbrella Academy and the infamous "Jennifer Incident," where Ben died. This puts the couple at the center of the Ben and Jennifer mystery, with Jennifer believed to be the key to resetting reality.
Gene and Jene Thibedeau dies horribly
Sy is now standing, joining the rank and file of the cult. He addresses them, in turn, about how they should just let Ben and Jennifer alone, about how they should absolutely try to keep Reginald's freaks as far away from them as they can possibly wrangle. Ben and Jennifer are going to end the world and the two simply need to be left in peace. What isn't is due to Ben's marigold. The durango given to Jennifer and the substances made by Reginald and his wife Abigail respectively, empowered them.
Now, under the new timeline, it's up to Gene and Jean to shut out the cops, the activists, and the academy to find those drugs that kept Ben and Jennifer tied up with some kind of virally infected disease in time and save them. The most amazing twist is Sy kills Gene and then turns into Gene. In the process, he tries to escalate the Cleanse. He refuses negotiations from Reginald's team because they demand Ben back.
In the series finale, Jean catches wind of a rat with her husband in The Umbrella Academy which lead to the imposter Gene killing Jean and rousing his people to rise up in resistance. In making Sy a false prophet, that gives the show its Biblical twist, he pitted the Thibedeaus against one another. They had manpower and influence of power, he did the same to the Hargreeves siblings. He manipulates everyone after all, for he is just Abigail in disguise.
Abigail wants to reverse the corruption of this reality, which she and Reginald caused, and the Thibedeaus are her foot soldiers. Desperate and gullible, they were eager to return home. The bomb is actually Ben and Jennifer merging into a giant monster, meant to devour the world. Thibedeaus were just kind of counterpoints to Reginald and Abigail with their great communication and unified vision. Reginald and Abigail were all about secrets and lies, he'd even been married quite some time before and never mentioned it.
Abigail disguises herself in a bid to bring Ben and Jennifer together, and they both find relief in the death of the monster. The Thibedeau clan tried to do the right thing and paid for it in a very bad/cruel way with their lives. Gene and Jean are good examples of tragic villains in the Netflix series, since Reginald wanted to play God and find a meaning for himself after the death of his wife in Season 1.
What is the Cleanse?
The Thibedeaus found her in one giant squid that they wanted her for a reset that they called the Cleanse. They later found Jennifer in a fake town called New Grumpson, which, as the Hargreeves siblings finds out much later, was financed by the new Reginald. They get ambushed by the Thibedeaus, who find out it was a protection hold. Reginald wanted Jennifer to shun society. However, the Thibedeaus kidnapped Jennifer, placed her in a barn, which tapped into all of those memories and set the Cleanse into motion.
The Keepers had not anticipated that The Umbrella Academy's Ben would come for Jennifer. He is inseparably attached to her. Ben rescues her, and manages to run. This has the effect of making the Keepers desperate enough to have Jennifer back, since they put contingency strategies, in this case involving their spies by the CIA, and also their militia trying to kill the Hargreeves siblings.
The Keepers, through the readymade illusion, have aspirations for liberty through unrelenting blood baths. They round up all their soldiers but get reinforcement from Sy Grossman, who in the first place had sent the siblings after Jennifer. Sy is the one who powers the siblings back up to feud with the Keepers, which really heightens the tension between siblings and the Keepers.
ALSO READ: The Umbrella Academy Season 4: What Do The Flowers In The Mid-Credit Scene Mean? Explained
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