‘The Umbrella Academy’ saves one perfect last dance scene for Season 4
The very promise of real life lovers Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally starring as a dastardly dream team of conspiracy theorists and cult leaders in The Umbrella Academy‘s fourth and final season is exquisite enough.
And then they hit you with a choreographed dance to Cher.
In one of the very best scenes of Season 4, in episode 3, the Fargo-like villains and kidnappers throw down some folk-rock boot-scootin’ stylings to the icon’s 1971 classic “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves,” wearing matching aviator spectacles, western shirts, bolo ties, and their hair in braids. Honestly, I can’t tell you whether Offerman and Mullally had this routine ready to go, show or not, but it absolutely slaps.
The Umbrella Academy has long championed the dance scene, whether the Hargreeves are blissing out privately to Tiffany’s cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now” in Season 1, Viktor, Klaus, and Alison “Twistin’ The Night Away” in Season 2, or the season-opening “Footloose” dance-off from Season 3, brilliant work from stage choreographer John Heginbotham.
But in the final season, the Hargreeves are benched from the dancefloor for the series’ villains, Gene and Jean Thibedeau.
In a sequence that involves a daring rescue, the show needs a legitimate reason why Gene and Jean aren’t surveilling their kidnapping victim for three minutes or so. And because we’ve spent the last few episodes watching this dynamic duo team up for everything from Euchre tournaments to casual carpark murder, it’s not out of character to have them practicing a little somethin’ somethin’ for their own amusement: a dance routine.
During the rescue sequence, the camera alternates between henchmen getting brutally owned and Gene and Jean absolutely tearing up their home’s floorboards with sweet moves. Their chosen tune, Cher’s “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves,” could only be an old favourite of this conspiracy theory loving pair, who perhaps listen less to the lyrics about teen pregnancy and sex work, and concentrate more on that sick beat.
It’s not the first time Offerman and Mullally have appeared on screen together by any means: Offerman appeared in Mullally’s realm Will and Grace back in the day; Mullally played the only weakness of Offerman’s Ron Swanson, his ex-wife Tammy, in Parks and Recreation; they’ve voiced animated characters in Bob’s Burgers, Axe Cop, Hotel Transylvania 2, and the English dub of Ernest and Celestine together; and co-starred in You, Me and the Apocalypse, Speaking of Sex, Smashed, and The Kings of Summer. So we can add this glorious dance scene, and their run on The Umbrella Academy, to the pile.
Luckily for us, The Umbrella Academy saves its last dance for Mullally and Offerman, and it’s one of the highlights of the season. Get it, Gene and Jean.