‘The Umbrella Academy’ Viewers Are Thrilled About An Off-The-Rails ‘Battle’ Scene: ‘I No Longer Need Therapy’

The Umbrella Academy‘s third season arrived, fully formed, on Netflix this week. The second season proved to be another twist-filled blast, so the show decided to do what it does best: blend plenty of serious themes, drama, and conflict with sheer quirkiness. And that’s led the story to a place where live action is inarguably better than the printed page, although clearly, the graphic novels (by Gabriel Ba and My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way) are what anchored that spirit in the first place.

The third season wastes no time in keeping the brand strong while returning to the family of misfit superheroes. The Hargreeves siblings of the Umbrella Academy headed back (after halting a 1960s apocalypse) to what they believed was their timeline and their home. Yet unfortunately, there’s a new group of siblings that Reginald adopted, and that would be the incredibly powerful (and unfriendly) Sparrow Academy. Less than 10 minutes into the game, the group faces off for what appears to be a physical fight, and then this happens: a dance battle set to the tune of Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose.”

All of this, of course, is down to the power of Cazzie David’s Sparrow, Jayme, and the hallucinatory spit she launched at David Castañeda’s Diego. And yes, this perfectly sums up the entire aura of this show and that special “sweet spot” that no other superhero-involved project has managed to capture.

From there, the laughter was evident, as well as the appreciation. One user even declared, “i no longer need therapy i can just watch the footloose scene on repeat.” Oh if only one could bottle this stuff! Yet it’s a wonderful scene.

‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 3 is currently streaming.