Warning, spoilers for season 4 of The Umbrella Academy!

The series ends on a bittersweet note, with the Hargreeves siblings sacrificing their lives and giving up their existence to save humanity from impending doom. After battling countless apocalypses and facing twisted and overlapping time zones, the siblings realize they are part of the problem!

However, after their final sacrifice, the post-credits scene shows eight blooming marigolds, which have a deeper symbolic meaning. David Castañeda, who played Diego Hargreeves, spoke to Screen Rant about this scene and its meaning.

“I think it’s the interpretation of the circle of life that at the end we turn into something, right? So we become part of the plants and the trees and that’s a kind of closure,” he said. The actor went on to explain that although the siblings’ spirits are no longer in the flesh, they live on somewhere.

“They may not be here anymore, but their spirit is still here and they were able to do what they were meant to do, which was save the world and make the ultimate sacrifice,” he added. According to Castañeda, the eight golden flowers – representing each sibling – meant they are not completely gone.

The flowers seem to function as epitaphs, signaling a cleansing that resets the timeline, as well as a symbol of their heroism. On the contrary, some theories suggest that the marigold particles that have been associated with the Hargreaves’ powers indicate that the power still exists. And these particles, which have been associated with the siblings since their birth, could threaten the timeline they saved.

The golden particle is reminiscent of the first episode of the series, which featured rapid pregnancies that led to the birth of the powerful Hargreaves siblings, so the ending could have two different meanings and open up future possibilities for the series!