As the Hargreeves siblings’ eternally bad luck would have it, “The Umbrella Academy” Season 4 once again changes their status quo in a number of ways. For Luther “Spaceboy” Hargreeves (Tom Hopper), these changes involve more than a family-wide de-powering. He’s also lost his beloved wife and alternate-universe Sparrow Academy member, Sloane Hargreeves (Genesis Rodriguez).

A powerful gravity manipulator and a considerably kinder person than most other Sparrowverse Hargreeves siblings, Sloane bonds with Luther shortly after they first meet, and their Romeo and Juliet dynamic is one of the third season’s more prominent character storylines. However, after Allison “The Rumor” Hargreeves (Emmy Raver-Lampman) resets “The Umbrella Academy” timeline at the end of Season 3, Sloane is nowhere to be seen.

According to showrunner Steve Blackman, Sloane’s abrupt disappearance and subsequent absence in Season 4 weren’t part of the original plan. Instead, it was caused by the fact that while the show usually has 10 episodes per season, this final season only has six. Since “The Umbrella Academy” Season 4 is short and sweet, its run time simply didn’t provide enough leeway to bring Luther and Sloane’s arc to a conclusion. “I never got to do the Luther-Sloane storyline that I wanted to do this season,” Blackman lamented in an interview with TV Line. “For logistical reasons, we just couldn’t make it work. We just couldn’t make it happen.”

In addition to confirming that Sloane Hargreeves fell victim to the harsh realities of time constraints, Steve Blackman also shed some light on the type of storyline “The Umbrella Academy” had in mind for her and Luther. Naturally, it was fairly bad news for the eternally lovelorn Spaceboy. “I wanted Sloane to be alive, just not remembering Luther, and him trying to get her to love him again,” Blackman said, explaining the original Season 4 plan in the TV Line interview.

In another interview with Netflix’s Tudum website, Blackman elaborated on the situation even further. The showrunner revealed that while Allison killing Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) might have potentially erased Sloane from existence altogether, he has another idea about the Sparrow Academy member’s unseen and unaddressed Season 4 fate.

“I think Sloane exists in the timeline, but she has never found Luther, and Luther never found her,” the showrunner said. “She may be out in the world, but we left it unknown. If you ask me what I think, I think she’s somewhere out there. But she may not remember anything, and she may be so far away from Luther that she can’t get to him.” While this doesn’t exactly provide pleasant closure to the Sloane-Luther love story, fans may find it comforting to know that the showrunner personally believes that Sloane’s story doesn’t end with Season 3’s reality rewrite.