Last we saw the Hargreeves siblings in Umbrella Academy Season 2, the seven just fought their way out of deadly apocalypses and temporal crises. Season 3, coming Wednesday, June 22, finds the Hargreeves family in a brand-new timeline, facing off with a mirror set of powered siblings who are part of the Sparrow Academy. How did the Umbrellas get here? And why did their adoptive father, Sir Reginald (Colm Feore), create an entirely different Academy? It’s a twisty explanation, but keep reading for all the answers. We won’t even ask for an öga for an öga.
Spoiler alert for Seasons 1 and 2 ahead!
Viktor Hargreeves (Elliot Page) As Elliot Page shared on Instagram, his character will be going by Viktor from now on [Editor’s note: We will be referring to Page’s character throughout the series as Viktor]. The seventh Hargreeves child was raised to believe he was the only non-powered sibling of the Umbrella Academy. Not true. Instead, Viktor is the strongest of the bunch, with the ability to turn sound waves into pure energy.
Luther Hargreeves (Tom Hopper) The Number One of the Umbrella Academy likes to tell people that he once lived on the moon on an assignment from Reginald. Following a near-tragic incident, Luther now has the body of an ape, super strength and not quite the sharpest head on his simian shoulders.
Allison Hargreeves (Emmy Raver-Lampman) The Umbrella Academy sibling who’s arguably been through the most, Allison — the Number Three of the group, with the ability to control others’ behavior by uttering “I heard a rumor… ” — lost her daughter Claire (Coco Assad) in the Season 1 time jump and her second husband, Raymond (Yusuf Gatewood), in the Season 2 time jump.
Diego Hargreeves (David Castañeda) Diego has grown up a lot since Season 1. He, with his knife-wielding ability, now tries his best to be a team player, particularly after meeting love interest Lila Pitts (Ritu Arya).
Klaus Hargreeves (Robert Sheehan) Klaus is the most chaotic Umbrella Academy member in a septet of anarchy. Klaus can talk to ghosts — hence his two-season-long friendship with the late Ben Hargreeves (Justin H. Min) — and is the Umbrella Academy member most in touch with his emotions.
Five Hargreeves (Aidan Gallagher) The kill-happiest sibling of the Umbrella Academy lot (and the one most likely to figure out how to stop an apocalypse), Five accidentally hopped too far into the future and got stuck. He then joined the Commission, which is an agency dedicated to keeping the timeline intact. Through the Commission, Five became one of the greatest assassins in history, spending decades as an agent. Due to time-travel shenanigans, he now looks like a teen, despite being the oldest of all the Brellies.
The gang’s (nearly) all here. Five (Aidan Gallagher), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Luther (Tom Hopper), Diego (David Castañeda) and Viktor (Elliot Page) take a ride to see their dad. Apparently ghosts like Ben (Justin H. Min) aren’t allowed in the elevator.
Ben Hargreeves (Justin H. Min) This Umbrella Academy member died as a teen during a mission. But thanks to Klaus’ supernatural ability, Ghost Ben has been able to witness all of the events of Umbrella Academy without taking part... mostly. In one integral Season 2 moment, Ben stops Viktor from ending the world. But, as we learn in the finale, a very different version of Ben is alive and well in the new timeline.
Lila Pitts (Ritu Arya) Lila is introduced as a patient at Diego’s 1960s mental health facility. Over the course of Season 2, we learn that she’s really a Commission agent, the adopted daughter of The Handler, a superpowered person like the rest of the Umbrella Academy (Lila can mimic others’ powers) and, of course, Diego’s love interest.
The Handler (Kate Walsh) The Handler is the well-dressed leader of the Commission who only became Lila’s mother after ordering the murder of her daughter’s biological parents. She attempts to wage war with the Umbrella Academy and fails.
Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) The patriarch of the Umbrella Academy is an alien living in the body of a posh Englishman. The mysterious Reginald is the source of the Umbrella Academy’s dysfunction, and he’s never afraid to use that fact to get his children to do what he wants. In Season 2, the Hargreeves brood learn that Reginald was connected to John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
Dallas, 1963 The Hargreeves siblings end up here after escaping the Season 1 apocalypse that Viktor triggered. Some Brellies, like Allison, arrive years prior to their siblings and must create new lives here. Others, like Five, end up in Texas right when another apocalypse begins. The family must band together to stop their second Armageddon, which is tied to the Kennedy assassination.
The Umbrella Academy mansion In the finale, the Hargreeves siblings time-jump “home” to their new “present” — only it’s not exactly their present. Their childhood home is the same, but a new group of superpowered folks are now living there as the Sparrow Academy with their dad, Reginald.
Allison and her loving husband, Raymond (Yusuf Gatewood).
Allison’s double heartbreak Allison, the only Black person in the family, finds herself in segregated Texas a full three years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Between the loss of her daughter and partner, Raymond, due to separate time jumps, and the racist abuse she suffers in the Jim Crow South, Allison leaves Season 2 a much different, more damaged person.
Goodbye, Ben. Ben comforts Viktor to save the world — and destroys himself in the process.
Ben and the end of the world Ghost Ben sacrifices himself to stop Viktor from ending the world... again. In Episode 8, Diego learns the Dallas FBI building will blow up in this new timeline. America will then assume the attack was a Soviet act of aggression, which will lead to global nuclear war. Episode 9 clarifies the events that lead to the catastrophe: While under interrogation (read: torture) by the FBI, Viktor is fated to lose control of his powers and cause the blast. As a ghost, Ben is the only one who can get to Viktor and helps prevent the world-ending soundwave explosion. Ben is destroyed in the process.
Harlan (Justin Paul Kelly) is overcome by his unstable powers.
The other apocalypse Still, Viktor can’t help but be connected to another apocalyptic threat. Throughout the season, Viktor falls in love with Sissy (Marin Ireland), a domestic abuse survivor and mom to Harlan (Justin Paul Kelly). In Episode 4, Harlan nearly drowns, and Viktor accidentally infuses the boy with powers while trying to save him. As Harlan’s powers become more unstable, The Handler and her agents descend on Sissy’s farm to take Harlan, but the Umbrella Academy fights them all off. In the last big battle of the season, The Handler is killed. Everyone assumes Harlan has exhausted his powers, thereby losing them, but in his final appearance in Season 2, he makes a bird figurine float in midair.
Like (kidnapping) mother, like daughter. Lila (Ritu Arya) and The Handler (Kate Walsh).
A very different Commission Adding to the Commission’s uncertain future, Five assassinates the organization’s entire board of directors. By the end of Season 2, the board of directors are gone, The Handler (as well as hundreds of other agents) is dead thanks to Viktor; Lila has stolen a time briefcase; and Herb (Ken Hall), one of the few kindly Commission employees, is in charge. Herb does not seem excited.
Home sweet not-so-home. The Umbrella Academy meets Sparrow Academy’s Ben.
Welcome to... the Sparrow Academy? With The Handler handled, two apocalypses averted and the timeline in proper order, the Umbrella Academy takes one of the time-jumping briefcases left by a dead Commission agent to their present day. Only, some very important details have changed. Reginald decides to raise the Sparrow Academy, instead, after meeting his dysfunctional future offspring in 1963. Since Ben was a ghost during this initial introduction, Reginald sees no reason not to recruit him to the Sparrows decades later. And, boy, does Ben — now sporting My Chemical Romance-friendly emo bangs — already hate the Umbrellas. As they say to close out the season, “Shit.”
Ben is back. But is that a good thing? And is his hair going to stay like that?
Instead of nurturing the Umbrella Academy, Reginald raises the Sparrow Academy. What does that mean for the Brellies and their possible doppelgängers in this timeline?
Where are Harlan, Sissy and Raymond in this present?
We learn that Reginald aided in assassinating John F. Kennedy to protect his identity and his so-called “interests” on the dark side of the moon. Between this detail and Luther’s years-long trip up there, what’s going on with the moon?
Will the Umbrellas stay in this timeline or attempt to get to their “real” one?
How will the Hargreeves siblings create another apocalypse? Because it’s not Umbrella Academy without the threat of the world ending.
