The Umbrella Academy, Netflix's adaptation of Gerard Way's comic that puts a very unique spin on the concept of a school full of mutant children working towards becoming the saviors of the world, just released its third apocalyptic season. The series focuses on the Hargreeves family immediately after their father's death, and the titular Umbrella Academy is the school at which all of these supernaturally gifted kids learned to hone their skills and become heroes.
However, not everything about The Umbrella Academy itself makes a whole lot of sense. Like any show, it requires some suspension of disbelief, but even ing for that, there are some pretty glaring issues in the series that have yet to be resolved.
Buying Babies
It goes without saying that literally buying a baby is kind of taboo. So why is it that Reginald Hargreeves can so conspicuously purchase half a dozen kids from random women across the world, and no one has a problem with it? And forget about the moral implications, wouldn't the law get involved in a situation like this somehow?
Season 3 made this issue an even bigger one with the Sparrow Academy, as the first season of The Umbrella Academy establishes that the original seven were the only children Reginald was able to purchase. So how is it that he managed to convince six of the other women who hadn't sold their children in the prior timeline to sell them now?
The Lost Children
All of the Hargreeves children seem to be gifted with some truly extraordinary superpowers. But they are not the only ones who were born in this bizarre phenomenon. Season 3 explored it in much greater depth, but there are obviously quite a few superhero kids that were not acquired by Reginald Hargreeves.
Thus far, Reginald was able to procure enough children to populate the Umbrella Academy and then the Sparrow Academy, but as Lila demonstrated, there are canonically at least 43 superpowered humans living in the world, and it's very strange that they've all managed to avoid detection.
Brotherly Love
Although it's obvious that both Luther and Sloane have very little with the world outside of what Reginald Hargreeves allowed them to see, it's quite bizarre how comfortable they are with romancing someone with the same father.
Clearly, Luther's interest in Sloane is much less unsettling than his feelings for Allison, and it's great that they found love with each other. But Luther's inability to be attracted to anyone who doesn't bear the same surname as him is odd, and it's also strange that Sloane sees no problem with it either.
Reginald's Mission
Reginald Hargreeves collected a bunch of unusual children for a specific purpose, seemingly his intentions were to save the world. But that reality offers up more questions than answers.
Firstly, how did Sir Hargreeves even know that the world would need to be saved? And if his ultimate goal was to use his children to prevent the apocalypse, why didn't he ever let them know? Plus, given that his kids actually seem to actively cause the end of days every time it comes about, why did Reginald take the risk of creating another Academy when the first iteration failed so miserably?
Dead Caregivers
The rich can get away with everything, so although it's terrifying, it's not an enormous stretch of the imagination to think that Reginald Hargreeves managed to cover up all of the caregivers that Viktor killed before he decided to give him a less kill-able parent to handle his tantrums.
However, why didn't any of the other children recall these nannies? And why was there no investigation into all of these missing people? Not to mention, why didn't any of the other kids that Viktor actually had superpowers?
Robo-Mom
The idea of creating a robot mom to take care of the children is actually a pretty clever one, but it does seem pretty odd that the entire Hargreeves family doesn't question the reason why they would need to have an indestructible machine in place of a real human caregiver, especially considering that Reginald did hire human nannies before.
Perhaps the experience growing up in the Umbrella Academy is strange enough that the shift wouldn't stick out in anyone's memory. But considering how rarely they connected with anyone new, and considering that there were so many of them who could have ed, that's hard to believe.
Team Missions
Sir Reggie may be rich, but he's not particularly creatively minded. His idea for a squad of superpowered children saving the day is cool, but it's also a straight-up X-Men ripoff. However, his ideas around these crime-fighting children are even odder, all things considered.
Yes, having the kids doing these good deeds is nice, but in a lot of these circumstances their powers aren't going to be particularly useful, so why even take them along in the first place when their presence might hinder more than help?
Christopher
Of all of the new Hargreeves children that were introduced in season 3, Christopher is undoubtedly the most interesting and mysterious.
It's unclear who or what he is, and it's unclear whether or not he ever was human, although he definitely doesn't seem to be anything close to a person as of now. Was Christopher actually one of the children that was born on the same day as the rest of the Hargreeves kids? And if he is, then how exactly did a being like him evade detection in the prior timeline where the Umbrella Academy were the ones who had been adopted by Reginald?
Strange Mutations
In that same vein, one of the most noticeable differences between the Umbrella Academy and the Sparrow Academy is that the Sparrow kids seem to be far more conspicuously different. Sure, characters like Jayme and Sloane look like average people, but others like Fei and Alphonso would definitely stand out in a crowd. So then, why didn't they?
Much like Christopher, if these superpowered children existed in the prior timeline, then it makes no sense that they were able to stay under the radar for so long when their unusual appearances should have drawn a lot of attention even if their powers remained hidden.
A Trip To The Moon
For quite a long time, Luther Hargreeves is utterly convinced that his trip to the moon had a specific purpose, only later coming to believe that his father sent him away for no real reason and that his work on the moon was pointless.
But was it? Luther's actual purpose on the mission has still not been fully explained, but given that Reginald's deceased wife Abigail was on a restricted section of the moon, it seems like Luther's presence there cannot be a coincidence. And now that Abigail seems to be back in the real world, the importance of Number One's trip to space seems even more relevant.
