The Commission is one of Netflix in February 2019 and was one of the streaming giant’s biggest surprises, as it became an instant hit, and even sured one of the platform’s most popular titles. The series was renewed for a second season not long after, and the new episodes arrived in July 2020.
The Umbrella Academy follows the Hargreeves, seven adopted siblings who along with other 36 babies were born on the same day, at the same time, and to women who weren’t pregnant when the day began. This curious event caught the attention of supposedly powerless sister, Vanya (Elliot Page). On their quest to stop the end of the world, they had to deal with The Commission and The Handler (Kate Walsh), who ended up being a big obstacle in their way.
The Commission is an organization in the world of The Umbrella Academy that oversees and manages the space-time continuum, and their main purpose is to ensure that all events that are supposed to happen, happen, so they won’t hesitate on killing those who represent a threat, as was the case of Five (Aidan Gallagher) in season 1 and the whole Umbrella Academy team in season 2. The Commission’s agents are always ready to travel through time to complete their missions, and at some point, (old) Five worked for them and was their deadliest agent, but he ran away to stop the end of the world in the 2019 timeline from season 1. Five (now back in his teenage body) returned to work for The Commission for a brief period of time in season 1, which is how the audience got to see the inside of the agency’s headquarters and were surprised to see that, just like their leader, The Handler, the whole place and its employees had a 1950s look.
The origins of The Commission haven’t been explored in the comics nor in the Netflix show, so viewers have been left wondering why they are all about the 1950s, and specifically, why they reside in the year 1955. Fans have come up with various theories about it, but it’s generally accepted that The Commission resides in a fixed point in time, so time doesn’t really there or at least not like it normally does, and why they live in 1955 could be because that’s the year where the agency was founded – or, simply, a year without much threats, which has allowed them to operate there without a problem. Other viewers suggest that The Commission actually come from the future, and thanks to their advanced technology, they were able to create a “timeless” place where they could build their HQ, but that doesn’t really explain why, of all decades (and more so coming from the future), they chose the 1950s.
Although The Umbrella Academy is getting a third season, it seems unlikely that these and more questions about The Commission will be answered as the characters now have many other problems to deal with, mostly that they landed in a completely different timeline to theirs where Reginald is still alive and there was no apocalypse and where another team, The Sparrow Academy, has taken their place. Still, there’s hope for the comic books to shed some light on this, or even future seasons if The Commission creates more problems for the team.