Netflix doesn't need Marvel anymore. Season 1 was almost pitch-perfect, but somehow The Umbrella Academy season 2 is actually an improvement. It sees the Hargreeves children travel back in time to 1963, where they attempt to avert the assassination of President Kennedy.
Curiously, The Umbrella Academy season 2 avoided dealing with a lot of the unanswered questions from season 1, instead choosing to tell a completely fresh story. At this stage, it's unclear whether or not the show ever intends to deal with any of those questions, or whether viewers are instead simply expected to sit back and enjoy the wild ride. Viewers who watch the two seasons in succession will also notice a number of inconsistencies; the writers haven't really bothered too much about continuity, presumably figuring that doesn't matter much in a show that bounces through the timeline with joyful abandon.
So let's take this opportunity to explore The Umbrella Academy season 2's many unanswered questions, and try to figure things out ahead of the surely-inevitable Umbrella Academy season 3.
15. How Does Time Travel Work In The Umbrella Academy?
Time travel is hard. It's a purely theoretical idea, with no real-world analogue - and as a result, every film, TV series, or book tends to handle temporal mechanics slightly differently. In fact, it's often the cases that the rules of the game are rewritten at plot convenience. Precious few franchises manage to stay consistent, and the few that do often wind up in difficulty. Take the example of Avengers: Endgame; even the film's writer and directors disagree about how its time travel works.
The Umbrella Academy season 1 appeared to suggest the apocalypse was inevitable, and could not be averted, however much Five tried to change the timeline. But it's likely this was because of the Commission, who were policing the timeline in order to guide it towards the apocalypse, for a completely unexplained reason. The Commission are in chaos in The Umbrella Academy season 2. They're distracted, and as a result the timeline is now completely out of control. As far as time travel in The Umbrella Academy is concerned, anything can happen - and it does, when the Hargreeves siblings unwittingly rewrite history.
14. Who Are The Sparrow Academy?
The Umbrella Academy season 2 creates a new timeline in which Sir Reginald Hargreeves created the Sparrow Academy, rather than the Umbrella Academy. It's clear that the Sparrow Academy are not just alternate versions of Luther, Allison, Five, Vanya, Klaus and Diego, since the alternate version of Ben that greets them doesn't recognize them. They're lifted from the comics, where they are yet to be developed to any real extent but will apparently be key to the next volume. Speaking to Forbes, comic book writer Gerard Way explained they are the answer to a question that's long bugged fans of The Umbrella Academy. "The series finally starts to answer the question: ‘What about the other babies born on that day, in that moment?’ The Umbrella Academy siblings are not alone in the world anymore." It's unclear what happened to these children in the original timeline, but that may not matter anymore.
13. What Happened To Grace (In Either Timeline)?
Grace was introduced in The Umbrella Academy season 2, where she served as an affectionate mother figure to the Hargreeves children. In The Umbrella Academy season 2, the time travelers learned the android was based on a real person who Sir Reginald Hargreeves had loved, a woman who worked for NASA. Presumably in the original timeline, Grace ed away and Sir Reginald "replaced" her. Unfortunately, while in 1963 Diego planted doubts about Sir Reginald in Grace's mind, and she presumably left him. It will be interesting to see whether she is still alive in the new timeline - and if so, whether she could prove a useful ally for the Umbrella Academy.
12. What Happened To Pogo In The New Timeline?
Pogo's lifestory may well have changed as well. For all Sir Reginald referred to Pogo as "my monkey" in 1963, he actually appears to have belonged to Grace. As such, it's possible the Pogo of the new timeline stayed with Grace, rather than becoming Sir Reginald's "manservant" as he did in the original timeline. Either way, no doubt the Umbrella Academy will soon wind up interacting with a new version of Pogo.
11. Does Allison's Daughter Claire Exist In The New Timeline?
The moment she arrives in the present, Allison's first thought is to reach out to her beautiful daughter Claire, who should be alive now the Apocalypse has apparently been averted. That should serve as a disturbing reminder Allison has the most to lose if the timeline has changed so much; indeed, there's a sense in which she is the only one of the Umbrella Academy who has anything to lose at all. It's unknown whether Claire exists in this new timeline, and if she doesn't it's safe to assume Allison will want to rewrite history again - no matter the cost.
10. How Exactly Do Allison's Powers Work?
The Hargreeves children were supposed to have separated years ago, before they'd even finished training. As a result, The Umbrella Academy season 2 suggests they have all wildly underestimated their actual powers. Two key scenes hint Allison's psychic ability to control others is far more powerful than she previously believed, when she retains mental control of a bigoted cafe worker without even saying the words "I heard a rumor." In the Apocalypse scene at the beginning, Allison tells some soldiers, "I heard a rumor that I blew your minds," and their heads explode. This suggests her voice actually rewrites reality itself, because nobody can will their own head into exploding.
Interestingly, this is more similar to Allison's powers in the comics, where she even accidentally created an evil double of herself when she lied. If Allison really does manipulate reality itself, then she could become the most powerful of all the Hargreeves children. Imagine her saying to a super-powered opponent, "I heard a rumor you lost your powers." Meanwhile, this might well provide Allison with an easy way of getting her daughter Claire back, if Claire really has been erased from the timeline; she could simply wish her back into being.
9. What Are Diego's Powers?
Diego's powerset is expanded as well. In the comics, Diego is the Kraken, able to breathe underwater; this has been dropped completely from the TV series, and instead Diego appears to have the ability to psychically redirect projectiles. He typically uses this to guide his knives, as seen in the Apocalypse scene in which he kills a bunch of soldiers - even those who are behind him. But it seems Diego can also redirect bullets, a trick that could have come in useful in season 1 but proves pretty effective against the Commission in season 2. The strange thing is that, where the others appear to be discovering new aspects of their powers, Diego instead seems quite comfortable with this - so it's hard to say why he didn't use it before now.
8. What Exactly Is Five Capable Of?
It seems Five has been underestimating his abilities as well, as he learns when he manages to reverse time around himself - although who knows what effect that had on the time-space continuum. It makes sense that Five would be the one who has the least understanding of his own abilities, though, because he was the first to end his training with Sir Reginald Hargreeves when he hopped forward to the First Apocalypse. It will be interesting to see how his powerset expands if he takes advantage of the opportunity to continue his education now history has been rewritten.
7. What Exactly Is Vanya's Power?
In The Umbrella Academy season 1, every use of Vanya's power was potentially devastating. She seems to have it much more under control in season 2, though, and even uses them a couple of times without any real negative effects. But one of the most striking scenes sees Vanya use her powers to somehow bring a young boy, Harlan, back from the dead. It's unclear exactly how she does this, but it leads to her creating some sort of quasi-permanent bond between them. Although Vanya ultimately draws her power back, she seems to have permanently affected Harlan, who is shown possessing a lasting telekinetic ability of some kind.
6. Why Has Ben Aged When Other Ghosts Haven't?
The circumstances of Ben's death are now shrouded in mystery, although Sir Reginald Hargreeves clearly blamed them on his brothers and sisters. The Umbrella Academy season 2 reveals Ben died over a decade ago in real time; it's difficult to set a precise date, because Klaus and Ben both quote different numbers of years. So why has Ben aged? In The Umbrella Academy season 1, episode 4, Klaus summoned the ghosts of people who had been killed by Hazel and Cha-Cha, and none of them had aged. Presumably something about Ben's powers interacted with the "rules" of the Afterlife, whatever they may be.
