On June 22, The Umbrella Academy returned after two incredible seasons. The story follows a gang of superheroes who were adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a wealthy and well-known scientist, and is based on the comic books by Gerard Way, the lead singer of My Chemical Romance. The superheroes were all born on the same day and at the same time from separate mothers. Because of its unapologetic and novel approach to the superhero genre, the show has captured viewers’ full attention. In order to satisfy its audience, it has also delved extensively into pop culture and historical references. Many of them are using Reddit to discuss and comment on each episode and are uncovering the most astounding hidden information.
The Pool Mural
The chronology of how the children were suddenly born to non-pregnant women around the world is shown in the first episode of the first season. The Russian pool house’s painting “clearly depicts the Academy,” observes a Redditor from the community. The seven characters in The Umbrella Academy are represented by the children in the painting.
This is a reasonable assumption, and the items, several of them, are holding support for it. One of the girls is playing the violin, an obvious hint to Viktor who is also known as the “White Violin,” a tall youngster in a full-body suit flexes his muscular arms, and a boy is gazing up through a telescope who could symbolize Five’s time- and space-travel abilities.
Praised Be The Gods
The show’s frequent allusions to Greek mythology were brought up by another Redditor. They mention “when 5 and Luther go to exchange the suitcase and the license plate says ‘Hermes.'”
The Greek deity of deception and trade by this name was also the gods’ messenger. It makes reference to their schooling because Reginald Hargreeves forced them to start learning the classics at an early age. This intertextuality compares the tale of the Hargreeves siblings to mythological legends. Hargreeves researched his offspring. He gave them training and made it his goal to have them ready to save the world. The siblings had regular schedules and participated in joint police operations. Even were inked with the Umbrella Academy logo. He assigned them all numbers, dispatched Luther on a risky expedition alone, and imprisoned Klaus in a tomb. They felt so constrained by him and his authoritarian presence that they wished to run away.
Klaus Being One With The Times
Despite having one of the worst backstories on TUA, Klaus is one of the show’s most endearing characters due to his charisma and dark abilities. As a result of Klaus’ frequent allusions to popular culture, a Redditor writes, “I regarded Klaus’ “oh Jackie” quip as like a Klaus-ism.”
Klaus is expressing his condolences for the loss of 1960s fashion icon Jackie O’s husband, the recently killed President John F. Kennedy. It is currently unknown if the siblings will follow the JFK death scenario from the comics in a later episode of the show. Because he was the one who didn’t take anything seriously, Klaus’s siblings frequently thought of him as being useless. He was also the one who turned to substances to dull the agony and his haunting abilities.
Paying Homage To The Seventh Art
TUA owes a significant portion of its success to the diversity of films it frequently alludes to, incorporating several masterpieces like From No Country for Old Men and The Big Lebowski into the sets, the characters, and the performances of the performers. Five uses a line from Captain America’s greatest moment during a fight with his younger self in season 2. According to a Redditor, “Five saying “I can do this all day” in that fight was definitely an Avengers/Captain America reference.”
When he says it while being beaten up by a bully in The First Avenger, it ends up becoming his catchphrase. The decision to say it during a fight between two iterations of the same character is another analogy to the MCU. It also demonstrates that Five, like Cap, is a strong, brave character who plays a crucial role in his universe.
That Clever Breakfast
The show’s most attentive viewers are TUA comic readers. A Redditor notes that “Elliot has a box of Clever Crisp, the cereal Reginald invented in the comics” in reference to the second season’s episode two.
The ostensibly innocuous appearance of a cereal box in the program is a clear reference to comics, particularly to its funniest aspects. The “Inventor of The Televator, The Levitator, The Mobile Umbrella Communicator, and Clever Crisp Cereal” is Sir Reginald, according to Apocalypse Suite 1. His mystery is presented in both the comic book and television versions in a casual way that adds to a novel spin on the grumpy old man squad. In 2007, Way began writing the comic-book miniseries The Umbrella Academy. Way wrote the story and illustrated the original version, but cartoonist Gabriel Bá redrew the art in the first volume, Apocalypse Suite.
The Founding Of The Umbrella Academy
On October 1, 1989, 43 women went into labor around the world after showing no signs of pregnancy. Reginald adopted seven of those babies, raising them as his own to create the Umbrella Academy. Sir Reginald visits the maker of DS Umbrellas towards the conclusion of the tenth episode of the first season. He “puts some orange thing into the air” before getting on the spacecraft.
In the future, this location would house the Umbrella Academy, where he trains kids to become superheroes. Considering that there is a season 3 episode called “Marigolds,” a Redditor last season suggests that either “the marigolds (the name of the effect used for the lights) are their powers, or they are the genetic material of Reginald’s race.”
The Book On The Shelf
The Academy is filled with many marvels. A fan surprise is hidden on the back cover of Viktor’s book when Allison picks it up in season one, as a Redditor observed. Gerard Way made a comment to potential readers complimenting the work. He is, after all, the comics’ creator, so this was a fun and original way to give himself credit. It makes perfect sense that the show makes the most meta allusion to the man who created the fiction in a realm known for its irreverence.
The frontman of My Chemical Romance, Gerard Way, wrote the comics that served as the series’ inspiration. This is evident when Viktor examines the back cover of his biography in the very first episode. The book, in his words, is “an excellent read.”
Where The Swedes Are Headed
The triplets known as the Swedes were first presented in the second season and work for the Handler. The coordinates they employ to find the Hargreeves are yet another breach of the fourth wall.
When a Redditor investigated the coordinates, she learned that they truly pointed to Netflix’s office, a very real place in our reality. Despite the fact that TUA was filmed in Canada, Los Angeles is where the show received its approval; this is a humorous way of alluding to a real-life location where viewers can discover the origins of these characters. The cast spent a lot of time in Toronto and Hamilton during the filming of season three, and according to a Q&A with Netflix, they got to know both cities pretty well during that time, including its people and restaurants. “Torontonians are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met,” said Justin H.
The Sparrow Challenge
You can see a blurb from none other than My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way, who also wrote the comics that served as the series’ inspiration, when Viktor examines the back cover of his biography in the very first episode of the show. “A wonderful read,” he says of the book. When the siblings are seen reading Viktor’s memoir in a montage, you can see that Luther’s copy is marked up with notes.
Extra-Ordinary: My Life as Number Seven is an autobiography book written by Viktor Hargreeves about Viktor’s existence, including how he was infrequently involved in the Umbrella Academy’s pursuits and general home life. The book exposed many of the family secrets, according to several of Viktor’s siblings, upsetting the majority of them and leading some of them to shun him and accuse him of betraying them.
Reginald Monitors Viktor
In the very first episode, there is a suggestion that Reginald is lying about Viktor’s lack of abilities: Despite Viktor’s appearance of ordinariness, Reginald monitors him in the same way that he does the other kids. When Viktor’s image shows on the screen, you can hear a different type of monitor beeping louder and quicker than it does for the other kids. Viktor’s powers are tested by Sir Reginald.
In a controlled environment, Sir Reginald has Viktor concentrate on the resonance of a tuning fork, harnessing it and using it to destroy a wine glass. Viktor, however, finds it difficult to focus on the tuning fork’s resonance while a rainstorm is around. Instead, he uses the storm’s noise as a source of power to utterly uncontrollably smash all of the wine glasses. When Sir Reginald realizes how strong Viktor is, he suspends his training for the time being.
Luther Was Banished To The Moon
Reginald exiled Luther for four years, sending him on a useless trip to the moon. reportedly hung moon pictures on the walls of his bedroom when he was younger. In an effort to give him focus, Sir Reginald sends him to the moon to supposedly watch out for extraterrestrial threats, and Luther lives alone in seclusion on the moon base for four years while sending regular reports back to his father.
When Sir Reginald passes away, Luther is called back to Earth and starts to suspect their father was killed. As the situation develops, Luther learns that Sir Reginald never read any of the reports he sent. As a result, Luther begins to feel like a failure and that he was expelled because he wasn’t a good enough Number One, which severely undermines his self-confidence.
Peanut Butter Sandwiches
Viktor tells Pogo in the pilot that he used to make his missing brother Five peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches every night while he was away in the hopes that he would return and eat if he became hungry. Five does show up again later in that episode, and the first thing he does is build himself a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich.
Pogo was a typical chimpanzee before he met Hargreeves. He was transported to a lab to receive training and preparation before being fired up in a rocket and sent into space. Grace and Hargreeves oversaw his growth throughout this time. Pogo was severely hurt when his launch failed and he was brought back to them, but Hargreeves used a serum on him to both heal him and make him intelligent.
Klaus’ Power Torments Him
Ben, the deceased Hargreeves relative, appears to Klaus, who has the ability to see and communicate with the dead, as a ghost. However, Klaus utilizes drugs and alcohol to lessen his influence since when he is sober, he is constantly tormented by ghosts.
As a result, Ben is wearing a hood and has mostly closed eyes when we first encounter him, and Klaus is, as usual, inebriated. Later, when Klaus awakens from a bender, Ben is more present because he can understand Klaus’s thoughts and communicate with him clearly. His hood is still up, though. Ben’s hood falls off when Klaus is abducted and unable to obtain drugs or booze since his brother is finally (and unwittingly) sober.
Diego Has A Soft Spot For Grace
Diego and their robot mother, Grace, get along the best out of all the siblings. While Luther is away, he notices one personal touch in Diego’s otherwise sparse apartment: a framed needlepoint that was probably created by Grace. Grace is the primary caregiver and adoptive mother of the seven children adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, modeled on Hargreeves’s one time paramour Grace.
When Viktor was younger, he had several nannies, and he used his abilities to kill them when they forced him to do anything he didn’t want to. Sir Reginald Hargreeves created Grace to be the ideal housewife and mother to the children of the Umbrella Academy out of frustration at the number of nannies Viktor killed. Grace is adored by the kids, who refer to her as “Mom” throughout the entire series. Since she supported them during their problems, Vanya and Diego seem to have the strongest connection to her.
Grace Embroidery Prediction
Grace is embroidering an image of the moon bursting into chunks, which is what almost destroys the world in the season finale, just before Diego shuts her down. As for her real death, Viktor used all of his power, and Grace perished in the collapse of the Hargreeves House as a result. Grace was last seen through a window before the manor was destroyed, despite Diego and Klaus’ best efforts to save her.
Diego looked through the debris after the fall to find her body. He was not successful, though. Diego is the one of the Hargreeves kids who loves Grace the most. Diego had speech problems, including stuttering, when he was a small child. Diego was able to stop stuttering after Grace advised him to visualize the word.
Clues in The Posters
The reflections in the family’s glasses on the Season 2 poster allude to their individual storylines for the season. For example, Lila is visible in Diego’s spectacles, a civil rights demonstration is seen in Allison’s, and cult members are visible in Klaus’s. Klaus, who is initially out of luck and troubled by Dave’s existence in this decade, is taken in by a wealthy older woman who gives him status, a mansion, and opulent presents.
Even if it’s not fully intentional, Klaus starts a cult using his new platform and captivating personality. Klaus only has mediumship, evocation, and immortality. However, in the comics, he has mediumship, telekinesis, limited telepathy, and evocation. Klaus’ appearance quite differs from his comic book counterpart.
The Dance
One of Luther’s routines during the group dance that introduced Season 1 is a “crab dance.” In the “Footloose” dance-off between the Umbrella and Sparrow Academies two seasons later, he’s back at it. We like to imagine that Luther has performed the crab dance on numerous occasions, to the point where Diego associates him with it because this routine is Diego’s hallucination and he wasn’t present while Luther was dancing by himself in his room in Season 1.
This was because, in combat, he was spat upon by Jayme, who has the power of Hallucinogenic Spit: venom that causes her targets to have hallucinations. Jayme Hargreeves is “a loner with a fear-inducing snarl you’d be wise to avoid at all costs. She doesn’t say much because she doesn’t have to.”
Multilingual Arguing
According to Justin H. Min and David Castañeda in an interview with Newsweek, they improvised the sequence from Season 3’s eighth episode where Ben and Diego start yelling at each other in Korean and Spanish. It was Castañeda’s idea, and Min claimed they were “surprised” that it was included in the episode’s final cut.
While the two were practicing several variations of the action on set, Castañeda came up with the idea for the sequence, according to Min. “It was entirely spontaneous. That was a fantastic idea from Mr. Castañeda, and we performed that scene numerous times with a variety of improvised lines,” says he. “And then one of the takes, he just comes over and whispers to me, he’s like, ‘Hey, I’m going to start speaking Spanish, you should start speaking Korean.’ I was like, ‘Alright, let’s do this.'”
Immortality
In Season 3, Klaus learns he has the ability to live forever and tells his dysfunctional superhero family in the manner shown below. And approximately ten years ago, Robert Sheehan’s irreverent, immortal character from the Misfits television series, which was also about a dysfunctional family of superheroes, said almost the same thing.
After having an experience meeting God and coming back, Klaus subsequently discovered that he was effectively immortal. He could resurrect himself every time that he died. While in the beginning it took around 22 minutes for him to come back from the afterlife. After training with his father, Klaus could now revive himself almost instantly. However, he lost this ability after the universe was reset, making him mortal again.