Hello Multiversity readers, and welcome back to another season of The Umbrella Academy on Netflix. The Umbrella Academy crew has once again saved the world and now have traveled back to their original time, but only things are not how they left them. Things immediately start on the wrong hand so let’s jump into the season premiere, “Meet The Family.”
1. New Kids On The Block
After saving the world from utter destruction, The Umbrella Academy gets transported to their home, only to realize that it is filled with new students who now call it home. Rather than just doppelganger people that have the same powers, these new students have different capabilities and are known as “The Sparrow Academy.” The powers range from super-strength, psychic abilities, causing hallucinations with spit, only seeing through the eyes of ravens, a deformed man who can reverberate attacks on him to the person who initiated it, and a giant cube. It’s exciting and can draw the audience in because it’s not just a cliche “What If” situation. It’s a new team entirely and one that works together like a solidified unit. The Umbrella Academy gets their butts kicked, and even big ole’ Luther becomes slightly concussed with confusion on being thrown around like a rag doll when he’s usually the biggest and strongest in the room. They make it out of the first fight, but it doesn’t seem like it will be their last.
2. The Changeup
Now how exactly did this change occur? Well, it gets explained real quick, their “father,” Reginald Hargreeves, instead of adopting the original seven children that would become The Umbrella Academy, decided to adopt six different children. Ben is the only member of both and raises them to be more successful. In the previous season, the Umbrella Academy met up with Hargreeves to help save the world. Still, he spent most of their time together, ripping them apart emotionally as only a strict parent who doesn’t know how to raise a child can do properly. It seems no matter which kids for either team or how old they get, they all want nothing more than to obtain his love and affection despite knowing they’ll never get it.
3. Little Hiccup
Now speaking about doppelgangers, even though in this timeline that they have traveled to, Hargeeves has adopted other children, it doesn’t mean that the original Umbrella Academy kids aren’t around. According to #5, who has the most experience with time travel, they could be somewhere else in the world, having been raised by their original families. So long as they do not interact or get too close to their counterparts, they should be fine. Otherwise, it would cause both people to go crazy and insane. Now, this little nugget of knowledge seems way too specific of a scenario to not happen, and during their “lay-low” stage, Allison leaves to try and find her daughter, which means she’s the likeliest of them to run into this problem first.
4. Crack In The Armor
Vanya decides to go rogue and talk to Marcus (AKA #1) one-on-one in hopes of trying to avoid another fight between the two teams and get the briefcase that went missing during the first encounter. Marcus does not even want to have the discussion because he believes The Sparrow Academy can win easily. Still, she plays against his ego and reminds him that she not only beat them previously, but she almost destroyed the world twice. During this discussion, Fei (AKA #3) witness the two talking through one of her crows and tells Ben. This moment is essential for the audience to see because there is mistrust in their team, and factions begin to form against Marcus’ leadership. His ego for being #1 is a detriment to himself and against their entire team if he’s willing to make a deal behind everyone’s back.
5. Who/What Is This “Big Bad?”
Hargreeves may be the prick of the family and forever a thorn in all of the members of Umbrella and Sparrow Academy, but he is not ultimately the big bad guy. It’s not fully shared with the audience exactly who or what it is, but when The Umbrella Academy was transported to their house, something else came along with it. It looks like a red gas cloud, but it somehow takes control of their “Mom”/household robot to bring the briefcase to them. (The case is the time-traveling device) At the end of the episode, it also kills/disintegrates the #1 of The Sparrow Academy and unleashes a kind of EMP-like wave throughout the city. So it’s uncertain what the goal or want is of this mysterious gas cloud, but it’s got some serious power behind it.
