Warning: Spoilers for The Umbrella Academy: Dallas
The Umbrella Academy has confirmed the 1960s as the setting for season 2, and based on the source material and other details, here’s what that could mean for the Hargreeves. Based on the comic book series of the same name by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy was released on Netflix in February 2019 and became an instant hit, surpassing one of the platform’s most popular titles. A few months later, the series was officially renewed for a second season, set for a July 31 release.
The Umbrella Academy follows the family of adopted siblings, the Hargreeves. All seven of them, along with other 36 babies, were born on the same day, at the same time, and none of their mothers were pregnant when the day began. Eccentric scientist and billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves adopted as many of those babies as he could, and got seven of them. As they began to develop unique sets of superpowers, Reginald trained them and formed the superhero team “the Umbrella Academy”. It wasn’t easy being superheroes and having Reginald as parent, and the Hargreeves went on their own ways, reuniting years later after Reginald’s death and joining forces to stop the apocalypse.
At the end of season 1, the Hargreeves learned that the cause of the apocalypse was their sister Vanya (Ellen Page), believed to be ordinary and who was, in fact, the most powerful and dangerous of the team. The apocalypse couldn’t be stopped, and so Five (Aidan Gallagher) used his power to travel through time and space to transport his siblings and himself somewhere else. After a lot of speculation, The Umbrella Academy has finally confirmed that season 2 will be set in 1960s Dallas, but the Hargreeves will be separated as each will arrive “at a slightly different point in time”. Although season 1 took elements from the volumes Apocalypse Suite and Dallas, there are still some elements from the latter that can be picked up in season 2. Here’s what the 1960s setting means for the Hargreeves.
Five disappeared for decades after jumping to the future and being unable to find the way back. He landed on a post-apocalyptic world, where he survived on his own (and with a mannequin, Dolores, as his only companion) before being recruited by the Commission. While working for them, Five became an assassin, and during a mission to kill John F. Kennedy, he finally figured out how to go back to his time, and so did the biggest jump of his life up to that point, which caused his body to regress to his 13-year old self. Not killing JFK had some repercussions on the present day, and the Commission might want Five to complete the mission.
In the comic book Dallas, Five’s boss, Carmichael (a Shubunkin Goldfish), threatens Five with killing his mother if he doesn’t finish the Kennedy assassination (and then reveals that Five is a twin). Five then travels to 1963 Dallas with Allison, who has healed and can talk again, and carry on with the mission together. While young Five and the Temps try to convince older Five to kill Kennedy and are joined by Luther, Diego, and Klaus, Allison disguises herself as Mrs. Kennedy and fulfills the mission through a rumor.
The Umbrella Academy season 2 could also see Five on his way to complete the mission, though he might not count with Allison’s help – after all, the Netflix series has taken a lot of creative liberties. As the synopsis teases Five will “find himself staring down the barrel of yet another apocalypse”, it's possible that killing JFK will be a way of stopping the end of the world, so he won’t have another choice than to carry on with it.
Prior to reuniting with Five and Allison in 1963 Dallas, Diego, Klaus, and Luther’s time jump has a minor error and sends them back three years before Five and Allison arrive in Dallas. During that time, Diego becomes a sergeant in the Vietnam War, where he leads his squad on a mission to carry a mummy to Saigon, where it would be resurrected and end the war. The mission goes wrong and the mummy is resurrected after Diego and company are attacked by Viet Cong Vampires, but are saved by an attacker revealed to be Luther. Klaus arrives and takes them back to his nightclub, where a young Pogo had been assisting in the construction of a new Televator so they can join Five and Allison in Dallas in time.
Klaus has already gone through the Vietnam War experience in Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, when he escaped from Cha-Cha and Hazel and took their briefcase, accidentally transporting himself to the Vietnam War, though exactly when is unknown. Diego and Klaus could be recruited upon their arrival in Dallas, with Klaus reliving his war years (which would obviously affect him heavily, both mentally and emotionally) and possibly reuniting with Dave, depending on when he landed the first time.
What the rest of the Hargreeves could be up to in season 2 is a bit tricky to figure out, mainly because the stories of some of them were very different in the comics. For starters, Vanya was shot in the head at the end of Apocalypse Suite, and spends the whole Dallas storyline recovering from that. The first look at season 2 shows that Vanya is doing fine, and she appears to be working on how to control her powers. She’s also shown sharing some quality time with Allison and Klaus, driving around with an unknown woman and a kid, and working alongside her siblings (except Five), showing some major improvement on her part – though how she got to that remains to be seen.
Although in the comics Luther was also in Vietnam with Diego and Klaus, the series might take a different approach (based on the photos released so far) but might explore the effects of the events of season 1 on him. In Dallas, Luther becomes morbidly obese due to depression, which could manifest differently in the series. One of the photos shows Luther in a car with a gun and a hip flask, meaning he could be dealing with an alcohol problem as a result of the traumatic events from season 1 (and, of course, being once more separated from his siblings, now in a different place and time).
Aside from possibly assisting Five, Allison will be dealing with a completely different problem: discrimination. One of the photos shows Allison being handed a pamphlet that reads “Have you experienced discrimination by your employer?”, which could be worsened if she doesn’t get her voice back like in the comics. Diego seems to be spending some time at the Academy, as he’s seen wearing the uniform, perhaps in an attempt to learn more about their father and themselves, which could happen when he returns from the war with Klaus. As for Ben, he doesn’t have a role in Dallas, so the series has a lot of freedom to explore his story and what he can do now that Klaus can summon him better and make him corporeal for longer.
Of course, one of the biggest questions now that it has been confirmed when the Hargreeves will be in The Umbrella Academy season 2 is how they will reunite. Going back to the comics, and as mentioned above, a young Pogo helped Klaus build a new Televator, which allowed him, Diego, and Luther to travel where Five and Allison were. Though Pogo’s return hasn’t been confirmed or teased, it’s still possible he can make an appearance, and thus help the siblings get back together.
The Commission could be of use here, though not voluntarily. Five has previously stolen from them in order to go wherever he needs, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he took advantage of them one more time so he can look for his siblings at those different points in time. Another possibility is that Reginald himself will help them reunite, especially if there’s another apocalypse approaching – after all, he killed himself to bring the Hargreeves together and stop the end of the world in season 1, so he could use a different method this time. Now that the marketing game for The Umbrella Academy season 2 has begun, fans just have to wait a bit more for a trailer to be released, which will hopefully answer some questions but without revealing too much.
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June 17, 2020 at 04:11AM
