So Like, 'The Umbrella Academy' Season 2's Ending Changes EVERYTHING

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 is a time-traveling romp, with all seven siblings thrown through time. They landed together in the same place, an alley in South Dallas. The problem was, they each landed at different times, somewhere between 1961 and 1963, ending with a nuclear holocaust. That gave the Hargreeves two objectives: Stop the end of the world, and get home. And, somehow, they seemed to succeed — until they ran into the Sparrow Academy. So now, fans are asking themselves: What is The Sparrow Academy?

Warning: Spoilers for The Umbrella Academy follow. Trying to stop a nuclear holocaust is a big job, and it's not surprising the Hargreeves siblings considered every angle to help their cause. As far as they could tell, the time and place were signs that the Kennedy Assassination was directly tied to the impending apocalypse. When Hazel left them with proof Reginald Hargreeves, aka the Monocle, aka the man who would one day adopt them, was mixed up in it; they stalked him, hoping to get help, or at least a clue.

Their work got his attention. The Monocle was horrified to learn one day, decades hence, he would create these mutant children, and they would turn out to be misfits. He even told Luther point-blank that he hates children, and he certainly would never make the simian horror that Number One became.

And yet, when the Hargreeves conquered the 1960s and headed back to 2019, going back to the day after they left, none considered how this interaction could have changed the future...

...until they walked into their old home, that is, and there was a giant portrait of Ben, Number Six, who died at 14. But this portrait was of a grown-up Ben, a different Ben, a Ben who was alive, and part of The Sparrow Academy, seven children with abilities who the Monocle adopted.

It turns out, that meeting back in the 1960s was what convinced the Monocle he could create his family of superheroes in the first place — but he'd do it better. As Lila's existence reminded the siblings, there weren't seven of them, but 43. The Monocle picked them in the original timeline, but there were 36 others he could have chosen. So in this timeline, the Monocle adopted different — a better set of seven.

The irony is, Ben was with the siblings when they met the Monocle. But because he was dead, the Monocle couldn't see him. So, he avoided six of his failures and picked the seventh to be his new Number One.

How will this affect The Umbrella Academy in a potential Season 3? Fans can't wait to find out.