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An ‘Umbrella Academy’ Fan Revealed How Ben Was Recognized After Coming Back to Life

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

This article contains some spoilers from seasons 2 and 3 of The Umbrella Academy.

The Umbrella Academy season 3 just dropped on Netflix and it's time to say hello to the Hargreeves family once more. Except, now there are two versions of them and we're a bit confused on who to trust. As Luther (Tom Hopper), Diego (David Castañeda), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Five (Aidan Gallagher) and Viktor (Elliot Page) quickly discover, there is a whole other set of siblings (a.k.a. the Sparrow Academy) in their new timeline, and they all need to figure out how to fix it. But this doesn't come with its own challenges and meeting new folks along the way ...

Speaking of fresh faces, there's one very important character who finally gets some screen time: Ben Hargreeves (Justin H. Min), who is suddenly alive after being dead for the last two seasons. But when the two Hargreeves families come face-to-face in the season 3 premiere episode, all of the original siblings suddenly recognize their brother (who's now part of the Sparrow Academy) after not having seen him for many years.

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

While startling all on its own, the scene begs the question: How did the members of the Umbrella Academy suddenly know who their adult brother was when he's been dead since their childhood? Thankfully, some users on Reddit were thinking the same thing and they had some thoughts on how this could have happened.

To start off, user @thetissuepaper made the point that the Hargreeves siblings were all kids when they last saw Ben. And yet in season 3, they were all able to tell Ben was the adult version of their long-dead brother. "How does the umbrella academy know what ben as an adult looks like very well?" they asked. "This is literally what he looked like when he died. How did everyone recognize Ben in the sparrow academy?" It turns out, there are multiple theories that could have alluded to the siblings all recognizing one another.

The first theory: This isn't the first time the original Hargreeves family saw Ben in the hit series. As user @seppukuu wrote, "They saw his ghost when Klaus manifested him in 1x10. Yes, it was brief, but they also saw his face every day for 17 years. If you haven't seen a family member for a very long time, you'll likely [recognize] them, too."

This actually checks out since Klaus is the only member of the Umbrella Academy who has been able to see a remnant of Ben from the beginning of season 1. What's more, Klaus brought him to light at the end of the first apocalyptic battle, which would help backup how the rest of the family instantly knew who he was.

There is another idea though. As user @Swordofsatan666 noted, Viktor (then known as Vanya) caught a glimpse of the original Ben just hours before the beginning events of the third season. "Also [Viktor] at least saw him again just hours before they met Sparrow Ben," the user commented. "When Umbrella Ben hugged [Viktor] and gave her a message for Klaus."

If fans can remember, the original Ben only stayed around post-mortem because Klaus wanted his company when he went in between life and death. Then when Viktor almost died in season 2, Ben was the one to bring him back to life via a heart-to-heart. Meaning: Viktor has already seen some version of his adult brother and would be able to recognize him as a member of the Sparrow Academy.

Honestly, we can't decide which theory is more convincing. Either way, both versions of the Hargreeves family have a lot of work to do and Ben has a lot more in store for us to see ...

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