In The Umbrella Academy season 3, Reginald knew Lila’s big secret. The answer to how he knew may lie in The Umbrella Academy’s original comics.
Warning! SPOILERS for The Umbrella Academy season 3.
Reginald Hargreeves knew Lila’s big secret in The Umbrella Academy season 3 – but how? The Umbrella Academy season 3 sees the Hargreeves siblings come face to face with their replacements known in The Umbrella Academy as the Sparrow Academy after they changed the timeline with their antics in the 1960s Dallas. Reginald’s return is a surprising consequence of this new timeline as well, as he had originally died back in season 1. Along with Reginald’s reappearance comes the return of the infamous monocle he wears, which may explain how he knew that Lila was pregnant without her telling him.
Season 3 of The Umbrella Academy dove deeper into who Reginald is, where he comes from, and what his master plan was. Though season 2 had already revealed that Reginald is actually an alien, it was still unclear what his purpose was on Earth, or why he had decided to adopt seven children with superpowers. Season 3 finally revealed the answer to that mystery, as he needed seven people to activate the machine in The Umbrella Academy‘s Hotel Oblivion, so that he could rewrite reality to one that suited him. He succeeded – the members of the Umbrella Academy lost their superpowers, reality was rewritten, and his wife Abigail is now alive.
How could Reginald pull something like this off, and how did he know that Lila was pregnant? Throughout three seasons of The Umbrella Academy, Reginald nearly always seemed to be one step ahead of his children. In the comics, there’s a more concrete explanation as to how that’s possible, and it seems that the latest season of The Umbrella Academy may be leaning in that direction as well. In The Umbrella Academy comics, Reginald’s monocle isn’t just a fashion statement – it gives him powers of his own, powers that would explain how he knew that Lila was pregnant.
How Reginald Hargreeves’ Monocle Works In The Umbrella Academy
In The Umbrella Academy graphic novels, the monocle that Reginald wears is so ubiquitous with his character that it even inspires his alternate name “The Monocle.” Reginald decides he does not want his kids to call him “Father,” so he ordered them to refer to him as “The Monocle” instead, further proving how distant and cold he was as a guardian. The alias is obviously inspired by the monocle he always wears, but its role in The Umbrella Academy comics is bigger than its role in the show thus far. In the comics, the monocle gives the wearer the power to see the absolute truth about whatever it is they are viewing. In essence, if the person wearing the monocle looks at someone, they can perceive that person’s inner nature. If The Umbrella Academy show explains in the (still unconfirmed) next season that the monocle does indeed contain this power, it would go a long way to understanding how Reginald knew about Lila being pregnant.
One example of the monocle being used to see the absolute truth in the comics is when Five puts it on himself. He ends up seeing the experiments that resulted in Pogo’s enhanced intelligence. These experiments were so horrific (the show changed this factor of Pogo’s backstory significantly) that it caused Five, of all people, to pass out.
In the show so far, the monocle was only used as a red herring in season 1 to play up the mystery of who might have killed Reginald, but its return in season 3 of The Umbrella Academy can not be ignored. Reginald’s accomplishments on Earth may be due to more than just his brilliance. If the monocle has the power to reveal the absolute truth, Reginald’s genius could be easily attributed to the monocle’s abilities. Knowing his children’s secrets, just as he knew that Lila was pregnant, will always give him a significant advantage. If The Umbrella Academy gets renewed for season 4, the monocle could potentially give the Umbrella Academy siblings the upper hand they’ve always seemed to lack as they try to make sense of this new reality that Reginald has created.
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