The Umbrella Academy is heading into its fourth and final season, but the team and its origins remain largely a mystery, though the series has slowly revealed a few facts about the mysterious birth mothers of the siblings. For the time-traveling, superhero siblings, much about their power and their parents, both real and adopted are still unknown, despite their jumping through multiple realities to get answers. It remains to be seen whether the show will actually offer any explanation, especially considering it only has one more season to tie up any loose ends.
Despite the mysteries shrouding the Umbrella Academy team, the series has revealed some small details about some of the mothers who brought the Umbrellas into the world. In the opening scenes of The Umbrella Academy season 1, episode 1, it is revealed that these extraordinary children were all born on the first day of October 1989 at around the twelfth hour of the day. And making the situation even more unusual, none of the mothers had been pregnant earlier that day. Each of the 43 mothers has this in common, but there have also been small glimpses at many of them revealing other minor details.
8 Anita Gill, Mother of Lila Pitts
Lila isn’t technically a member of the Umbrella Academy as she was raised by the handler as a trained assassin for the Temps Commission, but she does align herself with the Umbrellas after developing feelings for Diego and is one of the gifted children born on October 1, 1989. The Umbrella Academy season 2, episode 9, “743” reveals that Lila’s biological mother and her husband were killed by Five on the orders of the Handler. Anita and Ronnie Gill appear to have been caring for their unexpected child up until the point of being murdered and taken by the Handler.
7 Tatiana, Mother of Viktor Hargreeves
The opening scene of The Umbrella Academy season 1, episode 1, shows the account of Viktor Hargreeves’ birth and adoption. A young teenage Russian girl who was joyfully flirting with a boy in a public swimming pool, Tatiana is very clearly not pregnant before kissing her crush on the cheek and running off to jump in the pool. Suddenly, she is seen going into labor and delivering the baby right there in the swimming pool. It is also revealed that Reginald Hargreeves approaches her soon after the birth offering to buy the child. While this is one of the most clear accounts shown in the series, it’s likely that the other Umbrellas were born in similarly sudden and unusual situations before Reginald bought them from their parents.
6 Unknown, Mother of Ben Hargreeves
Ben Hargreeves was the unfortunate victim of a terrible incident that led to his death early in the Umbrella’s career. With him being physically absent, it makes sense that his origin and his mother are among the least well-documented in the series. It is understood that Ben’s mother was a teenage girl in South Korea at the time of his birth in 1989. It’s also clear that in the timeline featured in season 3, Ben’s mother is the only one who survived Harlan Cooper’s outburst which killed off the other members of the Umbrella Academies’ mothers. Despite this, her name is never revealed.
5 Efa, Mother of Number Five
Number Five was born to a butcher in Dublin, Ireland. Her name was Efa and in the alternate Sparrow timeline, she is a victim of the psychic massacre committed by Harlan Cooper. As with the other mothers, she suddenly gave birth to a child on October 1, 1989, and gave him over to the billionaire Reginald Hargreeves. She also appears to be fairly young at the time when she was due to give birth to Number Five.
4 Rachel Herschberger, Mother of Klaus Hargreeves
Due to Klaus’ special Umbrella Academy abilities and his aptitude for snooping, he uncovered some information about his own mother while rifling through Reginald Hargreeves’ checkbook. He discovered that his mother, Rachel Herschberger of Pennsylvania, had sold him to Reginald for the sum of $3000 on October 3, 1989, just two days after his birth. Rachel was a member of an Amish community and in the Sparrow’s timeline, she was also a victim of Harlan’s outburst. In the original timeline, not much else is known about her.
3 Victoria, Mother of Allison Hargreeves
Allison Hargreeves was born to a South African woman on the same date and time as the others. Her mother was a school teacher and following Allison’s birth, she decided to sell her daughter to Reginald Hargreeves. As with the others, Victoria was an unfortunate victim in Harlan’s massacre, but her whereabouts in the original timeline were unknown.
2 Elena, Mother of Diego Hargreeves
Diego, or Number Two in the Umbrella Academy lineup was born in Northern Mexico. His mother, Elena gave birth unexpectedly at home while preparing food and would go on to adopt her newborn son to Reginald Hargreeves. If Reginald Hargreeves’ decision to name the children numbers followed the same order with which he procured them, then it is entirely likely that Diego was the second child to be acquired by Hargreeves and so it would have happened between October 1, 1989, and October 3, 1989, when Klaus, aka Number Four was adopted by Hargreeves.
1 Monica, Mother of Luther Hargreeves
Luther Hargreeves, aka Number One, was born to a Swedish woman by the name of Monica. It appears that Monica was a career woman and with the unexpected birth of a child who was neither planned, conceived, or indeed wanted, Monica chose to take the money from Reginald Hargreeves in exchange for her son. As with all the Umbrella’s mothers except Ben, Monica was also a victim of Harlan via a psychic link which he lost control of on the day his mother died due to terminal illness. Luther was the most loyal follower of Hargreeves continuing to work for him after all of his adoptive siblings had left. During his formative years, he was raised by the robot assistant, Grace and trained by Reginald to use his powers on heroic missions.
Luther was also among the most affected by his father’s death and upon returning to Earth from his mission on the moon, Luther discovered Reginald’s disregard for any of his reports. Each of the sibling’s mothers doesn’t appear to have any obvious connections, but through the psychic link that Harlan formed whereby he killed 26 of the 43 mothers, it is clear there was some sort of psychic connection present prior to the children’s births. Whether this link is explored further in The Umbrella Academy season 4 and the hero’s origins are finally revealed remains to be seen.
