The third season of The Umbrella Academy is available to stream on Netflix, and following a string of mishaps in Dallas in 1963, the Hargreeves have finally made it back to 2019. After the Hargreeves family inadvertently went through time to various points in the 1960s, they found themselves split up at the beginning of season 2.
Each member of the family established their own life in Dallas, and Viktor met and fell in love with Sissy, a housewife when he was caring for her son Harlan. Sissy’s son Harlan was Viktor’s charge. He had every intention of bringing his mother and kid back to 2019 with him, but the FBI and the approaching end of the world got in the way of those plans. But who precisely is this Harlan character? And what makes him such a significant figure?
Who is Harlan?
In the second season of The Umbrella Academy, Viktor helped care for a non-verbal infant named Harlan Cooper in Dallas in 1963. Harlan was born in 1963. Justin Paul Kelly portrays him in the show.
After Viktor has traveled back in time to the 1960s, his mother, Sissy, knocks him in the head with her automobile, causing him to suffer from amnesia. As a form of recompense, she and her husband, Carl (played by Stephen Bogaert), let Viktor stay on their farm, and in exchange, he helps them take care of Harlan. Viktor and Sissy do end up falling in love, and Viktor had intended to bring Sissy and Harlan to 2019 with him, but Carl discovered what Viktor was doing, and Carl dispatched law enforcement personnel to go after them.
Viktor gave Harlan CPR and resuscitated him using his own powers, which therefore transmitted partially to Harlan and gave the pair a psychic connection. After Harlan drowned in a lake near the Coopers’ home in season 2, Viktor gave him CPR and resuscitated him with his own powers. Harlan now possesses similar telekinesis to Viktor, which was transmitted to him when Viktor rescued him.
The Handler, played by Kate Walsh, learns about this, and she brings the rest of the Commission to the Cooper farm in an effort to control Harlan’s newly discovered abilities. After the Handler has been vanquished, Viktor erroneously believes that he has taken back all of the powers that Harlan had given to him. As a result, he decides to abandon Harlan and his mother in the 1960s in order to protect them from the threat that seems to follow him everywhere he goes.
Season 3
In the third season of The Umbrella Academy, it has been 46 years since the events of the first two seasons, and Harlan is now an elderly man. Lester Pocket is the moniker that people call him. We don’t learn that Lester is actually Harlan until episode 3, when he uses his abilities to kill Jayme and Alphonso during the confrontation between the Umbrellas and the Sparrows that takes place at the Hotel Obsidian. He does this because he knows that Viktor is nearby once more.
Because of his abilities and his inability to exert control over them, especially when he was younger, he has been forced to relocate and begin life anew numerous times, which is how he came to alter his name. As an adult, he is no longer completely non-verbal.
It is disclosed that Sissy passed away on October 1, 1989, which is coincidentally the same day that the Umbrella Academy was established. Harlan is overcome by sadness, and as a result, he loses control of his powers, which has disastrous results. Because he is able to detect other people who possess powers, he is able to establish a connection with the Umbrella Academy’s mothers. Except for Ben, every single one of them ended up being eliminated as a direct consequence of the spike in his powers.
If the Hargreeves’ moms had already passed away, then it makes no sense for them to be a part of this history. And yet, they do it, which results in the creation of the time paradox that puts the entire world in danger. As soon as Alison realizes that Harlan is to blame for the paradox, she puts an end to his life and gives his body to the Sparrows.
