Umbrella Academy Theory: The Sparrow Academy Are Evil Doppelgangers
Warning: SPOILERS ahead for The Umbrella Academy season 2.
A potential twist in The Umbrella Academy season 3 could see the Sparrow Academy be not simply a new team, but mirror versions of the show's main heroes. Based on the series of comics by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy season 1 introduced a once-revered superhero team and extremely dysfunctional family who teamed up again as adults and tried to stop the apocalypse. Unfortunately, they failed.
The Umbrella Academy season 2 picks up in the direct aftermath of the family's time-traveling escape from the end of the world. Scattered throughout the early-1960s, Klaus, Ben, Allison, Luther, Diego, and Vanya settled into very different lives. Klaus fell in with a group of socialites and established a cult, with Ben helping him to perform "miracles." Allison got married and immersed herself in the civil rights movement. Luther started working as a bodyguard and pit fighter for Jack Ruby. Suffering from amnesia, Vanya went to live on Sissy and Carl Cooper's farm, serving as a nanny to their son, Harlan. With the arrival of Five, however, came the reveal that they'd brought the impending apocalypse back in time with them.
The team proved more successful at saving the world the second time around, but upon their return to 2019 at the end of season 2, it's revealed that their interactions in the past have drastically altered the timeline. Greeted by a still-alive Reginald Hargreeves, they learn that their home and position have been usurped by the Sparrow Academy. The expectation is that they will be an entirely different set of superpowered children who were raised by Reginald. However, an arguably more interesting concept could see them revealed to be doppelgangers of the established group.
In the comics, the Sparrow Academy was first teased when the siblings' robotic mom oversaw Vanya's recovery from injuries sustained in The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite. Taking her around the world, Vanya encountered a mysterious man named Deever. Though he praised her mom, he expressed a dislike for Reginald Hargreeves. Later, she was introduced to a woman who helped her instantaneously be able to walk again. She eventually took Vanya to a facility in Norway, which she referred to it as Vanya's "home". Similarly, when Vanya inquired as to what they would find in the building, Vanya's companion simply answered, "family." The entire team was introduced at the end of the most recent comic story, The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion. After stepping in to save the Umbrella Academy from a horde of rampaging supervillains, the Sparrow Academy's Number One referred to Luther as "brother". That's where things left off in the source material, with the meeting of the individual teams being cordial, but with many questions still left to be answered.
The show's version of the Sparrow Academy is already different from the iteration seen in the comics. Firstly, the show's version of Mom is no longer around and Vanya is in no need of such recovery efforts. Moreover, in the show the Sparrow Academy came into being as a direct consequence of the Umbrella Academy interacting with the past in various ways and bitterly disappointing Reginald Hargreeves when he met them in 1963. But most importantly, the show reveals a new version of Ben, apparently as the Sparrow Academy's Number One. Ben is not a part of the Sparrows in the comics, much less their team leader.
The meeting of the two sides was also in stark contrast to that which occurred in the comics. Now sporting a scar and a generally much darker demeanor, Ben greeted Klaus and the others with hostile disdain. His question, "Who the hell are these assholes?" seems to indicate that he doesn't recognize the members of the Umbrella Academy. However, it could also simply be the case that the Umbrella Academy are so different in appearance from their Sparrow Academy doppelgangers that Sparrow-Ben immediately realized he wasn't looking at his siblings. The silhouetted figures on the balcony are hard to make out, but it's clear from their outlines that - for example - none of them have Luther's part-ape body in this timeline.
The show has frequently ventured in a separate direction from the comics. Furthermore, The Umbrella Academy Vol 4: The Sparrow Academy has not debuted yet and a whole third volume — The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion — has not yet been touched on in the series. As such, The Umbrella Academy season 3 could continue to head down a different path with the doppelganger twist. Of course, this would be complicated by the fact that one member of the Sparrow Academy appears to be a floating cube, but this could easily be explained (for example it could be Vanya, having taken on a form of pure energy). The new 2019 being part of a new, separate timeline means that alternate versions of Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, and Vanya will exist in season 3 anyway (unless they've been killed off), and the doppelganger concept would be a thematically rich direction for the show to venture into.
The Umbrella Academy has, at its core, always been something of a coming-of-age tale. Though the characters are supposedly grown-ups (even Five, despite being in a teenager's body), all have experienced a varying degree of arrested development. Their entire lives have been marred by tragedy and trauma, from which none have truly recovered. Each member of the Umbrella Academy is damaged in one way or another, still reckoning with the abuse they suffered at the hands of the man that took them in as babies. That was made all the more apparent in The Umbrella Academy season 2, when Diego was tearfully reduced to his stuttering childhood self when berated by the younger Reginald Hargreeves. It was equally made clear when Vanya disappeared inside herself to cope with her returning childhood memories.
As pointed out by the therapist at the asylum: even though he positions himself in opposition, Diego's actions and life choices are still dictated by his father. The same can be said for each one of the siblings. Their father is a shadow that looms over their entire existence. In many respects, Reginald Hargreeves is The Umbrella Academy's true and greatest villain. While his death may have offered some catharsis, what healing they have achieved has been through each other. In the face of apocalyptic disasters, the siblings have grown individually and collectively, reaffirming their bonds at the same time. And now, in the wake of that, The Umbrella Academy season 3 could see them finally address more directly their upbringing and the source of their issues.
That would be especially true if, instead of merely adopting different children, what changed was Reginald's parenting methods. In the wake of his bitter disappointment with how the Umbrella Academy turned out, he could have become even more strict and cruel in order to shape them to his liking. Following Diego's intervention, Reginald seemed to lose Grace (and, by extension, potentially Baby Pogo). It could be argued that both had at least a little influence on softening him and making him a tad more human. He was still always cruel and hard on his adopted children, but he would likely be even worse without the presence of Pogo and Mom. Without those two kinder souls as a buffer, Reginald would have had a more direct hand in raising the children - which would definitely be bad news for them.
Rather than the Sparrow Academy being a group of strangers, the Umbrella Academy could be confronted by dark mirror images of themselves. They could see how much worse things could've been, as well as how strong a set of survivors they both are and have helped each other to be. A doppelganger storyline could serve as a literal manifestation of facing and defeating the darkest and most damaged parts of one's self. While Diego kept pushing for the siblings to form a unified front labeled "Team Zero," facing down doppelgangers would be a step further toward actualizing that kind of group dynamic. Not to mention, they could forcefully escape the shadow of their father and his abuse by defeating the versions of themselves that he wanted them to be, and come out of The Umbrella Academy season 3 all the stronger for it. Besides, who wouldn't want to see an evil version of Klaus?