‘The Umbrella Academy’: The Most Likely Reason Klaus Is a Cult Leader in Season 2

Season 2 of The Umbrella Academy is finally here! Based on what fans have seen in the teasers, the Hargreeves are scattered throughout the 1960s, each of them in different times and places. 

Klaus (Robert Sheehan) — also known as “The Seance” or “Number Four” — is shown leading a cult. There’s a good reason why Klaus likely took on this role season 2 of the Netflix series. 

Klaus had a difficult upbringing

While each of the Hargreeves siblings had a less-than-joyous childhood, Klaus was probably the most tortured of the lot. 

Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) wanted nothing more than to train his adopted super-children to harness their powers. After discovering Klaus could communicate with the dead, Sir Reginald decided the best course of action was to lock him in a mausoleum. 

A form of training, sure, but for Klaus, learning to control his powers felt more like torture. Later in his life, Klaus turned to drugs and alcohol to numb his abilities, disappointing Sir Reginald and ultimately becoming an addict. 

Things got worse for Klaus in season 1 

All of the Hargreeves siblings experienced some type of childhood trauma, but not every sibling traveled back in time to 1968, Vietnam.

In season 1, episode 5, we learned Klaus spent almost a year fighting in the war. During that time, he fell in love with a fellow soldier, Dave Katz (Cody Ray Thompson). 

War certainly impacted Klaus, but losing Dave in battle significantly changed Klaus’s motivations throughout the latter half of season 1. 

Klaus’ experiences in Vietnam could have a lot to do with the person he becomes in season 2 of The Umbrella Academy. 

Klaus likely became a cult leader to stop the war from getting worse

If you could go back in time and change things, would you? 

Knowing what he knows about Vietnam, it makes sense that Klaus would become a cult leader that promotes peace and harmony in the 1960s. 

Season 2 takes place between 1960 and 1963 when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. As one Reddit user pointed out, Klaus could have started a cult to prevent the conflict in Vietnam from escalating into the 1970s. 

“America starts to send troops there around 1964,” they wrote. “I think Klaus forms his hippie cult to get an early jump on the anti-war protests as his way of trying to avert Dave’s death.”

This fan also pointed out a viable theory as to how Klaus might have started his cult.

“The cult probably started because Klaus did psychic readings for cash and cultivated followers over time. Considering the overall theme of the series — averting the apocalypse — I think Klaus will use the time jump to avert the worst thing that ever happened to him by preventing the Vietnam War before it even starts.” 

Many fans hope to see Klaus and Dave reunited in season 2. However, if Klaus’s whole plan is to prevent the escalation of the war, he may never meet Dave. 

For Klaus, a world wherein he knows Dave is alive is better than a world without him at all.