The Klaus Barbershop Detail You Missed On The Umbrella Academy
Whether you loved or loathed the inaugural season of Netflix's stylish anti-superhero saga The Umbrella Academy, you have to agree that few of the streamer's original series have made quite as big a splash upon arrival. Even in spite of a lack of fanfare ahead of its premiere, the show (based on an award-winning comic series from Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá) almost immediately became one of Netflix's most streamed original programs, and just as quickly inspired a deeply devoted fanbase.
Like any superhero fandom, The Umbrella Academy faithful have already taken to singling out certain members of the fractured Hargreeves family as favorites, with Robert Sheehan's flamboyantly dysfunctional Klaus taking the fan favorite prize after the show's first season. Given the character's season 1 transformation from selfish junkie to caring sibling and supremely powerful super, it's not hard to see why fans continue to relate to Klaus. Part of that is no doubt because the character also factored heavily in some of the most memorable scenes on The Umbrella Academy's first season, one of which continues to demand deeper investigation.
The scene in question is Klaus' infamous barbershop trip, in which he visits the afterlife and waxes poetic about the state of things while getting a clean shave from his deceased adoptive father, Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore). While fans continue to dissect and debate the moment's deeply allegorical nature, it seems they're also continuing to find intriguing new details within the pivotal scene. A few sharp-eyed Reddit users recently keyed in on a genuinely perplexing, mostly overlooked element in the background of the scene: the "family" photographs donning the wall of the barbershop itself.
Some very important people don the wall of that barbershop on The Umbrella Academy
Those photos are barely glimpsed in the scene, so don't feel bad if you didn't notice them during your Umbrella Academy binge. If you revisit the moment, however, take note of all the important faces in those portraits. The men depicted include Klaus' brothers Luther (Tom Hopper), Diego (David Castañeda), Ben (Justin H. Min), and Number 5 (Aidan Gallagher), along with Sir Reginald himself. If you're wondering who that fellow is hanging next to Papa Hargreeves, it's Klaus' Vietnam-era lover Dave (Cody Ray Thompson).
Given that Klaus seems to be in some version of the afterlife in the barbershop scene, the placement of those pictures has obviously raised a lot of questions, the least of which may be why Klaus' sisters Vanya (Ellen Page) and Allison (Emily Raver-Lampman) are not included. While no clear answers have emerged, some viewers have pointed out the Occam's razor solution: It's a barbershop. The Hargreeves women would have no reason to visit a male-centric barbershop. Case closed?
Not quite.
Even if we've solved the mystery of the missing women, an open question remains as to why this specific collection of male portraits adorns the walls of Klaus' afterlife, assuming it is Klaus' afterlife (which is a whole other rabbit hole). While it might seem the portraits' appearance portends some ominous doom ahead for all, it's worth noting that three of them are already dead by the time Klaus enters the barbershop, so that's unlikely. Far more probable is the idea that: 1) the barbershop is Klaus' corner of the afterlife, and 2) the pics are hanging there because those individuals are the most important and influential men in Klaus' life, and he'd want them around for all eternity.
Whatever the actual meaning, those pictures add yet another layer of intrigue to one of The Umbrella Academy's most inscrutable scenes.