The Umbrella Academy Season 2's Cha-Cha Connection You Totally Missed

Season 2 of Netflix's stylish superhero saga The Umbrella Academy has finally arrived on the streamer. Naturally, it's brought with it a thrilling run of hyper-violent, action-packed episodes packing enough literal and metaphorical bombshells to keep the brains of any and every series superfan occupado until the all-but-inevitable third season arrives. Netflix hasn't officially pulled the trigger on that third season just yet, of course, but given the open ended nature of the season 2 finale — not to mention the series' wild popularity among its subscriber base — season 3 of The Umbrella Academy feels like a guarantee at this point.

Given the ways in which season 2 of the series expands on its universe, it's clear there's a lot more of the world (or worlds?) within worth exploring. There are more characters to meet as well, with The Umbrella Academy's second season introducing a slew of new faces to their timeline-fracturing narrative. As intriguing as many of those new faces are, many fans no doubt spent much of the their season 2 binge lamenting the general absence of season 1's gloriously sadistic assassins Hazel (Cameron Britton) and Cha-Cha (Mary J. Blige). 

Perhaps to sate fans' appetites for more of the duo's masked madness, showrunner Steve Blackman found a way to bring the recently reformed Hazel into the fold for a brief appearance in The Umbrella Academy's season 2 debut, but Cha-Cha was nowhere to be found. Well, that may not be entirely accurate, as some sharp-eyed viewers appear to have caught sight of the elusive Cha-Cha in episode 8 of The Umbrella Academy's second season — or more accurately, they caught sight of the bright pink, floppy-eared puppy dog mask she wore while wreaking havoc on the Hargreeves family in season 1.  

We've watched the episode ourselves, so we'll confirm you cannot actually see the face of the person holding the mask in the scene. Given that such masks are not entirely uncommon for the Commission's time-traveling "adjusters" — and considering we essentially watched Blige's character burned to bits amid the apocalyptic carnages of The Umbrella Academy's season 1 finale — it's very much uncertain whether it is the actual Cha-Cha in the scene.

For those who want to get eyes on the infamous mask yourselves, Den of Geek confirms the cartoonish veil makes its appearance around the 23-minute mark in episode 8 of The Umbrella Academy's second season, and does so in a scene set inside the hallowed halls of Commission headquarters. We'll go ahead and give some serious spoiler warnings for that Den of Geek piece, by the way, so if you haven't completed your second season binge of The Umbrella Academy, you might want to be careful what you read. 

We can say, however, that there's a particularly juicy nugget in that piece from Steve Blackman about the appearance of Cha-Cha's mask, with the Umbrella Academy showrunner offering that, "In the Commission, it's always 1963, but it never changes time. So that very well could have been Cha-Cha holding the mask."

Non-committal as that seemingly paradoxical statement is, it seems highly unlikely Blackman and The Umbrella Academy creative team would've just thrown that exceedingly recognizable mask into the mix purely as a tease. That means we maybe haven't seen the last of Cha-Cha at all. And as the show continues to open up in head-spinning new ways, it should be fascinating to see what sort of axe Cha-Cha might have to grind with the Hargreeves in a potential third season of The Umbrella Academy.