The Umbrella Academy is packed with small details that often end up teasing events, characters, and objects that show up later on, and season 2 was no exception, as there’s a subtle tease to Harlan’s twist. Created by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy made its debut on Netflix in February 2019 and was an instant hit, surpassing one of the streaming giant’s most popular titles. The Umbrella Academy was renewed for a second season a few weeks later, with the new episodes arriving in July 2020.
The Umbrella Academy follows the family of adopted siblings, the Hargreeves. All seven of them, along with other 36 babies, were born on the same day, at the same time, and to women who weren’t pregnant when the day began. After hearing about this curious event, billionaire and scientist Sir Reginald Hargreeves set out to adopt as many of those babies as he could and got seven. As they began to develop unique sets of superpowers, Reginald trained them and formed the superhero team “The Umbrella Academy”. However, the siblings ended up parting ways, and reunited for Reginald’s funeral and to stop the fast-approaching apocalypse, which turned out to be triggered by their seemingly powerless sister, Vanya. Sadly, the Hargreeves couldn’t stop the end of the world, and their solution was jumping to another place and point in time.
Season 2 caught up with the Hargreeves in Dallas, Texas, but they landed there in different years. It took them a long time to finally reunite, and in the meantime, all of them (except Five) moved on in their own ways. Vanya landed in October 1963, and was so disoriented she was hit by a car seconds later. The woman behind the wheel, Sissy, took her in as Vanya suffered from memory loss after the hit, and so she became part of Sissy’s family. Vanya grew close to Sissy’s son, Harlan, who after hearing that Vanya was going to leave, ran away and was later found on a lake. Vanya saved him and gave him CPR, but unbeknownst to her, she passed some of her powers onto him. As a result, Harlan became the source of a new apocalypse, and he subtly teased this twist through a drawing.
Shortly after the lake incident and gaining Vanya’s powers, Harlan was shown drawing at his house. This was not strange, especially as Harlan was a quiet kid who expressed himself in different ways, and it was through this particular drawing that Harlan was teasing some of the events of the final episode. The drawing shows Harlan flying over his family's farm, which wouldn’t have been surprising if he was wearing some sort of superhero suit, but it’s just a regular Harlan casually flying. By the end of The Umbrella Academy season 2, Harlan’s powers got out of control, potentially unleashing a new apocalypse. Sissy and Harlan hid at their farm, where Harlan was found levitating inside a field force he accidentally created. Vanya later took (most of) his powers away, and used hers to fly outside and get rid of The Commission’s army of Temps.
Although Harlan wasn’t exactly levitating over the farm, as Vanya later did, the drawing is a nice detail and a subtle tease of what was about to happen. By then, Harlan hadn’t shown signs of getting superpowers, so upon first viewing, the drawing can pass as just the work of art of a young boy, with nothing spectacular to offer to the story. The Umbrella Academy season 2 is full of small details, so you might want to pay closer attention if you decide to rewatch it at some point.