Vanya Hargreeves has had some pretty intense moments within the last few episodes of both Season 1 and Season 2 of The Umbrella Academy. At the end of Season 1, she learned that she had the most powerful abilities out of all of her siblings, and also accidentally triggered the apocalypse.
The recent release of Season 2 throws Vanya into the same level of turmoil when she is arrested by the FBI on suspicion of being a Russian spy. She's subjected to an inhumane interrogation, which includes being drug-induced and electrified. However, her body reacts to the drugs differently than they would on a typical person, leading her to have hallucinations -- ones that could prove to be quite significant for the Hargreeves siblings.
The beginning of Vanya's interrogation starts in Episode 8 as she finds herself in a small room, strapped to a chair, her feet in a bucket of water. There's also a leather band around her head connected to wires. Her interrogators subject her to electric shocks and induce her with drugs. As it continues to go on, Vanya finds herself slipping in and out of reality, having strange but relevant hallucinations.
The hallucinations begin with eyeballs pooling in the bucket at her feet. She looks up at the surveillance camera in front of her, which has become an eyeball, its gaze darting around the room. The hallucinations become stronger, and soon, Vanya finds herself walking down a staircase. The staircase leads her down into Reginald Hargreeves' mansion. "Number 7," he calls to her. She walks gingerly towards the voice, into the large dining room of her childhood. All of her siblings are seated there, blankly staring straight ahead. She then takes her seat at the end of the table.
Reginald barks at her that they're all waiting. "For what?" she questions. "The answer!" he shouts. He then asks her if she's prepared, and again, she asks, "Prepared for what?" Her siblings then begin to insult her. Ben is the only one who seems to defend and encourage her, saying that it's not her fault that she can't remember because she hit her head. Reginald claims that "Number 7 chooses not to remember."
Then, the siblings are served a lovely meal of brains. They begin to eat the brains, enjoying every bite as if it were a delicious steak. Vanya is very befuddled and hesitant but eventually begins to eat the brains as well. With each bite, she begins to recall the painful and heart-wrenching memories of her past. The lights in the room start flickering, both in her hallucination and in the investigation room. Vanya is convulsing, and miles away on Sissy's farm, Harlan begins to do the same. He feels what Vanya feels, and for some reason, her powers are connecting them.
The torture picks up in Episode 9, where Vanya finally snaps. She begins to have a superpower spasm that she can't control, much like at the end of the first season. Her siblings try to rescue her, but it's Ben who saves the day. The ghost sibling enters into Vanya's hallucination, which has calmed down quite a bit. Together, in the blue glow of the mansion, he validates her and encourages her to go on. He then begins to evaporate, leaving the world of the living. After the loss of her brother, Vanya finally awakens.
With all that laid out, let's look into what all of this could mean. First, there's Harlan. Somehow, Vanya's powers activated something in Harlan during this interrogation/hallucination. Further along in the season, it's clear that Harlan possesses powers of the same strength as that of the Hargreeves. It may be possible that he's a superpowered child, like the 43 special children born on October 1, 1989. Then again, this situation with Harlan is happening during the '60s, so obviously, he was born much earlier than the others. The Umbrella Academy's plot does revolve around time travel and alternate dimensions, though, so it's possible that Harlan could end up being from the same dimension of the Hargreeves somehow, thus explaining his supernatural abilities.
The scene in which Vanya enters the dining room of the mansion is also worth noting. She essentially is forced to face her past, her dysfunctional family and her role within that. Reginald keeps telling her that they're waiting for her, that she holds the answer to something. It's clear through his words that Vanya is the key to something -- maybe everything. After all, she was the one that started the apocalypse, so this scene could be foreshadowing things to come for the Hargreeves siblings. To put it simply, of Vanya's hallucinations are indications of the future, then the Umbrella Academy has another huge battle ahead of them.
Streaming now on Netflix, The Umbrella Academy Season 2 stars Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher and Justin H. Min, with Ritu Arya, Yusuf Gatewood, Marin Ireland, Jordan Claire Robbins, Kate Walsh and Colm Feore.