There's quite a bit of mystery surrounding Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore), aka The Monocle, on Netflix's The Umbrella Academy [1]. We know that he's the adoptive father of superpowered siblings Luther (Tom Hopper), Diego (David Castañeda), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) [2], Klaus (Robert Sheehan) [3], Number Five (Aidan Gallagher), Ben (Justin H. Min), and Vanya (Ellen Page) [4]. We also know that he's not the warmest or most compassionate parental figure. But much of his apathy likely has to do with the fact that he's not actually human, which the show has only moderately addressed throughout its 20 episodes.
The season one finale alludes to Reginald's unearthly origins as it shows him bidding farewell to a sick woman, presumably his lover, on a foreign planet that seems to be in danger. After the woman encourages Reginald to leave and they share a heartbreaking goodbye, the future Umbrella Academy proprietor releases glowing orbs into the air before arriving to Earth in 1928. It's still unclear whether those floating glimmers of light have anything to do with the unusual births of the Hargreeves children, but something tells us there's a connection.
Season two, which takes place in 1963, has a more direct approach when revealing Reginald's extraterrestrial identity. In episode nine, Reginald confronts the secret coalition he's been colluding with — called the Majestic 12 — about John F. Kennedy's assassination. Upset by the turn of events (because, apparently, he wasn't expecting a political execution when he signed on), Reginald tells the conspiratorial bunch to never contact him again. However, the leader of the pack urges Reginald to keep providing them with rocket technology to beat the Russians in the Space Race or they'll tell the world who he really is. The threat doesn't go over well with Reginald, who takes off his human disguise and reveals an alien physique before slaughtering the room full of schemers.
For those who read Gerard Way's source material [6], Reginald's derivation shouldn't come as a surprise. But for those who have entered the Dark Horse comics world by way of Netflix, it's pretty jarring. It seems like Reginald's true being is only part of a light backstory rather than the main plot, so, hey, maybe we should just accept that. Still, a clear-cut explanation of who — or what — Reginald exactly is would be great if there's a season three. Just a thought!