The Diego Detail That Has The Umbrella Academy Fans Rewatching Season 2
Finding a reason to rewatch both seasons of The Umbrella Academy isn't as challenging as, say, reuniting seven estranged superpowered siblings or preventing an apocalypse. Umbrella Academy fans just got the best news about season 3, but that doesn't mean we can't spend the time waiting for it to come out enjoying the existing seasons one more time (or many more times.) Fans who are determined to find the small details you missed in Umbrella Academy season 2 are going to need to go through the show again with eagle (or sparrow, rather) eyes.
Claiming that you're rewatching the show in order to take in David Castañeda's brilliant performance as knife-throwing Diego (aka Number Two) yet again is one of the better explanations. While you're doing that, keep an eye on one of Diego's characteristic physical features: his scars. You don't get to be a vigilante superhero without picking up a few battle wounds. In season one, Diego's shaved haircut reveals a large scar on the right side of his head that curves under his eye. He also has a scar on his left eyebrow, and another one on his left biceps, which is usually hidden by sleeves. If you watch closely, you may notice what some fans have pointed out: Some of these scars notably vanish in season 2. This is the Diego detail that has The Umbrella Academy fans rewatching season 2 for more than just the new characters.
What happened to Diego's scars in season 2?
Season 2 Diego looks pretty different, mostly thanks to his hair. Gone is the hipster paramilitary crew cut, and in its place is a hippy-esque wavy bob. (Yes it's a wig: Castañeda grew his hair out for the shoot, but had to shave it for Diego's arrival in 1963 Dallas.)
You would expect the long hair to partially hide the scar on his right cheek, but as Reddit users pointed out, maybe not to the point where it's not visible at all. Fortunately, Redditor lastseason did some close investigation and confirmed that the scar is indeed there throughout the season, it's just not as long as it used to be. And in the scene in episode 3, in which Lila (Ritu Arya) patches up Diego, it's on the wrong side.
This scene also reveals that he's missing his biceps scar. In the first season, Diego's arms were mostly covered by long sleeves, except for one scene that showed the scar. But in the second season, he often wears tank tops, and no scar is visible. The only scar that looks the same from one season to the next is the one on his left eyebrow.
Scars do fade over time, and the show's makeup department head, Sarah Craig, told the Wiretap Blog, "I tweaked Diego's scars slightly to soften them." But Diego's scars were very pronounced in the first season, and there are only two months between him landing in Dallas in September 1963 and reuniting with Five (Aidan Gallagher). That's not enough time for them to disappear so dramatically. The general consensus on Reddit is that the missing scars were likely a mistake, so it will be interesting to see if they come back for future seasons.
How did Diego get his scars in the first place?
As with many things in The Umbrella Academy, when we meet Diego, there's no backstory as to how and when the character got his scars. All we can say for sure is that he definitely doesn't have the one on the side of his head in a flashback scene.
The comic series the show is based on doesn't shine a light on the mystery, either. If you know how The Umbrella Academy cast should really look based purely on the comics, you know that comic book Diego doesn't have any scars. He also can't wield knives, just hold his breath for as long as he wants — a talent Gerard Way and apparently Castañeda would like to see explored in the series.
It's likely that Diego picked up another scar in season two — and this time, it cuts deep emotionally too. In the second episode, Diego goes head-to-head with an opponent who turns out to be the 1963 version of his adoptive father, Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore), the man who trained him in combat. Hargreeves — who doesn't know about the Umbrella Academy at this point — stabs Diego and leaves him for dead.
Of course, unbeknownst to Diego, Hargreeves isn't any old guy: he's an alien of indeterminate origins, who later single-handedly murders a room full of people. So it probably wasn't a fair fight, even with Diego's superpowers. Still, Diego has always wanted his father's approval, and losing to him in a fight — and being called an amateur for his troubles — stings in more ways than one. The wound is going to leave a mark, if the makeup department wants it to.