Klaus' Best Line In The Umbrella Academy Season 2 According To Fans

Among the most ardent fans of "The Umbrella Academy," Klaus Hargreeves (Robert Sheehan) has long been a favorite. In some ways, the former Number Four captures everything that makes the tumultuous super-powered Hargreeves clan so engaging. Yes, he is full of resentments and damage, often worn to darkly comic effect. He's arrogant and a bit of a narcissist. He also struggles with addiction, spends most of Season 2 as the leader of a cult, and clearly views his ability to communicate with the dead as a burden.

The irony, of course, is that the damage and hurt that make it difficult for Klaus to connect is shared by every other Hargreeves. While speaking with Collider in 2020, Sheehan said that believes all of the siblings share an unfortunate side effect of their traumatizing childhoods. "I think all of the siblings ... struggle to relate to other people who've been raised maybe in a slightly more healthy fashion, meaning they were loved and kept safe."

But Klaus' soft heart isn't far beneath the surface, which is one of the reasons his traumas and losses hit him — and us — so very hard. This vulnerability frequently shows itself as a raw-but-cockeyed honesty. It's not uncommon for him to find himself the moral compass for the rest of the Hargreeves family. But there's one observation, one particular unfiltered moment, that for fans of "The Umbrella Academy" really exemplifies everything they love about Klaus.

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In Season 2, Klaus tells Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), "Face it, the healthiest long-term relationship in this family is when Five was banging that mannequin." Klaus' adoptive brother Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) infamously spent almost fifty years living in the post-apocalypse with a mannequin he named Dolores as his only companion before he finally figured out how to return to his original time.

Screenshots of the scene are posted on the r/UmbrellaAcademy subreddit by u/thejonkler, with the caption "I meannn." Plenty of other comments indicate that Klaus could be onto something. Fans of "The Umbrella Academy" will remember that while Five's relationship with Dolores initially seems awkward, tragic, and perhaps even a sign of insanity, it quickly and unexpectedly became very touching.

Yes, Five befriended a mannequin because he literally had nobody else to talk to (think Tom Hanks' Chuck Noland and Wilson in "Cast Away," but Chuck is a fifty-year-old trapped in a thirteen-year-old's body and can somehow time travel). And yes, even Dolores' name is a reflection of this profound loneliness. But then we see the lengths to which he will go to protect the mannequin, as well as the extreme devotion and tenderness he has for her.

Much of the relationship's effectiveness comes down to the performance given by Gallagher himself. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, he said, "If I were to do a scene with her, I would make dialogue for her. He would be having a real interaction with her, a real conversation, and for that, he needs a real character. So Five is playing the part of Dolores."

Perhaps then that's why fans and redditors agree with Klaus' verdict. Even as weird as Five's and Dolores' connection is, it's still the most honest and healthy relationship any of the Hargreeves family have had. Perhaps it's even more honest and healthy than many real-world relationships too.

"I want the kind of devoted and wholesome relationship that Five and Dolores share," wrote u/meme-ntomori back on "The Umbrella Academy" subreddit. "Imagine how complex Five's imagination is that he was able to construct this entire separate entity that interacted with him in the apocalypse." Similarly, u/Dorothy-Snarker wrote, "Never thought I'd ship a 58-year-old man in the body of a 13-year-old with a mannequin before this show."

In other words, while Klaus may have been having a bit of a dig at Five, he was probably also making an honest, thoroughly truthful observation. It says a lot about the Hargreeves' collective emotional health (or lack thereof) that the best relationship among its members was with an inanimate object, but here we are. 

"The Umbrella Academy" Season 3 premieres on June 22.