The Umbrella Academy: "New" Ben Explained

gamerant.com:

Much like the first two seasons, season three of Steve Blackman and Jeremy Slater's adaptation of Gerard Way's The Umbrella Academy answered some questions and raised some new ones. One of the biggest questions of the new season stems from the one returning member of the Hargreeves family who finds himself in a new role.

The series has received a ton of praise for its unique mixture of superhero sci-fi action and dysfunctional family drama, as well as for its stellar ensemble cast. All seven members of the Hargreeves family have satisfying stories with emotional gravity, but screen time is not shared equally. The brother who got the smallest share is back with a vengeance in season 3.

The Umbrella Academy Season 3 Review

Ben Hargreeves is the member of the Umbrella Academy who gets the least to do over most of the first two seasons — primarily because he died several years before the narrative's start. The circumstances of Ben's death are deliberately left ambiguous. There are some hints in multiple directions, some of which still haven't paid off, but the full answer has yet to be said aloud. Ben is a full character, but, since he's dead, he's chained almost entirely to the only person who can interact with him: his brother Klaus. Ben has agency in the story, often following his selfish whims with the world at stake like everyone else, but his character growth and screen time are tied to Klaus. He even saves the day one time each season, giving his soul to do so the second time. So, when Season 2 ends on the Hargreeves landing in a timeline that they've drastically changed, Ben's sudden reappearance is quite a shock.

Ben is back, but despite being the same man on a genetic level, the change in timeline affected him