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.
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 significantly. While the audience never got a chance to see Ben as a living adult, he was a sensitive and kind child, almost to the point of naivete. His death was the event that finally broke the chokehold Reginald Hargreeves had on his children and sent them in different directions. Ben hated using his nightmarish powers to harm people, but peer pressure from his siblings was enough to send him on his way. When his tragic death came, he was prepared to walk into the void without protest, but Klaus's gentle prodding was enough to keep Ben in the land of the living. No matter how much the two brothers bickered, Ben stuck around and tried to help Klaus. It's that level of dedication and love that made Ben one of the most heroic figures of The Umbrella Academy.
The new Ben is the exact opposite. He's adversarial to the point of violence towards his siblings. Willing to break out his powers and do damage over nothing. Obsessed with being recognized as the best of the family and earning his father's approval. New Ben sees himself as the rightful leader, unfairly pushed beneath his brother Marcus. The original model was Number 6 among his siblings, but New Ben is Number 2. Reginald gave his seven children numbers instead of names, ordered on their perceived usefulness in his long-term pursuits. This ranking was partially based on who was most powerful, but also factored in issues like temperament to measure how easily they'd be controlled. Number One in both timelines was the assumed leader, and that held significant weight throughout the team. Original Ben didn't seem to care much about who occupied which number, but New Ben valued that rank above anything else.
Ben's death in the original timeline was the catalyst for the rest of the family leaving the Academy. It's hard to know if Ben would have done the same if one of the other family members had died, but Ben's death is one of the biggest moments in the family's life. Without that death, Ben stayed with Reginald for his entire life, being carefully molded into the perfect weapon in the eyes of his father. New Ben exists as a living monument to what could've been if Reginald was allowed to continue his brutal abuse of the family. The Reginald of the new timeline has been outwitted and sedated by his children, but that's likely to have happened in the original timeline as well. New Ben simultaneously answers two interesting questions: what if Ben survived, and what if the Hargreeves never left home.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about New Ben is that most of his personality is a hard-learned act. When he finally cuts loose at Luther's wedding, fans get to see the Ben they knew and loved. New Ben is the same man Ben could've been at heart, but the continued abuse and neglect by his father forever changed the new Number 2. New Ben is an extremely clever answer to several fan questions, but tons of plot elements are still open to the imagination.