Woman of the Month: Allison Hargreeves

Allison Hargreeves from The Umbrella Academy

The first season of The Umbrella Academy was not particularly kind to Allison Hargreeves, a.k.a. Number Three. Though she and her six siblings were all ranked by their individual usefulness, putting her near the top of the pecking order of their adopted father’s private school, the writers seemed a little unsure of what to do with her.

This was perhaps due to the fact her ability unmistakably makes her the most powerful of the seven students, with the ability to persuade people into doing her will by simply prefacing a statement with the term: “I heard a rumour…” Yet paradoxically this makes it difficult to place her at the centre of the story, for after all, she only needs to speak a command to solve almost any problem.

As such, the first season largely kept her on the outskirts of the main action: giving her a quasi-incestuous relationship with her brother Luthor, lightly delving into the abuse of her powers in how she handled her career and daughter, and finally silencing her when her sister Vanya slashes her throat.

That season wasn’t great anyway, but it was especially egregious in regards to Allison. It’s easy to compare her to Marvel’s Kilgrave, who had similar powers of persuasion but absolutely no moral compass whatsoever, and I felt the writers dropped the ball on exploring what it would actually be like to grapple with the profound temptation of knowing you could get whatever you wanted with only a whispered turn-of-phrase. Seriously, would it even be possible to remain uncorrupted with such a gift?

Because despite her shortcomings, Allison remains an essentially good person, even when she arrives in Dallas in the 1960s and finds herself in an environment that’s deeply hostile to a woman of her colour. If ever she had an excuse to unleash her power on a well-deserving public, this was it (and I know I would have been ordering every racist to jump off the nearest bridge).

Yet Allison decides to “go clean” and join the Civil Rights Movement without utilizing her abilities – showing far more restraint than I ever could have when she’s faced with abject hatred for simply entering a local diner and asking for a cup of coffee. The depiction of her calm and dignified staged sit-in is a surprisingly effective and respectful tribute to the struggle for social justice that clearly still resonates in our current climate – but when she’s finally had enough of the disrespect and unleashes the full brunt of her power… well, who can blame her?

But does lead me to wonder how much control Allison actually has over her abilities. In the lead-up to the sit-in she articulates her fear in ever using them, stating that they only bring trouble. Later she manages to mind-control one of the Swedish assassins that’ve been sent to kill her, but instead of simply ordering him to leave, she tells him to kill his own brother. Why the unnecessary sadism? Is she even aware she’s doing it? Do her abilities inevitably lead her to the cruellest possible solution to her problems?

The writers haven’t divulged this information yet, and they completely gloss over the interesting stakes that could have arisen from Allison’s presence in the 1060s. Could she have helped speed up the Civil Rights Movement? Did she have a moral obligation to do so? Or was her fear of what she could do and the subsequent risk to the time-line too great? Again, it’s not just that we don’t get answers, it’s that nobody even asks the questions!

With seven protagonists and a range of important supporting characters, it makes sense that no one should get to hog all the screen-time, but there’s so much potential when it comes to Allison and her abilities. Her power makes her the show’s most interesting character, mostly in regards to the ramifications it has on herself and the world around her, and going into season three I hope the writers aren’t afraid to really explore the effect it’s had on her daughter, on how Reginald raised her, and on whether it has an undue influence over Allison herself. Just who is really in charge when she utters the words: “I heard a rumour…?”