Umbrella Academy speculations: blood types (and the mysterious births)

[shadowscast]

So hey! A short little bit of speculation under the cut; spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season one (specifically S1 E9).

At the start of S1 E9, Luther, Klaus and Diego have brought Allison back to the mansion after Vanya slit her throat. Grace and Pogo are administering treatment. Allison needs a blood transfusion.

I am not, at this time, going to speculate about the guys' decision to bring Allison to their house rather than to a hospital (!!!). [ETA: Actually I will speculate a little. At the end of this essay!]

But what I do want to address is the ensuing discussion of who can donate blood to save Allison.

Luther volunteers first (of course). But Pogo says that Luther's blood isn't suitable because of the injection that gave him the ape body.

Klaus volunteers next. Pogo rejects him as a donor on the basis that he's probably high.

Finally Diego volunteers, and is accepted. (And then immediately faints at the sight of the needle, poor guy. I can sympathize; I have tried to donate blood twice in my life, and fainted very dramatically both times! The second time, afterwards, the phlebotomist politely told me that some people just aren't meant to donate blood, and that I can contribute to society in other ways.)

Anyway, what does not come up is any discussion at all of compatible blood types. Like, A, B, AB, O, positive or negative? No mention at all.

So. Theory! Maybe all 7 Hargreeves kids have the same blood type. And this is something that they all know perfectly well, so it went without saying in the discussion about who could donate for Allison.

It would be wildly improbable for 7 randomly-chosen people from across the world to all have the same blood type. But maybe it's not random! Maybe all 43 mysteriously-born babies have the same blood type?

Oh, hey, hey! Not to pile speculation on top of speculation or anything (haha, just kidding, that's exactly what I'm doing) but maybe there's something weird about the common blood type of the Hargreeves kids? Like, maybe they're not actually compatible with other humans at all? And maybe that's why none of them ever goes to to a hospital during the events of the series, no matter how much they get shot, stabbed, or concussed!

(The one problem with that last theory is that we do have canonical evidence of Klaus interfacing with the regular medical system, in the form of his post-overdose resuscitation in the ambulance near the start of S1 E1. *shrug*)

Comments

[tabaqui]

I think being resuscitated in an ambulance as a (possibly homeless) person that someone has called in doesn't negate that theory, as it wouldn't really matter if their blood wasn't compatible with 'human' blood to use Narcan on him. They don't type blood or give transfusions in an ambulance, and he sure didn't call them himself.

So it still works. :D

I think they probably are *not* fully human, considering that very weird scene at the end of season 1, that seemed to show....space ships? or something? taking off from a planet? I think they're the children of some other, human-like race who were implanted into woman (what a horrifying thought) to save the other-race's species from a cataclysmic war.

That's my thought, anyway. :D

[shadowscast]

Hm, good point about him not getting a blood transfusion in the ambulance! I was thinking more in terms of the ambulance ride contradicting my idea that they would avoid the regular medical system—but you're absolutely right, he wouldn't have called the ambulance himself.

I think they're the children of some other, human-like race who were implanted into woman (what a horrifying thought) to save the other-race's species from a cataclysmic war.

That is actually as good a theory as any that I've seen or thought of!

The clue that I can't quite make sense of is that the blue sparkles in the jar in the alien-planet scene at the end of S1 look just like the blue sparkles that transfer from Vanya to Harlan in S2. (And it's a similar blue to the one associated with all of their superpowers.)

But I don't get any sense that Reginald himself is behind the mysterious births; he was on Earth for something like a century before they happened, and my impression is that when he did manage to adopt seven of the mysteriously-born children, he didn't quite know what he was getting himself in for. Otherwise why would he have done so much experimenting on them?

[tabaqui]

No, i think Reginald knows about them, because he knows that his 'people' came to the planet, but that's all. And maybe it took a long time to figure out how to get Earth women pregnant or maybe those people or whatever came later than him, I dunno.

I really just want that weird death scene with him and the woman and the spaceships? explained!! :D

[shadowscast]

So like maybe, when the mysterious births happened, Reginald didn't actually know who was behind it, but he thought to himself, "Hm, this feels like something my people are mixed up in; I should try to collect some of those babies and figure out what's going on with them." ?? Maybe!

I really just want that weird death scene with him and the woman and the spaceships? explained!! :D

Seriously!!!

[yourlibrarian]

I'd have to rewatch the ambulance scene but did he get some sort of transfusion? I mean, not everyone who goes to a hospital gets blood, but I do see how their special nature would preclude hospital treatment.

Plus, I think it's not unlikely to speculate that the medical treatment they would get at home was more advanced than any they'd get elsewhere. Their father created a robot and a speaking ape, routine medical treatment would not seem unlikely, and specialized medical treatment very likely.

Also, whatever made them special affecting their blood type isn't implausible.

[shadowscast]

I'd have to rewatch the ambulance scene but did he get some sort of transfusion?

No, as I said to tabaqui above, my thought was just that the ambulance ride might contradict my idea that the Hargreeves kids would avoid the regular medical system. But as tabaqui pointed out, it's not likely that Klaus called the ambulance himself!

Plus, I think it's not unlikely to speculate that the medical treatment they would get at home was more advanced than any they'd get elsewhere.

Good point!

And in fact, canon strongly implies that Luther would have died from his injuries that one time if his father hadn't injected him with the, er, ape-serum.

So, okay. I think I'm about ready to make peace with the guys' decision to bring Allison home rather than to the hospital.