- "Hey bitches!"
- —Klaus Hargreeves[src]
Klaus Hargreeves is one of the forty-three children who were all born on the same day in 1989 to mothers without any previous signs of pregnancy. The baby was one of seven adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves with the intention of training them to save the world. Ranked by their individual usefulness, Klaus was Hargreeves' Number Four with the ability to speak to the dead. His tendency to speak German, and his name, suggest he was possibly born to a woman in Germany.
Klaus finds himself transported to Dallas, February 1960 when Five fails to avert the apocalypse. Klaus becomes the leader of a spiritual cult and despite the fame associated, he struggles more and more with his inner demons. He and Ben struggle with their relationship but begin experimenting more with their combined abilities.
Klaus is played by Robert Sheehan in the Netflix adaptation of The Umbrella Academy.
Biography
Early Life
Klaus Hargreeves was born on 1 October 1989 at 12PM to a mother who had not been pregnant when the day began. He was adopted by the eccentric (yet reclusive) billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves. He starts doing drugs at 13 after finding out they repress his powers shortly after being locked in a mausoleum as a child (this had occurred since he was at least 8; it is currently unknown how old he was when it started). He suffered much abuse in his childhood.
We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals
At the beginning of We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals, Klaus is released from rehab. He immediately buys drugs upon his release, and learns of his adoptive father's death after being resuscitated in an ambulance. He arrives at the Umbrella Academy and immediately raids his father's office for anything of value. He is caught by his sister Allison, although she does not force him to put anything back. Luther, however, does. He takes a box which contains papers belonging to his late father. He throws the papers into a dumpster and takes the box to a pawn shop. Using the money, he buys more drugs.
Later on, during the family meeting, Klaus has stolen Allison's skirt. He isn't happy with Luther's assumption that perhaps he or another sibling killed their father. He is asked by Luther to contact the spirit of Sir Reginald. While he tries, Klaus is unsuccessful. During the funeral of Sir Reginald, Klaus smokes, and agrees with Diego that his father was a monster. When Number Five opens a portal to travel back to his time, Klaus throws a fire extinguisher through. Afterwards, he leaves with Diego, and it is revealed that although he is high, he is still able to talk with the spirit of his dead brother, Ben.
Run Boy Run
During Run Boy Run, it is shown that while he sleeps, Klaus is tormented by the voices of the dead, or perhaps simply has nightmares of them. He awakens, hungover, and begins to talk with the spirit of Ben, who admonishes him for his drug use. He is asked by Pogo about the box that went missing from Sir Reginald's office the day before, but he feigns innocence.
He later hides in Number Five's closet and listens in on his and Vanya's conversation about the apocalypse. He climbs out after Vanya leaves and it is revealed that Number Five wants Klaus to pretend to be his father. They go to the company that produced the prosthetic eye that Five is fixated on, but the technician in charge once again refuses to disclose patient information to Five. This changes when Klaus changes tactics. First, he punches Five and insinuates that he will pretend that it was the technician who gave Five the swollen lip. Then, he smashes a snow globe into his head, and when the technician attempts to call security, Klaus threatens to tell them that the technician had assaulted them.
After Klaus insinuates that the technician would be assaulted if put into prison, the technician finally gives in and looks up the serial number from the eye. The eye, however, has not yet been manufactured, according to his records. When they get back outside and Five yells at him, Klaus comes to the conclusion that Five is so wound up because he's horny. At this point, Klaus also reveals that his longest relationship lasted three weeks, although that was only because he "was so tired of looking for a place to sleep. He did make the most fantastic osso buco, though." At this point, Five teleports away.
Extra Ordinary
In Extra Ordinary, Klaus searches through the dumpster he dumped his father's papers into. He cannot find them, though, which aggravates him. He attemps to convince Five that he was simply looking for a donut.
Klaus and Luther show up in the van that Five stole. After Klaus tells them about the time he "waxed [his] ass with chocolate pudding", they kick him out of the van. It's at this point Klaus decided to steal as much as he can from a nearby corner store. When Luther shows the family the surveillance footage of their father's death, Klaus eats a pack of chips and he gets a drink as Diego reveals that he took Sir Reginald's monocle from Grace. The family argues over what they should do with Grace; Klaus sides with Diego.
Soon after, during Hazel and Cha-Cha's break-in, Klaus is in the bath. Although he seems initially peaceful, he begins to visibly experience a similar spiritual onslaught to his nightmare. Agitated, he sits up, puts on a pair of headphones, and lights a joint. He then is completely oblivious to the attack on the Academy, and is seen dancing as his siblings fight Hazel and Cha-Cha. However, he is kidnapped by Hazel.
Man on the Moon
At the Academy, no one has noticed that Klaus has been kidnapped. Meanwhile, Hazel and Cha-Cha torture Klaus for information. They strangle, beat, and waterboard him. These methods prove ineffective. As he begins to go through withdrawal, Klaus starts seeing and hearing spirits around him, specifically, a Russian woman.
Hazel and Cha-Cha, growing frustrated, go through Klaus' coat, finding pills and a bar of chocolate laced with marijuana. Hazel crushes the pills, and Klaus chooses not to tell Hazel and Cha-Cha that the chocolate is "special". He eventually tells them everything that he knows about Number Five's plans, after being bribed with what was left of his pills. As Hazel and Cha-Cha burn down Meritech Prosthetics, Klaus is left in a closet, giving him flashbacks to being locked in a tomb as a child. A mix of these flashbacks and withdrawal cause him to scream in anguish, but Ben attempts to calm him down. As a cleaner vacuums, Klaus screams for help, but she doesn't hear him, as his mouth is covered in duct tape and she is listening to music.
Ben tells Klaus how disappointed and hurt he is by Klaus' life choices. Hazel and Cha-Cha return, dragging him out of the closet. Klaus takes this as an opportunity to inform them that they are "scarier without the masks". He also begs to be let go but is informed by Hazel and Cha-Cha that he is now being used as bait to lure Five to their motel room. He begins seeing and hearing spirits again, but this time, he talks to them. He uses what they tell him as ammunition against Hazel and Cha-Cha, mainly the name Zoya Popova and the story of Jan Mueller. Cha-Cha eventually has enough and shuts him up with some duct tape over his mouth. Klaus sees Detective Patch through the blinds and starts banging his head on the table. She hears and gets the door open. She realizes that he is Diego's brother and cuts him free of his restraints.
Hazel comes out of the bathroom and told Patch to not shoot at him. Hazel drops his weapon and got down on his knees. Cha-Cha somehow got out and shot Patch in the back. Before Patch got shot, Klaus dives behind the bed, and grabbing his coat, crawls through the air vent, taking Hazel and Cha-Cha's case with him. He prays it is money for drugs. He gets onto a bus, where he opens the case and is transported away to another, at the time unknown, time and place.
Cult following
When Klaus is transported to Dallas, 1960, he finds himself alone with only his ghost brother, Ben, with him. After stumbling upon a wealthy woman, he becomes somewhat famous and ammases a large cult following momentarily. This leads Klaus to turning away from drugs and alcohol — a feat which he is able to maintain for three years, up until 1963.
Klaus' cult following affords him great luxuries in the 1960s, ensuring his life is greately different than it had previously been during 2019. Things quickly change, however, when he learns that his siblings are, infact, still alive. Allison learns that her brother, Klaus, is still alive and visits him, explaining that she survived the transport, therefore their other siblings must've surivived too.[1]
Relationship troubles
Back in Dallas, 1963, Klaus realises that he has a chance to prevent his younger lover, Dave, from joining the military and being killed. Klaus tries to explain to Dave in a diner — where hye is eating with his conservatively homophobic uncle — that he shouldn't sign up despite thinking about it. Klaus tries to convince him not to enlist, but Dave is forced to punch him in the face.[2]
As a result, Klaus turns to alcohol as a coping mechanism for the first time in three years. Ben tries unsuccessfully to try and convince him not to, however he isn't able to, and Klaus' begins turning back into his previous self.
Saving the timeline
After he accepts that he and his family are responsible for the second apocalypse, Klaus agrees to help Five restore the timeline and prevent the second apocalypse. Ben is able to save Vanya from destroying the FBI building and thus, triggering the apocalypse, but is severly injured in the process. Ben tells Vanya to pass a message on to Klaus: he was never holding him back, Ben was simply too scared to pass on.[3]
Personality
Klaus is a fun-loving person who enjoys a hedonistic lifestyle, and has rebelled against his father by refusing to be the hero he wanted him to be. As an unreliable, unrepentant drug addict, and leech, his opinion is often dismissed by his siblings. However, he is shown to have a deeper insight than assumed, and has even shown to be a voice of reason to his family's impulsive decisions. At the same time, he seems to have a better, healthier mindset of their childhood. He acknowledges and accepts that their childhood was traumatic and moves forward without dwelling on it too much. It is revealed that the primary reason for his addiction is because powers cause him to be plagued by horrific, frightening visions of dead people who constantly call out to him. The drugs and alcohol are the only things that are able to subdue his powers and make the visions stop. His loyalty to his siblings, especially Diego and Luther, is shown through his actions, though he does act like any sibling would by teasing and arguing with all six of the other Hargreeves children.
He is very sarcastic, making jokes to deal with his trauma, much to the annoyance of those around him.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Mediumship: Klaus (while sober) has the ability to communicate with spirits/ those who are in the afterlife. Ironically, he is afraid of the dead, so he uses alcohol and drugs to self-medicate and keep his powers dampened. Although, often throughout the series, Klaus is shown talking with his deceased brother, Ben, who seems to be the only spirit he is not afraid of. When speaking with Sir Reginald in the afterlife, Klaus was told that he has barely scratched the surface of his power's potential.
- Evocation: Klaus is also able to conjure spirits and manifest them into the real world. In his first attempt, when trying to summon Sir Reginald at the funeral, Klaus states he couldn't do it because he was high. Also because Reginald was too stubborn to get a hold of. With his newfound attempts to remain sober, Klaus was able to physically interact with Ben's spirit for the first time. This later further evolved where he was able to manifest Ben's spirit into the real world, though temporarily. In an alternate 1963, he was able to conjure deceased American soldiers into fighting Soviet soldiers. After he was blasted back by Lila's energy wave, Klaus was also able to conjure two ghosts into catching him in their arms just before he hit the ground.
Abilities
- Skilled Combatant: Like many of his siblings, Klaus possesses a level of physical and combative training, but is among the weakest in terms of fighting skills.
Relationships
Unnamed Boyfriend
During 'Run Boy Run', Klaus mentions that his longest relationship lasted three weeks, although that was only because he "was so tired of looking for a place to sleep. He did make the most fantastic osso buco, though."
Dave
Klaus was in a relationship with a man named Dave when the former was transported via Hazel and Cha-Cha's briefcase to the Vietnam War. He only returned to the present after Dave's death. He was there for 10 months. He said Dave was "the only person I have ever truly loved more than myself". It is insinuated most of his other relationships were most likely about sex or finding somewhere to sleep, but this relationship was clearly much deeper. The only reason he actually attempted sobriety was to be able to conjure Dave.
Gallery
References
See More
| The Umbrella Academy Characters on Netflix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Umbrella Academy | Luther • Diego • Allison • Klaus • Five • Ben • Viktor • Lila Pitts • Sir Reginald Hargreeves • Grace • Pogo | ||
| The Sparrow Academy | Marcus • Ben • Fei • Alphonso • Sloane • Jayme • Christopher • Sir Reginald Hargreeves | ||
| Villains | Hazel • Cha Cha • The Handler • Leonard Peabody • The Swedes • A.J. Carmichael | ||
| Other | Harlan Cooper • Sissy Cooper • Raymond Chestnut | ||