Project Oblivion is a term that has particular significance throughout season 3 and closely involves the Umbrellas and the Sparrows.
Reginald mutters it in his sleep when he’s with Klaus and the older Five mentions it before he dies. The present-day Five learns about it first from a conversation with Pogo. So what is Project Oblivion and why was it created?
Loss of a loved one
In season 1, it was revealed that Sir Reginald Hargreeves did not belong to Earth. He was forced to leave his home planet along with the rest of his people.
Unfortunately, his wife wasn’t able to join him as she was suffering from some sort of sickness and had accepted her fate. Reginald still believed, however, that there must be a way to fix things and cure his wife.
That is what brought him to Earth.
The Hotel Obsidian
Reginald learned early on that there was a portal somewhere that led to a machine that could reset the universe. He scouted the Earth and eventually found the location of the portal and called his research into it, Project Oblivion.
He set about building the Hotel Obsidian around this portal so that he could access the machine and bring back his Abigail. However, he couldn’t do that because of the guardian on the other side who laid waste on anyone who came through.
Diego and Lila ended up going through the portal once and found that the other side was a replica of the Hotel Obisidian. They also got first-hand experience of the guardian with Diego losing two of his fingers in the process.
The Umbrella/Sparrow Academy
Reginald knew that to get through the guardian and activate the machine that lies in Oblivion, he would need 7 special individuals. That is why he went about gathering as many children as he could when they were born by immaculate conception around the world in October 1989. These births were also of his doing.
He began training them from their childhood to hone their abilities. Everything he did was with the sole aim of completing Project Oblivion and bringing his wife back.
When the Umbrellas visited him in 1964, he realised that his initial selection went wrong so he decided to pick different children this time around, creating the Sparrow Academy instead.
When he sent Luther to the moon, it was believed to be just a way to keep him away because he had outgrown his usefulness, but in reality, he was there to protect Abigail’s body even though he wasn’t aware of it.
Resetting the universe
With the world about to end and whatever remains of the Umbrellas and the Sparrows in Hotel Obsidian, Reginald makes one last attempt at convincing them to accompany him to the other side. He had already made a deal with Allison the previous night, something that Five had noticed but couldn’t quite remember because he was drunk at the time.
When a vote doesn’t go his way, he decides to go the drastic route. He lures Luther into his room and kills him, claiming that if a wedding couldn’t bring the family together, a death surely could. He even leaves Klaus behind and tells him that he’s too much of a liability to keep on.
Once they get to the other side, he tells them to look for a particular sigil that will be somewhere in the hotel. He splits the children up and tells them to check different floors. He then rings the bell to alert the guardians, forcing the children to fend for themselves.
After barely getting through what was more than one guardian, they all gather in the lobby to confront Reginald.
Five notices that the sigil is right there on the floor of the lobby and the others realise that there is one more guardian left. The guardian comes crashing down on them and it takes their collective might to stop it. Even Luther is brought back temporarily by Klaus’ powers to help.
Reginald tells the children to each step on a star on the floor to complete the connection. He tells Allison not to get one though as he knew what was coming next.
A console appears and Reginald begins operating it while the children are being drained of their energy as Allison watches. Reginald states that particles inside their bodies are what fuel that machine. Allison tries to get him to stop but he goes on. She picks up a weapon and kills him, freeing the others.
When she notices that he had completed the process and all that was left was the push of a button, she pushes it despite the others begging her not to.
She wakes up back in her home and finds her daughter and Ray waiting for her. The others come out of the elevator to a park where the Hotel used to be. They also realize that they do not have their powers and conclude the universe was reset.
Finally, there’s a glimpse of Reginald with Abigail standing by his side. Project Oblivion achieved what it was supposed to.