The highly anticipated second season of Tim Burton’s Wednesday is finally coming to our screens, and considering it’s been three years since the first season came out, there’s a lot to catch up on. The show follows the tales of the titular character of the Addams family. The comedy-horror show has much more heart than you would imagine and seems to have aged well despite being specifically made for the year 2022. From the dialogue to the costuming to the themes, everything seems relevant for a Gen Z audience, so I can’t wait to see what’s coming next. But I won’t waste any more of your time, let’s dive straight into everything that happened in season 1.
Spoiler Alert
What Is Nevermore?
Season 1 opens with Wednesday being sent off to Nevermore in Jericho, a boarding school for outcasts. Here you’ll find all sorts of creatures like werewolves, sirens, psychics, and more. Wednesday was previously expelled from her old school because she protected her brother by releasing deadly piranhas onto his bullies (yikes). But hey, you can already tell she’s loyal and genuinely kind-hearted despite her cold appearance. No, she’s so cold she looks like a dead person. Wednesday is not happy to go to this school despite it being the ideal setting for someone like her. She thinks her parents hate her, and she isn’t able to get along with her mother as a teenager.
At school, she rooms with Enid, a werewolf who is the exact opposite of her, the most colorful person you’ve ever seen. Enid hasn’t fanged up yet, so her mom is putting pressure on her as well. Enid and Wednesday may seem to be complete opposites, but they’re quite similar underneath and become good friends eventually. Wednesday is also forced to go to therapy because she shows no remorse for what she’s done, and those sessions go just as you’d imagine—not great. The principal of the school is Larissa Weems, an old batchmate of Wednesday’s mom, Morticia, but there seems to be some history there, which we’ll get to. Then there’s Miss Thornhill, the first “normie” teacher at Nevermore, who is also the “dorm mom.” Soon after getting to school, we discover that Wednesday’s been having psychic visions. They strike her when she touches certain things, but as it goes with visions, they can go both ways, and oftentimes these visions put Wednesday, or worse, her new friends, in dangerous positions. At the same time, there’s a mystery plaguing Jericho, and the sheriff believes it’s someone from Nevermore.
Wednesday befriends Enid and a younger boy named Eugene, who reminds her of her little brother. Eugene is the only member of the beekeeping society that Wednesday joins. Then there’s Xavier, who seems to like her soon after meeting her for the first time, even pushing her out of the way of a falling gargoyle. Then there’s Bianca, a siren, who detests Wednesday from the moment she arrives, but this sentiment worsens because Xavier and she used to be a thing. Then there’s Tyler, a normie and local (also the sheriff’s son), who supports Wednesday solely because he also wants to leave the town and offers to help her escape. They also kind of, sort of like each other. But the most important member of this mystery gang is “Thing,” the sentient hand that her parents sent to keep an eye on her. Thing helps Wednesday with her mystery solving, the one thing that genuinely makes her excited to be at Nevermore.
Is Gomez a Murderer?
The first mystery of the show revolves around Rowan, a fellow student of Nevermore, whom Wednesday has a vision of. She sees Rowan’s death in a vision, but in reality, he wants to kill her because of an old prophecy from 30 years ago. A drawing of Wednesday destroying the school. But before Rowan can harm Wednesday, a weird, massive-eyed monster shows up and kills him, sparing Wednesday. She takes the artwork and rushes back to school, now eager to stay back and solve this mystery. Somehow, Rowan shows up at the school perfectly fine, though Wednesday saw him die with her own eyes. Weems tells her that he’s been expelled, but we don’t know why. Turns out it’s Weems who is a shape-shifter and was pretending to be Rowan to make it look like everything was okay at Nevermore.
While participating in school activities, Wednesday helps Enid win a boat race against Bianca, who is a literal siren, but she also discovers an underground society headed by Bianca. The Nightshades were previously dismissed, but Bianca wants to keep the prestigious secret going. Later, the kids get to go on an outing into the city and mingle with regular people by participating in a festival celebrating the city. There are images of Joseph Crackstone everywhere, the founding father of Jericho and the man in the prophecy from years ago. Through her shenanigans, she ends up with another vision, this time from the past. In the vision, Wednesday sees her ancestor, Goody Addams, being burned at the stake for being cast out by Crackstone. Goody somehow escaped and survived the massacre. As soon as her vision ends, Wednesday sees the monster and tries to follow it. She discovers the footprints go from monster to human, determining that the monster has a human form. She then goes to the coroner’s office after a squatter is killed by the monster and discovers that all victims had some part of their body severed surgically.
The next thing you know, there’s a dance at the school, and Wednesday decides to go into the woods with Eugene to solve her mystery. However, Thing invites Tyler to go to the dance with Wednesday after she has a falling out with Xavier, who realizes she was only talking to him because she thought he had something to do with the monster. Wednesday has no choice but to go to the dance, which leaves Eugene alone, but instead of listening to her and standing back, he decides to go into the woods by himself. Then we have a “Carrie” moment at the dance, where Enid’s dance partner and a bunch of other normies from the city turn the sprinklers on, dousing the whole place in red blood, which Wednesday discovers is just paint, not pig’s blood. Wednesday then rushes to find Eugene after she has a vision of him in danger. But she’s too late, and Eugene is unconscious from the monster attack.
The Addams family reunion is during “family day,” and Wednesday is eager to find out if her father is actually a murderer or if he was framed many years ago, when her parents went to school there. Also, Wednesday hates being compared to her mother, who was an ideal student back in the day and excelled at everything she did. Gomez was accused of murdering Garrett Gates, a Tyler-type fellow from back in the day who fell in love with Morticia. When she rejected him, he started to stalk her. Turns out Morticia wielded the sword that night because of how Garrett was treating her, however, Gomez took the blame to save his love. But Wednesday is not satisfied by this story and goes grave digging, where she discovers that Garrett was poisoned even before the incident with Morticia, which means he was already dying. She manages to present this evidence to the sheriff, who has already arrested her father because there’s new evidence, even though the timing seems questionable. Now it’s revealed that the current mayor’s shoved Garrett’s story under the rug because he went to the school specifically to kill all the Nevermore students because of his hateful father. Turns out the vial with the poison had broken in his pocket, killing him. Gomez is freed thanks to Morticia and Wednesday’s blackmailing the mayor with the same story. Before leaving, Morticia tells Wednesday that, despite their differences, she’ll always be there for her, and she should’ve told her about the visions. She’s sad that she didn’t feel comfortable doing so, but it looks like they bonded over the mayor’s blackmail. Morticia also tells her that she can’t help her with the psychic abilities, but an old ancestor will reach out. In Wednesday’s case, it’s Goody, and Morticia warns her to be careful.
Who Is The Monster?
Wednesday gets a vision where Goody tells her the key to all her questions is at the Gates’ house. Soon after, the mayor gets into an accident while Wednesday follows him to find out more about what Goody told her, leaving her with no answers and him in critical condition. While the school is sent into lockdown by Weems to protect everybody, Wednesday takes Enid and Tyler to the Gates mansion, which happens to be the real lair of the monster. But soon after they discover all the evidence, the monster shows up, wounding Tyler. But later, when the sheriff shows up at the lair, the evidence has disappeared, making it look like Wednesday is lying yet again. While Wednesday returns to the school and is told by Weems that she has only one more chance before she’s expelled, Enid decides to stay away for some time, calling her out for being manipulative. But an almost unbothered Wednesday discovers photos of her in a box that she picked up at Gates’ mansion, and then Mayor Walker is murdered in his hospital bed.
In the penultimate episode, her uncle, Fester, shows up. He’s been keeping an eye on Wednesday, too, but teaches her that the monster is a Hyde. Wednesday learns that Hydes are mutated creatures with a master, who forces them to do their bidding. But all the mysterious stuff is interrupted when Tyler suddenly shows up and asks Wednesday out on a date. They have a nice movie night before the sheriff shows up. When Wednesday goes back to the dorm room, Thing is pinned to the wall with a blade! Fortunately, Fester is able to save him, but this makes Wednesday even more determined to figure out who the real culprit is.
Bianca and a buddy show Wednesday that, before his death, Walker was looking into Laurel Gates, Garrett’s sister, who might’ve faked her own death for a revenge plot. Wednesday thinks Laurel is her therapist, Valerie, and confronts her with everything. But Valerie has no idea what she’s talking about. To make matters worse, though, as soon as Wednesday leaves, Valerie is killed by the monster. Wednesday then goes back to her first story and blames Xavier because of all the drawings and gets the sheriff to arrest him. When things seem to be going golden for Wednesday, she decides to go give Tyler a victory kiss, only to have a terrifying psychic vision. Tyler is the Hyde.
Who Is Laurel Gates?
Wednesday captures Tyler with the help of the Nightshades but gets in trouble with Weems for the kidnapping, leading to her expulsion. Tyler does confess the truth to her, but Weems doesn’t believe her, despite the fact that his mother was a Hyde who studied at Nevermore too. Before leaving, knowing that she came so close to the truth, Wednesday goes to meet her partner, Eugene, who has finally woken up. Turns out, he saw the person controlling the monster, and it was somebody wearing red boots. No, this is not Red Riding Hood; it’s none other than the “normie” teacher, Thornhill, aka Laurel Gates. But the adventures of Wednesday Addams aren’t finished yet.
Wednesday goes to Xavier, telling him what she’s discovered and wanting him to help her. He calls her toxic and promises not to help her because she ruins everything. He tells her the only way she’ll save everyone is if she leaves. Wednesday then takes Weems, who shapeshifts into Tyler, to meet Thornhill and get a confession out of her. Weems hears Gates’ full confession, but the latter poisons her and kidnaps Wednesday. On the other hand, Eugene tells Enid what’s happened, and Thing tells her what’s happened to Weems and Wednesday. The nightshades evacuate the school, and Laurel works on bringing Crackstone, her own ancestor, back to life with the book of shadows. She wants revenge because Goody was the reason Crackstone’s life was cut short.
Crackstone stabs Wednesday as soon as he’s risen from the dead, but Goody’s spirit saves her. But as Wednesday tries to escape, Tyler shows up and transforms, attacking her. But good for her; she’s made friends, and Enid has her first transformation on blood moon night, fighting off Tyler so Wednesday can escape. The prophecy comes to life as Crackstone sets the school on fire and goes into a duel with Wednesday. Bianca distracts the guy so Wednesday can stab him in the heart and save the school, not destroy it. But Thornhill is still around and tries to shoot Wednesday. Lucky for her, she’s got a hive behind her. Quite literally, Eugene uses his bees to attack Thornhill, saving Wednesday.
At the end of season 1, Wednesday hugs Enid, showing us how much she’s grown in all this time (man, these two are adorable). Tyler and Thornhill are arrested, and everybody mourns the loss of Weems, but it’s not all over yet. The show ends with an unknown stalker telling Wednesday they’re watching her. On the other hand, Tyler wakes up as the monster inside the police car, meaning he’s coming back for revenge.
