In the ending of Wednesday season 2, episode 3, the titular character, while investigating the serial murders in town, came across a name, LOIS, written in bold red letters on the top of ex-Sheriff Donovan Galpin’s evidence board. [Spoiler Alert] Before his death, Donovan had told Wednesday that he and his friend, Carl Bradbury, had been working on a case together. But what was this case about? Well, it turned out Donovan had gathered some evidence about the secret experiments inside the Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital, and he didn’t want his son, Tyler, to become a victim of the evil scientist running the place. Donovan had collected obituaries of the Outcast, or people with superhuman abilities; however, upon further investigation, Wednesday figured out that their graves, or “urns,” were filled with the remains of “normie” humans, which meant only one thing: all these people on Donovan’s evidence board weren’t dead, and had been kept hidden somewhere inside the Willow Hill center. So, as Wednesday said, all roads led to the Willow Hill hospital, and that was where she found the secret about “LOIS.”
What was LOIS?
Dr. Augustus Stonehearst, the esteemed psychiatrist, who also served as the director of Willow Hill, was quite intrigued by the powers of the outcasts and got obsessed with sharing their gifts with the normies, or the normal humans, and therefore laid the foundation of a secret operation called the Long-Term Outcast Integration Study (LOIS). Before joining Willow Hill as the head doctor, Dr. Stonehearst had taught science at the Nevermore Academy. And even when he became the director of the psychiatric hospital, he used to visit the school for outcasts as a guest lecturer, so you can see why Dr. Stonehearst was really attached to that place, or the outcasts, in particular, because that was how he targeted his victims. Surprisingly, all the obituaries Wednesday found inside Donovan’s secret cabin belonged to outcasts whose death certificates were signed by Dr. Stonehearst. Yes, the old guy was running a scam, and no one batted an eye. He was your typical Victor Frankenstein-type, who wanted to create his own Prometheus, and to some extent, he did actually find some success in his greatest scientific experiment. Also, I have a feeling that Wednesday’s aunt, Ophelia, who was sent to Willow Hill, was a part of LOIS as well. Wednesday found her in the hidden basement, but we will find out more about that in the next part of season 2.
Who Was Dr. Stonehearst’s Daughter?
Wednesday Part 1’s ending revealed that Dr. Stonehearst had a daughter, none other than the chattery receptionist, Judi, whom we met when Wednesday visited Willow Hill for the first time in season 2. Judi revealed that her father loved the outcasts (for their powers) and had a yearning desire to become one, which was the only reason he started LOIS. Back in the day, when Dr. Stonehearst’s project was still in its initial stages and he was looking for a subject, his daughter volunteered to be a part of his experiment. But you may ask, why? Had she lost her marbles too, like her evil father? The thing is, Judi, being a normie, was an “outcast” at Nevermore Academy, so it was quite natural for her to wish for superhuman abilities like the rest of the children around her, and that was why she wanted her father to choose her for LOIS. He stole the superhuman abilities of an Avian, an outcast who could control birds, and transferred them to his daughter, Judi. Yes, she was the one controlling that one-eyed raven and killing people all over Jericho. I hope you remember that Dr. Orloff, one of the oldest professors, had said to Wednesday that the last time they’d had an Avian at Nevermore was some 10 years ago. That was back when Dr. Stonehearst taught at the school, which hints at the possibility that he had kidnapped one of his students, an Avian, and taken them to Willow Hill to extract their powers.
How Did Dr. Stonehearst Die?
In episode 4, Wednesday came across a newspaper report, according to which Dr. Stonehearst had stepped down from his position on 21st October 2022, after an undisclosed medical episode. It turned out, after a successful run on his daughter, Dr. Stonehearst had tried to become an outcast too, a DaVinci, the outcasts with telekinetic powers. But unfortunately, his body couldn’t take it. The experiment left him paralyzed, shortly after which Judi hired Dr. Rachael Fairburn to become the face of the psychiatric institution so she could continue her father’s experiment from the shadows and turn more normies into outcasts. Meanwhile, Dr. Stonehearst spent most of his time in Willow Hill, waiting for his death, which finally arrived, in the form he had least expected.
Wednesday Part 1’s ending made a shocking revelation about Slurp, the zombie with a clockwork heart, who turned out to be one of Dr. Stonehearst’s old pals. I know Ajax, a Nevermore student, had introduced him as an urban legend, but it seemed like there was more to the story here than you’d expect. I believe Slurp was the brain who created the machine to extract powers from the outcasts, and when he found out about Dr. Stonehearst’s true intentions, he tried to stop him or destroy the machine, which was when Dr. Stonehearst got rid of him. It’s quite possible that Dr. Stonehearst removed Slurp’s brain after killing him, maybe to conduct some experiments on that as well. Thankfully, Pugsley’s electrical shock brought him back from the dead so he could avenge his death at the hands of his old pal. In the last shot, Slurp ate Dr. Stonehearst ’s brain, which was the most ironic death of the season so far. And it goes without saying that we’ll find out more about Slurp in the next part of season 2.
