With “Wednesday” Season 1, Netflix delivered a creepy, kooky, altogether ookie new spin on the Addams Family, taking audiences to Nevermore Academy, where teenage Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) attends a school full of monsters, freaks and Outcasts (as the monsters and freaks are called in the world of “Wednesday”).
Learning to tap into her powers as a psychic while unraveling mystery after mystery, Wednesday spent Season 1 on the hunt for a Hyde monster, fell for the wrong guy and dug deep into some horrible truths hiding beneath the pages of local history.
If you need a refresher, here’s a thorough “Wednesday” Season 1 recap with all the characters, twists and turns you need to remember.
Welcome to Nevermore Academy
In the pre-credits sequence, Wednesday finds her brother, Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez), stuffed in a locker, and when she touches him, she has a vision of the swim jocks who put him there — naturally, her solution is to go set piranhas loose in the school pool. She’s promptly expelled.
In the car with her family, she’s headed to Nevermore Academy, and she’s a legacy — her parents met and fell in love there, and her mom wasn’t just a student, she was the student: Captain of the fencing team, Queen of the Dark Prom and president of the seance society. It’s a legacy Wednesday isn’t thrilled to carry and a shadow she doesn’t want to stand in, but Nevermore is full of fellow Outcasts (kids with various supernatural abilities) and she’ll be among her peers.
Morticia was even roommates with Nevermore’s current principal, Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie), who places Wednesday in her mother’s old dormitory, Ophelia Hall. Her roommate? The perky people person and late-blooming werewolf Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers), who’s every bit as chipper and colorful as Wednesday is gloomy.
Enid gives Wednesday the tour, and we get to take in the sights and students of Nevermore. Built in 1791 as a refuge for Outcasts, monsters and freaks of all kinds. This year, however, is a bit of a curiosity as Nevermore is hosting its “first Normie teacher,” Marilyn Thornhill (played by iconic former Wednesday Addams actress Christina Ricci).
As Enid explains, Nevermore’s cliques are currently broken up into Fangs (vampires), Furs (werewolves), Stoners (gorgons) and Scales (sirens). The resident popular girl, Bianca Barclay (Joy Sunday), is a siren who shares a complicated relationship with her mother too, and used to date the “resident tortured artist,” Xavier Thorpe (Percy Hynes White).
… and the neighboring town of Jericho
Nevermore Academy and the neighboring town of Jericho have a tense but mutually beneficial relationship that proves to be a false veneer slapped over some heinous history full of hatred, bigotry and generational grudges — but we’ll get to all that.
We first get to explore Jericho when Wednesday is brought into town for her required therapy session with Dr. Kinbott (Riki Lindhome). Wednesday promptly sneaks out, runs into a man carrying a crate of Apples and has a vision of his death, his neck snapped in the cabin of his truck. Ducking into the local coffee shop, Wednesday has her meet cute with the barista, Jericho local Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan), when she helps him fix his espresso machine.
One thing we quickly learn about Jericho? The town is obsessed with its pilgrim heritage. Specifically, its founder, Joseph Crackstone. When three trouble-making teenage boys dressed as pilgrims come to the coffee shop, Wednesday handily beats all three of them in a fight.
It’s a satisfying moment, but not a great first impression for Sheriff Galpin (Jamie McShane), Tyler’s father. He doesn’t like Outsiders, and he certainly isn’t too fond of the Addams family, telling Wednesday that her father belongs in jail for murder.
Weems finally tracks Wednesday down, and during their drive back to campus, they see the man with the apple crate dead in his truck, neck twisted, just like Wednesday saw in her vision.
Detective Wednesday and the mysterious un-death of Rowan Laslow
Just as Wednesday arrives at Nevermore Academy, a monster starts attacking innocent people around Nevermore and Jericho. The victims seem unconnected — a hitchhiking backpacker, a Nevermore student on the brink of madness, a vagrant squatting in a local historical establishment — but Wednesday, who’s three books deep into writing her own teen detective series, is determined to crack the case.
And she gets up close and personal with it at the Harvest Festival, where she runs into her schoolmate Rowan Laslow (Calum Ross). Literally. When they touch, she sees a vision of the monster killing him, so she follows him into the woods to warn him. But once she gets to him, he attacks her, using his telekinetic powers to pin her to a tree and try to kill her.
He explains that years ago, his mother, a powerful seer, drew a picture of Wednesday and told him it was his destiny to destroy her before she destroys Nevermore. That’s when the Hyde attacks and kills Rowan on the spot, growling at Wednesday, but leaving her alive.
In the aftermath, Wednesday tells everyone exactly what happens, but to her great surprise, Rowan shows up alive at school the next day. Nobody believes her but Tyler, but eventually she learns the truth: Rowan really was killed by the Hyde in those woods. Turns out, Weems is a shape-shifter and, with the help of Rowan’s family (shamed by his attempt to kill Wednesday), she covered up his death to protect Nevermore. It’s one of many cover-ups that Wednesday gets to the bottom of in Season 1, each darker and more damning than the next.
Uncle Fester unlocks a trove of Hyde lore
That solves the mystery of Rowan, but what about the monster? Eventually, with a little help from her beloved Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen), Wednesday learns that the monster is called a Hyde, one of the most dangerous and mysterious of all Outcasts.
Nevermore founder Nathaniel Faulkner is one of the very few to research the species. He spent years studying Hydes to determine if they’re mindless killers or conscious of their actions — but he was killed by a Hyde before he could come to a conclusion. Others tried to carry on the research, but found that Hydes were too unpredictable and violent. Hydes are even banned from Nevermore.
Faulkner’s diary reveals that Hydes are “Born of mutuation,” “unleashed by a traumatic event or unlocked through chemical inducement or hypnosis.” Whomever unlocks the Hyde becomes master of the monster. With that, Wednesday realizes she’s looking for two killers, not one. And as Fester says, “Anyone willing to unlock a hyde is a next-level sicko.”
Hummers stick together
During her investigation, Wednesday meets Eugene Ottinger, founder, president and — until Wednesday comes along — sole member of the Nevermore Hummers, the school’s bee-keeping club. He’s a sweet, nerdy, solitary kid, and he reminds Wednesday of her brother, so she takes him under her wing. He returns that kindness in undying loyalty to Wednesday (as he always says, Hummers stick together), which ultimately ends up saving her life in the finale. But first, Eugene takes quite the beating, attacked by the Hyde during the school dance, the Rave’N.
The Nightshade Society
Wednesday’s investigation also leads her to Nevermore’s secret society, the Nightshades. Rowan’s drawing leads her to an Edgar Allan Poe statue, where she solves riddles (The solution? “Snap twice.” A little nod to the classic “Addams Family” theme song) and finds their secret hideout. Current members of the long-standing society include Xavier, Bianca and Ajax, among others. When Xavier says Wednesday should join, she turns them down.
Later in the season, we learn a bit more about the Nightshade lore. They weren’t always a social club, they were created by Wednesday’s ancestor, Goody Addams, in order to protect Outsiders from harm and bigotry, and Morticia used to be a member. They might not be quite the force they once were, but the current Nightshades do try to do what’s right, and they show up for Wednesday when it counts.
The love triangles
“Wednesday” Season 1 somewhat infamously spent a lot of time on love triangles, but we’re not going to spend too much on them here. They won’t have a ton of bearing on future seasons since a key member — Xavier — isn’t returning to the show. Here’s the need-to-know:
Bianca and Xavier broke up because he thought she was using her siren song to manipulate him. She still tries to win him back a few times and seems genuine, but as soon as Wednesday arrives at Nevermore, Xavier really only has eyes for her. For her part, Wednesday never really gives Xavier so much of the time of day unless she suspects him of murder.
However, she does take an honest liking to Tyler, the Jericho Normie who works at the coffee shop. She repeatedly turns to him and they even have a sweet date: and he shows her “Legally Blonde,“ which she says appreciatively was like torture.
Ravens, doves and Goody Addams
Wednesday’s visions are relatively new to her and began just a few months ago, so naturally, she’s terrible about hiding them. Weems is quick to deduce the truth after their Jericho trip and reveals that Morticia started having visions around the same age. “They were notoriously unreliable and dangerous,” Weems warns her.
Wednesday has plenty of her own struggles with her new gifts, which she cannot command and always seem to kick in at inopportune moments. During Nevermore’s annual Poe Cup, Wednesday is in the lead, but when she grabs a flag from Joseph Crackstone’s tomb, she’s immediatel taken by a vision. She sees a girl who looks just like her, but with blonde hair and old-timey clothing: Goody Addams. “You are the key,” she tells Wednesday, who wakes up just in time to eke out the Poe Cup win for Ophelia Hall.
Xavier later clocks that Wednesday is having visions because his father is a psychic. “The first thing he’ll tell you is that visions can’t be trusted; they only show you one side of the picture,” he tells her, warning that psychic ability isn’t rooted in logic, but emotion.
During a visit to the school, Morticia also finally realizes what’s going on, but even as a psychic, she can’t be much help. There are two types of psychics: Ravens and Doves. Wednesday is a Raven and Morticia is a Dove.
“Our psychic ability resides on the spectrum of who we are,“ Morticia explains. ”Given my disposition, my visions tend to be positive. That makes me a Dove … You’re a Raven. Your visions are more potent, more powerful, but without the proper training, they can lead to madness.”
Unfortunately, Morticia can’t be the one to train her – psychics aren’t trained by the living, but by someone from their bloodline who “reaches out from beyond.” For Wednesday, that’s Goody Addams, the blonde Pilgrim-era witch who’s appeared in her visions and shares a dark history with Jericho founder Joseph Crackstone. Morticia warns Wednesday to be careful, saying Goody “was a witch of great strength, but her vengeance pushed her too far, and even she couldn’t save herself.”
The terrible truth About Joseph Crackstone
The most egregious cover-up that Wednesday unearths during her investigations is the true history of Joseph Crackstone, the town of Jericho and what they did to the Outcasts,. The truth has been buried under generations of niceties that benefit both Jericho and Nevermore in the present day. Nevermore pays the taxes that fund Jericho, and the Outsider school gets to fly under the radar without interference from the Normies.
Wednesday learns the truth in a horrible vision: Crackstone and the pilgrims of Jericho burned the Outsider community to death. In her vision, Wednesday sees Crackstone declare Goody a witch. Then, he throws her into a building full of Outcasts, including her mother, who are chained to the floor. Her mother implores her to run and avenge them, saving the future of the outcasts, and Goody escapes through a hatch in the floor. In the vision, she warns Wednesday, “He won’t stop until he’s killed us all.”
“I thought nothing scared me, but that was before I stared into the eyes of Joseph Crackstone,” Wednesday says after the encounter, and torches Jericho’s new statue of him in return.
Escape from MorningSong
Bianca Barclay came to Nevermore on the run from her past, including a cult by the name of MorningSong. But when her mother, Gabrielle Barclay (Gracy Goldman), comes to town for Nevermore’s Parents’ Day, she comes with demands, and we get to learn a bit more about the secret Bianca’s been dodging.
Bianca (whose birth name is Brandy Jane) sirened her way into Nevermore, and Gabrielle uses that information to extort her daughter, threatening to expose her unless Bianca agrees to come back and help MorningSong. Gabrielle is married to the cult leader, Gideon, and uses her siren powers to help convert new cult members — but her powers are drying up, which means they need Bianca back.
Bianca makes a compromise with her mother: she’ll come back to MorningSong after the end of the school year and after that, she’s done.
The true tale of Gomez and Morticia Addams & not-so-tragic fate of the Gates Family
When Gomez and Morticia come back to Nevermore for Parents’ Day, we get a glimse into the lovebirds’ past. When they were students at Nevermore, Gomez was accused of murdering a young man named Garrett Gates. In the present, after the local coroner kills himself and admits he fudged the autopsy reports on the Gates case, Sheriff Galpin comes calling for Gomez, the man he’s always suspected of the crime.
Wednesday, who has been digging into her parents’ dark past since the sheriff mentioned his suspicions to her, confronts them about it during a family therapy session with Dr. Kinbott. Morticia is outraged and says she refuses to entertain a “decades-old witch hunt,” insisting that Gomez did nothing wrong, but when they are back at Nevermore, Sheriff Galpin comes to arrest Gomez for the crime.
Wednesday visits her father in lockup and gets his version of the tale: Garrett was infatuated with Morticia, mistaking her kindness for interest, growing obsessed and, eventually, stalking her. But he was a Gates, a son of the oldest and richest family in Jericho, so there was nothing they could do about it, and his father was an Outcast-hating bigot who only raged harder after Morticia accused his son. On the night of the Rave’n, Garrett attacked Gomez and Morticia, “insane from his love” for her, as Gomez tells it. The two boys had a huge knock-down, drag-out fight, ending in Garrett’s death when he ran into the sword Gomez wielded.
Except that’s not quite what happened. Wednesday knows her father’s tells. On her way out, she lets the sheriff know he’s got the wrong guy and he’s a fool to believe such a convenient tale, but Sheriff Galpin retorts that he wants justice for the whole Gates family and the tragedy they endured at the hands of Outsiders. After Garrett’s death, his mother hung herself, his father drank himself to death and his sister, left orphaned, was sent overseas, where she drowned.
Next, Wednesday confronts her mother and learns the full truth: Morticia was the one holding the sword, but Gomez stepped in without hesitating to cover for her. She also includes a key detail about the fight that allows Wednesday to solve the mystery for good: Garrett was foaming at the mouth and she’ll never forget what his eyes looked like.
Foaming at the mouth, dilated pupils, mental confusion, all textbook signs of … nightshade poisoning. Garrett Gates was already dying before Morticia stabbed him. They dig up his corpse, confirming the poisoning, and when Wednesday touches his finger, she has a vision that clears up any lingering questions.
Garrett’s father wasn’t just a bigot, he was a murderous zealot and sent his son into the Rave’N dance to poison the punchbowl and kill all the Outsider students. But Garrett got into a fight with Gomez on the way in, during which the vial shattered in his pocket, poisoning him.
It’s yet another cover-up. The mayor, who was sheriff at the time, knew the boy was poisoned, knew that Garrett’s father blamed Outcasts for stealing his family’s land, but he chose to hide that information to protect the town of Jericho. Now that Wednesday’s vision revealed the scope of what happened, it doesn’t take long for the mayor to put the pieces together. He investigates the old Gates mansion, but he’s murdered before he can tell the sheriff what he found.
And the Hyde is …
Wednesday isn’t too far behind him in putting it all together (though not as close as she thinks either, as she’ll soon learn the hard way). Wednesday tricks Tyler and Enid into escorting her to the Gates mansion, where they discover a) the car that hit the mayor and b) the bedroom of the supposedly dead sister, Laurel Gates, has been recently inhabited.
Wednesday remains convinced that Xavier is the Hyde, and becomes certain that Dr. Kinbott is his master after she sees them duck into a secret therapy session. Indeed, after Kinbott is killed by the Hyde, the police find tons of evidence in Xavier’s art studio and drag him off while he insists he’s been framed.
With Xavier in custody, Wednesday is feeling quite good about things and goes to see Tyler at the coffee shop. They finally kiss, and that’s when she has a new vision – of Tyler, covered in blood, looming over the dying Dr. Kinbott. Tyler is the Hyde.
She runs out in the moment, gathers her supplies and allies, and then captures him at Xavier’s art studio with the help of the Nightshades. However, when Wednesday suggests a little “light torture,” they go to Weems. Wednesday is taken into custody, and that’s when Tyler drops the good guy act. He tells her that at first he would wake up covered in blood, unsure what was happening, but then he started to remember the gory details: screams, panic and “a fear so primal, I could taste it… and it was delicious.” Yikes, girl.
It was Thornhill all along
Weems arranges things so that all charges are dropped but Wednesday is set to be expelled immediately from Nevermore. She just has one request — to stop by Eugene’s hospital room before she goes. He finally woke up after the Hyde attack and he’s got a single detail that cracks the case for good: the night he was attacked, he saw the Hyde’s master, and she was wearing red boots. It wasn’t Kinbott, it’s Marilyn Thornhill, the resident Normie botany teacher.
Wednesday stages a ruse to trap her, and confronts Thornhill, who admits the truth: she stalked, manipulated and enslaved Tyler. What she doesn’t know is that’s not Tyler with Wednesday, it’s shape-shifter Principal Weems; Thornhill just blew her cover. Before she can be overpowered, she injects Weems with Nightshade poison, and when Wednesday runs to the side of the dying woman, Thornhill knocks her out.
Fortunately, Thing was there. He scurries over to Enid, who’s feeling wolfy while she’s making out with Ajax on the night of the Blood Moon. Meanwhile, Eugene overhears the whole tale on the phone and leaves the hospital to come to Wednesday’s aid.
Thornhill has Wednesday chained up, and reveals the full extent of her disdain for Outcasts. She is, of course, Laurel Gates, sister of Garrett Gates, and their family lineage goes all the way back to the pilgrims. As Wednesday is a descendant of Goody Addams, so Laurel is a descendant of Joseph Crackstone, and she reveres him as a visionary dedicated to protecting the Normies from monsters. She reveals the Gates family remained loyal to Crackstone’s mission throughout the centuries, saying her brother “died serving that cause.”
But she’s taking a supernatural approach. She took a body part from each of the Hyde’s victims to complete a ritual that will bring Joseph Crackstone back from the dead so he can end Outcast kind. Wednesday is the key – When Goody killed him, she put a curse on his soul, locking him in his tomb with a blood seal that can only be opened by a direct descendant: Wednesday.
The resurrection is quick and Crackstone’s vengeance is swift — he thinks Wednesday is Goody and stabs her in the stomach. As she lies dying, Goody tells her Crackstone must be stabbed through his black heart to vanquish him forever — and that Wednesday’s necklace is a powerful object capable of conjuring spirits. That means she can pass through and heal Wednesday, but it comes at a cost – after that, Wednesday will never see Goody again. Wednesday is revived and healed, her wounds closing in front of her eyes, and she sets out to defeat Crackstone, who is now a magical staff-wielding pilgrim monster.
Meanwhile, Enid races toward Wednesday with Thing, and she starts wolfing out – after months of pressure and shaming, it’s finally happening and she’s howling at the Blood Moon. In fact, she gets her wolf on just in time to save Wednesday from Tyler, who transforms into the Hyde and attacks. Wednesday can even tell it’s her best friend defending her, thanks to a streak of pink in the werewolf’s hair. As the two monsters duke it out, Wednesday runs back to the school to save the students from Crackstone. Tyler almost gets the upper hand on Enid, but Sheriff Galpin puts a bullet in his own son to stop him.
In the school courtyard, Crackstone is wreaking havoc, lighting the school aflame. Wednesday tries to fight him and has a tough time of it, but the friends she reluctantly made throughout the season show up and have her back. Xavier comes in with a bow and arrow (though he’s more of a hindrance than a help), and in a low moment when Crackstone looms over Wednesday, Bianca stabs him in the back, giving Wednesday the opening she needs to stab him through the heart.
His corpse burns up and disintegrates, leaving only his ring behind – but Laurel/Thornhill’s not done yet. She trains a gun on Wednesday, resolved to kill the pesky Addams if she can’t end Outsider kind. Eugene shows up just in time to reveal he’s not just a fan of bees – he commands them, and he sics them all on Laurel, saving the day.
After that, school is canceled for the rest of the semester, but we get two quick Season 2 teases before we go: Wednesday has a stalker and Tyler is locked up in custody, still stuck with his Hyde.
