So you spent this past Wednesday watching Netflix’s Wednesday, a show about Wednesday Addams, the teenage daughter of the Addams family.
Wednesday (the show, not the girl) whisks Wednesday (the girl, not the show) away to a funky goth boarding school for “outcasts” where she gets embroiled in a lot of plot. From an old murder her parents were involved in to some freaky deaths happening around the small town of Jericho, Vermont, and from a love triangle and high school cliques to tension between “outcasts” and “normies,” Wednesday (the show, not the girl) packs a whole lot into the eight-episode first season.
It only makes sense that there are a handful of unanswered questions, loose ends for a potential second season to tug on.
[Ed. note: This post contains major spoilers for Netflix’s Wednesday.]
Why aren’t Morticia and Wednesday getting along?
Photo: Vlad Cioplea/Netflix
From the very moment Wednesday kicks off, we learn that Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) and her mother Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) are not getting along. This seems to be chalked up to simple teenage rebellion. Wednesday doesn’t want to be like her mother! But there’s also a smidge of internalized misogyny in there too — Wednesday doesn’t want to be like her mother, because her mother is a mother and a housewife who is very in love with her husband. Which, like, if you consider goth queen Morticia Addams the epitome of traditional femininity, I have a lot of questions for you.
By the middle of the season Morticia and Wednesday have come to a shaky, tentative understanding. But their fractured relationship is one of the many, many plot points this first season deals with, especially because it’s also tied to the mysterious murder that Morticia and Gomez were involved in when they were teenagers.
What is this cult that Bianca’s mom is part of?
One of the coolest characters from both an aesthetic standpoint and a world-building angle is Bianca, a siren played by Joy Sunday. She’s the school’s queen bee and fencing champion, and she has really cool white-blue glowy eyes. Also, we find out that sirens can compel people to do their bidding, though that doesn’t really get super explored (because the show explores a lot of things). What we do know about Bianca’s siren powers is that her ex-boyfriend Xavier (Percy Hynes White) thinks she used them on him.
Photo: Vlad Cioplea/Netflix
We also learn that Bianca ran away from home, because her mom is married to a cult leader who wants to use their siren powers to indoctrinate more members. The cult is disguised as a self-help application, but really it’s designed to con people out of their money. Bianca manages to convince her mom to let her finish up the school year first. This only really features in one episode, but it’s such a meaty plot point that we’re sure to see it crop up in a hypothetical season 2. You can’t just mention a cult disguised as a self-help app and then sweep it under the rug!
Who is Xavier’s dad?
Bianca’s ex-boyfriend and one of the points of Wednesday’s love triangle is tortured artist Xavier Thorpe, whose power involves making his drawings come to life. His father is a famous stage magician and psychic and he appears to have a lot of Daddy Issues™. He doesn’t like it when people compare him to his dad, but also he constantly talks about his dad. Considering Daddy Thorpe’s fame, it is likely he’ll make an actual appearance down the line.
Will Tyler come back?
Speaking of love triangles, the other love interest, namely softboy barista Tyler (Hunter Doohan) — objectively the better love interest — turned out to actually be a murderous creature known as a Hyde! As the Hyde, Tyler was responsible for all the mysterious deaths around town! Now, technically he was being controlled and taken advantage of by Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci), a descendant of the fanatical pilgrim who founded the town of Jericho and wanted to kill all outcasts. So… is there some good in Tyler, or has he been totally brainwashed?
Photo: Vlad Cioplea/Netflix
Last we saw him, he was being carted off to psychiatric care. So he’s not dead. But were his feelings for Wednesday all a lie from the beginning? Because they were really cute! And also, will we learn more about his mysterious mother? There are a lot of loose ends when it comes to Tyler, and it would be a shame to just tuck him away.
Who is stalking Wednesday?
In one of the last scenes of season 1, Wednesday opens a mysterious envelope filled with candid pictures of her. It’s left by someone who is still out there, who could still take a picture of her on the last day of school (they all got to go home because of the #tragedy that happened), and who has a weird vendetta against her. Is it someone we’ve already met in the show, or is it a new character? We will have to wait to find out.
What the hell is Gomez’s outcast ability?
So, all students of Nevermore Academy are outcasts, which we know because Marilyn Thornhill being the first normie in the school’s hallowed halls was a big deal. And most outcasts fall into familiar fantasy beings, like werewolves and vampires. Except when they have more idiosyncratic powers, like Wednesday and Morticia’s psychic abilities or Xavier’s art thing.
Image: Netflix
As a former Nevermore student, Gomez (Luis Guzmán) must’ve had some sort of power. But we never find out what it is! Probably something to explore down the line. The Addams family themselves didn’t really appear much in the show, so there’s a lot to dig into later.
What was Edgar Allan Poe’s outcast ability?
One of Nevermore’s most acclaimed alumnus was author Edgar Allan Poe. And because all Nevermore students and alumni are outcasts, that means that Poe definitely had powers. I want to know more.
What even makes an outcast?
Great question! Despite the whole season being focused on normie-outcast tension, we actually never really find out. Are they just magical beings? But then what about Wednesday, who didn’t tell anyone she had powers when she enrolled? Do you have to dress in black and enjoy the macabre? Then what about plucky werewolf Enid (Emma Myers), who enjoys all things pink and sparkly? What is the criteria?
Image: Netflix
It’s one thing to leave it deliberately vague for school hijinks, but when the whole crux of the plot depends on what makes a normie and what makes an outcast, it would make more sense to have those definitions clear.
What does the rest of the world think about werewolves and vampires and all that?
Is it just the town of Jericho that hates outcasts? Xavier’s dad is a well-known magician, so surely some people like outcasts. We’ll see just how far this prejudice extends.
Where does the Addams family live?
I ask this mostly because in the Broadway musical they canonically live smack dab in the middle of Central Park and I just think it would be really funny if they kept that.
Wednesday is out on Netflix now.