One of the best parts of Wednesday’s first season was the pitch-perfect casting of Fred Armisen as iconic Addams Family character Uncle Fester. Netflix announced he’d be returning for season two, but he didn’t appear in the first three episodes. He finally pops up in episode four, “If These Woes Could Talk.” In this chapter, Wednesday summons her uncle to Nevermore Academy, asking for his help investigating her case. She’s trying to find the answer about someone named Lois, who she believes is tied to Willow Hill psychiatric hospital. Lois is somehow important to finding answers about her vision of her friend Enid’s death. She knows the answers are in Willow Hill, and she “Knows just the lunatic who can help her.” Enter, Uncle Fester.
Fester arrives promptly to help his favorite niece, as he calls her. Although as far as we know, she’s his only niece. Wednesday needs him to infiltrate Willow Hill, which he told her he did once before. He tells Wednesday he did so at the behest of her mother, Morticia, who asked Fester to go there to check on her sister Ophelia many years before. He couldn’t find her, but he stuck around to enjoy the shock therapy for a few weeks. Those Addams men just love their psychological torture.
Fester then goes to a local hotel, the Apple Hollow Inn, and pays with stolen money. After causing a ruckus at the hotel and trashing his room (and signing Foreigner songs in the bathtub) he gets committed to Willow Hill after eating a cactus. He recounts his childhood spent in psychiatric hospitals, which he recalls fondly. After getting shock therapy, he makes a romantic connection with the lunch lady, Louise. He eventually convinces a patient’s pet parrot on the premises to tell him the number 51971 regarding Lois. After a little electric shock to his feathers, that is.
In the sublevels of Willow Hill, Fester gets caught snooping around. His true identity revealed, they put him in a straitjacket. Luckily, Wednesday and Thing rescue him, and as they try to escape, they find a locked maintenance room. Fester used the code 5971 to enter it, and found a secret compartment which leads to a tunnel. In the secret tunnel, they find the words painted on the wall that say “Long-term Outcast Integration Study.” So “Lois” isn’t a person, it’s a secret program where they run experiments on outcasts, many who disappeared years earlier.
Fester and Wednesday learn that the person running LOIS is Dr. Judi, and thanks to Fester, he causes a breakout among the inmates. Wednesday saves a mysterious patient, who is likely her long-lost Aunt Ophelia. As Fester escapes, he finds Louise and tells her “Of all the women I’ve ever used, you were my favorite.” The two share a passionate kiss in the rain, and Fester Addams leaves for parts unknown. Although we imagine it won’t be long before his bald head returns to help his niece get out of a predicament once again. And maybe, even into his own spin-off series.
Part 1 of Wednesday season two is now streaming on Netflix.
Content shared from nerdist.com.