Warning: the following contains spoilers for Wednesday season 2, Part 1’s ending.The cast and creative minds behindWednesday’s season 2 break down the biggest twists and mid-season ending. Arriving on August 6, the first four episodes of season 2 see Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) on a quest to decode the mystery behind two murders while being taunted by a stalker.
After a severe psychic burnout, she temporarily lost her abilities and resorted to old-fashioned crime-solving, which led her to Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital, where she discovered LOIS (Long-term Outcast Integration Study), a program that studies harnessing outcasts' powers.
Wednesdayseason 2, Part 1’s endingsees Wednesday and her uncle, Fester, setting every patient in Willow Hill free in a confrontation with the Avian controlling the ravens. In a discussion withNetflixabout the shocking ending, co-creators and showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar shed some light on how and why they landed on a decision.
While Millar stressed that the cliffhanger served to bring the audience back for the second half, Gough pointed out how the messy outcome challenged everything Wednesday thought she knew about herself. Check out what they said below:
Millar: We felt that if we were going to split the season, then the end of the fourth episode needed to be something amazing; a cliffhanger to bring the audience back for the next chapter. That was an exciting challenge.
Gough: At the end of Episode 4, Wednesday literally lets the lunatics out of the asylum, and the rest of the season is: Now you have to deal with that… She solved one mystery, and has unleashed a Pandora’s box of new problems.
One of Part 1’s biggest twists is the reveal of the Avian, and it turns out that Dr. Fairburn’s assistant, Judi, is the daughter of Augustus Stonehearst, founder of the LOIS program, and the one who controls the ravens. Heather Matarazzo, who played the antagonist, revealed that she filmed the reveal scene on her first day. Read her comment below:
Matarazzo: It tracked and it made sense. I had to understand her motivations very quickly. Al and Miles were very generous in answering my questions within the space of what motivates a character to do something. What is it that she had within herself? What was the drive of that ambition? I had the backstory of who she really is, which was helpful. Which then informs the questions of, ‘Well, how saccharine is she? How sweet is she? How much of a show does she put on? And how exhausting is that?’
The actor believes that Judi’s downfall was caused by her “arrogance” and the fact that she overlooked Wednesday. On the character’s motivation, Matarazzo explainedJudi “had a desperate need for her father’s approval” and love, but at the same time, wanted to “surpass her father.“She further pointed out how Judi kept her father in Willow Hill instead of killing him. Read her comment below:
Matarazzo:Wednesday is a very clear nemesis for Judi. And I think Judi’s ultimate downfall is that she didn’t think that she could get usurped by a teenage girl. There is an arrogance in her demise. So even though she is projecting this role of a secretary for Dr. Fairburn, she’s the one who’s really in charge of it all. And she feels that there’s no way, from her vantage point, that anybody is going to suspect anything. But Wednesday starts to unravel those threads, as Wednesday tends to do, and the whole thing comes tumbling down.
Because her father’s focus was his work, she sees that, and thinks, ‘Oh, the only way that I can really achieve any kind of love or standing within my father’s eyes is to join him on this roller-coaster ride.’ Was it the fact that she had a desperate need for her father’s approval and that she never felt that she really got it? And so in her way, she wanted to surpass her father, but she also wanted to keep an eye on him. She didn’t kill him, she kept him in Willow Hill, within her space. She has a desire, I think, to soar and fly.
Millar chimed in on the reveal and explained how Judi and Stonehearst’s story ultimately “leads back to Nevermore,” where the doctor once worked as a science teacher. Despite his hiring, Dr. Stonehearst was an outcast due to his lack of abilities, and similarly, Judi was born without abilities. Read his comment below:
Millar: One of the challenges of the show is constructing a compelling mystery. We love the idea of leading the audience down the path and thinking that Dr. Fairburn is the bad guy. And then revealing that, actually, the hooded figure is Judi, the ditzy assistant. I love the idea that Judi was connected to Stonehearst, and actually Stonehearst is connected to Nevermore, so it all leads back to Nevermore and the secrets that the school holds.
Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci) was attacked by Tyler. However, the showrunners warned that things might not be what they seemed. More on their Hyde-and-Master relationship, Gough teased that the season 2 Part 1 ending left Tyler in a fragile place. Check out what they said below:
Gough: Christina Ricci is just an amazing person and actor, and she brings such value to the show, and the character’s so wonderful. Never say never.
Millar: I will say, in this show, no one is officially dead dead. There’s always a way.
Gough: Getting more into the Hyde mythology, when you kill off your master, a Hyde will eventually go crazy. The idea is that Thornhill puts him in this position, and he kills her off in a fit of rage. What’s going to happen once he’s out without a master? That just seemed like a very interesting place, narratively. You have a deranged monster who’s slowly losing his mind. There are moments that you can see the real Tyler, and his feelings, fighting against his Hyde side — and there’s even more of that being explored in the second half of Season 2.
What This Means For Wednesday Season 2 Part 2
The mid-season break ends with more questions than answers. Tyler is on the loose, and how killing his master will affect him is something that Part 2 will explore. Wednesday, having accidentally made everything worse, is left contemplating her role in all this. It’s unclear whether the woman Wednesday helped in season 2, Part 1’s ending will have a role to play in Part 2, but with Willow Hill being liberated, it might be even harder to find out what truly happened to themissing Aunt Ophelia.
There is a lot to look forward to inWednesdayseason 2, Part 2, coming to Netflix on September 3. While nothing is confirmed, the co-showrunners' comments suggest that Ricci’s Thornhill might return in future episodes.Wednesdayseason 2 Part 2’s teaser, on the other hand, confirms that Wednesday survives the mid-season ending. Part 2 will see her in a coma, but she’ll return to the waking world.
While Part 1 solved one mystery, seeds have been planted for an even bigger mystery in Nevermore.Wednesdayseason 2, Part 1 sees discords rippling across all relationships and the conflicts between Normies and Outcasts intensifying.
Wednesday
Cast
Wednesday follows the journey of Wednesday Addams as she attends Nevermore Academy, a boarding school for outcasts. Tasked with mastering her psychic abilities, she confronts a series of town murders and a haunting family mystery from 25 years ago, all while managing new social dynamics.
