It has been almost three years since Wednesday premiered on Netflix. The supernatural mystery comedy series, based on the character Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) and her family by Charles Addams, was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews, including four Primetime Emmy Award wins. Within three weeks, it was the second-most-watched English-language series for the streamer.
With so much time having passed since the eight-episode first season, it’s ripe for a refresher on what happened. That’s especially as we anxiously await Season 2, which is coming in two parts on August 6, 2025, and September 3, 2025.
Wednesday Uses Her Psychic Powers To Investigate a Murder
After being expelled from school, Wednesday is sent to attend Nevermore Academy, which her parents, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzmán), attended. She’s less than thrilled to go to this school for outcasts, but that’s par for the course for the morbid, deadpan teenager.
Upon arrival, she meets numerous people who annoy and eventually endear themselves to her. But while trying to deal with the adjustment, Wednesday realizes she has inherited her mother’s psychic abilities. She begins to use them to try and solve a local murder, especially as visions overtake her from time to time. Of course, she enlists the help of her friend Thing, the sentient disembodied hand played via motion capture by Victor Dorobantu.
Wednesday tries desperately to convince others that the murderer is a monster, but her pleas fall on deaf ears. So, she decides to investigate herself and try to prove it. In the process, she comes across a strange painting of the same girl she is seeing in her visions, who also happens to bear a striking resemblance to her.
In the middle of the investigation, Wednesday learns that the murder her father was accused of committing so many years ago was actually committed by Morticia, and he took the fall to protect her. Upon digging up the body of Garrett Gates (Lewis Hayes), Wednesday and Morticia discover that he was actually poisoned before he was supposedly killed, which means Morticia didn’t really kill him. Discovering that the man was planning to poison the entire school and that the mayor covered it up, Gomez is released and cleared of all his previous charges.
The Monster and Its Master are Revealed
As Wednesday and Thing continue to search for the evil monster, she starts to grow suspicious of others. Her desire to find it intensifies when the monster attacks Eugene (Moosa Mostafa), an awkward fellow student Wednesday tries to protect. One person who gets on her radar is Xavier (Percy Hynes White), a young student with psychic abilities who can bring his artwork to life.
After summoning fellow psychic Goody Addams (also played by Ortega), Wednesday discovers that Garrett’s younger sister Laurel Gates, who had been presumed dead, might actually still be alive. The theory is strengthened when they find the severed body parts of the monster’s victims in a cellar of the Gates mansion. In the interim, Mayor Noble Walker (Tommie Earl Jenkins) is killed in the hospital by a mysterious figure.
With the help of Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen), Wednesday learns that the monster who has been wreaking havoc in the area is a Hyde. Most importantly, for a Hyde to do its work, it must have a master. Wednesday is convinced the master is Xavier, but her research eventually leads her to Laurel instead. She is indeed still alive.
Meanwhile, however, Xavier has been arrested on suspicion of being the Hyde, which leaves the door open for Wednesday to pursue her confusing feelings for Tyler (Hunter Doohan), the local barista and sheriff’s son who seems enamored with Wednesday, and she clearly has feelings for him, too. But when they finally kiss, she has a vision that he is the Hyde and panics. With the help of her classmates, they kidnap Tyler, and Wednesday tortures him to get him to confess. He eventually does, but only secretly to Wednesday after she is forced to stop her interrogation by Principal Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie).
Thanks to Eugene’s description of his attacker, Wednesday and Weems figure out that Ms. Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci) is the master, and thus Laurel Gates under an assumed identity. Her goal? To resurrect Joseph Crackstone (William Houston), the founder of the town, who despised outcasts, and vowed to eliminate all outcasts from earth.
How ‘Wednesday’ Season 1 Ends
Sadly, Weems is killed during the attack, and Laurel uses Wednesday’s blood to bring Crackstone back. On the brink of death, however, Wednesday is resurrected by Goody, who magically heals her. While this is going on, Enid (Emma Myers) is finally able to fully transform herself into a werewolf and uses her newfound power and confidence to defeat Tyler in his Hyde form.
Together with the help of her once rival and now friend, Bianca (Joy Sunday), the pair destroy Crackstone while the once timid Eugene helps them take down Laurel as well.
With Xavier now cleared of his charges, Tyler detained in his human form, and the school year over, Wednesday heads home to await the next semester. Finally embracing technology thanks to Xavier, Wednesday looks at her new phone to see an ominous message from a supposed stalker. Someone has been watching her, and they are out for blood. “I know the suspense is killing you,” Wednesday says, addressing the audience. And she’s right.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
