Wednesday follows Wednesday Addams as she gets enrolled in a special boarding school for outcasts – the Nevermore Academy – only to find a great danger lurks in the corridors of the school.
Netflix’s Wednesday stars Jenna Ortega in the titular role with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzman, Emma Myers, and Christina Ricci, among others. Wednesday is created by Tim Burton, Alfred Gough, and Miles Millar. The series is based on the character Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family.
Wednesday Story Summary
Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) studies with her brother in an ordinary school. She sometimes has visions but is still miles away from being a good psychic. When Wednesday sets a monstrous fish free in the swimming pool on her brother’s bullies, the action results in her expulsion from school and ushers murder charges her way. Meanwhile, the news of a murder spree has already started spreading.
Wednesday’s parents, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzman), decide to send her to Nevermore Academy – a boarding school for outcasts – so that she can escape the attempted murder charges and find a place where she truly belongs. Before bidding farewell, Morticia gives Wednesday a locket that has the power to keep them connected, and Gomez leaves behind ‘Thing’, the dismembered living hand, to look after Wednesday.
Wednesday meets her roommate, Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers), who introduces Wednesday to the school dynamics. The other students believe that Wednesday was involved in murders before she came to Nevermore. Nevermore has all kinds of students, ranging from werewolves to psychics.
Being the rebel that Wednesday is, she tries to escape Nevermore several times but only ends up failing at her attempts. After Wednesday has been in Nevermore for a few days, Rowan, a fellow student, attempts to kill Wednesday using his superpower as he fears that she will be the reason for the destruction of Nevermore as predicted by his mother. But, out of nowhere, Rowan gets killed instead by a monster who appears suddenly and disappears before anybody else could see him. However, Wednesday bears witness to the murder of Rowan.
Shaken to the core by the things that have transpired, Wednesday decides to investigate Rowan’s death. During her investigation, Wednesday comes across Rowan’s sketchbook and hopes that it would help her get closer to the answers. She gets to know about a secret society that Rowan was a part of – the Nightshades – which includes other students, Bianca and Xavier, as well.
The Nightshades were a secret society that existed for a long time and Wednesday’s mother Morticia was also part of it. Wednesday is asked by the present Nightshade members of her school to join the secret society but she ends up refusing the offer.
Though initially Wednesday was dead set against friendships, eventually she starts making friends at Nevermore. Enid, Eugene, Xavier, and Tyler Galpin share a good bond with Wednesday. In the meantime, Tyler and Xavier also start vying for her attention. Also, Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci) seems to be a kind educator at Nevermore. She is the only normie at Nevermore and on several occasions, is very empathetic to Wednesday.
Wednesday Ending Explained
On a school outing, the students of Nevermore are taken to pay respects to the town’s founding father. When Wednesday gets a vision, she gets to know that Goody Addams, her ancestor from 400 years ago, and the town’s founder, Joseph Crackstone (William Houston), were sworn enemies.
In her vision, Wednesday sees that Joseph Crackstone gathered the outcasts in the meeting house and burned them alive. She connects the dots that there’s a connection between the past, her future, as prophesied, and the present in which the monster is on the loose.
Why Did Joseph Crackstone Hate The Outcasts?
Wednesday realizes that Rowan’s mother had got the prophecy wrong as she isn’t the destroyer of Nevermore. Instead, she is actually the savior of it as her ancestor Goody tried her best to save the outcasts. Instead, the destroyer turns out to be Crackstone who used to hate the outcasts who built Nevermore.
Joseph Crackstone used to steal land from the outcasts, but the outcasts managed to get their land back. The Nevermore Academy stands on the same land that was once stolen by Joseph Crackstone. With time, Joseph Crackstone and his descendants continued to hate Nevermore Academy and the outcasts. Wednesday concludes that Joseph Crackstone has something to do with the monster lurking at Nevermore.
With the help of Thing, Wednesday decides to investigate the bodies of the victims to find clues. During her investigation, she starts suspecting Xavier and follows him to a secluded shed where he usually sketches. At the shed, Wednesday finds a sketch of the monster. When Xavier catches Wednesday near the shed, to cover up, she asks him out to the school dance, Rave’N.
Wednesday then decides to seek help from Sheriff Donovan Galpin (Jamie McShane). Both of them are convinced that the monster belongs to Nevermore Academy. Later, she confronts Xavier about the paintings she finds in his shed. Xavier tries to defend himself by saying that he has been having vivid dreams and hence, is only painting pictures of the monster.
When Tyler gets to know that Wednesday is going to the dance with Xavier, he gets upset as he has feelings for her. However, Thing sends a polite request on Wednesday’s behalf, and Tyler and Wednesday end up going to the dance instead. For the dance, Wednesday cancels her plan to go to investigate further with Eugene. But Eugene proceeds alone and gets attacked by the monster. Eventually, Eugene ends up being admitted to the hospital.
Who Is Garrett Gates?
On the parents’ weekend, Wednesday’s parents visit her, and Larissa (Gwendoline Christie), the headmaster, addresses the problems that Wednesday has been creating at the school. After the meeting, Gomez gets arrested for charges of murder, and Wednesday uncovers the horrifying truth about her parents who studied in the same boarding school. She discovers that Gomes was involved in the death of Garrett Gates, a former student at Nevermore.
Garrett Gates was obsessed with Morticia and used to stalk her. His obsession reached its peak when he went to the Rave’N dance party. Gomez tried to stop Garrett from stalking Morticia and he ran behind him only to be attacked by Garrett with such a monstrous intensity as if he was possessed.
During a conversation with her mother, Wednesday gets to know that it was Morticia who killed Garret, not her father. However, Garrett was already dying from the Nightshade poison which he carried in his pocket with the intention to kill all the students at the school. When the vial containing the poison broke during the fight with Gomez, Garrett got poisoned.
Garrett Gates was part of the outcast-hating Crackstone family that hated Nevermore Academy. Garrett’s parents died soon after Garrett’s death and his sister Laurel was rumored to have drowned.
When seeking answers from Sheriff Donovan Galpin, Wednesday figures out the involvement of the Mayor, who was a Sheriff back when Garrett died and covered up the case to protect the town’s reputation. Wednesday negotiates with the Mayor that if he releases her father, then she won’t reveal what he did back then.
The Mayor accepts Wednesday’s deal and Gomez is released from the murder charges. Parents’ weekend comes to an end and while leaving, Morticia gives Wednesday her yearbook.
Is Larissa Behind The Killings At Nevermore?
While flipping the pages in Morticia’s yearbook, Wednesday comes across Larissa, who was her mother’s classmate, and finds out that she could turn into any character or singer she wanted to and realizes that Larissa is a shape-shifter. This helps Wednesday figure out Larissa’s involvement in the mysterious happenings at Nevermore.
In reality, Larissa had shape-shifted into Rowan and created a picture of him leaving the school campus to protect the reputation of Nevermore in front of the students. The reality was Rowan did die from the attack by the monster.
When Wednesday’s friends plan a surprise birthday party for her in Crackstone’s crypt at midnight, Wednesday finds an inscription etched on a wall that says, “Fire will reign when I rise” – which incidentally also happens to be the first line of the Nevermore song. When she touches the inscription, Wednesday experiences a vision in which Goody communicates with her and takes her to Garrett’s family mansion gate.
Along with Enid and Tyler, Wednesday reaches the Garrett family’s mansion. Garrett’s family were outcast haters. Inside the mansion, they find a built-in altar where Crackstone was worshipped, and they discover that someone had been using the altar recently. They split into teams to investigate further. But when Tyler gets attacked by the monster and is injured, the investigation is suspended.
Wednesday shows the picture drawn by Rowan to the headmaster and tells her about the prophecy of her being the savior of Nevermore. But Larissa doesn’t pay attention to what Wednesday has to say and warns her to be careful of her actions.
Wednesday had hit a roadblock with the investigation when her uncle Fester pays Wednesday a visit and gives her key information about the monster. Wednesday shows Fester one of Xavier’s sketches and Fester observes that the monster looks like Hyde from the novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Fester suggests to her that the founder of Nevermore Nathaniel Faulkner’s diary can be found in the Nightshades library and might contain clues regarding Hyde.
From Faulkner’s diary, Wednesday finds out more about Hydes. She finds out that Hydes lay dormant until unleashed by a traumatic event or hypnosis by a master. Wednesday suspects Xavier to be a Hyde as he had made sketches of the monster. Upon confrontation, Xavier chooses to ignore Wednesday, strengthening Wednesday’s suspicion.
When Wednesday reluctantly agrees to go on a date with Tyler and shares a kiss with him later, the truth about Tyler is revealed to her through a vision. Along with her friends, Wednesday confronts Tyler to confirm her vision. Bianca and the others use their powers to lock Tyler and question him, allowing the answer to the mystery behind the monster to be revealed.
Who Is The Monster At Nevermore?
Wednesday realizes that the Hyde who has been haunting Nevermore is actually Tyler as he had inherited genes from his mother, and the master who liberated Hyde is the unsuspicious Marilyn Thornhill, the educator at Nevermore.
Marilyn Thornhill’s real name is Laurel Gates. She is the rumored dead sister of Garrett Gates and hence, is connected to Crackstone, sharing the same hatred toward Nevermore as her ancestor. Upon this revelation, Wednesday realizes that Xavier was actually innocent and someone had planted fake evidence in his room, leading to his arrest a while earlier.
Wednesday also goes on to confront Laurel. Principal Larissa uses her power of shape-shifting and turns into Tyler to confront Laurel, and sheconfesses that she is the Hyde master. Upon realizing that she was tricked into confessing, Laurel then stabs Larissa and kills her.
Goody Addams and Crackstone had a rivalry and the same enmity continued in their descendants. The Addams family always took on the role of saviors of the outcasts whereas Crackstone’s descendants spread hatred against outcasts and tried to kill them.
In the same fashion, Laurel captures Wednesday and uses her blood to bring Crackstone back to life, and Crackstone makes one final attempt to destroy Nevermore by killing the remaining outcasts. However, Goody Addams guides Wednesday through her visions and asks her to stab Crackstone in his heart. Wednesday, along with Bianca, succeeds in sending Crackstone back to hell after following Goody’s advice. During the battle, Xavier and Wednesday also get an opportunity to clarify their misunderstandings.
Meanwhile, in the form of Hyde, Tyler battles it out with Enid who transforms into a full-blown wolf for the first time. Enid defeats Tyler momentarily, but he is not able to kill him. Later, Tyler is discovered by his father as he lay unconscious. On the other hand, Eugene helps Wednesday take Laurel down.
In the end, with Laurel now in police custody and Wednesday having successfully sent Crackstone back to hell, Nevermore closes for the semester. Xavier ends up gifting Wednesday a smartphone.
To Wednesday’s shock, she starts receiving messages from an unknown sender. From the messages, it becomes clear that Wednesday has a stalker who has been keeping track of her ever since her first day at Nevermore.
With a mysterious stalker behind her and Hyde still alive, Wednesday has much to look forward to in her next semester at Nevermore Academy.
Wednesday is now streaming on Netflix.
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