Wednesday’s season 2 has come and gone. And unfortunately, so has most of my enjoyment of the series. As someone who was cautiously optimistic about the direction Netflix took Wednesday and the Addams family in the first half of season 2, I never thought I’d feel so hoodwinked by a TV show.
From some truly bizarre writing choices to engineered viral moments barely disguised as narrative beats, here are 10 of the weirdest things in Wednesday season 2 part 2.
[Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for Wednesday season 2 part 2.]
10) Pugsley and Wednesday’s dynamic
Let’s be honest, if we had to pick our favorite Addams Family child, it’s probably always going to be Wednesday, isn’t it? But part 2 of Wednesday takes this to the extreme by giving Pugsley so very little to do, it’s a wonder that he was involved in the first place. What I find particularly strange is that we never get to see much of the siblings together, despite them going to the same school. As a younger sister, I like to see different sibling dynamics in TV but, outside of few handful of moments, most of Pugsley’s interactions come from his pet-zombie-turned-arch-nemesis or his father, Gomez.
I get that Wednesday is a busy show, with many different relationships as it is, but come on. If we’re going to focus on family dynamics, at least let us focus on the Addamses.
9) Enid and Bruno’s cheating storyline
Maybe I’m one of the few who just didn’t care about Bruno, but his relationship with Enid is, unfortunately, a key aspect of this season. It’s set up as this hopeful new romance for Enid. Is it earned or written well? Not really.
Enid and Bruno’s relationship takes a turn for the annoying when Wednesday discovers Bruno is cheating on Enid with another girl. Enid finds out, and Bruno begs him to take him back. At this point, I was ready for this plotline to end. Netflix disagreed.
In episode 7, Enid and Bruno get back together. Only, plot twist: Bruno’s ex-girlfriend arrives for unclear reasons. In response, Enid dumps Bruno again and swears off romance. G
Bottom line: Any romance on this show that isn’t Gomez and Morticia — and the tentative hint of one with Bianca and Ajax — is downright excruciating.
8) Wednesday’s coma lasting less than 10 minutes
On the one hand, I would have been very unhappy to follow anyone that isn’t Wednesday, the Addamses, or Enid. On the other hand, Wednesday’s writers continue to laugh at the thought of consequences, and it makes each narrative choice feel as weightless as a feather.
Wednesday in a coma? How could this affect the people around her and the ongoing hunt for Tyler now that he’s escaped? Will the Addamses have no choice but to come together and navigate their tenuous bonds or will they – Oh. What’s that? Wednesday’s up? Does this have zero effect on the rest of the story in part 2? It does? Oh, okay. Continue.
7) Gabrielle Barclay. Just, Gabrielle Barclay
In a show that already has far too many characters, and like, maybe only four I care about, I knew expecting some sort of characterization for Gabrielle Barclay would be asking a lot. That said, the choice to write a story about being the victim of a cult leader who used her body and powers to influence others to the point that Gabrielle loses her abilities, only to deny her any sort of voice, is downright disturbing.
Does Gabrielle speak more than 10 words in this entire batch of episodes? Why give her this storyline if we’re not going to let her have any autonomy? I don’t mind Gabrielle’s daughter Bianca taking the lead, as I thoroughly enjoy the psychological aspect of the parent/child roles being reversed, but it feels disingenuous to have her be there as a prop, which, ironically, is what she was for her ex-husband.
6) Morticia gets sidelined again
One of my biggest disappointments about Wednesday season 1 was the shocking lack of the Addamses, so I was overjoyed to know they would be close at hand in season 2. Unfortunately, part 2 is far more interested in making Morticia a comical figure, a misunderstood mother and wife whose only solace is the little time she gets to herself to write smut in her spare time.
“God forbid a woman have hobbies,” you might think, but let me explain. My issue isn’t that Morticia enjoys writing gothic 50 Shades of Gray in her free time, it’s the fact that Morticia feels like she has to hide it from Gomez and her family. This is a woman who, canonically, enjoys kinky sex with her husband. One of Gomez’s most defining traits is that he could be strapped into an iron maiden over a fire pit and the only thing he would be upset about was that he wasn’t kissing Morticia all the way through it.
Beyond that one truly strange choice, Morticia constantly gets the short end of the stick. Even when she and Wednesday tentatively form a truce at the end, it feels like it comes because Hester’s prejudice towards Gomez is what makes Wednesday realize her Grandmama isn’t all that. I wouldn’t mind, Wednesday’s a daddy’s girl, whatever, but the tension between Wednesday and Morticia gets resolved in such a sloppy way after they defeat Isaac that it feels unearned.
5) Hester Addams has her own prejudice
Prejudice plays a key role in Netflix’s Wednesday, but I’m being kind when I say that the show handles it with the grace of a butterfingered buffoon wielding a sledgehammer — especially when it uses real-life punishments like conversion camps to convey fantasy oppression. Yeah, guys, a conversion camp for werewolves is totally the same thing as conversion camps for the LGBTQ+ community.
Season 2 part 2 continues Wednesday’s bumbling tact by making Hester Addams, the mother of Morticia, into a bigot against Gomez. Why? Because he doesn’t have any powers.
One of the key aspects of the Addams family is that they’re welcoming to everyone, “normal” or not. They may be kooky, but the idea that Hester of them would hold a grudge just because Gomez doesn’t have powers is ludicrous and shows a real lack of understanding of what makes the Addams family so appealing in the first place.
4) Enid and Agnes’ dance number
As a musical lover, I do enjoy how music and narrative can seamlessly blend together to enhance an experience. The Enid and Agnes dance attempts to do that and, on a character and narrative level, it works. Enid and Agnes coming together despite their earlier animosity feels earned, and it reveals Principal Dort as the liar he really is to everyone else in Nevermore. Everyone wins.
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But it also feels like a viral marketing moment disguised as a narrative beat. Even as I appreciated what the dance was doing, it felt obvious to me that the show was trying to capture the same memeability that made Wednesday Netflix’s most-watched TV show. Season 1 had Wednesday dancing to The Cramp’s “Goo Goo Muck,” which quickly went viral — especially after one fan swapped in Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary.”
I get why Netflix wanted another moment that fans will repeat and meme on forever. I just wish they hadn’t made it so obvious.
3) The incoherence of narrative ties between season 2 part 1 and part 2
There’s a moment in part 2 where Wednesday makes an off-handed comment about how she had no idea the Bianca, Gabrielle, and Dort plotline was happening. That sums up one of the biggest issues plaguing Wednesday: there’s no actual coherence tying together the thin plot threads set up in part 1.
Wednesday sets up Augustus Stoneheart’s capturing of Outcasts to transfer their abilities to Normies to be a big deal — only for it to get dropped immediately in part 2. I wouldn’t mind, but it doesn’t play a part ever again, which makes me wonder why it was included in the first place.
Then there’s Morticia, Hester, and Wednesday’s generational spat, which is barely touched upon despite being so prominent in part 1. The three work together at one point, but it’s not longer after they’re back at each other’s throats.
The most egregious example is Enid’s prophesized death, which gets solved almost immediately, despite part 1 setting it up as the mystery plot of the season. It’s resolved with a bang and not a whimper, at least, but it’s disappointing at how adamant Wednesday’s writers are at snipping off genuinely fascinating plot threads right from the root to move onto the next thing. Stories aren’t fast food, let them have sustenance.
2) The Galpin Family drama
For a show centered on Wednesday Addams, part 2 focuses far too much on the dysfunctional trio of Isaac, Francois and Tyler Galpin. Isaac, who used to be Pugsley’s zombie pet Slurp, couldn’t care less about Tyler, but has an obsessive love for his sister Francois. Meanwhile, Francois thinks being a Hyde is a curse and wants Isaac to cure it from Tyler by sacrificing Pugsley. Tyler, on the other hand, is positioned as a sympathetic figure, but considering we’ve seen Tyler gleefully plot to kill Wednesday and Enid both, it doesn’t work for me. If you want me to feel more of a stab of sympathy for Tyler, Wednesday is going to have to work harder than that.
Furthermore, we don’t get to see why we should care about Francois and Isaac in the first place. So much of Francois’ storyline centers on her love for her brother and son that it doesn’t even consider lingering on the fact that she was kept in captivity and experimented on for years and years. How does she feel about it? How can we be expected to care about these characters when Wednesday doesn’t give us reason to?
1) The separation of Enid and Wednesday
The body-swap episode in part 2 is, without a doubt, the strongest episode of the entire season. It has everything: a really fun premise, a tightly structured plot that draws in almost the entire cast, and actual stakes that make you worry about both Wednesday, Enid, and their relationships.
It’s also an episode that actively plays into Wednesday’s biggest strength: the relationship between Wednesday and Enid. Whether you like them as friends or a possible romantic couple – though, the showrunners have said it’s never going to happen, sorry – the heart of the show is undoubtedly the relationship between these two girls.
They’re polar opposites in every way, and yet they can’t help but care for one another. It’s Wednesday’s love for Enid that drives her to run around trying to find ways to stop the prophecy of her death, and Enid’s desire to prove herself to Wednesday has her making some terrible, if somewhat understandable, choices to show her capability.
It’s enjoyable to see these two characters bounce off each other and risk everything for one another. The season ends with Wednesday teaming up with Uncle Fester to find Enid after she sacrifices her humanity to become a werewolf forever because the alternative was to let Wednesday die. These two are what, despite my many misgivings, keep me coming back. It would be a mistake to underuse them again in season 3.
