With Wednesday Season 2 finally streaming on Netflix, fans are diving back into the gothic world of Nevermore Academy. But it’s been nearly three years since we last saw Wednesday Addams navigate the supernatural halls of her boarding school, so a refresher might be in order before jumping into the new mysteries awaiting our favorite psychic outcast.
Quick Recap: Season 1 in a Nutshell
Wednesday Addams arrives at Nevermore Academy after being expelled from her eighth school in five years for defending her brother Pugsley with a piranha-filled swimming pool revenge plot. At the outcast-filled boarding school, she discovers her emerging psychic abilities while investigating a series of brutal murders committed by a monstrous Hyde. Between navigating roommate dynamics with bubbly werewolf Enid, joining the secret society The Nightshades, and juggling romantic tension with both tortured artist Xavier and normie barista Tyler, Wednesday ultimately uncovers that Tyler is the Hyde and their therapist Dr. Kinbott’s assistant, Ms. Thornhill (actually Laurel Gates), is his master. The season culminates with Wednesday defeating the resurrected Puritan founder Joseph Crackstone, saving Nevermore Academy, and receiving mysterious threatening texts from an unknown stalker.
The Detailed Season 1 Breakdown
Wednesday’s Arrival and Psychic Awakening
The series opens with Wednesday’s explosive exit from Nancy Reagan High School, where she dumps two bags of piranhas into the swimming pool to send a message to Dalton, a swimmer who bullied her younger brother Pugsley by tying him up in a locker. This act of sibling protection gets her expelled—her eighth school in five years—and lands her at Nevermore Academy in Jericho, Vermont.
Founded in 1791, Nevermore Academy serves as a haven for Outcasts—people with supernatural abilities that set them apart from “normies.” Wednesday’s psychic visions, inherited from her mother Morticia, begin manifesting just as she starts school. These touch-activated premonitions prove crucial to the mysteries that unfold throughout the season.
Life at Nevermore: Roommates, Cliques, and Secret Societies
Wednesday’s roommate assignment pairs her with Enid Sinclair, a colorful werewolf whose bubbly personality couldn’t be more opposite to Wednesday’s gothic sensibilities. While Wednesday strips her half of their shared room to black and white décor, Enid’s side explodes with rainbow colors and pop culture references. Despite their differences, the two gradually form an unlikely but profound friendship.
Enid introduces Wednesday to Nevermore’s social hierarchy, divided into four main cliques: Furs (werewolves), Fangs (vampires), Stoners (gorgons), and Scales (sirens). The school’s queen bee is Bianca Barclay, a siren who leads the Scales and serves as Wednesday’s initial rival.
Wednesday’s investigation into her visions leads her to The Nightshades, a secret society that technically lost its charter years ago but continues operating under Principal Weems’ blind eye. Members include Bianca, Ajax (a gorgon), Xavier Thorpe (a psychic artist), and others—including Wednesday’s own mother during her Nevermore days.
The Love Triangle and Growing Relationships
Romance complicates Wednesday’s life through a love triangle with Xavier Thorpe and Tyler Galpin. Xavier, described as Nevermore’s “resident tortured artist,” possesses the ability to bring his drawings and paintings to life. He and Wednesday share a childhood connection—she once saved him from being cremated alive after he hid in a casket at a funeral.
Tyler, son of Sheriff Galpin, works as a barista at Jericho’s Weathervane coffee shop. Their connection deepens when Wednesday escapes therapy sessions to spend time in town, though their relationship takes a dark turn as the season progresses.
The Hyde Mystery Unfolds
A series of brutal murders in the woods surrounding Nevermore sets the central mystery in motion. Wednesday’s visions reveal glimpses of a monstrous creature responsible for the killings, later identified as a Hyde—a supernatural being that requires both the creature itself and a master to unlock its deadly potential.
Initially suspecting Xavier due to his disturbing paintings of the creature, Wednesday’s investigation takes multiple turns. The truth proves more shocking: Tyler is the Hyde, having inherited the condition from his mother (a former Nevermore student), and his master is none other than Ms. Marilyn Thornhill, Nevermore’s seemingly innocent botany teacher.
Family Secrets and Dark History
The mystery deepens when Sheriff Galpin arrests Gomez for an old murder case involving Garrett Gates, a normie who died at a school dance years earlier. Wednesday’s investigation reveals that Garrett was actually killed by poison intended for outcasts—a plot orchestrated by his father to commit mass murder at the school event.
Garrett’s sister, Laurel Gates, supposedly died years ago but actually survived and assumed the identity of Ms. Thornhill. Her ultimate plan involves resurrecting Joseph Crackstone, Jericho’s Puritan founder who led a genocidal campaign against outcasts centuries earlier.
Ancestral Connections and Goody Addams
Wednesday’s visions connect her to her ancestor Goody Addams, one of the original outcasts who survived Crackstone’s persecution after arriving from Mexico. Goody becomes Wednesday’s spiritual guide, teaching her to harness her psychic abilities and ultimately sacrificing her afterlife existence to save Wednesday from death.
The ancestral connection proves crucial when Laurel Gates attempts to resurrect Crackstone using Wednesday’s DNA, stolen body parts from Hyde victims, and an ancient incantation. The resurrected Puritan founder returns in a Frankenstein-esque body, intent on completing his mission to destroy all outcasts.
The Final Confrontation
The season’s climax brings together multiple storylines as Wednesday races to stop Crackstone’s return. Principal Weems, revealed as a shapeshifter, helps Wednesday by impersonating Tyler to extract a confession from Laurel Gates. However, Laurel kills Weems with poison once her identity is exposed, making way for Steve Buscemi’s Principal Dort in Season 2.
The final battle sees Wednesday confronting the resurrected Crackstone with help from unlikely allies. Bianca overcomes her siren song limitations, Xavier uses his artistic powers to aid the fight, and Enid finally “wolfs out” for the first time, battling Tyler’s Hyde form in a dramatic forest confrontation. Wednesday ultimately defeats Crackstone by stabbing him in his black heart, following Goody’s guidance.
Emotional Moments and Character Growth
Throughout the supernatural chaos, Season 1 delivers surprising emotional depth. Wednesday’s most vulnerable moment comes when someone stabs Thing, the Addams family’s loyal disembodied hand companion. Her tears—the first since age six when bullies killed her pet scorpion Nero—reveal the depth of her capacity for love beneath her stoic exterior.
The season ends with Wednesday and Enid sharing their first hug, cementing their friendship despite Wednesday’s usual aversion to physical affection. However, the victory is short-lived as Wednesday receives threatening texts from a mysterious stalker while leaving Nevermore for winter break.
Setting Up Season 2
As the season concludes, several threads remain unresolved. Xavier gifts Wednesday an iPhone before her departure, though their romantic future remains uncertain following her kiss with Tyler and subsequent discovery of his true nature. Percy Hynes-White will not return for Season 2, closing that chapter of Wednesday’s story.
The mysterious stalker’s threatening messages set up new dangers for Season 2, while Wednesday’s growing mastery of her psychic abilities and strengthened relationships position her for whatever supernatural challenges await at Nevermore Academy.
With Principal Weems gone, a new dynamic awaits the school, and Wednesday’s reputation as Nevermore’s savior adds unwanted fame to her already complicated social situation. As Season 2 begins, Wednesday faces new mysteries while dealing with the consequences of her heroic actions and the ever-present threat of whoever is stalking her.
