Headscratchers / Wednesday

As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

Who is texting Wednesday's new phone with death threat emojis?

• And how did they get the number? Xavier bought the phone. Did he buy it in her name? It is possible she might have turned the phone down, That might have been awkward...
  • Did he buy it? It might just be a older phone, and since Xavier has a more recent version, he gave the old one to Wednesday. He could have had it wiped, but kept the old number the same, so anyone who knew his old number and saw him give it to Wednesday could have inferred what he did.

Tyler and sirens' powers?

• Why didn't Bianca use her Siren's call in "Chapter VIII : A Murder of Woes" to make Tyler confess he is really the Hyde, when he is tied up in Xavier’s art studio? Also, if she has a non-torture policy, why didn't she use her powers to prevent Wednesday from harming Tyler? This was clearly a duty to rescue situation.
  • They still believed Tyler doesn't know he is the Hyde and asking him would be fruitless. Bianca also is Xavier's ex-girlfriend and most likely knew he is a bully towards Outcasts and Xavier in general. She didn't want a part in it, but probably also wasn't keen on saving him.

Vampires scared of blood?

• Why were the vampires afraid and disgusted of the “blood” rain?
  • You would probably be disgusted by a milkshake rain. People usually hate having food all over their clothes.
    • Yeah, but I'd generally say "Eww!" and move out of the way, not flee like murder hornets are descending butt first.
    • It could be simple crowd mentality. Everyone was panicking, which in turn lead the vampires to panic too without not clear reason why. It's happened in real life instances.
  • They also likely could tell right away it was paint and not blood.
  • Being horrified by the prospect of trying to get blood (or paint) out of expensive white clothes could also play a part.
  • We don't know if vampires in this universe have to worry about blood triggering a bloodlust. Blood in general may be something that, if they are in proximity to it, it may cause them to completely lose control of themselves. If that's the case, then their reactions make sense: They're reacting to the paint because if they mistook it for blood and are panicking due to the fear that they could attack their classmates. They're running out of fear of potentially harming others.
  • There's also the possibility that there's something in the paint or whatever was used to dilute it down that is actually burning their skin, causing them to react in fear like they do.

Marilyn and murder?

• Why did Marylin kill the psychologist? She was a normie and had nothing to do with the downfall of her family (the only reason why she killed the coroner and mayor).
  • I think it was to recover the music box and also to make Wednesday look even more unhinged to others.
  • Because Dr Kinbott was poking around too effectively in the Hyde's psyche, risking the plans being derailed. Could also be that good therapy can break Marilyn's control over the Hyde?
• Wednesday says the mayor and the coroner were killed because they ruined Laurel's family. But how? If anything, they were helping Laurel's family by covering up the circumstances of Garrett's death. Wouldn't it make more sense that the mayor was killed because he figured out Laurel had faked her death, and the coroner was killed as part of a plan to frame Gomez?
  • It's more than likely that Laurel hasn't seen the full picture. All she knows is the bigotry that her father instilled in her and her brother, and that it was an outcast (Gomez) who killed Garrett. She more than likely didn't know that her father had set Garrett up in order to attempt to kill the outsiders at the Rave'N and surely didn't know of Garrett's obsession with Morticia. It could be possible she believed that her brother had been discovered during the attempt to kill the outcasts, and that the suppose self-defense that was seen was a means of covering up an actual murder. And it's not like the father is going to admit that he set Garrett up to get murdered, let alone admit that death was on his head (and likely shifted the blame on the outcasts). So, in combination of her father not telling her the whole story and the bigotry he instilled into her. She more than likely believed that Garrett was killed by all the outcasts at the Rave'N but made to look like it was self-defense, making her believe that the mayor and coroner covered up the murder to protect the outcasts. But then again, when it comes to people who hate other people, they have no real rational for their hatred, let alone their actions.
  • Possibly to make the psychiatrist look even more like the culprit who couldn't control the monster. Wednesday even believes this is the case until Eugene remembers seeing someone wearing red boots at the cave explosion.

Why didn't Gomez and Morticia send Wednesday to Nevermore to begin with?

• It was a family school, why send Wednesday to Nancy Regan where she is an outcast when she can be at a school that accepts people like her?
  • Why not send Pugsley there too?
  • It's a long way away from where they live ... perhaps, for all Wednesday's conviction that they were desperate to send her away, they actually couldn't face the thought of their daughter being away at boarding school? After all, in the 60s show, Gomez initially struggled with the idea of the kids going to school and being away at school all day.
  • It might also have been that Morticia and Gomez wanted their children to spend time with normal people to give them a more balanced and rounded world view.
  • I thought a lot about this, too. I think they were afraid of her being close to "the crime scene" so to speak. The sheriff held a grudge against Gomez, after all, so there was the chance he could target Wednesday only because she is an Addams. As for Pugsley, isn't he a middle schooler? I did not see any middle schoolers in Nevermore, only high schoolers.
    • Eugene must be around Pugsley's age (or even younger), so they are around, just not around Wednesday.
    • Pugsley's not in middle school, he also goes to Nancy Regan.
  • Wednesday is pretty explicit in the first episode about not wanting to do what her mother had done, likely Morticia and Gomez respected that as much as they could.
  • According to the Script Sneak Peek, that was shared on Entertainment Weekly, Pugsley is 13.
  • And Wednesday has only recently started getting visions, and it was seeing one and knowing who the bullies that shoved Pugsley in the locker that spurred her to do the piranha thing. Maybe before that she was merely anti-social.

Piranha in a pool?

• Wouldn't the piranha Wednesday sicced on Pugsley's bullies go into shock and die from the temperature difference or the chlorine in the school swimming pool?
  • It's Wednesday, for all we know she might have somehow bred them to last just long enough to do the job, plus real piranhas aren't actually anywhere near as aggressive as the media likes to portray them. In fact, there has never been an official recorded death due to piranha attack, perhaps the shock of their new dangerous environment is what drove them into a frenzy in the first place.
  • As Wednesday is implied to be writing the events of the season, we can imagine that she's embellishing the scene in her mind to make it look more impactful.
  • Given how rabid and swift they were, it’s surprising enough they were content in those plastic bags until Wednesday dropped them into the pool; with that in mind is it really so strange the water didn’t kill them before they were able to gnaw a teenager’s testicle off?

What exactly was the plan if Wednesday hadn't gotten herself expelled from Nancy Regan High?

• We know that when it came to Marilyn's plan, she had been having the Hyde going after several people to get parts for the grand plan of resurrecting Joseph Crackstone. According to what we see in the final episode, what was needed to lift the curse placed on Crackstone by Goody Addams was Wednesday's blood. Now, that's all great and all, but there's just one problem: the entire plan hinged on Wednesday getting expelled from Nancy Regan High and her parents delivering her to Nevermore. There's no way that Marilyn could have known Wednesday was going to be coming to Nevermore when she initiated her plan. And she had the plan already in full swing just before Wednesday's arrival. Now, someone could make the argument she knew Wednesday was coming because she found the journal with the picture on it, but the problem with that is that there's no exact date written on it, and even then, the Seer who drew it told her son to kill Wednesday if she were to arrive, but yet somehow didn't warn her son to be careful of Hydes (which she would have known about since her school had one when she was attending before they got rejected), but what are the chances of her finding the exact journal in the secret society's library, where it's shown to have many journals of the same color and type (and even then, there's no date on the drawing that indicates when Wednesday would arrive. So for all Marilyn knew, it could have been long after her death that Wednesday would arrive)? So, what exactly was Marilyn's plan if Wednesday didn't show up at Nevermore? Was she going to travel to where the Addams were and kidnap Wednesday? How would that work?
  • Marilyn/Laurel clearly knows an awful lot about the Addams family, given her familiarity with Goody Addams and her family's history with Gomez and Morticia. So maybe she kept tabs on them from afar and knew that Wednesday kept getting expelled from schools, figuring that her coming to Nevermore was inevitable. She had a whole dossier on Tyler's mom so it's not too much of a stretch to imagine she had the means to know what was happening in Wednesday's life at any given time. Plus, even though the picture in the diary had no date, it still depicts Wednesday as a teenager so Marilyn/Laurel would not have long to wait for her arrival.
  • On the flip side, Marilyn only needed Goody's book of shadows, the body parts, and Addam's blood to do the ritual. Assuming Wednesday does not get expelled or is instead sent elsewhere or homeschooled, she could have tried to get Pugsley expelled or kidnapped him. Also, since his bullying situation was pretty bad, finding a way to get him so bullied that his parents decided to transfer him to a more accepting school like Nevermore would have worked towards her plans. The only downsides are finding the Book of Shadows, and needing another scheme to pin the murders on a student, since there's no Wednesday around to sleuth.
  • She also has every reason to have a grudge against Gomez for killing her brother, and it's her actions in killing the coroner that get him arrested for it. Maybe that was the initial plan: frame Gomez, have him arrested and brought to Jericho (he most likely wouldn't have resisted even if police had come to his door with the warrant), and obtain his blood from there. Another Addams descendant falling into her lap in the right timeframe just gave her options.

What constitutes an "outcast"?

• What exactly separates the outcasts from the normies? Everyone at Nevermore seems to have some sort of power, but while Wednesday does have psychic powers, that wasn't known when she was admitted. Gomez attended the school and had no supernatural affiliation. If having supernatural powers isn't a qualification for admittance and being labeled an "outcast" what is? It's treated as such an objective dichotomy that surely it doesn't just mean "weird person who doesn't fit in easily with the general population."
  • The Addams seem to have different mutant powers, Fester has electrical powers, Itt is a mass of hair, etc. Gomez might be the equivalent of a Squib.
  • All the Addamses are highly resistant (if not totally immune) to poisons and while not immortal are to some extent Made of Iron. If the musical is anything to go by they also all share a stronger natural ability to see ghosts than the average person. Presumably Gomez still has these traits.
  • It could be that his outcast power is his insane luck that previous iterations of Gomez were known for, to the point it might have been the main source of income of the family, despite the fact gomez blindly invested his money into stuff without ever thinking about it or even forgetting it until it would pay out in a huge way. A possible indicator could be how lucky he (and by extend the school) got with the whole Garret Gates situation

Gomez and Morticia VS Garret

• How is it possible that two freaking Addams (well, an Addam and a Frumpt, but still) could be scared by an angry guy with a sword? Throughout the franchise, they would be acting nonchalantly even at the coming of Death itself, why aren't they laughing off his attempt to kill them with a sword? Even in the present, they seem to see it as a traumatizing experience for both.
  • How comfortable the members of the Addams family are with overt violence has varied across their multiple portrayals. Beyond that the violence they participate in is usually through the lens of good-natured fun and them not understanding why others wouldn't enjoy themselves. Garret by comparison was pursuing a rage-filled attempt to overtly murder Gomez. There was no charm or friendliness to it. It was a rampaging, jealousy-charged bigot that simply wanted to kill one or both of them.
  • Morticia is scared of the idea of Gomez being killed in a duel in the 60s show and does actually appear concerned for his safety when he comes to her rescue in the first film as well. The 90s live action TV show also has Wednesday being very concerned for and protective of Gomez when his cousin is trying to kill him. They're not fully immortal (also shown when e.g. in the musical the ancestor spirits have to dissuade Gomez from committing suicide by stabbing himself) even though they are Made of Iron, and while they're much less afraid of death than the average person (partly because they know the afterlife is real and can speak to ghosts, so it's not quite so...final for them) they don't actually want either their own or each others' lives to end any time soon. (Especially considering they're young here, at the start of their relationship, and likely have plans for their future together.) If they were actually about to die they'd probably be quite accepting of it and expect to be together in the afterlife—but that doesn't mean they won't try to defend themselves. Not to mention that, as the above troper pointed out, Garrett isn't just the fun kind of dangerous, he's a vicious bigot who actively hates them—while they must have known the history of the persecution of outcasts this was likely their first direct experience of it, and they're both generally friendly people who like to see the best in others, neither would enjoy realising that someone truly hated them that much and it would likely have come as quite a shock. Also Gomez in particular puts a lot of value on honourable and fair combat and would probably be shocked and caught off guard by Garrett attacking him while he was unarmed (and in some versions, e.g. the 60s show, Gomez was in poor health in his younger years and likely not as skilled in combat as he later became—between that and being unarmed he was very much outmatched which isn't a situation we see him in often.)
    • Some of what makes it a traumatising experience could also have been less the violence itself, and more (on Morticia's part) guilt that Gomez could have gone to prison for something she did, and (for both of them) the knowledge that the son of a rich and powerful normie family being killed at Nevermore could have had horrible consequences for the whole outcast community, perhaps even starting a modern-day witch-hunt, if Gomez hadn't taken all the blame.

Origin of outcasts

Since Hydes and gorgons are just another species of monster, though the former are seen as the most dangerous of all, how do The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which had the origin of Hyde be a science experiment gone wrong and Classical Mythology, which had gorgons be the result of Athena's cursing three women, fit into this universe's history? Was it prejudiced normie propaganda?

• Don't forget that Hydes have to be awaken by trauma, hypnosis or CHEMISTRY. Dr. Jekyll may simply be most famous example not the first. He may not know what he was and accidentally discovered formula that awaken his power, potion that would not have any effect on normal person.
• We don't know but mythological 3 gorgons may simply be progenitor of species and all gorgons are their descendents.
• The original gorgons were truly monstrous, and the idea was that they were so terrifying the sight of them turned you to stone. Although Medusa was killed by Perseus, her sisters Stheno and Euryale survived, so in this universe they could have interbred with humans that changed the bloodline so that they only had some powers in their eyes.
• In-universe Just So Stories? People have always been coming up with "origins" for anything from giraffes to volcanos based on their limited understanding of science or just plain Rule of Cool. In a world that includes gorgons as a fact of life, there's no reason to think they'd be excluded.

Nevermore Academy's name

Nevermore Academy was allegedly founded in 1791. But Edgar Allan Poe was not born until 1809. So how could it be named after a poem that was not yet written? It may have had a different name originally but the show does not give any indication that's the case.

• Perhaps it was the other way around and Poe named his poem after the school he attended.
• Nevermore is also just what the raven says in the poem. It's been used as a word since roughly the 12th century. Or more charitably, the person who named the school was psychic and had visions of Edgar Allan Poe and so...

Laurel Gates portrait

In the Gates family portrait which Wednesday finds, the young Laurel has very blonde hair and very blue eyes. This is presumably one of the reasons why Wednesday is quick to accuse the very fair, blue-eyed Dr Kinbott of being Laurel Gates. But in the end the redheaded, dark-eyed Miss Thornhill is revealed to be Laurel Gates. Why are her eyes, in particular, the wrong color?

• It's a portrait, not a photograph. The artist might have given her a lighter complexion. Also, young children often have fairer hair and eyes; both can darken with age.
  • Well yeah, but that, especially the eye thing, tends to occur within 6 months to a year after birth. She looks at least five in the portrait. If not the hair, at least the eyes should be near the same color as her portrait.
  • Possibly this is a consequence of recasting Miss Thornhill during production. Christina Ricci was a last minute replacement for Thora Birch, who filmed a lot of her scenes. She has much lighter coloured eyes, although green rather than blue. But possibly she wore coloured contacts to throw Wednesday off the scent? The hair at least can easily be explained by dyeing to conceal her identity.
  • She was operating under an alias and very much didn't want to be identified (she killed the mayor as soon as he seemed to figure out her identity). It would be stranger if she hadn't altered her appearance.

Crackstone as an effective antagonist

It's revealed that the villains are trying to resurrect Crackstone because he was so effective at killing outcasts in his own time, but while he was alive he only really employed fire and hatred. Even if he's charismatic and good at manipulating people, he knows nothing about the modern world, so how would he be remotely equipped to do the same thing in the present day? Even if they knew he'd get supernatural powers, why do they think he'd win against an entire school full of supernatural beings?

• They are religious fanatics, completely devoted to someone who promised that he'd return someday and finish what he started. They probably saw it as a sort of "second coming" that would deliver divine judgment.

Confronting the Villain

When Wednesday and Weems confront Thornhill they do so alone with no backup and with seemingly zero preparation for if she turns violent. Even if the goal were to not put her on her guard and taking more time to prepare could have given her time to escape, why on earth would either of them get close to someone who just confessed to arranging multiple murders or be surprised when she lashes out?

• Thornhill is a normie, committing murders through her command of the Hyde. Wednesday and Weems probably don't consider Thornhill a serious threat on her own and expect her to fold when confronted. Weems also prefers to deal with problems discreetly to protect the school's reputation, while Wednesday, as pointed out by Thornhill, tends to overestimate herself.

Coroner stupid?

Why didn't he check Wednesdays pulse to see if she was actually dead all he did was feel her cheek, and says that she's been dead for a while.

• He had no reason to believe a living person would be lying around in the morgue, so it was reasonable to assume she was dead.