During Parents Weekend, Wednesday digs into her family's past — and accidentally gets her dad arrested. Enid feels the pressure to "wolf out."
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents:
- Bianca's mom attempts to blackmail her daughter into returning to the cult with her, threatening to reveal that she enrolled into Nevermore under false pretenses.
- Enid's mother is obsessed with getting her daughter to wolf out, even pressuring her into attending a "conversion camp" to do so.
- This could apply to Ansel Gates who pressured his son Garrett into committing mass murder, resulting in the latter's death.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Weems argues that she was protecting the peace between the normies and outcasts by covering up Rowan's murder, Wednesday asks how she is protecting people like the comatose Eugene, whose condition is the result of a monster attack.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Bianca refers to her mother as "Gabrielle". This is just one of many indicators as to how frosty their relationship is.
- Crime of Self-Defense: In Gomez's telling of events, Garrett chased him around the school with a saber before cornering him, losing the saber to Gomez in the resulting struggle, and walking into it by accident. This is still treated as murder by Sheriff Donovan, who had already stated he wanted Gomez behind bars in the first episode. What really happened was during the struggle the vial of nightshade in Garrett's breast pocket shattered, causing the poison to enter his system. While this still technically makes Gomez partly responsible, it is still in the field of self-defense.
- Dirty Cop: Walker knew of the Gates' plan to poison the Nevermore students with nightshade and that Garrett had actually died from nightshade poison. Walker covered it up because he was in Ansel Gates' pocket.
- Disappeared Dad: Xavier's dad is evidently this, as he doesn't show up at school for the Parents Weekend, and he's notably bitter about it.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Enid's mother attempts to pressure her daughter into attending a camp to help her "wolf out". The camps are specifically referred to as conversion therapy camps, like the ones where conservative parents send their LGBTQ kids to make them straight. It might feel like Enid's mom is less concerned about Enid wolfing out and more about being gay.
- Dogged Nice Guy: According to Gomez, Garrett acted like this to Morticia, mistaking her friendly behavior for romantic interest. Garrett goes as far as to attempt to kill Gomez over it, and Gomez says he killed him in self defense.
- Driven to Suicide: Following his death, Garrett's mother hung herself in her backyard. It is possible she is aware of the true nature of Garrett's death and why he was at the Rave'n that night.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Ansel Gates drank himself to death after the deaths of his son and wife, both likely the results of his own actions.
- "Eureka!" Moment: As Morticia describes Garrett's demeanor and appearance that night, Wednesday recalls that there's another explanation for his wild behavior: Nightshade poisoning. Morticia is shocked that she never considered it, not wanting to reflect on that day.
- Henpecked Husband: Enid's dad is implied to be this to some degree. While his wife regularly bothers Enid into joining summer camp and constantly talks about getting her to "wolf out", he just sort of stands off to the side, not getting involved. It's only when Enid stands up to her and bluntly tells her she won't be joining camp at all, and when Enid's mother leaves, that he encourages his daughter to be whoever she wants to be.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Ansel Gates instructed his son Garrett to kill the kids at the Rave'N dance with nightshade. During a fight with Gomez, the vial containing the poison breaks inside Garrett's jacket and enters his system. He was already dying before Morticia stabbed him to protect herself and Gomez.
- I Did What I Had to Do:
- This is how Noble justifies covering up the true circumstances of Garrett's death. He claims that telling the truth would have led to a trial that would have been disastrous for the reputations of both Nevermore and Jericho, and that using Gomez as the fall guy spared the school and the town bad publicity. However, Morticia tears down his excuse by pointing out that the real reason he did it was because he was in Ansel Gates' pocket and that he could have put an end to Garrett's harassment of her before it escalated to violence.
- Weems justifies covering up Rowan's death as her protecting Rowan and the school's reputation. Like the above, Wednesday tears apart this excuse by pointing out that her actions aren't protecting anyone as seen with Eugene being in a coma from the monster attack.
- Irony: Gomez took the fall for Morticia stabbing Garrett in self-defense. However, Garrett was already dying from the nightshade poison that had spilled on him when the vial broke in his jacket during his fight with Gomez. Neither Gomez nor Morticia were aware of this and have spent years covering up for a death neither of them is responsible for.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Wednesday's efforts into uncovering the nature of Garrett's death ends up getting Gomez arrested, and then Morticia and Wednesday are arrested for digging up Garett's grave. This ends up zigzagged, as while Gomez gets punished for a decades-old murder, Wednesday discovers that both of her parents are innocent, and that Garett was more than just a Dogged Nice Guy. So while there's a temporary screw-up, in the end her actions are rewarded.
- Not Quite Dead: It's revealed that Eugene barely survived the Beast's attack, but he's still in a comatose state in the hospital.
- Nutritional Nightmare: At the Parents' Day buffet, Pugsley is shown helping himself to a stack of moon pies drenched in maple syrup.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Larissa Weems and Morticia Addams exchange some nice piques whenever they're together.Morticia: Oh, don't be so modest. You've always filled a room with your presence. Like a stately sequoia tree.
Weems: And I guess that would make you the lumberjack.
Morticia: There's that biting sense of humor that I always adored.
- Played with in that only Weems seems to truly see it as combat; Morticia appears to think they're on much better terms than they are and isn't trying to actually insult her. That comment about adoring her sense of humour is almost certainly genuine.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite the previous hostility, when Sheriff Galpin learns the truth of Garret's death he both quickly releases Gomez and drops any further animosity, not hesitating to apologize. They even briefly bond over Wednesday and Tyler's friendship.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Morticia and Wednesday give one to mayor Walker about how he tried to cover up the truth about Garret's death, and how he could have easily prevented things from ever escalating this far if he had taken Morticia's complaints about Garret stalking her seriously.
- The Tell: Wednesday notes to herself that, though Gomez's retelling of Garett's death sounds truthful enough on the surface, he has at least two unconscious behaviors to indicate his nervousness or untruthfulness. These include stroking his mustache and giving a supposedly comforting wink at who he's talking to.
- Taking the Heat: Gomez took the fall for killing Garrett Gates in self-defense, when it was really Morticia who did it. Or so they both thought.
- Title Drop: When Wednesday and Morticia are digging up Garrett's grave, the officer that catches them mentions having an "Addams Family Reunion".
- Yandere: Garrett Gates was obsessively in love with Morticia to the point where he tried to murder Gomez out of jealousy.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Garrett seems to be this, as his father yells at him to "prove you're my son" when presenting the nightshade to him that fateful night.
