‘Wednesday’ Season 1 Ending Explained: Who Is The Hyde, and Why Is It Attacking People?
Welcome to the Ending Explained for Wednesday, a new Netflix TV series based on the character from the original Addams Family I.P. However, here, Wednesday is the protagonist of the series and shows another side to the popular character. The series stars Jenna Ortega who plays Wednesday herself, Gwendoline Christie, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane, Hunter Doohan, Percy Hynes White, Emma Myers, Moosa Mostafa, Luis Guzman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Fred Armisen, and Christina Ricci. Ricci previously played the character in theatrical movies from the 90s.
Wednesday is one of the best Netflix original shows from 2022. It reminds you somewhat of that first great season of Sabrina, the teenage witch, as the setup is basically the same. However, it manages to stand out thanks to some great use of visual effects, great casting, and solid production values. Sabrina started to become really bad following its second season, so we can only hope that Wednesday doesn’t follow that path. Jenna Ortega makes the character her own, and she really positions herself as one of the best young talents in the business.
The following paragraphs contain spoilers for Season 1 of Wednesday. Read at your own risk.
Why Is Wednesday Being Sent To Nevermore Academy?
The series begins by introducing us to the Addams Family. For those members of the audience who haven’t been able to meet them before this show, it will be striking to discover that they are not the most normal of families. They are mainly a very dark family that dwells in some very dark traditions but talk about those acts as if they are talking about going for a picnic on Saturday morning. They talk about monsters, murder, and more as if they were just normal things, so they don’t really fit within normal society, even when they are trying to.
Wednesday is the only daughter of the family, and she is indeed a very mischievous human being, she loves torturing her brother, and she also seems to be willing to go into a career as a writer. She has written several novels at this point, but publishers find her material too dark and say she should look for psychiatric help. When she sees some jocks bullying her brother Pugsley, she takes matters into her own hands. She releases a group of piranhas into the pool while the jocks are swimming. This transforms into an immediate expulsion, so her parents decide to send her to Nevermore Academy.
The Nevermore Academy is a place for outcasts, and monsters, people like the Addams who don’t exactly fit within normal society. Wednesday is unsure about going to the academy, but she has no other option. Wednesday’s mother, Morticia, was one of the most popular students of the academy during her time, and she wants Wednesday to do well as well, maybe, even making some friends along the way. Wednesday is placed with a roommate named, Enid, a werewolf and the complete opposite of Wednesday. Enid cannot wolf out completely, so she, like Wednesday, is an outcast among outcasts.
Wednesday doesn’t start with a good foot in the academy. She plans to escape several times, makes an enemy of the sheriff of a nearby town, and makes life more difficult for Larissa Ween, the director of the academy. However, she also meets Xavier, another outcast who is smitten with Wednesday, and Tyler, a normie, and the son of the sheriff. It seems like, while an outsider, Wednesday doesn’t lack attractiveness. Nevertheless, things get complicated when she is attacked by another student and saved by a monster for unknown reasons.
Who Is The Hyde, And Why Is Attacking People?
Wednesday was attacked by a student named Rowan, because of a prophecy that said that she would destroy the school and kill everyone in it. As the season progresses, Wednesday recruits other members of the academy. Together, they discover what the prophecy is and who is the monster who protected her is also killing people left and right, extracting some of their internal organs, and then disappearing. All the clues lead Wednesday to think Xavier is the monster, classified as a Hyde, in reference to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’s novel.
Wednesday discovers that she is wrong, though, and that Tyler is the real Hyde. His mother was a Hyde as well, and his father has been scared all these years that Tyler would get his mother’s curse. He does, he is not the real villain behind everything. Tyler confesses he is Hyde after he is rescued from torture. Wednesday goes to Mrs. Ween and asks for help. Thanks to Eugene, Wednesday discovers that the true villain is none other than Mrs. Thornhill the botanical science teacher.
Thornhill is trying to revive a dark mage called Joseph Crackstone, who is looking to destroy the academy. Crackstone was once stopped by Goody Addams, an ancestor of Wednesday. Wednesday fails to stop Thornhill and Crackstone comes back to life and almost kills Wednesday. Mrs. Ween is killed by Thornhill and Enid finally wolf-out to protect Wednesday. A huge battle ensues, and Wednesday receives the help of all the friends she has made along the way. Crackstone is finally stopped, and Thornhill is defeated along with him.
Wednesday and Enid lament the death of the director, but they realize she died protecting what she loved the most, the school. Wednesday leaves for vacation and doesn’t know if she will come back next trimester. As she departs the school, she receives a text message from an unknown source. She is being watched, and someone wants her dead. The season ends as we see Tyler going to prison, but transforming into Hyde form while he is being transported. This means he will probably escape custody, but we won’t know until Season 2 sometime in the future.
