‘Wednesday’ Season 1 Finale Spoiler Recap & Review: “A Murder of Woes”

The first season finale of Netflix’s Wednesday is here, and so is this review, haha. If you are reading live, I applaud your loyalty. Never mind the fact the series premiered back in November of 2022, let’s move on.

Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) faced a shocking revelation in the last episode: the hyde’s true identity. Shocking? Only half for me. Disappointing? Slightly. But it’s always the sweet ones that turn sour. Or is it the other way around?

Tyler Shows His True Colors

Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan) meets Wednesday in the woods where she confronts him for his sleazy, lying ass. All the clues in the past are weaving together and creating sense in her mind. Yet Tyler still denies the truth in it all. Some of Wednesday’s friends, Bianca Barclay (Joy Sunday) included, have come out to help her. Bianca uses her siren powers to get Tyler to sleep and comply while they trap him in Xavier Thorpe’s (Percy Hynes White) shed to interrogate him.

Wednesday figures out that Tyler’s mother was a hyde—an outcast—which explains why Tyler would be one as well. Things turn dark when Wednesday resorts to torture methods to get Tyler to admit the truth. As much as everyone had her back in all this, they are also quick to run away before possibly getting arrested. I mean, Tyler is the sheriff’s son after all.

I’m starting to wonder why Tyler is denying everything when he’s clearly been caught. There must be some bigger plan of destruction or the possibility that Tyler doesn’t even know he’s the hyde, psychologically checking out whenever he transforms. Before Wednesday can attack Tyler once more, Sheriff Donovan Galpin (Jamie McShane) catches her and brings her back to the station.

I am crossing out Tyler’s obliviousness as a prospect because he knows. He knows everything. He even so much as taunts Wednesday with his win and has everyone under his manipulative talon, his father included.

As we could have guessed, our female protagonist is finally expelled. She takes the chance to visit an incarcerated Xavier to pseudo-apologize in her own Wednesday way and warn him that it’s Tyler behind it all (“I’m glad you were getting some action while I was falsely accused.”) Unfortunately, and rightfully so, Xavier is done with helping Wednesday out. He claims she is full of toxicity and just manages to make everything worse, risking the people around her with danger.

Wednesday agrees with Xavier in that the prophecy can’t come true (fiery destruction of Nevermore) if she remains there, so she is willing to just leave everything and everyone behind. However, she is more concerned knowing that Tyler is still walking around free as the hyde.

A Surprising Suspect

As Wednesday makes her rounds, she visits Eugene Ottinger (Moosa Mostafa). He is now awake to express his regret and sorrow for going against her demands at the Rave’N Dance and getting himself hurt in the process. Eugene begins to recollect small memories about who he saw blowing up the cave in the woods before getting into his coma. The details weirdly connect to Ms. Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci).

Wednesday confronts Ms. Thornhill as the real Laurel. If we have learned anything so far about the series’ titular character, it is that she will confront anyone head-on, disregarding the fact that she could be wrong. Which so far, she mostly has been. But that’s just a true testament to her character; she’s confident in herself and full of sheer audacity.

Tyler appears and Ms. Thornhill—or Laurel—doesn’t even exhaust herself by denying anything as false. Instead, she orders Tyler to kill Wednesday and get everything over with. But Tyler transforms into Principal Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie), who was disguising herself to learn the truth about the situation. Before Weems could even do anything about it, Laurel kills her and knocks out Wednesday. For a moment, it seemed like Wednesday had the upper hand, but Laurel has had years to organize her revenge.

Enid Wolfs Out

Thing (Victor Dorobantu) tells Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers) about what happened and she, along with Ajax Petropolus (Georgie Farmer), runs to Crackstone’s Crypt to hopefully save her.

Goody Addams (Jenna Ortega) had cursed Joseph Crackstone (William Houston) in his coffin and the only key to open it up is a direct descendant. Enter Wednesday. And the convenient blood moon. Along with all of the body parts of the murder victims, it is obvious this is a sacrificial ritual. Laurel is successful in resurrecting Crackstone so that they could continue what he started a long time ago: getting rid of all the outcasts in the world (the prophecy, if that were not already obvious).

Crackstone stabs and kills Wednesday but we are not even near the end yet so surely it is not the end for her, right? Goody visits her descendant to tell her that Crackstone needs to be stabbed in the heart. Kind of difficult for her to do when she’s literally bleeding out. Hindrance aside, Goody possesses the power to heal Wednesday so that she can kill Crackstone once and for all. She must be careful though because Goody can only save her once.

Since we are on the topic of finalities, Enid finally wolfs out on her way to finding Wednesday. As Wednesday is running through the woods, Tyler finds her before Enid does and Wednesday threatens him that it won’t end well for him. Considering she only has psychic abilities, I wonder where she garners her confidence from, the same kind that has dropped her off on death’s door on multiple occasions.

Enid saves Wednesday from getting killed and finds herself in a full-out battle of the beasts with Tyler as the hyde. It is long enough to distract him and for Wednesday to get back to Nevermore.

Wednesday faces Crackstone in the quad but she is not alone. Xavier comes in with his bow and arrow but Crackstone turns the arrow around at Xavier. Wednesday steps in the way and takes the hit, all before pulling it out like a bad bitch and continuing her battle with Crackstone. Crackstone has the upper hand on Wednesday but Bianca stabs him in the back, distracting him so that Wednesday can stab him in the heart for good measure. He combusts into flames and saves Nevermore from utter destruction!

How was it that easy, though? Just kidding. Laurel shows up with a gun.

You do not bring a gun to a knife fight. Or Eugene will release all of his bees and Wednesday will kick you in the head.

The End…?

Laurel and Crackstone’s defeat, and saving Nevermore was truly a team effort. Wednesday could not have done it without any of her friends. She even hugs Enid back! Wednesday and Xavier have a heart-to-heart and he gifts her with a phone, welcoming her to the 21st century.

Our main character finishes up her novel with a questionable question mark after “The End,” and if you are familiar with the ending trope in horror, it is basically a sign that says it is not over. But we do not need to analyze anything to know that because the final shot is of Tyler breaking out of his constraints and transforming into the hyde.

Final Thoughts on the Wednesday Season 1 Finale

This first season for Wednesday came to a satisfying and appropriate end. Most of the mystery was kept until this very last episode, which only gives us more of an expectation for any future seasons.

There was a major character development for Wednesday in all aspects of her life. Her relationship with her parents is closer than ever, and she now has people in her life she can call friends. However, it would be wrong to assume she is an entirely changed person now. Wednesday must still keep that independent, spooky nature of hers so as to not modernly transform the iconic character and piss off the fans. I can actually see Wednesday being more distant and alert in the next season, considering the one person she trusted the most turned out to be the monster all along.

Now that the first season has ended, it is opened up the discussion board for what fans expect and want for the next season. More Uncle Fester is on my list, along with the infamous Morticia and Gomez. Hopefully, we’ll see both Enid and Wednesday learning and perfecting their powers. Principal Weems was a grounding authoritative figure in Wednesday’s life, I can only hope we have another Weems who has an undying loyalty to Nevermore. Along with everyone else, I am also interested to see where the creators direct Wednesday’s love life. It was smart not to expand so much on it this season, giving room for audience reaction and planning accordingly.

Assumptions aside, I am interested to see where Alfred Gough and Miles Millar take us in future seasons. How will they deviate and expand the life of Wednesday Addams further than what we have historically seen her as?

The suspense is killing us.