Uneven, convoluted but ultimately a lot of fun, this first half of season two does deliver on the promise of the first but the execution leaves a little to be desired.
This review contains full spoilers for the first four episodes of season two.
This season will be split in half to preserve my sanity and yours.
2.1 Here We Woe Again
The episode starts strong with Wednesday tracking down and capturing a serial killer. Unfortunately, this is just an outlier and things quickly progress back to the status quo, with Wednesday returning to Nevermore – this time with Pugsley and the rest of the family in tow. The new Principal is also introduced: Barry Zort (Steve Busemi) who has a lot of energy and comes across as both goofy and a bit smarmy. He helps pave the way for Morticia and Gomez to stay on campus for the duration of the school year.
On paper, that is a good thing for the season, as both Catherine Zeta-Jones (Morticia) and Luis Guzmán (Gomez) are excellent in the roles. Unfortunately, they end up stealing a bit more screen time than they should have, which really pushed down the primary plots especially in the first half of the season. Although, due to a central conflict between mother and daughter, there were also some excellent scenes between Morticia and Wednesday.
The central conflict for Wednesday and Morticia in this episode centered around Morticia holding back Goody’s diary because she fears Wednesday is using her psychic gift recklessly. We also learn that there is a mysterious Avian type Outcast who can control birds, in this case a deformed eyed Raven who is seen haunting crime scenes. Specifically, the murder of one of Sheriff Galpin's (Jamie McShane) friends who seems to be linked to the controller of the bird.
The final act of the episode culminates at a school sponsored bonfire, where Wednesday’s beloved book is threatened and she nearly dies in the fire. Zort makes some big declarative statement about Wednesday being the savior of Nevermore, and of course she rejects it, completely destroying a commissioned painting that features her smiling. This leaves her yet again as a bit of an outsider, one to be feared and respected. Overall not a bad start, although uneven. The episode ends with Wednesday having a vision of a gravestone with Enid’s name etched on its face, which of course raises the stakes for the rest of the season.
2.2 The Devil You Woe
This episode picks up with the aftermath of the vision, with Wednesday and Morticia going at it over Goody’s book and Wednesday’s visions again. Wednesday decides to stop at Sheriff Galpin’s house, where she finds him dead, killed by birds as well. The only clue is a vanished phone, which the new Sheriff accuses Wednesday of stealing. It was a bit predictable for her to be caught at the murder scene, but it is fun when Gomez shows up and basically intimidates the Sheriff into letting her go.
Oh, and I totally glossed over Pugsley and Eugene and their discovery of the boy under the skull tree, a Da Vinci student that had replaced his own heart with a mechanical one and died under mysterious circumstances. He is somehow resurrected as a mindless zombie, as his brain is literally missing from his skull. They decide to keep this creature in Eugene’s bee hut, chained up and clearly hungry, because that is the sensible thing to do with a zombie. Of course the Zombie gets out by the end of the episode, killing a poor motorist who happened to cross its path.
There is also a subplot involving pranks, which are a bit fun to watch for the most part, although the biggest 'prank' involved Agnes capturing Enid and her new boyfriend Bruno and staging a falling dagger ceiling trap to challenge Wednesday. This sets up an antagonistic relationship between Enid and Agnes, as they kind of fight for Wednesday’s attention, or is it affection? Because in any other context, this would be a weird romantic triangle. Agnes has the somewhat unique ability to turn invisible, which both defines her personality at this point in the story and is a valuable tool as the season progresses.
At first I wasn’t sure about Agnes, especially with her weird obsession with Wednesday and her deadly game centered around Enid (more on that in Part Two.) Agnes was also responsible for stealing Galpin’s phone and is outed as the stalker from the final scene of season one. I guess that’s one mystery solved. There is also a new subplot with Zort using Bianca to manipulate Morticia into something involving a dance. More on that one later as well.
2.3 Call of the Woe
Episode three is dominated by a camping trip, where a bunch of ROTC recruits show up and challenge the Nevermore students to a competition of capture the flag to see who gets to use the camp. The main highlight of the entire scenario is Anthony Michael Hall (The Breakfast Club, The Dead Zone) who is the commander of the ROTC group. He ends up falling to Slurp (Pugsley’s zombie) who seems to be snacking on brains for a specific reason, but we don’t know quite what it is yet.
I should also mention there has been a continuing plot involving a psychiatrist named Dr. Fairburn (Thandiwe Newton) who is in charge of a local facility called Willow Hill, which just so happens to hold Tyler Galpin, the Hyde villain and former love interest for Wednesday. She had a face to face with him in an earlier episode and he definitely wants to kill her. Of course there was another big Willow Hill reveal at the end: Marilyn Thornhill, the actual big bad of season one, is both alive and revealed to be transferred to Willow Hill.
Wednesday going off to camp is out of character, so of course she has an ulterior motive, furthering the investigation into Sheriff Galpin’s death. She had narrowed down the clues to point to a cottage in the middle of the woods that Galpin’s other murdered friend owned. She discovers a clue board and the name Lois in bold red letters at the center, all involving dead patients at Willow Hill.
There was also an extended sword fight sequence between Morticia and Wednesday, which was really well done and quite engaging to watch. The stakes were all about Goody’s book, which thankfully finally ended this particular sub-plot. Wednesday loses, which felt a bit anti-climatic but was probably for the best, character-wise. I totally understand Morticia wanting to keep Wednesday safe, but destroying that book felt like a really bad decision. I guess we’ll see if Wednesday has another option for recovering her visions.
So I guess I should talk about Enid’s love life a bit, because of course it is far too early for Wednesday and Enid to realize they are meant for each other (yes I’m an unabashed shipper). She has been struggling with her relationship with Ajax, and has been secretly dating Bruno, another werewolf and pretty boy that seems… fine, if not a bit boring. Overall the entire scenario is kind of dull, and while it gives Enid some screen time I would rather her be interacting with Wednesday. She did finally fess up to Ajax in this episode, and they officially broke up.
2.4 If These Woes Could Talk
This is a strange episode. It felt like a season ending with all the various plots coming together at Willow Hill where people die and the big bad up until this point is revealed. Yet, oddly enough, the focus was on Fester returning to help Wednesday infiltrate Willow Hill. While all of his scenes are delightful and his weird romance with the cafeteria worker was almost sweet, this is a strange choice for such an important episode.
Yet, upon rewatch I could see what they were doing with this episode and I think it was ultimately the way to go. This wasn’t the true big bad reveal, or even the end of all the mysteries. It was literally a mid-point where all the season one plots were effectively wrapped up and the pressing mystery was solved. This is a reflection on rewatch, because I was a bit unsatisfied with this mid-season finale the first time around.
So a lot happens in this episode. But the crux of the situation is Dr. Fairburn’s assistant Judi turns out to be the big bad. She is the daughter of one of the former human professors at Nevermore who used a machine to give his normal daughter Outcast powers, specifically the ability to control birds. She is revealed to be the Avian Killer, whose entire agenda is murky at best, but has something to do with giving all normals Outcast powers. Judi is also secretly in control of Willow Hill and Dr. Fairburn in particular. It turns out that all those dead patients on the clue board in the abandoned cabin are actually alive and kept captive in an underground lab called L.O.I.S where Judi has been hiding and experimenting on them for years.
If that was not enough, Marion Thornhill manages to manipulate her way into visiting with Tyler who transforms into his Hyde and kills her, then escapes, causing chaos to erupt. It is a relatively tense scene, with Wednesday and Fester freeing the imprisoned patients in L.O.I.S. and Tyler killing things left and right. Slurp has also been imprisoned in the facility so it gets out too, killing Dr. Fairburn and Judi’s invalid father (who apparently recognizes Slurp).
This all leads to a confrontation between Wednesday and Tyler, who throws her out of a window to what should have been her death. So about that, I have to mention that Wednesday is clearly not entirely human. I don’t know if Outcasts are inherently tougher, but the Addams family is just weird. They eat things that no person should eat, they have bizarre allergies, and at times defy both physics and biology. Either way, she is thrown roughly fifty feet from a second floor window onto concrete and the episode ends with her lying broken and bloody in the rain as the police arrive and Tyler escapes.
Bits:
Heather Matarazzo (The Princess Diaries) popped out to me early on in the season, but I had a feeling she was going to have a bigger role.
Billie Piper (Doctor Who) guest stars as Isadora Capri, a music teacher and mentor to Enid. She is also apparently a werewolf.
Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense) had a small role in the first episode as the Kansas City Scalper, the serial killer Wednesday catches in the cold open.
Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous) guest stars as Wednesday’s grandmother (Morticia’s mother), Hester Frump. She is an Addams through and through, as more of a snarky and meaner combination of Morticia and Wednesday. I think she’s a really great addition to the show.
The Skull Tree with a grave hidden beneath it is likely a nod to Sleepy Hollow which both Tim Burton and Christina Ricci headlined. At this point, with this many guest stars per season, I wonder if Johnny Depp will be in season three.
Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) guest stars as Professor Orloff, a literal disembodied head in a jar, who apparently was saved by the boy who became Slurp.
Enid's fingernail polish changed slightly this season; one of her fingernails is now black to represent her friendship with Wednesday.
Quotes:
TSA Officer: “Which part of 'prohibited items' don't you understand, young lady?”
Wednesday: “The part where you believe that cramming hundreds of people into a metal tube flying through the air creates some sort of utopia where weapons aren't needed.”
Wednesday: “Writers should refill their creative cups before they begin again. So I indulged in my favorite passions, torment and humiliation.”
Morticia: “Pugsley has always struggled with his aim, from potty training to his first grenade launcher.”
Enid: “Wait. You have a stalker?”
Wednesday: “Don't be jealous.”
Wednesday: “Murdered by a murder of crows. What a perfectly ironic death wasted on the least ironic man I ever met.”
Enid: “I know that being popular goes against everything Wednesday-core, but for the rest of us who also helped save the school, it is a nice silver lining.”
Wednesday: “Then consider me your dark cloud.”
Enid: “Always.”
Enid: “I don't know how to break things off with Ajax.”
Wednesday: “A quick blow to the head should suffice.”
Pugsley: “Slurp never tried to eat my brain.”
Agnes: “Because that would be empty calories.”
When I first watched these first four episodes I was a bit underwhelmed. It felt like something was off, but after finishing the season and rewatching this entire arc I realized this was really just set up for the rest of the season (which I will be posting very soon). A sacrifice of mild quality to create payoff later on, which is a very Wednesday thing to do.
Part One: 2.5 out of 4 Brains eaten by a hungry zombie.
Samantha M. Quinn spends most of her time in front of a computer typing away at one thing or another; when she has free time, she enjoys pretty much anything science fiction or fantasy-related.
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