Summary
- Wednesday critiques the dysfunction of Normie schools with tired teachers and bullying.
- After multiple expulsions, Wednesday reluctantly attends Nevermore Academy, her parents’ last choice.
- Season 2 needs to explain why the Addams children attended Normie schools before Nevermore.
Wednesday‘s debut season opens at Nancy Reagan High School, where dozens of confused and clueless faces stare down the sharp, self-aware titular character as she confidently walks the halls. This montage, accompanied by Wednesday’s razor-sharp commentary, offers her opinion on the dysfunction of a typical Normie school system. The teachers appear tired and apathetic, while the students look dazed. As for Wednesday, she couldn’t feel more out of place.
Dressed in the classic black-and-white colors, Wednesday, despite being an outcast, doesn’t want to attend her parents’ school. She has been expelled before, faces serious charges and yet, the idea of enrolling at Nevermore as a legacy student never even crosses her mind. That’s fine for her narrative after all, as she takes time warming up to Nevermore. However, it raises the bigger question: why wasn’t Nevermore Morticia and Gomez’s top pick for their brilliant children? The fandom deserves answers and Wednesday Season 2 must address this lingering question.
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Wednesday’s Expulsions And Time At Nancy Reagan High
Wednesday delivers biting commentary on the sorry state of Nancy Reagan High. She remarks that it is sadistic to cram hundreds of adolescents into underfunded schools run by overstressed teachers — and her newest school is no exception. The idea plays into a recurring theme: jaded, burnt-out teachers working thankless jobs.
Wednesday parts the student-teacher crowd as she strides her way to the lockers quite like the force majeure that she is. There, she finds her brother, Pugsley, crammed inside a locker by school bullies, with an apple shoved inside his mouth to keep him from asking for help. From this interaction and the various derogatory labels, “Freak”, “oink oink,” and “you stink” scrawled on Pugsley’s locker, it is clear neither he nor Wednesday belong there. Normie schools, case in point, Nancy Reagan has little to offer to the far more capable and powerful Addams children.
Wednesday discovers the bullies through one of her visions and swiftly rushes to dispense justice. In a darkly poetic scene, Wednesday, disparagingly referred to as a freak, takes revenge on Pugsley’s bullies by releasing two plastic bags of hungry piranhas into the school pool during their practice session. The leader of the bullies loses a testicle, concluding Wednesday’s stint at the eighth Normie school she changed in the last five years.
Five Years And Eight Schools Later, Wednesday Is Shipped Off To Nevermore
On their way to Nevermore, the Addamses defend their decision to send Wednesday to the school for outcasts. Gomez reassures a rather crossed Wednesday that she will love it, while Morticia insists that at Nevermore she will be among peers who will see her as one of their own. Morticia, once a star student at Nevermore, wears a smug smile when Wednesday describes her time there: Queen of the Dark Prom, and President of the Séance Society, and captain of the fencing team. Her daughter makes it clear that she has no desire to follow in her footsteps.
Wednesday had initially planned to escape from Nevermore, but she ended up staying, realizing she was needed there more than anywhere else. After being saved by the monster in the woods (Tyler in his Hyde form), surviving two attempts on her life, and learning that her father was once accused of murder, and that she could potentially destroy the school, it finally dawned on Wednesday that Nevermore was the perfect place to sharpen her skills and hone her talents. The school would act as a whetstone to her sword.
As much as it pains me to admit, you were right, Mother. I am going to love it here.
Season 2 Must Explain Why The Addams Children Attended Normie Schools
Morticia and Gomez didn’t doubt their daughter’s brilliance, yet it never occurred to them to send her to a school with which their family had a long history. The parents had done Wednesday a great disservice by constantly transferring her from one Normie school to another. Since she never had a taste of the thrill, the sense of belonging, she was naturally reluctant to transfer to Nevermore. Despite the nostalgic embrace, and the words, “Ah, Nevermore, I love you so!” or “It’s the perfect school for her,” Morticia and Gomez treat the school as Wednesday’s last resort when it should be anything but. She didn’t have to go through numerous expulsions and a tainted reputation just to end up at Nevermore.
Perhaps the Addamses feared the dangers of Nevermore, and didn’t want a repeat of the whole Garrett Gates incident. Maybe they hoped their children would learn to interact with the Normies — but even that doesn’t explain why they stood on the fence while Pugsley was being bullied, or why they kept him home and chose to send Wednesday to Nevermore alone. The parents’ perspective is largely absent in Season 1, and the upcoming season needs to address that. Maybe the whole Normie school plot was just a plot device to get the story rolling — but it’s a question worth an explanation from the parents.
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