Season 2, Episode 6: Woe Thyself
There is a lot happening in the episode but that seems par for the course this season, so many plots. And yet despite the many plot points that unfold, one element of this episodes eclipses the rest.
So first point, I was completely and “woefully” wrong about Tyler. Tyler’s place in the story didn’t end with him and his mother, Francoise, being reunited and leaving town. No, instead, she’s now his new master and unhinged because she’s a hyde. Also being a hyde is killing her, which apparently it just does as general rule of being a hyde.
But that is not all, turns out what seemed like the b-plot zombie is actually Issac Night a.k.a Franciose’s brother /Tyler’s uncle and whole plot line of Willow Hill, the Avian, and Outcast LOIS Experiment was just set-up for Zombie-Issac and more stuff about Hydes. It’s like a Monkey Paw, because yeah a lot of the these plot lines do merge together it just not that satisfying or compelling as the initial set-up teased. LOIS was just a cover to explain Franciose’s absent and the avian/Judi was part of Zombie-Issac genius/god complex.
So Zombie-Issac is a DaVinci, who according to Professor Orloff, wanted to play god. His core motivation is to “free” Franciose of her Hyde form which again is killing her. And to this end, Zombie-Issac kills Orloff to get the power source of his life support system to power the machine at Willow Hill. And this is what Wednesday, Enid and Agnes stop because Wednesday put Agnes on the case of Zombie-Issac because of the premonition of Enid’s death which Wednesday just follows from one lead to another since she thought it was tied to the Avian.
So now we come to the crux of the episode, Wednesday and Enid’s freaky Friday body swap shenanigans. Both Ortega and Myers excel in acting like the other and extra kudos to Myers who had about month to prepare for this episode but according to interviews both actress were nervous about getting the roles right. It’s great how Ortega acts like Enid trying to pass for Wednesday. The absurdity was a well break from the plot and the swap edges on more silly camp than sardonic supernatural macabre.
A few qualms, first one it seemed like both Morticia and Agnes should have caught on a bit quicker to the body switch. Morticia is characterized an empathic, emotional positive dove so her not seeing her daughter’s essence is odd. Whereas Agnes is Wednesday’s number one obsessive stalker and super fan so it doesn’t really track that she doesn’t catch on sooner. They do comment of the behavior but they both have to be told outright.
There is also nice build of tension as Enid calls out Wednesday’s arrogance and superior complex for starting chaos just to solve it. However the “getting to know each other” “walking in other people’s shoes,” “seeing the world through eyes of another,” “change of perspective” is just a retread of last season. While the scenes of the characters going about their day as the other is charming and campy, the threat of them dying if they they don’t say what they learned about each other before dawn is a little on the nose especially when consequence apply very little and Wednesday has insane plot-armor. Also the resolution is down-played by Enid literally just telling Wednesday her introspection, which is lazy character building when another character has to do the soul-searching for that character in their own skin. Where as Wednesday just reassures Enid because a sudden plot line just sprung out recently at the end of episode five.
Enid’s plot line this season has been lacking. Most of Enid’s plot is cheating on her boyfriend Ajax, feeling left out by Wednesday and hanging out with her new non-entity of a boyfriend who turns out has been cheating on her. End of episode five Enid transformed without a full moon meaning she is “an Alpha.” This is news Enid does not like as Alpha are rare, strong and lonely. So this is a shock for her and with zero build up for the past four episodes.
Adding to the weird ideas at play with the body swap is the spirit vs body. Enid as Wednesday can’t see Wednesday’s snarky spirit guide Larissa Weems but Wednesday as Enid takes on Wednesday’s own physical appearance when she wolfs out. Instead of Enid’s light fur coat, Wednesday’s wolf version has black fur. If I had to venture a guess for this was that the creatives in charge thought it would look cool and there isn’t a deeper explanation but fans will theorize why as theory-craft can be fun and it’s what the internet does. But it’s most like style over subtense which it’s fine, whatever, just go with it.
While so much is happening in this episode the body swap despite the contrivances is fun and more comedic. The show and ideas excel more when they are campy macabre with characters than a myriad horror plots and idea.
And Now a Tangent….
The set-up for the body swap starts with a quest for Wednesday to temporary gain her second sight back. This leads her to the grave of Professor Rosaline Rotwood played Lady Gaga doing a very brief cameo. Wednesday is told that she has maintain the raven’s gaze or a trick will be played and a price must be paid. Enid breaks the gaze when she fetches Wednesday and the trick is the body swap. Enid’s reason why she breaks the gaze is because there is a curfew and if a student is caught outside their rooms they will be bared from the Gala or maybe it’s the entire dorm that will bared from the Gala both threats are mentioned so it’s unclear which is the consequence of breaking curfew. Enid has a dance routine so she doesn’t want to get in trouble and miss said Gala if Wednesday is caught outside of their room.
However after the girls faint in the graveyard someone brought them back to their room. If they had walked back to the dorm they would have awaken in the beds they thought was their and not Wednesday as Enid in Enid’s bed and Enid as Wednesday in Wednesday’s bed. So someone much have put them there thinking nothing was amiss. So a consequence was set-up, Enid acts in what she thinks is her best interest, not missing the Gala, so the body swap episode can happen but there was never any consequence that necessitate Enid going to the graveyard in the first place, there isn’t even a line of dialogue that let them of the hook so why bother with the curfew angle? But Wednesday the show drops plot points or has weird lines of dialogues that contradict themself. Like the avian or Wedneday’s premonition of Enid’s death getting change late season to a some member or the Addams family.
Also when did Wednesday drop out of the Gala Orchestra? In episode 4 she said she has decided to “stick around” when Capri brings up the Gala Orchestra. Wednesday even makes a quip about how “Every Mozart needing their Salieri” but in this episode Enid said Wednesday dropped out.
Also (sheepish yay) a Da Vinci now has actual lines of dialogue, hooray, got what I wanted for this season too bad it was all for the zombie.
