Season 2, Episode 8: This means Woe
At last, it’s at the season two finale. In the previous episode Pugsley was kidnapped by Zombie-Issac who is now fully regenerated and has leveled up to just Issac. So now the not so mysterious and ooky brigade after to save Pugsley from his best friend/pet. It turns out that it’s not very hard as Issac just invites Wednesday to that pesky old skull tree.
This episode follows very similar story beats from parts of season one. One significant story beat is Morticia and Gomez hiding a huge secret from their Nevermore days. However instead of a covering up a the murder of a “normie” boy who was obsessed with Morticia and hated “outcasts” with Gomez taking the heat for it when it was a really Morticica and poison that killed him. NOW in season two it was for the death of Issac. Turns out Gomez was acting as the battery for Issac to cure Francoise of her Hyde-form, which was going to kill Gomez so Morticia sabotage the operation resulting in the destruction of the tower, Issac’s first death and in a twist Thing’s origins.
All throughout this season there has been a plot-line about Thing feeling unappreciated by the Addams and a scene where Thing goes to a support group for body parts. And it turns out this was all building up to Thing being Issac’s right hand. With Thing’s name being an anagram of “Night” which the show spells out for dumb people, like me, (not great with anagrams, I wouldn’t have caught this). Guess Thing could have been a “Cassi.”
Personally I can handle certain mysteries in media and Thing is great unexplainable one. I could have accepted Thing for what he is/was: a weird mysterious spooky ooky part of the Addams Family but no Thing has sorted backstory and it turns out he’s part of Night/Galpin clan thus Thing is Tyler’s uncle.
Morticia’s excuse for not telling Thing about his origin is weak, they didn’t want to burden Thing with the knowledge that he was Gomez’s best friend, former roommate, evil mad-scientist and Gomez’s own attempted murder, it really seems that would be a point of pride in the freaking Addams Family. So while this twist does ties narrative plot together it’s clunky, awkward and off-brand. At least the Addams might appreciate Thing a little more now.
Another formulaic story element is someone close to Wednesday giving up a form f their’s to save Wednesday from dying. In season one Wednesday almost dies after getting stabbed by a reanimated Crackstone, Goody gives up her ghost to save her. In season two after getting buried alive by Issac, Enid gives up her human-form to save her. Though we don’t know if Enid is actually stuck as wolf forever, we’ll see how this plays out in season three but in saving Wednesday Enid believes she scarified her humanity to save Wednesday’s life.
So mostly the episode is final confrontation with Issac who Wednesday’s own plot barely intersected with throughout the season and the only reason she now cares is because of her family, which could have been fine in theory but this show can’t really decide if it’s a character narrative or an ensemble so it tries to do both. So the a-plot of a supposedly character-focused show is more about main character’s family’s past mess ups and saving them from her maybe supposed love-interest’s messed-up family.
So the Addams fight Issac and in a twist Wednesday not only saves Pugsley and assist Thing she also saves Tyler from getting his hyde power taken from him as it was arranged by his mom and Issac instead of saving her. This deception angers Tyler and he hyde-fights his mom. It’s safe to assume that this show LOVES the hydes and season three could have even more Hydes. And it also seems like the hyde fight ate up a lot of the budget so the didn’t resources to have Pugsley reviving possibly Morticia with his electricity which would have been similar to Fester doing reviving Thing in season one.
While some aspects of this episode are very similar to season one’s finale there is quite a large difference, the scope is smaller which in it of itself is not a bad thing. Instead of saving the students from creepy ghoul, Wednesday has to save her family from a former ghoul. So the stakes are more personal to Wednesday, plus more hydes.
Also much like season one, season two has Nevermore closing early for an extended break following the demise of the principal. Though here it’s unclear if the school is on break or closing given Agnes’ line about “Nevermore being never more.” It’s not like back in season one finale they set-up plots for second two only to change course, so take any of the set-ups in season two with a grain of salt.
In totality this episode felt like it was doing so much and yet not a lot. The hyde fight was boring and while the concept of Thing fighting Issac could have been comedic it was not framed as such. The season ends with the Wednesday, Thing and going off into the autumnal landscape to the north to find Enid as well as revealing the whereabouts of Ophelia who has been at Grandmama’s Hester’s house this whole time though she seems unhinge but she does sport that white flower child look from the 60’s TV show so that is something.
And Now a Tangent
Is weird that Issac says a DaVinci is nothing without their right hand when Da Vinci himself was left-handed? Also DaVinci are mad-scienist, called them Victors or Frankenstein would have been too on the nose.
