Who doesn’t love a good ol’ cliffhanger? Wednesday’s feast of mystery leaves viewers with a perfect aftertaste thanks to its lovely little garnish in the show’s final moments. The suspense of it all is very much killing me.
The dizzying whodunit sees Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) solving a monster mystery plaguing her school, Nevermore Academy, with the season neatly wrapping up with a somewhat happy ending. Although her more pressing antagonists, Ms. Thornhill (Christina Ricci) and Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan), have been caught, a third player is still lurking in the shadows, with the show’s finale revealing that Wednesday has her own personal stalker. Delightful news for a potential Season 2, but horrible news for all of us who have to wait until then. In the meantime, let’s take a look at who this foreboding stalker could be (the show’s already given us some sneak peeks into their potential identity).
What we know so far
Credit: Netflix
Wednesday’s mystery involves a monster hunting down its students and a secret overseer controlling said monster. Throughout the show, we learn that the monster is actually Tyler, Wednesday’s first-ever crush, who possesses the ability to turn into a ravenous beast on demand. We also learn that the person behind all that ferocity is Wednesday’s teacher, Ms. Thornhill, a conniving manipulator orchestrating the defeat of Nevermore to satisfy her family’s lifelong dream of ending the school once and for all. While Wednesday manages to thwart the duo’s plans and save the day, the show’s finale reveals she may have one final foe to beat before securing Nevermore’s (and her own) safety.
The scene plays out with Wednesday receiving her first iPhone, a gift from her classmate Xavier Thorpe (Percy Hynes White), who’s very much in love with her and who should very much be her boyfriend next season (argue with the wall). And while it’s all very cute, the teenage romance is cut short when she receives an ominous text from an unknown sender declaring that they’re watching her, adding a sneaky eye emoji for some extra pizazz. Wednesday’s texts are then flooded with photos the stalker took of her, hinting that they may be closer than she thinks. Keen-eyed viewers will notice that the photos are exact replicas of the photographs she found of herself in Ms. Thornhill’s home, suggesting that the stalker was helping Thornhill and Tyler all along, and may be planning to see their thwarted mission through.
Who could the stalker be?
Credit: Netflix
By the looks of it so far, the stalker could very likely be another Nevermore student. That route explains why the stalker was able to get photos of Wednesday in such close quarters, knew where she was all the time, and even had access to the phone Xavier bought her. We know Xavier lives alone in his dorm, and we also know, based on standard iPhone setups, that he unlocked her phone and already plugged in his number, going so far as to customize the phone with nice black wallpaper for our goth princess. Which means it would have been very easy for a student stalker to sneak into Xavier’s room, check out Wednesday’s phone, and get her number.
The student theory also answers some of Ms. Thornhill’s unexplainable insights, like how she knew the location of Nevermore’s secret society room (easy, with someone from the inside giving her all the details on how to get in). Ms. Thornhill and Tyler always seemed to be one step ahead of Wednesday, so a student stalker lurking in the corner and watching her every move explains how they knew where Wednesday was at all times and where she was on her mystery-solving track.
There are definitely some students in the mix we can rule out: We know Wednesday’s trusted confidants include her roommate Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers), Xavier, and Nevermore’s own Regina George, Bianca Barclay (Joy Sunday), with her clique of sirens who ultimately all become Wednesday’s friends. But with a student body encompassing werewolves, gorgons, sirens, and telekinetic kids, the options are pretty much endless. My bets are on the gorgons or sirens, two creatures notoriously known for manipulation, omnipresent watching, and a thirst for revenge.
Other suspects to ruminate over
Credit: Vlad Cioplea / Netflix
While a student stalker seems the more likely route, we know from this season that Wednesday relishes in the unexpected. Our stalker could be someone outside the school. Another likely contender is someone from the Gates family, aka Ms. Thornhill’s family, who were all believed to have died. Ms. Thornhill’s “survival” could suggest that the other reported deaths were also a farce. This theory may be farfetched, but the Gates family being the ultimate puppet masters does make sense in Wednesday’s grander scheme, with the final showdown a family feud between the Addams and the Gates.
I also have my eyes on Nathaniel Faulkner, the mysterious Nevermore student who attended the academy during Gomez (Luis Guzmán) and Morticia’s (Catherine Zeta-Jones) time there, and who was the first person to document the existence of hydes, the monster species Tyler belongs to. Why was Faulkner so interested in hydes? Was there an ulterior motive to him studying them? Wednesday casually name-drops him and brushes past his pivotal involvement in the show’s big mystery, which beckons a greater question surrounding his character’s arc. We know that Tyler is still alive by the show’s finale; although he’s strapped down and being monitored 24/7, his hyde self is there and coming out whenever he wants it to. Maybe Faulkner (if he isn’t the stalker) will be a key to figuring out how to stop Tyler, and will play a larger role next season.
It’s clear that Wednesday is setting up a boisterous Season 2 with its stalker cliffhanger, but with no announcements being made on its renewal (so far), our questions have a long way to go before finally being answered. But Season 1 was an Easter–egg fest of clues and hints, so maybe our stalker’s already been discretely revealed. After all, they are hiding in plain sight.
Wednesday is now streaming on Netflix.
