<i>Wednesday</i> Season 2 Ends with an Explosive Finale—and a Chilling Revelation

Spoilers below.

With two snaps of a finger, Wednesday has wrapped its second season. It was a doozy, too; after several twists and turns, the finale answered some burning questions, introduced new mysteries for season 3, and underscored the enduring kinship that defines the Addams family legacy.

A prevalent critique of season 2, part 1, was that it felt disconnected from the Addams’ hallmark union that we know and love from other iterations. But in part 2, which dropped on September 3, it seems like that’s the point: Wednesday’s fractured relationship with her mother, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is so unnatural that it hinders her clairvoyance. In episode 6, Wednesday’s deceased principal-turned-spirit-guide and distant relative, Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie), put it plainly: “Your psychic ability isn’t just inherited. It’s intricately tied to your familial bonds. The escalating and unresolved tension with your mother is what's disrupting your power.”

Wednesday rejects this notion at first, but by season’s end, she accepts it. We see the Addams family team-up we’d been yearning for as they take on the deeply demented ménage comprising the mother-son Hyde duo Francoise and Tyler Galpin (Frances O'Connor and Hunter Doohan), and Isaac Night (Owen Painter), Francoise’s resurrected brother. Ahead, find out what happens in the finale and how it sets up the show’s third installment.

Remember Judi Stonehurst (Heather Matarazzo), the avian outcast who ran the exploitative L.O.I.S. program at Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital? It seemed like she was going to be the big bad of the season, but in part 2, she’s offed fairly quickly by another emerging villain: Isaac Night, a former Nevermore Academy student and an urban legend known for his genius and mechanical clockwork heart.

In the first few episodes, Isaac is just a brain-eating zombie whom Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) accidentally brings back to life and nicknames Slurp. But as he regenerates into a human, we discover that he’s pursuing a larger, more sinister scheme. After reuniting with his sister, Francoise, and nephew, Tyler—who were previously freed from Willow Hill—Isaac sets out to remove Francoise’s Hyde side to save her from impending death.

Isaac spends the latter part of season 2 piecing together everything he needs for a power-extracting apparatus. This is why he pays Judi a visit; her late father, August Stonehurst, stole his research on withdrawing outcasts’ powers and used it to build a machine for L.O.I.S. at Willow Hill. Isaac retrieves the hospital keys from Judi and presumably kills her (we don’t actually see her die, but it’s heavily implied as Isaac isn’t exactly merciful). He then kidnaps Pugsley, whose electrokinesis can power the contraption. But there’s another reason Isaac goes after the youngest Addams, and it’s personal.

Leading up to the finale, it’s clear that there’s an unspoken history between Isaac, Francoise, and Wednesday’s parents. Morticia finally shares the backstory with her daughter: Gomez (Luis Guzmán) and Isaac were best friends and roommates at Nevermore, while Morticia and Francoise were amicable classmates. Obsessed with removing Francoise’s Hyde ability, Isaac built a device, powered by Gomez’s electrokinesis, in his laboratory at Iago Tower. Knowing the machine would likely kill Gomez, Isaac activated it anyway.

Gomez was near death when Morticia burst in and severed Isaac’s hand, triggering an explosion that killed Isaac but spared Francoise. The couple then buried the scientist at the Skull Tree, the spot Isaac had intended as Gomez’s grave.

Evidently, there’s some bad blood there. Now resurrected, Isaac is dead set on restoring his invention while exacting revenge on Gomez and Morticia. Oh, and there’s something else he’s after, which brings us to another finale revelation.

Wednesday receives a message from Isaac to meet him at the Skull Tree, where he’s holding Pugsley captive. She arrives and demands her brother’s release. Meanwhile, Thing fires an arrow at Isaac from afar, but he blocks it. Tyler captures the hand and brings him to Isaac who reveals that Thing—whose name is an anagram of Isaac’s surname “Night”—is his missing appendage. During the explosion years prior, the supercharged blast animated Isaac’s severed right hand. Morticia and Gomez, who saw that Thing had no memory of Isaac, decided to take him in.

Isaac forcibly reattaches Thing to his body, which strengthens his telekinesis. He buries Wednesday alive and leaves her for dead. Thankfully, Wednesday’s covert devotee, Agnes DeMille (Evie Templeton), is secretly on the scene.

Using her ability to turn invisible, Agnes trails Wednesday to the Skull Tree and witnesses Isaac’s onslaught. She races to find Enid (Emma Myers), and together they try digging Wednesday out. The task proves impossible, so Enid makes the fateful choice to “wolf out.” The risk is severe; as a nascent alpha wolf, she knows transforming under a full moon could trap her in her werewolf form forever and make her a target for other wolves. Still, Enid makes the sacrifice and unleashes her strength to free Wednesday before running away.

It’s a cruel twist of fate: Wednesday’s mission from the start of the season was to stop a premonition of Enid’s death from coming true. She succeeds, but it leads to Enid possibly losing her human side, a transformation that feels like its own kind of death.

Wednesday and her parents race to Iago Tower to rescue Pugsley. At the lab, Isaac and Francoise betray Tyler, forcing him into the power-extraction device. Francoise, resigned to her own fate, wants her son freed from his Hyde side, even if it’s against his will.

But before the machine can fire, Wednesday saves both Tyler and Pugsley and destroys the contraption. This causes a blast reminiscent of what happened the night Isaac originally died. However, he survives this one and starts to telekinetically strangle Wednesday. The Addamses plead with Thing to resist Isaac’s control, and after a strenuous struggle, he breaks free. In a one-man brawl, Thing subdues Isaac, kills him by ripping out his clockwork heart, and detaches himself to reunite with the Addams family.

After Wednesday frees Tyler, he transforms into a Hyde and clashes with Francoise, who also unleashes her Hyde persona. They crash through Iago Tower and go blow for blow on top of Ophelia Hall. But when Isaac’s machine explodes, they lose their footing and dangle from the building’s ledge. Tyler tries to pull his mother up, but she decides to let go and plunges to her death.

At the end of the finale, Tyler visits his parents’ graves, and he’s approached by Isadora Capri (Billie Piper), Nevermore’s werewolf music teacher. She has a proposition for him: Since he no longer has a master to keep him alive, with Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci) and his mother both dead, he needs a lifeline. She tells him about a secret “support system” for Hydes who survive by bonding with each other. Revealing that her father was a Hyde—which suggests her alter ego might not be purely werewolf—she invites him to join. The last we see of them, they’re driving off together, with Tyler visibly on edge. Will this kid ever know peace?

Wednesday’s Aunt Ophelia is an enigmatic figure throughout season 2. Early on, we learn that she also had psychic powers but devolved into madness because of them. She was admitted to Willow Hill then went missing sometime after.

In the finale’s closing scene, Wednesday sets out with Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen) to find Enid. Along the way, she flips through Ophelia’s old journal and her disturbing sketches. Wednesday suddenly gets a vision that confirms Ophelia is alive, but she can’t see where her aunt is. Viewers, however, are given a chilling glimpse: Wednesday’s grandmother, Hester Frump (Joanna Lumley), has Ophelia locked away in a secret room in her house. Perhaps it’s for good reason; when the camera pans behind her, Ophelia is scrawling “Wednesday must die” across the wall.

You can add this haunting cliffhanger to our list of questions for season 3: What does Ophelia have against Wednesday? Where exactly is Capri taking Tyler, and can she be trusted? Will Enid reunite with her bestie and somehow turn back into a human? Is Lady Gaga returning for another spectral appearance, especially if psychic Ravens take center stage?

We’ll just have to linger in suspense until we’re summoned back to Nevermore.