At the start of Wednesday, Wednesday Addams hates high school, but that surprisingly changes as the show goes on. Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday is a teenage member of the modernized gothic Addams Family and is sent off to boarding school amid the other “misfits” of the world. At the start of the show, Wednesday is vehemently anti-school. Upon being expelled from public school, her family is left to consider other options. As a result, an establishing scene in the first episode is quite ironic upon learning Wednesday’s important fate at her new school.

When she is sent to Nevermore Academy, a school for teenagers with supernatural abilities and general misfits, where her parents, Morticia and Gomez met, she first stands strong in her convictions. The irony of Wednesday’s initial approach to school is that she inadvertently finds herself becoming close friends with her roommate and classmates as they defeat a common evil – a monster terrorizing the town, who is not even among the misfits of Nevermore. Wednesday’s cast of unique characters represents the varying facets of friendship Wednesday realizes she needs in her life, and that maybe school isn’t the worst after all.

Wednesday Addams Instantly Criticizes The Concept Of School

The Deadpan Character Does Not Understand Friendship At First

Wednesday‘s opening scene sees Wednesday being kicked out of public school for dumping live piranhas in the pool as a prank, severely injuring several members of the school’s swim team. Wednesday is critical of the social coming-of-age rituals of homecoming and high school events and does not have any qualms about her isolation, since she does maintain uniquely close bonds with her family.

When she arrives at Nevermore, she first assumes it will be just as bad as her old school was. She says, “I’m not sure whose twisted idea it was to put hundreds of adolescents in underfunded schools run by people whose dreams were crushed years ago… but I admire the sadism.”

Wednesday’s deadpan personality sets her apart from her peers. She yearns to pursue education in an environment that intrigues her, and thus far, she has never experienced that at school. While she prefers to write and engage in her series of other macabre interests, her chosen isolation is at the heart of her disdain for formal education. As she does not understand the importance of community at the start of the show, she begins her Nevermore experience with very low expectations. By the end of season one, Wednesday proves herself wrong.

How Wednesday’s View On School Completely Changes By The End Of Season 1

Wednesday Realizes She Likes Having Partners In Crime

When a string of murders begins to terrorize Nevermore’s surrounding town of Jericho, Vermont, Wednesday taps into her psychic abilities to realize that a mysterious monster is the killer. As the show unfolds and the monster is revealed to be none other than the sheriff’s son, Tyler, Wednesday finds herself banding together with her classmates to defeat a common enemy, realizing the real monsters are judgmental people.

The anti-establishment and anti-colonialism themes of Wednesday challenge the traditional notions of the Addams Family character. While deadpan, she is not entirely emotionless, and her family ties help her recognize the importance of solidarity throughout the show. While some of the teenage characters of Wednesday can be a bit monstrous at times, Wednesday changing her tune on school sets up an ensemble cast-driven season 2, which is expected to arrive in 2025.