Wednesday episode 1 starts things off with a bang, as we're introduced to Jenna Ortega's version of the macabre teenager in a hilariously dark fashion.
The new Tim Burton series arrived on Netflix on Wednesday (obviously), November 23, with all eight episodes available to binge-watch right now. Halloween may be over for another year, but it's always the right time for some Addams Family goodness!
With Wednesday Addams constantly being expelled from "regular" schools, the series follows the outcast as her parents Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzmán) try a more unconventional approach.
Enter Nevermore Academy, the school where Morticia and Gomez met and one where it's a bit more accommodating of people like Wednesday, but that still doesn't mean she has much interest in fitting in!
Lots happened in the first episode alone, setting things up well for the rest of the series. Read on for a full recap of Wednesday episode 1.
Why was Wednesday expelled from her previous school?
As mentioned above, Wednesday starts things off in a hilariously gruesome fashion after the titular teenager gets revenge on bullies who tied her brother Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) up and stuffed him into a locker, with quite the brutal punishment.
Wednesday gets a vision early on in the episode, pointing to the identities of the school bullies, so she tracks them down and finds out they're in the school swimming pool.
After delivering quite the epic line "the only person who gets to torture my brother is me", she drops bags filled with piranhas into the pool, and lets them go wild. Unfortunately for one of them, he's brutally attacked before he can escape, but survives Wednesday's murder attempt.
As a result of this, Wednesday is expelled from this school, and her parents decide to send her to Nevermore Academy, where they attempt to reassure her that she'd make friends there and that it was also where they met and fell in love, but Wednesday rebuffs them and isn't interested.
She's dragged to meet the school's headteacher Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie) who informs her that they don't usually accept students mid-term but they're willing to make an exception given her family's history and her perfect grades.
Wednesday is given parting gifts from her parents before they leave her at the boarding school, both of which are as unconventional as you might expect. Morticia gives her daughter a necklace made of obsidian and a crystal ball to contact her on.
Meanwhile, Gomez secretly gives Wednesday another iconic figure from the Addams Family, the disembodied hand named Thing, who is tasked with keeping an eye on her.
What is Nevermore Academy?
With an Edgar Allen Poe inspired name, you'd be correct in assuming that Nevermore Academy is not your normal school, as it is described as being "a place for outcasts and freaks".
Among these are the main cliques made up of vampires (Fangs), werewolves (Furs), stoners, and sirens (Scales), so it's not your typical bunch of high school groups. However, despite the fact Wednesday is also an outcast, rumors have spread about her murderous antics and torture sprees, and it's even difficult for her to fit into a school as strange as this one.
Wednesday is given a tour of her new school by her roommate Enid Sinclair, but the two could not be more different if they tried. The dorm is filled with bright colors thanks to Enid's affinity for them, which Wednesday takes an immediate disliking to due to the fact she always wears black.
The two get into a fight, which is broken up by dorm "mom" and teacher Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci), who reminds them of the house rules. She's the only normal teacher at Nevermore and has no abilities, making her an outcast in her own right.
During her first full day at Nevermore, Wednesday quickly makes enemies, fencing with Queen Bee Bianca and then narrowly avoiding her own death when a falling gargoyle nearly hits her, so it wasn't a great start to things.
However, she does befriend an outcast named Rowan with telekinetic abilities, and a boy named Xavier, so she's not completely on her own. But this doesn't last long either after Rowan meets a grisly demise at the end of the first episode.
What happened in the woods outside Nevermore?
Adjacent to Wednesday's new school storyline is another intriguing one, as a hiker in the nearby woods is mauled to death by an unknown assailant and the local Sheriff is busy working on the case.
However, the Sheriff is already untrusting of the Addams Family, and when he runs into Wednesday defending herself against bullies, he warns her to stay out of trouble and explains he's really not a fan of Gomez in particular.
Not to mention, Wednesday is also under suspicion after Rowan tells her that his mother, a former seer, had a vision of her destroying the school... so the Addams Family isn't particularly well regarded!
In a shocking twist, Rowan is brutally murdered by some sort of beast, who looks at Wednesday before running off. Is it a member of Nevermore, or one of the outsiders?
Right now it's a mystery what happened, but we're sure Wednesday will shed some more light on that murder later on in the series. So we'll just have to tune in to learn the truth!
