Wednesday Ending Explained: The Hyde's Identity and Wednesday's Fate

Warning: this post contains spoilers for the Wednesday season finale.

The Hyde's identity has been revealed — much to the surprise of many Wednesday viewers.

Netflix's newest dark comedy premiered with a fitting amount of double snaps on — you guessed it — Wednesday. All eight episodes of the first season premiered at once, telling a spooky story about teenage Wednesday Addams' first year at boarding school.

Nevermore Academy is a place for "outcasts" who have powers, like sirens, werewolves and shifters. For Wednesday (Jenna Ortega), that's learning to navigate her secret visions that allow her to see into the past.

When Wednesday arrives at Nevermore, it's facing an ever-growing threat. A monster appears to be lurking in the woods and targeting Nevermore students. Overachiever Wednesday takes it upon herself to unmask the killer — be it for the good of the school, or as an excuse to remain relatively anti-social with such a dedicated, and dangerous, hobby.

Despite every adult figure in the series encouraging her to stay out of the murderous mess, Wednesday solves the entire mystery by the season's end — with a little help from her friends and an extra hand from Thing. Here's how it played out.

The Hyde's Identity

The penultimate episode included a giant piece of the puzzle — which, unfortunately for her, came during Wednesday's first kiss. In a sweet-turned-sour moment with her coffee shop crush, Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan), the Hyde's true identity was revealed.

The flashback revealed that the human "normie" wasn't as innocent as he seemed. Wednesday fell deep into a vision after their lips touched, and it confirmed that the unsuspecting Sheriff's son was actually the violent Hyde.

Unfortunately, the revelation came too late, with one of her peers, artist Xavier Thorpe (Percy Hynes White), already locked up after he was framed for the murders.

Wednesday attempted to tell the Sheriff of her discovery, but it seemed his loyalty to his son stood in the way of justice. Tyler confronted Wednesday as she left the station, asking her how it felt to "lose." The threat, and confirmation of Tyler's secondary form, opened the door to even more violence — this time, with Wednesday as the target.

The Hyde's Master

Another key piece of information Wednesday discovered was that any Hyde monster must be unlocked through hypnosis by a master. That meant Tyler wasn't acting on his own. Someone had to provoke his true form and order his slaughters.

At first, Wednesday thought this person was her therapist, Dr. Valarie Kinbott. However, upon Kinbott's murder, the identity of the Hyde's master was still unknown. Her hospitalized friend, and nearly victim of the Hyde, Eugene Otinger (Moosa Mostafa), held the answer when he revealed he saw someone with red boots during his attack.

The red boots could only belong to one person: Marylin Thornhill. The botany professor at Nevermore (fittingly played by Christina Ricci — who herself played Wednesday Addams in '90s show The Addams Family) was actually a woman named Laurel Gates, the pronounced-dead daughter of the ill-fated Gates family.

Gates confirmed she hadn't used hypnosis to transform Tyler — rather a plant derivative that was able to unlock his Hyde instincts. It was all part of a much larger plan, which would eventually see all of Nevermore crumble… if the phony teacher actually got away with it.

In short, Gates assumed the fake identity of Thornhill as a way to infiltrate Nevermore and the neighboring town of Jericho — all as a long-winded plan to get revenge on the Outcasts for the untimely deaths of her family members. To do this, Gates planned to reawaken the long-dead Puritan founder of Jericho, Joseph Crackstone. She did this by collecting body parts from each of the Hyde's victims.

One giant obstacle stood in Gates' way, however. Crackstone's crypt could only be opened by the ancestors of Goody Addams. And if the last name wasn't a dead giveaway, Wednesday was one of her living descendants.

Gates captured Wednesday and used her blood to open the crypt, bringing Crackstone back to life with vengeance — and a plan to burn Nevermore to the ground for good.

A Shocking Death and Resurrection

Gates' plan was a success. Crackstone came back to life and stabbed Wednesday. She healed with the spiritual help of her ancestor Goody, and continued fighting the battle for Nevermore's safety. Wednesday found herself fulfilling the premonition given to her in a painting at the start of the series — in a suspenseful courtyard battle with Crackstone.

With the help of rival-turned-friend Bianca (Joy Sunday) the pair defeated Crackstone for good. He died as his body burst into flames and dust. Gates was defeated, too, when Eugene unleashed his beloved swarm of bees on the fake teacher.

There was one additional death in the finale that may have brought a tear to viewers' eyes. Before Wednesday's kidnapping, Principle Larissa Weems (Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie) fell to an emotional death after shape-shifting into Tyler — just to hear Thornhill/Gates confess to her murderous agenda. When Weems re-entered her form as the principal, Thornhill stabbed her with a needle and killed her.

As for Tyler, the Hyde was captured by police (and his father.) The end of season 1 saw him restrained in the back of a police van as he transformed into the Hyde again. The scene proved Tyler was very much alive — despite a violent exchange with Wednesday's werewolf roommate, Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers).

Season 2 Plot Teaser

With an abundant amount of deaths, captures and apparent answers in the show's final hours, it may seem that peace has been restored to Nevermore Academy. However, Wednesday is still the target of someone's ill intent.

The season ended with Xavier gifting tech-opposed Wednesday a cell phone to keep in touch over their extended semester break. Wednesday received her first text on the ride home — and let's just say it wasn't exactly friendly.

Her phone lit up with photos of Wednesday taken from a secretive distance. "I'm watching you," the final text read, alongside a gif of a knife going into Wednesday's head.

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All episodes of Wednesday are now streaming on Netflix. The show has yet to be renewed for a second season.