How an Important WEDNESDAY Season 1 Character Returns in Season 2

Wednesday fans have been wondering since Netflix announced a second season if a particularly nefarious character would make a comeback. Although it didn’t happen until season two episode three, “Call of the Woe,” we can confirm that actress Christina Ricci does indeed reappear in the show. But this time, she’s a patient in the Willow Hill psychiatric hospital. She only cameos in episode three, but appears in a larger capacity in episode four. Sadly, however, this is where her character meets her untimely end. RIP, Mrs. Thornhill, we hardly knew you.

Netflix

In season one, Ricci played a prominent role as Mrs. Marilyn Thornhill, the only “Normie” teacher at the Nevermore Academy, the school for Outcasts that Wednesday Addams attends. Ricci’s casting, of course, raised a lot of questions about who she really was initially, as she famously played the child version of Wednesday in the ‘90s Addams Family films. At first, Mrs. Thornhill seemed like a benevolent botany teacher. She even served as a mentor to Wednesday as she adjusted to life at Nevermore.

Mrs. Thornhill’s real identity actually tied her character into the main mystery of the series, which had Wednesday investigating a murder involving her parents. When the elder Addams were students at Nevermore Academy, Gomez had been accused of killing local rich kid Garret Gates. The notoriously anti-outcast Gates family all died later under mysterious circumstances. Mrs. Thornhill, the botany teacher, played the part of the caring den mother well. But she had more evil plans in store.

Netflix

Mrs. Thornhill. It turned out, wasn’t really a Thornhill at all. She was really Laurel Gates. She faked her own death in a drowning accident as a child. As the last surviving member of the powerful and outcast-hating local Gates family, Laurel changed her name and infiltrated Nevermore, waiting for the right time to exact her revenge on outcasts. She used her knowledge of plants to create a chemical that would unlock the “Hyde” (hidden monster) persona of local teenage Tyler Galpin, which she planned to use as a weapon of revenge against the Nevermore Academy, and specifically, Wednesday. And she came very close to succeeding, too.

We learn in season two that Laurel actually survived the season one finale. The police sent her to Northern State Correctional Prison. She appears again with much shorter hair, acting loonier than ever. Although she did make visits to Willow Hill, helping the staff to deprogram Tyler. She still has an emotional hold over Tyler Galpin, and his doctor is trying to learn how she could control his Hyde persona.

Even though she tries to reach Tyler, he still hates her, and tries to choke her to death. Later, when a zombie escapes his cell, she uses the ensuing chaos to see Tyler again. She frees him, but as a “thank you” to his “mother,” Tyler Hydes-out, impaling her with his claws. She dies telling Tyler, “Mommy loves you.” And that is the end of Laurel/Marilyn. But in the world of Wednesday, death is often not permanent. You never know.

Part one of Wednesday season two is currently streaming on Netflix.

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