‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Welcomes a Surprise Return

[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from Wednesday season two, episode four, titled “If These Woes Could Talk.”]

Guess who’s back!

If you thought Christina Ricci’s Marilyn Thornhill, aka Laurel Gates, was gone forever after that intense Wednesday season one finale, I hate to break it to you, but she’s made a surprise return in season two, Part 1 of the hit Netflix series.

At the end of the first season that released back in 2022, Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) discovered that Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan) is the monster, known as a Hyde, behind all the mysterious deaths. However, he was actually “activated” and controlled by Ricci’s character to kill outcasts, as the Gates family had been trying to rid the world of outcasts since the 1600s when their ancestor Joseph Crackstone was killed by Wednesday’s ancestor Goody Addams.

When Laurel attempted to resurrect Crackstone so he could finish what he started, Wednesday stopped her. The season one finale concluded with Laurel getting attacked by Eugene’s (Moosa Mostafa) bees, though there was no explicit confirmation of her death.

Fast-forward to season two, Part 1, which dropped (fittingly) today on Wednesday, it’s revealed that Ricci’s character actually didn’t die (at least not yet) and was seemingly arrested at the end of season one.

In episode four, titled “If These Woes Could Talk,” Laurel makes a surprise return when Dr. Fairburn (Thandiwe Newton) has her transferred to Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital, where Tyler is being held after he was apprehended in season one.

“I’ve read your book, Unlocking the Outcast Mind. It came in very handy when I was grooming Tyler,” a handcuffed Laurel creepily says to Dr. Fairburn at the start of the episode.

“I thought keeping you two apart would diminish your emotional hold over him,” Newton’s character says, as Laurel replies, “But it hasn’t, has it? And now you want me to tell you how to unlock my little monster.”

“I want to know what you did to Tyler, so that I can rehabilitate him,” Dr. Fairburn clarifies. After Laurel tries to bargain her transfer to Willow Hill as a patient and not a prisoner, Dr. Fairburn threatens, “I’m sorry we couldn’t make this work. I’ll have to find a more invasive method to unlock Tyler.”

After finally giving in to helping Newton’s character, Laurel has one final request: to see Tyler, face-to-face. However, once they’re reunited, as Tyler is currently chained up in an isolation cell, it doesn’t go the way Laurel is expecting.

Doohan then transforms into a Hyde and angrily grabs Laurel by the neck, slamming her against the wall. While Ricci’s character is oddly still happy witnessing what she’s created, that will change later in the episode.

When Wednesday later sneaks into Willow Hill to get her Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen) out of the psychiatric hospital as well as uncover the outcast experiments happening in the basement, things go south when a monster breaks free. As chaos unfolds, that’s when Laurel also escapes and releases Tyler from his cell.

“I told you Mama would get you out of here. I could never abandon you,” she tells him. However, Tyler clearly feels very different. “Wish I could say the same. You’re the reason I’ve been locked away in here. You’re not my mother. You’re my master, or should I say… you were,” he says.

After giving Laurel a head start to run from him, he transforms into the Hyde and quickly catches up to her. Despite pleading for Tyler to stop, he ultimately kills her.

So it’s safe to say Ricci likely won’t be returning for season three.

As for Tyler, he and Wednesday unfortunately meet again. After throwing Ortega’s character out of a window, the Part 1 finale ends on a cliffhanger, with a bloody Wednesday lying on the ground and Tyler escaping Willow Hill.

Ricci’s return to the hit Netflix series is notable, as it again reunites two generations of Wednesday Addams onscreen. Ricci famously played the iconic character as a child in 1991’s The Addams Family and 1993’s Addams Family Values.

Wednesday season two, Part 1, is currently streaming on Netflix, with Part 1 dropping Sept. 3. Check out The Hollywood Reporter‘s season two coverage here, and read our cover story with Ortega and Tim Burton.