The season opens with Wednesday already knee-deep in trouble, tied up in the basement of the Kansas City Scalper. Her summer has been spent sharpening her psychic abilities, using Goody’s book of spells to hunt down the killer she’s been fascinated with since childhood.
A psychic connection via the killer’s 11th victim leads her straight to him, but one touch leaves her with black tears and unconscious. Thing swoops in to help her escape, and she makes him swear not to tell Morticia about the tears.
Back at Nevermore, it’s a new school year. Pugsley arrives with stronger electric powers, Morticia and Gomez drop hints about staying longer, and Headmaster Dort tries to rope Wednesday into being the student of honour at the Founders’ Pyre ceremony, but she bluntly refuses.
Enid greets Wednesday with warmth, Ajax lurks awkwardly, and a stalker sends Wednesday a cryptic picture that triggers more black tears.
Meanwhile, crows kill a man named Bradbury, a PI connected to Galpin, who enlists Wednesday to help solve the case. Pugsley becomes obsessed with a legend about a boy with a clockwork heart buried under the Skull Tree, and by the end of the episode, he accidentally reawakens something monstrous.
At the pyre festival, the stalker lures Wednesday under the structure to save her stolen manuscript. She escapes just in time, only to burn the new commemorative portrait in front of the entire school, declaring she’s no hero. Things close on a chilling note. Wednesday’s psychic vision shows Enid’s grave, with ghost-Enid blaming her for the death.
This opener wastes no time plunging us back into Wednesday’s twisted world, layering mysteries before we’ve even unpacked our bags. The Scalper hunt was a smart, adrenaline-fueled way to reintroduce her relentless nature, but the real intrigue lies in those unexplained black tears. Are they tied to the stalker, the birds, or something far more personal?
Nevermore feels charged with new energy. Dort’s slippery politeness, Capri’s suspicious interest in Wednesday, and the return of the stalker all scream “trust no one.” The writers balance these fresh tensions with classic Wednesday humor: her deadpan refusal of honors, her awkward “gift” to Enid, and her casual arson at the ceremony.
Pugsley’s subplot is a surprisingly strong addition. His electric powers and the clockwork heart legend hint at a supernatural side quest that could either complement or collide with Wednesday’s main investigation. And that final vision of Enid’s death? Deliciously cruel, instantly raising emotional stakes.
If Season 1 was about Wednesday finding her place at Nevermore, this season’s pilot makes it clear this year is about survival, solving layered mysteries, and confronting a danger that might hit closer to home than she expects.
