This Wednesday Season 2 Premiere Scene Gives Jenna Ortega Her Best Moment Yet

This article contains minor spoilers for "Wednesday" season 2.

The Addams Family, as created by cartoonist Charles Addams, are characters whose malleability are built into their design. Not the malleability of the characters themselves, mind you, but rather their environment. The core of "The Addams Family" involves seeing these macabre, spooky, kooky people being put into places and situations of extreme normalcy (or, at least, relatability), the better for them to comment on and satirize their surroundings. In addition to the commentary and comedy that springs from the juxtaposition, the Addamses exist as a perennial symbol for non-conformity. In no uncertain terms, they always let their freak flag fly.

This is why, 87 years after Addams created the characters, the Family continues to have longevity and popularity. The latest live-action iteration of the Family, Netflix's "Wednesday," sees creators Alfred Gough & Miles Millar, along with filmmaker Tim Burton, subvert the "Addams Family" formula in a way that seems both genuinely fresh and a lateral move. Rather than place the Addams characters in another average American town, the series sends Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) to Nevermore Academy, a boarding school for capital-O Outcasts, i.e. the strange and unusual. On paper, a series about Wednesday, her brother Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez), and the rest of the Addams crew mingling with the likes of Werewolves, Gorgons, Sirens, and other folk with supernatural abilities might sound like it's missing the essential juxtapositions that made "The Addams Family" what it has been for decades.

Not to worry, however. "Wednesday" has proven time and again that it's locked into the Addams groove, especially where the title character is concerned. The writers and directors of the show, and especially Ortega, make sure to highlight every moment Wednesday can wryly comment on the people and things around her. The concept of such a character dropped into a supernatural murder mystery with life-or-death stakes is amusing enough, but when "Wednesday" allows Wednesday to go full counter-culture, it's a delight. In the premiere episode of season 2, Wednesday gets her best moment yet, proving that neither the character nor the show should be put into a rigid box (not even a pine one).

In the first episode of "Wednesday" season 2, "Here We Woe Again," Wednesday has no sooner begun a fresh semester at Nevermore that she's embroiled in some new dangerous shenanigans involving a mysterious stalker who's seemingly obsessed with her. Unfortunately, she's constantly bugged by a gaggle of Nevermore students treating her like a celebrity. She tries to ignore them and focus on her own mission instead, following clues left by her stalker, who may be linked to a murder in town. Yet, at a mandatory rally celebrating Nevermore's new ethos of embracing Outcast pride, the new Principal, Barry Dort (Steve Buscemi), reveals a surprise art piece he's had commissioned: a painting of Wednesday, Bianca (Joy Sunday), Enid (Emma Myers) and Eugene (Moosa Mostafa) saving the school at the end of last season, complete with a big heroic pose and smile on Wednesday's face.

When Dort asks Wednesday to deliver "a few words of inspiration to launch us into the new era" of Nevermore, Wednesday initially appears to acquiesce, beginning a speech which sounds like the kind of rallying, prideful, celebratory prattle that Dort obviously wants. Wednesday pumps the crowd of Outcasts up and gets them cheering, telling them that she and they "will not cease until our enemies have been vanquished," only to turn the tables by adding: "And by enemies, I mean any imbecile stupid enough to cheer on some shallow, rabble-rousing diatribe like that." In the rest of the speech, Wednesday delivers such a scathing condemnation of what the Nevermore faculty and students are trying to turn her into that it's worth repeating in full:

"You thought I was your hero? I'm not. I always play dirty, and I never fight fair. The only side I'm on is my own, and the only place I'll lead you is off a cliff. So, do not put me on a pedestal, because I will burn it down."

And with that, Wednesday turns around and sets the propagandistic painting ablaze, much to the consternation of Dort, Enid, and the rest of the assembled students who've been stunned into silence. In addition to Gough & Millar's sharp script, the moment sings thanks to Ortega's performance. She infuses Wednesday with a blend of righteousness and seething contempt not seen since Christina Ricci's Wednesday burned down a similarly whitewashed play about the first Thanksgiving in "Addams Family Values." If Ortega's casting as the character was ever in doubt, this moment alone quells any such qualms.

Of course, there are many layers to that speech and its placement within the show. Not only does it serve the scene, naturally, but it also makes for a sort of mission statement for "Wednesday," both the series and the titular character. There was a danger during the first season that the show was moving Wednesday a little too far from her roots, pushing her into the position of being a fully-fledged anti-heroine, which is exactly what Dort's painting is satirizing. Additionally, the plotline involving Wednesday's connection to her ancestor, Goody Addams (also played by Ortega), and both girls' eternal fight against the Pilgrim who sought to kill all Outcasts, Joseph Crackstone (William Houston), was inching a little too close to a standard "chosen one" narrative, something else which didn't sit well with Wednesday's origins. Ortega and the show's other creatives managed to thread those needles, in my opinion, but much more problematic was the love triangle between Wednesday, Tyler (Hunter Doohan), and Xavier (Percy Hynes White), and the theme of Wednesday being just another girl trying to make it through school, elements which saw Wednesday act increasingly out of character.

It was an issue that Ortega was well aware of, as it caused her to attempt to address these character changes by rewriting her own dialogue on set without consulting the series' writers, a choice that understandably upset some of the folks who worked on "Wednesday." In her defense, Ortega explained there were "so many cooks in the kitchen," and the vision for the character (if not the series) that she and Burton seemed to share was in danger of becoming muddled or lost. "Wednesday" season 2 is unquestionably the response to those concerns. Not only is Ortega's take on the character consistent throughout, but Burton's contributions also seem that much stronger and more prominent, too. Wednesday's speech in the first episode is where both of these threads really come together, demonstrating Ortega's wishes to keep the character independent and Burton's interest in allowing Wednesday to fully be a part of his large collection of perpetual misfit protagonists. This new version of Wednesday is just about perfect and makes the already enjoyable series into an essential piece of "Addams Family" canon.

The first part of "Wednesday" season 2 is now streaming on Netflix, with the remaining episodes dropping September 3, 2025.