Diksha Sundriyal
Wednesday Addams returns to Nevermore in the second season of Netflix’s ‘Wednesday,’ and once again, she finds herself embroiled in a mystery that keeps getting more convoluted by the minute. While her main quest focuses on finding a serial killer with the power to control birds, there is another plot thread that takes such unexpected turns that a new set of problems emerges for her even before she has solved her first one. This relates to the villains from Season 1, whom she’d helped put away. Laurel Gates, aka Marilyn Thornhill, and Tyler, aka the Hyde, come back into the picture, but this time, their connection is entirely different. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Laurel Gates Meets a Tragic End at the Hands of the Hyde
In Season 1, Laurel Gates adopted the alias of Marilyn Thornhill and joined Nevermore as the teacher of Botany. In the shadows, however, she unlocked the Hyde inside Tyler Galpin and planned to use her to kill all the Outcasts. At the beginning of Season 2, Tyler is confined in the Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital, where Dr. Fairburn tries to find a way to break the bond between Laurel and Tyler. It seems that the former teacher got so deep inside Tyler’s head that it has become impossible to help him. Initially, Dr. Fairburn keeps them in separate places, hoping that the distance between them will break the bond, but when that doesn’t work, she brings in Laurel, who turns out to have plans of her own.
When threatened with being sent back to prison and placed in solitary confinement, Laurel agrees to help the doctor with Tyler, but asks for a face-to-face meeting with him. She thinks that Tyler will be happy to see her, but instead, he turns into the Hyde and tries to kill her. She is not fazed by this and promises that she will set him free soon. This opportunity arrives sooner than expected, as around the same time, Fester Addams is also in Willow Hill, looking for Augustus Stonehearst and Lois. When Laurel sees him, she reveals his identity to Dr. Fairburn in return for being kept at Willow Hill. This leads Wednesday to plan an escape for her uncle, and in doing so, Slurp the zombie is released, and he causes mayhem in the hospital.
While people are killed left and right and the whole place erupts into chaos, Laurel finds her window, frees herself, and finds the keys that will free Tyler of the bondage he is placed in. She doesn’t waste time removing his chains, but instead of being grateful, he rebukes her for using him. It seems that he is still angry with her, and the only way that this thing will be settled is when he kills her. He gives her a five-second head start as he transforms into the Hyde, but it is not enough for her. While she tries to run away, the Hyde catches up with her pretty fast, and as his sharp claws pierce her back, the life runs out of her eyes, and she dies.
Laurel Overestimates Her Influence on Tyler
When Laurel first found Tyler, he was a love-starved kid who believed that no one, not even his own father, loved him. She manipulated him into believing that she actually cared for him and had his best interests at heart, even if it meant unlocking the monster inside him, turning him into a killer, and ruining his entirely normal life. And then, all the killings caught up with them, and Tyler landed himself in Willow Hill. As the Hyde grew stronger, Tyler’s anger and hatred for the ones who’d wronged him grew stronger as well. His resentment for his father turned into pure rage, his anger towards Wednesday for exposing him turned into the desire for revenge, and the same happened for Laurel as well.
While Laurel made him believe that she was the only one who loved him, his time in Willow Hill made him realise that she was the worst of them all. It seems that Dr. Fairburn was right in assuming that distance will weaken, if not break, the bond between them. The perspective that being put in chains and being constantly threatened with electric shocks if turned into the Hyde made him realise that his life would have been so much better if Laurel hadn’t manipulated him. But while he receives this clarity, she remains in the delusion that she has hold over him. Even when she sees him again and he almost kills her, she tells herself that he is angry because he thought she had abandoned him. She believes that by setting him free, she will be able to ease his anger, but she is proven terribly wrong when Tyler gives her a piece of his mind.
Read More: Is Wednesday’s Jericho an Actual Town? Is Nevermore Based on a Real School?
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