Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers for season 2 of Wednesday and is streamed on Netflix.
Netflix released part 2 of “Wednesday” season 2 on September 4th. Fans were surprised to see Gwendrick Lysty appearing in the first episode of the new batch, recreating the role of former Nevermo Apricot Cypal Larissa Weems. The character dies in the season 1 finale, but she returns as a ghost later in season 2, serving as a passive mental guide for even more passive Wednesday Adams (Jenna Ortega).
This new incarnation of Weems has the same wit, wisdom and fashion sense as her living predecessor, but she appears exclusive on Wednesday (and sometimes played by her mother, Morticia Addams, Catherine Zeta-Jones). The rest of the characters are unaware of Weem’s presence. This seems liberating and frustrating for the character. There is no burden on life, and Weem appears to be relieved in her post-death condition. However, she is destined to witness world events without the ability to intervene.
“We all love being given a second chance,” Christie talks about Weems’ return from death, adding, “Being able to see life continuing without you is seductive at first, but ultimately, it will be a very painful experience.”
To return to the character as Weems, Christie spent a lot of time on second chances, fate and deaths. She said: “I spent a lot of time around seniors and people who were in marginal spaces. And I thought a lot about the ideas of ghosts, the meaning of being in the cemetery, and the sense of ghosts.”
She also cites the two Hitchcock blondes as important inspiration for Weem. Her living incarnation in Season 1 was inspired by Tippi Hedren from “The Bird,” while in Season 2 the character evolved like Kim Novak from “The Dizzy.” So, even beyond the grave, Weem carries himself in the calmness of an old Hollywood starlet, but there is something ghostly underneath.
Courtesy of Helen Sloan/Netflix
The ghostly sensation was emphasized by the fact that Weems could not interact with anyone other than her rebellious Wednesday and her lifelong enemy Morticia. According to Christie, Dynamic “has given great energy to this first priority of this alienation and isolation and deep, almost painful eternal loneliness.” Nevertheless, she enjoyed herself with a unique acting experience, saying, “I found it with a blessed relief, because I want to make life invisible or spend it with someone else,” and “it didn’t end the character. I loved it.”
“God, I always wanted to play a ghost,” she says.
Despite the general isolation, Christie was able to share a unique dialogue with her co-stars who play a few characters who could see Weem. This short list included Ortega on Wednesday, Zeta Jones as Morticia and Emma Myers as Enid Sinclair in a bizarre episode that switches between bodies with her on Wednesday. Christie celebrated all of her castmates’ performances, pointing out that it was “a specific experience for each character” depending on her relationship with Weem. She especially performed “The Recroctant Mentor” on Wednesday. Because the two characters have what they call “mutual respect” for each other, which they feel “cannot be categorized.”
Courtesy of Helen Sloan/Netflix
Strange relationships aside, Weems will help defeat the enemy on Wednesday and resolve the conflict by the end of Season 2. Meanwhile, she saw the main Dort of successor Steve Buccemi, and was removed from Nevermore, and has elevated her legacy by comparison. As her ghosts sit at her old desk, she prides herself on the school that “they need a stable hand at the rudder, the leader of impeccable moral character.” Weems is dead to everyone except Wednesday, but it looks as if she’s talking about herself – and Christie agrees. “I think Larissa is definitely referring to herself,” she says.
The main position remains filled at the end of Season 2, but with limited ability to interact with anyone beyond Weems’ Wednesday, Morticia may not make her a major candidate for the job. Again, “Wednesday” takes place in a world of werewolves, monsters and zombies, so the Ghost Principal may not be the most unusual prediction of Season 3.
As for season 3, Christie is Koi. “I think Larissa Weems has already sent her reapply for Nevermore,” she says. “But I don’t know. I’m not talking to her.”
Weems’ future is appropriately vague considering Season 2 left a long list of lingering questions to fans on “Wednesday.” However, as foreshadowing and danger still lurks in Jericho on Wednesday, a bit of help from the dead may be in place.
