"Wednesday" Season 2, Part 2, Doubles Down on Darkness and Mystery!

Netflix’s "Wednesday" has always lived in the shadowy corners of its creator Tim Burton’s mind -- creaky staircases, candlelit corridors, razor-sharp Jenna Ortega dialogue and all. Season 2, Part 1 gave us a Haley Joel Osment serial killer, creepy dolls, and an even more existential Wednesday Addams. Set up by a stellar Part 1, Part 2 swings the pendulum even farther into darkness and harrowing premonitions, giving Ortega and rising star Emma Myers (as Wednesday’s bubbly friend and roommate Enid Sinclair) some of their richest material yet. 

2022 was the year Jenna Ortega announced herself not only as the deadpan queen of doom but as an actress with a killer scream. Season 1 of "Wednesday" was Ortega’s breakout as the iconic pigtailed teen, and, along with Ti West’s slasher X and the Scream revival, Ortega had made the shift from childhood to adulthood. Season 2, Part 2 cements her as a full-blown scream queen and fashion icon. Wednesday’s new wardrobe is dazzlingly gothic: ornate black gowns, striped looks with German Expressionist flair, and those iconic braids paired with a sharper, darker lip and deeper, darker undereyes. On the red carpet, Ortega mirrors this transformation, swapping her Disney past for a sleek, mature aesthetic that signals her potential to become a Gen-Z fashion icon. 

On-screen, Ortega’s Wednesday remains agentic, sarcastic, and stubbornly uninterested in love stories. Instead, she doubles down on her witchcraft training, her psychic visions, and her cello performances (for which Ortega dedicated hours of training to achieve perfection). Dialogue that would feel overwrought in another actor’s hands lands perfectly dry with Ortega, who has mastered the art of looking unimpressed while delivering quick, difficult Tim Burton dialogue. Watching her spar with Steve Buscemi’s unnervingly cheerful Principal Barry Dort is a treat, especially as his upbeat energy feels like a smokescreen for something much darker.

But what makes Ortega so magnetic here isn’t just the snark -- it’s Wednesday’s quiet vulnerability. Whether communicating with visions of Gwendoline Christie’s Larissa Weems (serving as her new spiritual guide after the loss of her connection with ghostly ancestor Goody Addams) or coping with traumatic predictions of the loss of Enid, Wednesday feels more haunted than ever. Ortega makes us believe that, beneath the snarl and dead eyes, lies a girl terrified of losing the people she actually, begrudgingly, loves.

If Ortega is the anchor, Emma Myers is the season’s secret weapon. Enid Sinclair, now rocking pastel-purple and blue hair, is still bubbly and radiant, but Part 2 gives her more emotional weight and complexity beyond her happy-go-lucky archetype. The core arc of the season revolves around Wednesday’s gnawing premonition that Enid will die at her hands, a prophecy that softens our steely heroine and deepens their bond, which used to seem as impossible as oil and water.

Myers nails the balance: Enid is exuberant, bright, and endlessly optimistic, the perfect foil to Ortega’s monochrome gloom. Yet when the narrative tilts toward doom, Myers proves she can carry the heavier beats with authenticity, her fear mixing with her authenticity to form a shield as different to her as strong as Wednesday’s emotional armor. The dynamic between the two actresses is electric -- the rare female friendship on television that feels both mythic yet lived-in, fantastical yet deeply real.

Off-screen, Myers’s star is rising fast, and deservedly so. With her role as Natalie in the smash-hit A Minecraft Movie earlier this year, serving as the protagonist and emotional anchor of the film, "Wednesday" again proved that she is no sidekick. Watching her stand her ground alongside Ortega is like watching two magnets: opposite poles but inseparable. With the familiar charm of Burton alum Winona Ryder and the optimism perfect for our age of existentialism, Myers is a welcome and exciting addition to Hollywood. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be "Wednesday" without a central mystery for our girl to solve, and Part 2 delivers in spades. While Part 1’s big twist unmasked Judi Stonehurst as the true Avian killer, Part 2 unravels the fate of a mysterious female outcast thought to be Ophelia Addams, who is Wednesday’s long-lost aunt. Each episode (all cheekily including “Woe” in their titles) layers richly detailed clues with Burtonesque visuals: stop-motion sequences that nod to his early short film "Vincent" and more recent feature Frankenweenie, eerie basements, and creaking metalwork that feels tactile and alive.

Then there’s the buzziest casting of the year: Lady Gaga as Rosaline Rotwood, a venom-draped, enigmatic Nevermore teacher. Gaga’s arrival (teased at Netflix’s TUDUM event) is nothing short of iconic. Draped in venom, she has audiences purring that “Mother has arrived,” and she instantly reframes the season’s energy. It’s camp, it’s creepy, and it’s exactly the kind of pop culture jolt the show thrives on.

The block release model, splitting the season into two parts which released a month apart, pays off. It gives the mysteries room to breathe, heightens speculation and online discourse, and ensures that the show’s gothic world lingers in the cultural conversation longer than a typical binge-drop. "Stranger Things" may try it later this year with a 3-part release schedule, but "Wednesday" proved it works.

"Wednesday" Season 2, Part 2 proves the series isn’t just a gothic YA hit but has the potential to rewrite the iconography of a decades-old cultural phenomenon. Ortega is sharper and more layered than ever while Myers blossoms into a bona fide rising star. Throw in Gaga’s jaw-dropping cameo, Buscemi’s joyously sinister principal, and enough haunted set pieces to fuel dark academia Pinterest boards for months, and you’ve got a season that doubles down on both style and substance. Most importantly, it’s the female friendship at its core, the unlikely, unshakable bond between Wednesday and Enid, that keeps the show’s heart beating beneath all the shadows. Doom has never looked so whimsical.