Goody Addams is the ancestral initiator of several plot points in Netflix’s mystery teen comedy ‘Wednesday’, acting as the guide to the titular character in her quest to solve the perilous mystery at her new school.
Nevermore Academy is home to all the weirdos and freaks that are deemed and termed “Outcasts” by the “Normies” of society. These outcasts find their way into the aforementioned school and a chance to thrive in the company of others like them.
As the show progresses, it becomes evident that these outcasts aren’t simply rebellious, edgy pranksters but legitimately anomalous in appearance and capabilities from the rest of the public.
At first, Wednesday Addams, the pale and perilous little goth girl, seems to be an exceptionally brutal, give-no-crap individual who relishes violence and revels in chaos, although her aesthetic is dichromatically subdued.
A few paces later in the story, and new revelations come to light, sending a couple of shockers Wednesday’s way, as she realises she wields a power that has eluded her all this time and that she has little control over.
A few paces further, and she learns of the past and the familial legacy behind her visions. She must now rely on said power, in order to navigate through the fatal mystery that lies ahead and threatens her very life.
Visions, legacy, and an ancestor
Wednesday Addams discovers she has new powers not too long after she enrols into Nevermore Academy. This power entails a jolt of visions, that can peek both into the past and the future, but Wednesday has no control over these visions.
They get triggered when she touches a certain thing/person. The visions that follow are related to the thing/person touched by Addams, plunging her into a montage of significant imagery from the past or the future.
These visions, although unreliable, steer Wednesday left and right as she tries to get to the bottom of all the murders that a certain monster has been committing while she awaits an attack on herself, as prophesied by a Seer long ago.
Later on, it’s her mother Morticia Addams who tells her about these visions, as she began having them when she was her age as well. She also tells her that the nature of these powers is familial and genetic.
This is congruent to Wednesday’s own discoveries and visions, one among which is different from the rest. This vision shows her a blonde girl with the same age and countenance as her, only with a time period around the Witch Trials.
As Wednesday gets more chances to encounter and communicate with this girl, as well as experience vicariously through the visions of her tragic origins, she learns that it’s Goody Addams — her ancestor.
Goody Addams & the hideous truth of Crackstone
Wednesday learns that Goody Addams is her ancestor and also one of the original outcasts, during the 1600s when the witch trials were all the rage in the western world.
Goody and her family and friends who were deemed Outcasts were eventually ordered by Jericho’s founder Joseph Crackstone, to be burned alive.
Goody tried her best to free others but failed, as her mother told her to run off and build a better world for people like her. That eventually led to the formation of Nevermore Academy.
Meanwhile, the pilgrim Joseph Crackstone was defeated by Goody, who locked him and his soul inside his crypt. In modern times, the townsfolk of Jericho celebrates Crackstone as the founder, unaware of the hideous truth of the bigot.
A vengeful path tread together
Goody Addams was consumed by revenge and all she wanted was to exact her vengeance upon the bigoted pilgrim that was Joseph Crackstone.
Morticia told Wednesday how Goody was usurped by her sense of revenge, and how she lived her bereaved life all alone while trying to defeat Crackstone.
Goody Addams tells Wednesday that a similar fate awaits all those who tread the path of vengeance and that she’d inevitably have to end up alone as well.
However, not only that doesn’t end up being the case, but along with Wednesday’s friends and family, her ancestor and spirit guide also helps immensely in taking down the resurrected Crackstone.
When the pilgrim rises from his death, resurrected by his vile and equally bigoted descendant Laurel Gates, he impales Wednesday and leaves her dying, following which Goody Addams reappears.
Through the necklace that Morticia gave her daughter, Goody materializes temporarily and heals her descendant, springing her alive and energised before she heads off to battle Crackstone again.
However, that’s the last time Goody Addams appears before vanishing forever, as she tells Wednesday herself. With the titular character having learned a couple of things about visions, this truly might be the very last Wednesday and the viewers see the Outcasts’ ancestor.
Also read: Wednesday ending explained: Who is the Hyde monster?