Wednesday has yet to reveal what type of outcast Gomez Addams is, but the series may provide enough clues for viewers to figure out the truth.
This article contains spoilers for Wednesday Season 1, now streaming on Netflix.
On Netflix’s Wednesday, Gomez and Morticia Addams send their daughter Wednesday to their alma mater, Nevermore Academy, a boarding school for outcasts, or students with various special abilities. Wednesday and Morticia are both prone to psychic visions, and the rest of the Nevermore student body is made up of werewolves, sirens, gorgons, and at least one person with the power to control bees. Even Uncle Fester, who did not attend Nevermore, conducts electricity with his hands. However, Gomez has yet to show any outcast traits. Thus far, he is simply a friendly man who wears a pinstripe suit and has macabre interests. This begs the question, what might be hiding under his mustache-topped smile?
Based on physical appearance, he is neither a siren nor a gorgon. Sirens have very distinct eyes, and gorgons have snakes for hair. If he was a werewolf, Wednesday probably would have mentioned it to Enid, who is, herself, a werewolf. He could be a psychic, except that probably would have come up when Morticia and Wednesday discussed their own abilities. He has no obvious connection to bees or any other animals, a la Eugene. Whatever type of outcast Gomez is, it has no representation among the members of the Nevermore population the series has introduced. However, despite this lack of explicit information, Wednesday does provide enough evidence to suggest an answer to this question: Gomez Addams can reanimate the dead.
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The Origin of Thing in Netflix’s Wednesday
The first and most obvious indication of Gomez’s talents is the existence of Thing. Thing is a sentient disembodied hand who is covered in stitches. The placement of those stitches suggests that Thing may once have been attached to a body. If that is, indeed, the case, how is he now a free-roaming hand? Raising the dead is likely a difficult skill to master. Perhaps young Gomez started small, reanimating individual body parts before moving on to entire bodies.
In previous pieces of Addams Family media, Thing is simply an accepted part of the overall mythology. He has no established origin, but Wednesday has already shown a willingness to flesh out unexplored corners of the franchise canon and even introduce wholly new elements. Such is the case with both Nevermore Academy and the idea that Wednesday and Morticia possess psychic powers. Gomez being Thing’s creator would definitely go hand in hand, so to speak, with these newer details.
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Wednesday’s Uncle Fester Presents a True Example of Brotherly Love
Gomez’s success in reanimating a severed hand may have spurred him on to bigger and bolder experiments. This would have eventually led him to attempt resurrecting an entire person, and based on appearance, that person could have easily been Uncle Fester. For all of their gothic interests and idiosyncrasies, Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday and Pugsley all look, more or less, like regular human beings. Uncle Fester, on the other hand, has the pallid complexion and dark, sunken eyes of a corpse. Perhaps tragedy struck the Addams clan during Gomez’s childhood, and he felt compelled to bring his brother back to life. Conversely, maybe the Addamses adopted Fester after Gomez resurrected him.
If Gomez’s means of reanimating the dead is anything like Dr. Frankenstein’s, this origin could even explain Fester’s ability to generate electricity. The amount of power corpse revivification would require is, no doubt, substantial. In a world where teenagers transform into monsters and intelligent hands move of their own accord, this process could have left Fester’s body with a permanent electrical charge.
If Gomez can raise the dead, it also helps explain the Addams family’s cavalier attitude toward danger and possible death. In Season 1, Episode 5, “You Reap What You Woe,” Gomez reacts with wistful pride to the news that someone has tried to kill his daughter. This would run counter to the clear affection he feels for his family, unless, of course, he has some ability to render death meaningless. Why fear anything when you can always bring back your fallen loved ones? In a family of supernatural outcasts, Gomez may have the most consequential powers of them all.
