‘Wednesday’ Season 1 Introduced ‘Addams Family’ Fans to a “Hyde” — What Is It?

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for Season 1 of Wednesday.

Season 1 of Netflix’s Wednesday gave fans a new twist on the classic Addams Family franchise. On the show, Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) has extraordinary talents that set her apart from other kids her age.

Wednesday is a psychic who can conjure visions of events before they take place. However, Nevermore Academy isn’t all fun and games. The students are haunted by a serial killer monster known as a “Hyde,” whose mission is to terrorize the school. So, what is a Hyde, exactly? Here’s what we know.

Throughout Season 1, Wednesday’s mission is to track down the Hyde and stop them from killing the Nevermore’s students and the “normies" (Jericho community members without powers).

Initially, Wednesday thought one of her classmates, Xavier Thorpe (Percy Hynes White), was the villain due to his drawings of the monster. She later discovered that Hydes have been around for decades, as her Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen) recalled seeing one in 1983. Tudum revealed that “Hyde” represents the “dual identities” of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

After investigating Hydes further with Fester and Thing, Wednesday discovered that Hydes are “outcasts” of Nevermore and are described by its founder, Nathaniel Faulkner, as “artists by nature but equally vindictive in temperament. Nathaniel goes on to explain that, "Born of mutation, the Hyde lays dormant until unleashed by a traumatic event or unlocked through chemical inducement or hypnosis. This causes the Hyde to develop an immediate bond with its liberator, who the creature now sees as its master..."

As the season progressed, Wednesday learned that she would have to defeat the Hyde and find its “master,” who controls everything the Hyde does. In the penultimate episode, Wednesday received a shocking vision, revealing the Hyde as her love interest and local barista, Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan).

Tyler seemed like an attentive, nice guy for Wednesday. However, his evil persona came out under his master’s control. Later, Wednesday got more bad news when she realized Tyler’s master was Mrs. Thornhill (Christina Ricci), who she became fond of all season.

Now that Wednesday has finally connected Tyler as the Hyde, Season 2 will likely show how she handles the reveal. While Tyler being the Hyde shocked fans, Wednesday showrunner Miles Millar said the twist was “very on-brand for her.”

Wednesday is available to stream on Netflix.