WARNING! This article contains major SPOILERS for Wednesday season 1!Wednesday Addams inherited her psychic powers from her mother and father’s families, but Wednesday hints at further witch connections through her ancestor Goody Addams (also played by Jenna Ortega). Netflix’s Wednesday confirms that the Addams family has supernatural powers, with Wednesday Addams being sent to Nevermore Academy, a school for supernatural “outcasts” hosting other species like werewolves, vampires, gorgons, and sirens. Since Wednesday avoids seeking help from her psychic mother Morticia, the title character learns to control her powers through one of her ancestors, who often visits Wednesday in her psychic visions.
As a new character created specifically for Wednesday, Goody Addams plays a surprisingly important role in the series’ Addams Family history. Goody is one of Gomez Addams’ ancestors from Mexico who settled in Jericho during the 17th century, where pilgrim Joseph Crackstone sought to eradicate all outcasts. As a talented psychic and witch, Goody was able to outsmart Crackstone, kill him, and place a blood curse on his soul in order to protect outcasts. When battling Joseph Crackstone’s descendants 400 years later, Wednesday Addams requires Goody’s guidance to save Nevermore, revealing that many of Goody’s supernatural gifts were passed through her bloodline to Wednesday.
Wednesday Addams Isn't Technically A Witch
While Goody and Wednesday share many of the same psychic powers and dispositions as outcasts, Wednesday season 1 reveals that there is a key difference in their supernatural gifts. Despite inheriting her psychic abilities from Gomez’s ancestors, Wednesday is not technically a witch like Goody, but she’s still a clairvoyant outcast. Even if Wednesday does have witch blood inside her, The Addams Family spinoff series only ever refers to the title character as a psychic.
Both Wednesday and her ancestor Goody are psychics known as Ravens, which means that their visions are more potent and reflect their darker view of the world. Wednesday shares her supernatural power to see the future, with Goody often reaching out through visions to help prepare Wednesday for her battle with Crackstone. While Wednesday shares more similarities with Goody as psychics, the title character also inherited her gift from her mother Morticia Frump, who is a more positive psychic known as a Dove. Morticia is also only described as a psychic, so it doesn’t seem that Wednesday's characters are witches despite their supernatural powers and links to Goody.
Wednesday's Witch Connections Explained
In addition to Gomez’s ancestor being a witch, Wednesday Addams may have more witch blood from a closer generation. In past adaptations of The Addams Family, Grandmama was said to be a witch. The Addams Family has often changed up whether Grandmama is Gomez or Morticia’s mother, and Wednesday has yet to decide on her bloodline since the character didn’t appear in season 1. Either way, Wednesday’s connections to witches are even stronger if Grandmama is still classified as this supernatural species in Wednesday’s future.
Morticia Addams was considered witch-like in the 1960s Addams Family sitcom, so Wednesday may have simply given her witch description a psychic label. Furthermore, as none of the students at Wednesday’s Nevermore Academy are considered witches, the psychic group is likely the substitute for this species. Since the Netflix show has only described Goody as a witch, it’s possible the classification of the outcast species is different in Wednesday, or will change as more witch-like characters are introduced.