WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Wednesday season 1!Joseph Crackstone’s statue destruction foreshadowed his fiery fate in Wednesday’s season 1 finale. While Netflix’s Addams Family TV show has several villains lurking in Jericho and Nevermore Academy, the centuries-old foe that Wednesday Addams must take down is Joseph Crackstone. The prejudiced Crackstone made it his mission to eradicate outcasts from the world, but was stopped by Wednesday’s psychic ancestor Goody Addams back in the 17th century. However, Crackstone’s plan was carried on by his descendants, with Christina Ricci’s Laurel Gates resurrecting him in Wednesday’s season 1 ending. When Crackstone returns, Wednesday faces him at Nevermore and successfully kills him with a sword, which causes the ancient pilgrim to combust and burn into ashes.
Wednesday season 1 had long been teasing the title character’s foreseen confrontation with Joseph Crackstone, and had even subtly revealed what would happen when she successfully stabbed him in the heart. At the unveiling of Crackstone’s statue in Wednesday season 1, episode 3, Wednesday and Thing conspired to blow up the monument. Using gasoline and matches, Crackstone’s statue exploded into flames, with the face of the pilgrim left burnt and melted on the fountain. The real resurrected Crackstone would then suffer almost exactly the same fate in Wednesday’s season 1 finale, as he would explode and become enflamed near the quad’s fountain once Jenna Ortega's Wednesday stabbed him.
Why Laurel Gates Wanted To Resurrect Crackstone In Wednesday
The Gates family had been carrying on Joseph Crackstone’s mission for several centuries since the pilgrim was killed by Goody Addams, but to no avail. After faking her death, Laurel Gates decided the only way to truly rid the world of outcasts was to resurrect Joseph Crackstone himself. Past strategies such as using nightshade poison had failed, so resurrecting Crackstone through supernatural means was the only way to truly eradicate outcasts. Had Wednesday Addams not vanquished Joseph Crackstone in Wednesday’s season 1 finale, the resurrected pilgrim likely would have been successful in fulfilling his mission.
How Goody Knew How To Kill Joseph Crackstone
The Tim Burton-directed Wednesday doesn’t actually confirm how Goody Addams killed Joseph Crackstone, but hints that her psychic powers and Book of Shadows played key roles in his demise. Goody’s studies in the occult and associations with various outcasts likely taught her that the only way to trap Joseph Crackstone’s soul would be to place a blood curse on his tomb. Only Goody’s bloodline could free him from his crypt should he be resurrected, so Goody perhaps realized that Wednesday would eventually need to open his crypt so that she could vanquish his soul by stabbing his black heart.
The flashbacks to Goody Addams in Wednesday season 1 also suggest that she founded Nevermore and the Nightshades with the hope of keeping Crackstone gone forever. While Tim Burton’s Addams Family TV show doesn’t reveal the circumstances behind the object’s history, it’s hinted that the sword Wednesday uses to stab and vanquish Joseph Crackstone in Wednesday’s season 1 finale may have been the item Goody used to originally kill the pilgrim. The sword was also used by Morticia to officially kill Garrett Gates, suggesting the blade itself could be infused with blood magic allowing the Addamses to defeat Crackstone’s bloodline.