Wednesday is finally back! After the longest wait ever, the horror series starring Jenna Ortega is back with its highly anticipated second installment on Netflix. This season sees Wednesday Addams return to Nevermore Academy for a new semester, where she finds herself entangled in another supernatural mystery.
From the very beginning, fans will quickly notice that a major character from the first season is nowhere to be found. Xavier Thorpe (Percy Hynes White), Wednesday’s psychic classmate and complicated love interest, is absent from Nevermore Academy this season and the show doesn't ignore it. In fact, we find out exactly what happened to him in the first episode.
Major spoilers are ahead from Wednesday season 2!
Xavier left Nevermore Academy in Wednesday season 2
In the season 2 opener titled "Here We Woe Again," we find out what Wednesday had been up to during the summer. She spent her time mastering her psychic ability as well as taking down an infamous serial killer known as "The Kansas City Scalper."
With summer reaching its end, Wednesday returns to Nevermore Academy along with her parents and brother in tow. While talking to the new principal, Barry Dort, Wednesday finds out that Xavier was pulled from the school by his father after he was falsely accused of murder. He was then sent to a school called Reichenbach Academy in Switzerland. Wednesday's father, Gomez Addams, claims he spent a summer there as an exchange student when he was younger.
If you recall from the first season, Wednesday starts to suspect that Xavier is the Hyde monster who is going around Jericho murdering people. This results in his arrest by Sheriff Donovan Galpin, but he's later released and cleared of all charges once it's revealed that Tyler is actually the Hyde. It appears Xavier's father couldn't get over the public scandal and made the decision to transfer him to another school in season 2.
The only other time Xavier is mentioned in Wednesday season 2 part 1 is later in the first episode. Wednesday receives a letter from Xavier, along with a painting of a crow perched on a headstone. In the letter, Xavier describes the artwork as his way of saying goodbye. He explains in the letter that the image of a crow randomly flashed in his head one day, and though he didn't know what it meant, he knew it was somehow connected to Wednesday.
Why isn't Percy Hynes White in Wednesday season 2?
Maybe you weren't around when news broke in May 2024 that Hynes White wouldn't be returning as Xavier for the show's second season. If not, we're here to catch you up on everything you need to know. In early 2023, Hynes White faced allegations of sexual assault on social media.
A X user claimed at the time that Hynes White had sexually assaulted her at a party while she was intoxicated. The same user also alleged that Hynes White had assaulted multiple other women and that he and his friends would host parties where they gave underage girls alcohol and drugs with the intention of having sex with them. Hynes White would months later strongly deny the claims, calling them a “campaign of misinformation” in a now-deleted Instagram story from June 2023, but the controversy circulated widely.
While Netflix never gave an official reason for Hynes White's removal from the hit horror show, the timing of the decision led many to speculate that the allegations may have played a role. Hynes White's character survived Wednesday season 1, and it seemed like Xavier and Wednesday's friendship was leading towards a romantic connection. So there really wouldn't have been any narrative reason to write him out.
Wednesday season 2 part 2 arrives on Netflix on Sept. 3. Stay tuned to Show Snob for any new updates on the upcoming Wednesday season 3!
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