Thing’s origin is a long-running mystery within the Addams Family franchise, but Wednesday season 2 has officially provided an answer. Of course, this big revelation is a complete invention of the Netflix series. In the original Addams Family comics and sitcom, Thing’s origin story was purposefully avoided. However, Wednesday has gone about things differently.
In the Addams Family comics, Thing wasn’t initially a severed hand. He was a strange sort of monster who always kept out of sight, save for an arm, leg, nose, or ear from time to time. Eventually, this character evolved into the familiar being we all know. The disembodied “helping hand” was an iconic feature of the Addams Family sitcom and every adaptation that has followed.
If anything, Thing has only become more beloved in Wednesday, where he has developed a colorful and affectionate personality. In season 2, however, Thing began to struggle with his sense of identity. He wanted to understand where he came from, but the Addemses seemed not to know. Now, in Wednesday season 2, part 2, it has been revealed that Gomez and Morticia have been lying. They knew all along whose body Thing had once been attached to.
Thing Is Isaac Night’s Severed Right Hand In Wednesday
Thing’s big reveal in Wednesday season 2 came after a string of related revelations. First, we learned that the zombie Pigsley had resurrected in season 2, part 1, was a student called Isaac Night, the brother of Tyler’s mother, Francoise Galpin. He had died 30 years prior to the events of Wednesday, when Gomez and Morticia attended Nevermore together.
Next, it’s revealed that Isaac was Gomez’s roommate and best friend. A clever inventor, Isaac came up with a way to remove Francoise’s powers, ensuring that she wouldn’t die from the condition of being a Hyde. He needed Gomez’s electricity power to work the machine, however, and his friend happily agreed. What Isaac didn’t tell Gomez was that the experiment would also claim his life.
In Wednesday season 2, part 2, Morticia told Wednesday the basics of this story, explaining that she had saved Gomez and that her sabotage of Isaac’s machine resulted in the explosion that killed him. It wasn’t until Wednesday hunted Isaac down that the now reformed zombie reclaimed his hand. The whole thing had been a trap to recapture Thing.
This is when the details of Thing’s origin were revealed. When Morticia saved Gomez, she cut off Isaac’s hand. In Wednesday season 2, the dead man needed this final body part to regain access to his powers, which were necessary to reconstruct his machine and save Francoise (or Tyler). Thing was Isaac’s hand all along. Even his name was actually an anagram of the surname “Night”.
How Isaac’s Hand Reanimated After His Death
Though we now know that Wednesday‘s version of Thing was Isaac Night’s hand, there are still some standing mysteries here. After the tower’s explosion killed Issac, the electrical current surged through Thing, bringing him to life. Precisely how that is possible is unclear. Thing has no beating heart or brain, but he is still a living beings all his own. It’s possible that this has something to do with Isaac’s Outcast powers.
Regardless of how exactly Thing functions as a living being, there’s no doubt in Wednesday that he has his own identity and personality. At first, it seemed in Wednesday season 2, part 2, that being reattached to Isaac meant that Thing was gone. However, he ultimately managed to find his will again with the help of the Addamses.
Why Thing Stayed With The Addams Family For So Long
Morticia and Gomez explained in Wednesday season 2, part 2, that Thing had no memory of anything before Isaac’s death. The hand had no idea whom he had been attached to, and certainly wasn’t aware that the rest of his parts had once tried to murder Gomez.
Though we don’t see what those first days and weeks with the Adamses looked like, we can assume that Gomez and Morticia embraced Thing wholeheartedly. He became a member of the family. Since the Adamses were all that Thing knew, it makes sense that he would have stayed with them. Still, in Wednesday season 2, we see that he had begun to think and wonder about his origins.
Isaac Night’s Defeat & Thing’s Fate In Wednesday Season 2 Explained
Earlier in Wednesday season 2, part 2, Thing went to a support group for severed parts. He was clearly thinking about where he came from and felt that some part of him was missing. It was perfectly possible that Thing would abandon the Adamses entirely once he was reunited with the rest of his body. However, when Wednesday was being hurt, Thing couldn’t stand for it.
Thing was able to fight through Isaac’s control in Wednesday season 2. Said and done, the hand ripped out his body’s clockwork heart, leaving Isaac to die on the floor of his tower for a second time. Of course, that wasn’t the end of Thing’s story. He tore himself free of Isaac’s body and reunited with the Addamses.
As a final statement against his prior identity, Thing threw away the knight chess-piece ring that had belonged to Isaac. This murderous man, who had tried to hurt Thing’s family, was gone, and Thing himself was free to be his kind, kooky, and supremely helpful self in Wednesday.
Wednesday
8/10
- Release Date
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November 23, 2022
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Miles Millar, Alfred Gough
- Writers
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April Blair