Throughout season 2, his hatred for Wednesday grows without limits — why does Tyler want to kill her? There are many reasons, and an interview with Tyler’s actor has even explained it back in 2022.
It’s been a constant part of Netflix’s Wednesday storyline since the very first season: the relationship between Tyler and Wednesday is the core around which many of the show’s dynamics revolve. Even in season 2, despite Tyler being locked up at Willow Hill, he remains involved in what happens outside the institution, and Wednesday even goes so far as to confront him, suspecting he’s responsible for the murders taking place around Nevermore.
All of this comes to a head at the end of the first part of season 2, when Tyler, freed from his chains and transformed into a Hyde, hurls Wednesday out of a window in an attempt to kill her. It’s a visceral hatred that, in reality, stands in stark contrast to how Tyler and Wednesday’s relationship began at the start of the series: in the early episodes, Tyler liked Wednesday and had repeatedly shown interest in deepening that connection. The question viewers keep asking in Wednesday season 2 is the same: why does Tyler want to kill Wednesday?
Why does Tyler want to kill Wednesday?
First of all, the facts: Tyler is a Hyde — a monstrous, uncontrollable creature that kills by nature and has long terrorized Nevermore. Back in season one, Wednesday is determined to track down the Hyde and put an end to the string of murders plaguing Nevermore. When Wednesday discovers that the Hyde is actually Tyler, her intentions don’t change: she has him captured and taken out of play, proving that the personal relationship between her and Tyler could have no impact. The problem was the Hyde, and Wednesday intended to neutralize it — there would be no attempt to “understand” the Hyde’s nature, and this has always wounded Tyler deeply. This alone is enough to fuel Tyler’s hatred for Wednesday, and it’s no coincidence that this is when he first starts wanting to kill her.
A second, important factor is the way the master influences the Hyde. From the first season of Wednesday, we learn that Marilyn Thornhill spent years manipulating the Hyde hidden inside Tyler, using his destructive power for her own purposes. And Marilyn Thornhill has many reasons to hate Nevermore, the Outcasts, and the Addams family in particular: Marilyn Thornhill is actually Laurel Gates, a girl who pretended to drown years earlier. She was a member of the Gates family, a wealthy family that despised the Outcasts living in the area, descended from Jericho’s founder Joseph Crackstone. Joseph Crackstone was killed years ago by Goody Addams, and Laurel’s brother, Garrett Gates, died young after a fight with Gomez Addams. Marilyn Thornhill/Laurel Gates’ hatred for the Addams family runs deep, and it was passed on to Tyler through the manipulations that awakened the Hyde within him. This is why, in season two, Thornhill still tells Tyler that Wednesday is the real enemy.
All of this would already be enough to justify Tyler’s hatred toward Wednesday. She’s the one who had him locked up in Willow Hill, making him feel once again rejected for his nature as a Hyde. And as a Hyde who answers to the will of his master, Tyler hates Wednesday and the Addams family for what they did to the Gates family. And yet, there’s more: Tyler’s family history is very particular, and it also hides many of the reasons behind his hatred for Nevermore and the Outcasts. This is the aspect that was the focus of this 2022 interview with Hunter Doohan, the actor who plays Tyler in Wednesday, when he was asked how far back Tyler’s hatred for Wednesday really goes.
Tyler is a Hyde monster because his mother, Francoise, was one as well. After giving birth to Tyler, postpartum depression triggered the emergence of the Hyde within her. Francoise was institutionalized, and Hydes were permanently banned from Nevermore due to their uncontrollable nature. She later died of unknown causes, and when Tyler learned her story, he would forever blame Nevermore and the Outcasts for failing to help his mother manage her Hyde nature. After all, it’s exactly what Nevermore did with Tyler: no one tried to treat or understand his condition, even his own father rejected him as a son, leaving Tyler feeling profoundly abandoned by society.
This becomes the deeper reason why Tyler hates Nevermore and the Outcasts: they have what he and his mother never did — an inclusive environment in which to grow up and learn to control their special powers. This resentment is rooted in Tyler’s personal history, to the point that actor Hunter Doohan is convinced Tyler has always hated Wednesday, as he explains in his interview:
I think he was always playing her. Maybe there’s an attraction there and, he probably wouldn’t admit it, but a respect for her, but he’s filled with so much anger and hatred toward her and her family and all of Nevermore because of what happened to his mom. She was a Hyde and she died because Nevermore doesn’t accept them and won’t teach them how to control their powers, so I think Tyler’s filled with a lot of rage and that’s how he justifies his murdering spree.
A fun fact: Tim Burton kept the Hyde’s true identity hidden from the cast until the very last moment, so the mystery of who the Hyde was and why he hated Nevermore intrigued even the actors during filming. Hunter Doohan’s theory is therefore the result of long reflections he had while shooting the first season of Wednesday — and it still holds true today, with the second season already available.
