#wyler analysis

[unlikelyloverunknown]

I find it interesting that when Weems calls out Wednesday for having feelings for Tyler, the camera then pans to Wednesday aggressively putting a stopper on a flask OVERFLOWING with some sort of gas. 

Might be unrelated but I remembered the first time Wednesday and Tyler met, and how there’s a cloudy wall of gas/steam between them (which could mean nothing).

Anything else you're trying to stopper or bottle up there Wednesday? 

[ginnycampbellbower88]

So, here comes the longer, more detailed post I promised about that buried alive scene and Tyler’s role in it.

First of all: the idea that “Tyler could have saved Wednesday” is, in my opinion, completely missing the point. He literally could not. Just like back in season one, Tyler was again under the Hyde-Master bond. And that bond means absolute control – he cannot move against it, cannot fight it, cannot simply “decide” to act differently. You can even see this in his face during the scene: the struggle, the awareness, the frustration (props again for the 10000th time to Hunter Doohan for his absolutely amazing acting 👏).

But there’s no way out. Physically, he could do nothing. The only thing he could do?

Keep quiet. And that’s exactly what I believe he did. Tyler didn’t say anything about sensing Agnes, because I really, really believe he knew she was there – and he also knew that by staying silent he wasn’t exposing her presence. And this silence gave Agnes the chance to later save Wednesday.

Now, why am I so sure he sensed her? Because we’ve seen this before. Remember the car scene earlier?

At first, Tyler didn’t register Agnes in the trunk. Some fans argue that later (in Willow Hill) he only noticed her because she made a sound.

Because right — why couldn’t he sense her in the car then?

But if you watch closely, that sound was tiny and way too short. Isaac, for example, didn’t notice it at all.

And here’s the important part: if it had only been about hearing something, Tyler wouldn’t have been able to pinpoint her location either (because we see it confirmed that Agnes had already moved away from the spot where the sound came from).

What actually happened there is much more interesting: the noise simply triggered him to pay attention. It nudged him to tune into that other sense – his Hyde sense. And once he focused on it, he knew exactly where Agnes was. That’s why he found her. Not because his ears picked up something Isaac missed (even though his hearing is better, but that’s not the point in this scene).

So by the time we get to the buried alive scene, Tyler already understands what that presence, that feeling means. He knows Agnes is there. He knows what that sense is telling him.(And so this scene differs from the scene in the car, because in this scene he already knew how to understand that presence, in the car scene he didn’t)

But again – bound by the Hyde control – he can’t act more than he already did. He can’t help Wednesday directly. What he can do, though, is protect Agnes by not giving her away (and not for Agnes’s sake obviously, but because she is the only one who can save Wednesday later). And that, in turn, is the only indirect way he does help Wednesday: by ensuring that Agnes remains hidden and able to step in. And that’s why I think this scene is actually so important for Tyler’s character. It shows that he’s not “ignoring” Wednesday, nor is he failing her out of choice, nor has he stopped loving her. He’s trapped, bound, and helpless – but still aware.

And in the one small way left to him, through silence, he manages to do the only thing he can: leave space for Agnes to save her.