Wednesday and Tyler Graveyard Scene Analysis
Tyler’s body language and facial expressions in the graveyard scene in Season 2, Episode 8 really showed how conflicted he was about Isaac burying Wednesday alive and foreshadowed his decision to help Wednesday and her family at the climax of the episode beautifully. Hunter knocked it out of the park this whole sequence, and the camera angles and lighting choices really enhanced the scene.
The first time I watched it, I was positively thrilled by how obviously Tyler still cares about Wednesday. Even when he's so clearly under someone else’s control, his feelings for her bleed through, and I wanted to break the scene down and discuss it more thoroughly.
This frame is soon after Tyler has captured Thing, and he seems both resigned to what’s happening and concerned, like he’s already having second thoughts about Isaac and Isaac’s plan:
Then there's this moment where he looks at Wednesday as Isaac starts knitting Thing back onto his stump. Tyler has his hand around her neck to restrain her and keep her from interfering, and his eyes even bulge a little like he might transform, but look at his expression: it’s like he’s silently asking her to hold still and not make things worse, and I think it’s because he's already concerned about what Isaac might do to her:
A moment later, he even turns his attention back to Isaac so he can watch what's happening. This was a risky move when he knows how good Wednesday is at fighting and self-defense, but I think he's just that worried about what Isaac's going to do next:
Here you can really see his uncertainty and concern over what's happening. He has to hold both Pugsley and Wednesday captive for this plan (which he does fairly effortlessly, speaking to just how strong he is), and yet his attention is on his uncle:
But then Wednesday struggles against him again, drawing with attention back to her:
Then, when Isaac does telepathically seize her and starts lowering her into the grave, Tyler immediately steps closer with Pugsley in tow:
And then of course Wednesday gives him this iconic look. She's about to be buried alive and her younger brother is right there, but she decides to look at Tyler instead. This shot almost seems to be from his point of view. It isn’t quite, or she would be looking directly at the camera, but the focus in these next few moments is on the two of them and their emotions, their feelings, their perspectives:
She’s judging him for his inaction and compliance, perhaps, but that deleted scene from behind the scenes where this moment did originally have dialogue indicates she knows he’s still under control. I think she was hoping he might break free and try to help her in spite of everything. And I actually prefer this moment without the dialogue because honestly? It isn't needed. Jenna and Hunter are fantastic actors and convey so much with just a single look. Plus it opens up more room for interpretation, for the audience to imagine what's going through their heads.
Speaking of conveying so much with just a single look though, the sorrow and grief and concern is just so evident on Tyler’s face as he stares at her. For someone who blustered so much about killing her, he sure seems upset about her possible death. He looks like he’s about to cry, like this is his worst nightmare is coming true, and they have an entire conversation with their eyes without saying a single word. The lighting is really interesting, too, because while Wednesday’s face tends to be relatively well lit throughout the scene for a graveyard at midnight, his face tends to be half in darkness, half in light:
He just looks so resigned and defeated here. It's quite the contrast to Pugsley. Pugsley is actively engaged: bending down so he’s closer to his sister, eyes wide, struggling against his imprisonment. Tyler is so used to being the prisoner of his masters that he doesn’t even try:
Then we get this shot of the vines starting to encircle her. The camera angle is focused on her face to really drive home the horror of what’s happening, and notice how the shot is from above, like this is from the perspective of someone looking down and seeing what's happening…so in this moment, Tyler and Pugsley’s perspective (albeit closer than they could actually get from where they’re standing above the grave). Note the lighting on her face, too, how it's pretty well lit:
Sure enough, the following shot of Tyler and Pugsley is from below, like Wednesday is looking up at them. They tower over her, and Tyler dominates the frame. Note his body language. He’s clenching Pugsley’s chains. His lips are pressed into a thin, tight line. All of this indicates how angry and upset he is about what’s happening. His face is half in shadow, half in light again, like he’s in conflict with the good and evil sides of himself, his humanity and his Hyde:
And then we switch back to a shot of Wednesday. Again, her face is very well lit, all things considered, and it does kind of crack me up that she and Pugsley both do the wide-eyed horrified stare so well, they really do look like siblings in this scene. Again, the camera focuses on her face to really capture her emotions and encourage the audience to sympathize with her plight. And, of course, Tyler is seeing all of this too:
Then there’s this shot, this pan to focus on Tyler instead of both Tyler and Pugsley. The camera lingers on Tyler’s face. This is so, so important because for one, it tells us Tyler is the complete focus now, and two, his reaction to what happened to Wednesday is so important that Tim Burton wanted to spend precious time on this closeup. Is he gloating or smirking or otherwise glad? No. He is absolutely gutted:
The camera lingers on his face and his jaw tenses. You can just see all the thoughts going through his head, how it's hitting him all at once that he doesn't hate her or want her to die, not at all. This is a very important revelation, and there’s more light on his face now too to indicate this, like he’s finally seen the light/the truth about the situation and his feelings for her. And the bitter irony is that he thinks it's too late, she’s buried and dying right as all his true feelings for her are unearthed and acknowledged. He’s got that thousand-yard stare and looks like he’s horrified and grieving, all at once. You can really see his humanity peeking through:
And then Isaac starts talking again. Tyler flat out looks like he wants to murder his uncle. Look at the contempt in his expression. His eyes even bulge a little like they do when he’s about to transform:
He lingers a little near Wednesday's grave even after Isaac has stalked off, yanking Pugsley along with him. Again, it's the little moments like this that are so important and so intentional. The right side of his face is cast in light and the left side of his face is cast in shadow again, hinting at the turmoil inside over leaving Wednesday to die:
Then there's this moment with Isaac, who is so dementedly, joyfully unhinged about his plan succeeding. Honestly, I love moments like this because sure, he's creepy and evil, but he also cares about things, he gets excited about things, he's still human. The neat, tidy delineation between good and evil, human and monster, blurs with his character, which is what makes him such an interesting villain:
Same with Francoise. She screams excitedly like a little kid instead of a grown woman, and it's just such a jarring contrast, in a good way. She isn’t just some stoic evil villain, she shows concern and excitement and affection in a very arrested development sort of way, which makes perfect sense given all the trauma she's been through:
And she and Isaac are both thrilled he has his right hand back to the point it's uncomfortable and creepy. Honestly, Frances and Owen did such a good job of making their characters act really weird and twisted together in a way that makes perfect sense for a brother-sister relationship gone wrong after bucket loads of trauma and arrested development that was never properly dealt with. Think about it, they basically just had each other growing up with an abusive father, Isaac’s health issues, and Francoise’s Hyde, and then Isaac died and Francoise was imprisoned and experimented on for years. Apparently, Isaac wasn't the same after his clockwork heart, either. He became cold, and near the end of the episode, he even talks about how Francoise was the only person he ever loved.
Anyway, all of that is to say that of course everything they've been through would do a number on them and would impact their closest relationships. But instead of ever working through it, they choose to become more and more twisted and evil. The Night family manages to make the Addams family look “normal” in comparison, which is really, really saying something:
Tyler, on the other hand, does not look happy at all. He’s got that thousand-yard stare again and looks resigned. His subdued expression is really telling, precisely because his mom and his uncle are both overjoyed. It also kind of cracks me up they both he and Pugsley are low-key judging his mom and uncle (I mean same lol). He might be a Hyde and Pugsley an Addams, but they still have standards. His face is relatively well-lit here, too. No internal conflict over this, he just thinks his mom and uncle are acting weird and isn't happy about what happened to Wednesday:
This foreshadows how he turns on his uncle and mom later in this very episode. It’s setting the stage, because he's now at odds with them emotionally over their “success” in capturing Thing and burying Wednesday. Instead, he has a reaction much more like Pugsley’s, who is Wednesday’s brother. He and Pugsley also keep getting grouped together in shot after shot during this scene, culminating in this shot. They have more in common here than Tyler has in common with his own family, and it's all because of Wednesday. And her saving him later in the episode is the final push he needs to go against his family and fight for her…and for the Addams family.
Thank you for reading this, and feel free to chime in with your thoughts!
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