‘Wednesday’ Episode 5 Recap: Who Is Garett Gates and How Did He Really Die?
It’s Family Day at Nevermore Academy, which means the Addams Family is back together again in Wednesday Episode 5. Gomez (Luis Guzmán), Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez), and even Lurch (George Burcea) pay Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) a visit, during which they uncover several truths that make this Netflix mystery clearer.
[SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers ahead regarding Wednesday Episode 5, “You Reap What You Woe.”]
Does Eugene Otinger die in ‘Wednesday’ on Netflix?
Eugene Otinger (Moosa Mostafa) becomes another one of the monster’s victims in Wednesday Episode 4. However, episode 5 reveals that Eugene is alive and in a coma in the hospital.
Wednesday claims she doesn’t have friends, but visiting Eugene becomes part of her daily routine. After all, she was supposed to be with him that night when he got attacked.
‘Wednesday’ Episode 5 explains Garett Gates’ death
Outside of Wednesday’s work to uncover who or what the monster is that’s killing people in Jericho, she’s curious about her parent’s past at Nevermore. Morticia and Gomez met and fell in love there, but they were also part of a student’s grisly death. It’s not until episode 5 of Wednesday that we get the full story — and then the truth — about what happened to Garett Gates (Lewis Hayes).
When Morticia was attending Nevermore, Garett developed an obsession with her to the point where he would stalk her. Believing Morticia was in danger and wanting to protect her, Gomez intervened the night of the Rave’n Dance in 1990.
After the coroner, who conveniently “blew his brains out” in Wednesday Episode 4, admitted to fudging Garett’s autopsy, Gomez is arrested. While in prison, he tells Wednesday he’s to blame for Garett’s death. But in reality, Morticia killed Garett. As she reveals to Wednesday in The Nightshade’s meeting library, she stabbed Garett with the sword that night — Gomez took the blame to protect her.
Garett Gates’ grave proves Gomez Addams’ innocence
Like any morbidly curious mother daughter duo, Morticia and Wednesday bridge the gap in their relationship and go grave digging together in episode 5. When they dig up Garett’s coffin, I admittedly thought they’d find it empty, proving he’s the monster killing people. But alas, his rotted corpse was there and mostly in tact.
That is, until Wednesday pulled one of his fingers off. After hearing Morticia’s recount of Garett’s death, Wednesday doesn’t think Garett was acting out of rage at all. “Foaming saliva, dilated pupils, mental confusion — what are those all textbook symptoms of?” she asks her mother.
The answer is Nightshade poisoning. Garett’s cold, blue finger proves it.
Ansel Gates was blinded by his hatred for outcasts and Garett suffered the consequences
As revealed in another detailed vision Wednesday has in episode 5, Ansel Gates (Philip Rosch) despised the outcasts who attended Nevermore. He was likely more than repulsed when he discovered his son was infatuated with one of them.
Wanting to rid the world of outcasts like someone else in Wednesday — ahem, Joseph Crackstone, ahem — Ansel has Garett sneak into the Rave’n Dance to poison the punch bowl with Nightshade. Except Ansel never makes it to the punch bowl because the vial breaks and the Nightshade seeps into his skin, causing him to go into a frenzied rage.
The Nightshade is what sparked his attack on Gomez. It’s also what lead to Garett’s death.
‘Wednesday’ Episode 5 also confirms Rowan is dead
Like, dead dead. When Rowan (Callum Ross) shows up in Wednesday Episode 2, it wasn’t Rowan shapeshifting at all. It was Principal Weems (Gwendoline Christie) pretending to be Rowan and throw Wednesday off the scent, but off the scent of what?
