Like the beating of the hideous heart in Edgar Allan Poe’s story, Netflix’s Wednesday continues to tick with references to the 19th century American writer.
The first season of Tim Burton’s spooky series was haunted with many a nod to Poe, from the Gothic setting of Nevermore Academy (named for Poe’s most famous poem, 1845’s The Raven) to the highly dangerous Poe Cup in which teams were story-themed, and the secret Nightshade Society, a possible hat-tip to the 1935 story Morella.
In Season 2, the references aren’t as plentiful, but they’re still there — Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) even calls a plot twist “worthy of Poe” at one point. We’ve rounded them all up below. And if you’re not content with the long intervals of horrible sanity between the release of Part 1 and 2 of Wednesday Season 2, try a rewatch of The Fall of the House of Usher.
The Poe portrait
In Wednesday Season 2, episode 1, when teen siren Bianca Barclay (Joy Sunday) is called to the office of chipper new principal Barry Dort (Steve Buscemi), he directly points to a portrait of Poe on the wall, “our most famous alumni.” The thing is, Dort also kind of looks like the author with that hairdo…
The ravens
While Poe’s The Raven was mentioned a colossal amount of times in Season 1, there’s a fair few actual ravens in Season 2. In episode 1, the Founder’s Pyre constructed by the students is shaped like a stately raven. And in the main storyline, ravens aren’t gently rapping at chamber doors like in Poe’s story, instead taking a leaf out of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
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The clockwork heart
The ticking heart at the centre of the ghost story told by teen gorgon Ajax (Georgie Farmer) in episode 1, feels inspired by Poe’s 1843 short story “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
“The Tale of the Skull Tree,” the episode’s stunning, characteristically Tim Burton animation, follows a “brilliant boy with a fragile heart” who invents a mechanical ticker for himself. However, it changes him into a cold and ambitious man, one who attends Nevermore Academy and meets his untimely death there. “Legend has it,” Ajax explains, “that his body is buried at the foot of the Skull Tree in an unmarked grave. But if you put your ear to the skull’s hollow left eye, you can still hear his clockwork heart.” The story shares attributes with Poe’s protagonist, who is plagued by the beating heart of a man he murdered and buried under the floorboards.
The Tell-Tale Café
In the Nevermore quad, there’s a food truck called The Tell-Tale Café, a reference again to “The Tell-Tale Heart.” You can see in episode 2 it’s selling themed offerings named for Poe stories like “Murders in the Rue Macchiato.”
A stack of Poe books
In episode 2, Wednesday must solve a nasty little puzzle in the clocktower, in which she must figure out which book is missing from the stacks around her. They’re works by literary legends including H. G. Wells, Marcel Proust, Ann M. Martin, and yes, Poe.
Did you spy any more Poe references? Let us know in the comments.
Wednesday Season 2, Part 1 is now streaming on Netflix. Part 2 lands on Sept. 3.
