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''What is this?''
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Laurel Gates, also known as Marylin Thornhill, is the main antagonist in the first season and a supporting antagonist in the second season of Tim Burton's Netflix series, Wednesday. She and her family were the ancestors of early 17th century Pilgrim and Jericho founder Joseph Crackstone and were born into great wealth.
Because Crackstone hated and killed Outcasts with a passion, his descendants (Laurel's family) thought the same way. She and her older brother were taught at a young age to despise Outcasts, and they were often abused by their father. Because of this, she grew to loathe Outcasts more every day.
She was portrayed by Christina Ricci.
Background[]
Personality[]
Physical Appearance[]
Laurel has fair skin, long, wavy auburn hair, and brown eyes. It is assumed she dyed her hair, as it was originally blonde, and wore brown contacts, as her eyes are originally blue. She usually wore colorful sweaters and planter outfits, had black cat-eye glasses, and was often seen wearing red boots.
After her arrest, she is first seen wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and her hair has been cut short and is messy. When she is submitted at Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital, she was seen wearing a white hospital gown.
Role in the series[]
Backstory[]
Laurel Gates was born in 1980 to Ansel Gates and an unnamed woman. She and her older brother, Garrett were descendants of Joseph Crackstone, the founder of a town called Jericho. Crackstone, a fanatic who used religion to justify any immoral act, was one of the pilgrims that settled in America, nearly two centuries after its discovery. Laurel and her brother were taught by their father to hate a group of people with extraordinary abilities called "outcasts" and finish their ancestor's work on destroying due to his own hatred of outcasts.
When Laurel was nine years old, her father asked Garrett, to break into Nevermore Academy during the 1991 Rave'N party to poison the food supplies with a bottle of nightshade to prove himself worthy of being his son due to being disgusted with Garrett being in love with an outcast named Morticia Frump. But while fighting Gomez Addams who was a rival over his infatuation with Morticia, Garrett accidentally broke the bottle and poisoned himself, with Gomez being charged with murder and Garrett's poisoning being was covered up by Sheriff Noble Walker. The incident caused Laurel's family to fall apart: her mother committed suicide, her father overdosed on alcohol, and she herself was transferred to an overseas orphanage. However, the boat she was traveling on sank, and she was presumed dead by the authorities.
Season One[]
In "Wednesday's Child is Full of Woe", Marilyn meets Wednesday Addams, introducing herself as the girl's dorm mom. She then gives Wednesday a black dahlia from her conservatory because she likes to match plants with the girls in Nevermore Academy's Ophelia Hall. While Wednesday is playing her cello, Marilyn is seen feeding her plants, stopping momentarily to listen to Wednesday.
Season Two[]
After her defeat, Laurel is imprisoned at Northern State Correctional facility and kept away from Tyler to hopefully weaken their bond, though she still denies being Tyler's master. Dr. Rachael Fairburn is treating Tyler at Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital and is having to resort to unorthodox methods to help him.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Laurel's actress, Christina Ricci, also played as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993).
- She was originally going to be called Ms. Tamara Novak, played by Thora Birch.
- She was originally going to teach "Outcast Bio" instead of botanical sciences. It is unknown why her name was changed when Christina Ricci was cast.
- In the original script, she was in her 40s.[1]
