The final part of Wednesday Season 2 dropped on Netflix. Since May, every little monster has been eagerly awaiting for the reveal of Lady Gaga’s Wednesday character in a highly-anticipated cameo for the Tim Burton coming-of-age dark comedy. Spoiler alert: Spoilers for Wednesday Season 2 Part 2 follow. Lady Gaga plays Rosaline Rotwood, a dead and amazingly spooky professor who happens to be the only one that can help Wednesday with the loss of her psychic ability.
The mid-season premiere for Wednesday resumed on Sept. 3 with the titular character, played by the delightfully stoic Jenna Ortega, having lost her second sight. As a raven, Wednesday had the psychic ability to locate objects and people. In the show, she’s trying to locate her ex-beau and the season’s greatest antagonist, Tyler Galpin (played by Hunter Doohan), in order to stop a vision she’d seen of Enid (Emma Meyers) being killed.
In order to solve this woeful conundrum, Wednesday’s grandmother, Hester Frump, suggests that she should visit the grave of Nevermore professor Rosaline Rotwood. Appearing at the grave, Wednesday reads the inscription and is then transported into the chambers of Miss Rosaline herself. Gaga, a visionary as always, is an ethereal paranormal figure floating in the air. She immediately clocks Wednesday, saying, “The crack in your monochrome uniform is your overbearing arrogance.”
Rosaline Rotwood has the ability to restore Wednesday’s powers, but only if Wednesday can hold her hand over the flame of a candle. Luckily enough, Wednesday has a preference for pain, and a significantly-high tolerance for the stuff. It should all be easy enough, but of course it’s not. Enid interrupts the moment, causing them to “pay the price” by being switched into each other’s bodies.
Then, in the most satisfying and perhaps off-putting sequence of the show yet (which is saying a lot), Wednesday wears bright colors — and Enid skulks around with a grumpiness carried by her body’s new inhabitant. Only if they “unravel the innermost secrets” of each other, will they be able to reverse the Freaky Friday of it all.
Rosaline Rotwood’s role helps drive the story forward, serving as a breaking point for the two characters to meet each other in the middle. Lady Gaga herself has been a fan of the Wednesday series since it was released in 2023. Around this time, TikTok users merged the infamous Wednesday dance from Season 1 of Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” with Gaga herself participating in the trend.
After this remarkable success, the show approached Lady Gaga with the idea of featuring new music in Season 2. Immediately inspired, Gaga had the concept for the song “The Dead Dance” come to mind. Given her passion for the project and the perfect tone of the song, the show asked Gaga if she would be interested in appearing in the show, to which she said yes.
Gaga’s cameo is perfectly short, moving the story forward in a way that makes sense without taking the audience out of the Wednesday universe. Of course, while I’d never be opposed to seeing more of Gaga on my screen, there’s always Season 2’s dance break. “The Dead Dance” allows for another iconic dance, this time by Enid.
Lady Gaga’s inclusion in Season 2 of Wednesday is definitely a nod to the part her music played in Season 1’s virality. With Gaga being the perfect representative of outcasts and misfits, her character fits right in with the Nevermore crew in a serendipitous way.