Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Wednesday Season 2.Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) is the necessary hard-boiled, neo-goth bullseye of Wednesday, Season 2, created by Miles Millar and Alfred Gough. But Nevermore Academy has another kick-ass student in Bianca Barclay (Joy Sunday), who is an equally formidable outcast with all the skills, looks, and popularity to prove it. Nevertheless, as a narrative path that needs serious course correction in Season 3, in Season 2, Bianca is continually placed in situations that insultingly frame her as a damsel in distress — as a blatant misrepresentation of everything that audiences have been led to believe she is at her core as a fearsome yet intelligent character with sizable mind-siren skills.

Given Bianca’s mind-control outcast powers and her blistering intelligence, Bianca should always be an apex predator as her rightful place in the ever-expanding Wednesday jungle. Hopefully, Season 3 will give her the proper storyline to better showcase her unique talents and reward her with a bit of gorgon romance to boot. She deserves more screen time rather than less as an underserved badass who has been confusingly ignored by her peers in Season 2.

‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Made Bianca Barclay Invisible, and It Makes No Sense

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“I can’t believe Bianca had a whole crime drama going on and none of us knew about it!” is what alpha werewolf Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers) fittingly blurts out to Wednesday from her lupin cage as a nod to exactly what the Wednesday audience is thinking in the second to last episode of Season 2. As a glaring misstep for the season, Bianca is bizarrely relegated to suffering in the shadows — right under everyone’s noses. As the intelligent, attractive, and powerful queen bee of Nevermore Academy, Bianca had a slight downgrade in school star status when Wednesday saved Nevermore from resurrected pilgrim and outcast annihilator Joseph Crackstone (William Houston). But she has never ever been background material. As Nevermore’s longest-standing popular girl, she is a direct foil to Wednesday’s girl-in-black newcomer status. Bianca is someone that everyone watches and admires. So, how does someone like this become invisible? The easy answer is, they don’t.

As a student whose family is known to have been unfavorably mixed up with Morning Star, it is also quite peculiar that neither the student body nor the administration seems to have any interest at all in how Bianca might be holding up. Especially given that Morning Star cult leader Gideon Sterling (Casper Van Dien) is known to be at large, and is a genuine threat to Bianca’s safety and her well-being. Given all of these factors, why is it only Ajax Petropolus (Georgie Farmer) — another outcast character inexplicably left out of the bulk of the drama in Season 2 — who takes the time to actually see both Bianca and her suffering? This seems out of step with the facts about both characters, as popular Nevermore outcasts who took up a lot of the screen time in Season 1.

In Wednesday Season 2, only Principal Barry Dort (Steve Buscemi) fully notices Bianca as a force of nature, but he uses her power to manipulate her and use her for his own personal gains. Dort’s underestimation of Bianca’s powers leads to his literal and complete self-destruction. Curiously, Bianca’s storyline is mirrored here as an underestimation of her as a character, especially when you look at her lack of agency in Season 2. If Season 3 continues this uneven downgrading and watering down of Bianca, the show will be losing something vital to the story.

Bianca Gets No Love for Her Game-Changing Presence in ‘Wednesday’

Image via Netflix

The problem with Bianca is illustrated clearly in the second part of Season 2. Though it is Ajax alone who put together that Bianca is in serious danger and Principal Dort is the likely cause, Ajax doesn’t go straight to Bianca with that knowledge. It’s a lost opportunity between them as outcasts veering towards romance. Instead, as an unusual shimmy of a sidestep, Ajax goes to Wednesday to figure things out for Bianca rather than with her, throwing Enid in as the third fully in-the-know savior as well. When Wednesday comes up with her signature, finely-crafted plan to save the day, Bianca is still left in the dark as a follower rather than a leader in defeating Principal Dort. This is confusing since Wednesday’s plan is wholly dependent on Bianca’s siren ability to compel Dort to admit his crimes.

Once Bianca compels Dort as what should be the central act of heroism, she is immediately thrust into the victim role once again when Dort grabs her and Ajax must save her with his gorgon powers. In this moment, not only is Bianca stepping up for herself and her mother, Gabrielle Barclay (Gracy Goldman), but also for The Addams Family, Wednesday’s grandmother, Hester Frump (Joanna Lumley), and all of Nevermore. Rather than making Bianca her own savior and give her ownership of the victory, Ajax saving Bianca is an unnecessary step that unfairly cements her as the victim rather than the outright hero. Although it might be seen as a way to validate their burgeoning romance, Wednesday should have found another more fitting way to bring Bianca and Ajax closer together in a way that doesn’t diminish Bianca’s more than earned ability to be the captain of her own ship.

‘Wednesday’ Needs To Remember Just How Vital Bianca Is

While it is gratifying when Wednesday finally sees Bianca is in trouble and comes to her aid, how Wednesday comes to Bianca’s rescue doesn’t sit well dramatically. There is no acknowledgment between Wednesday and Bianca that Wednesday fell asleep at the wheel as Bianca’s friend, and that should be distressing for both Wednesday and Bianca. However, this pales in comparison to just how ridiculously easy it is for Wednesday to solve in one day an abusive problem that has been plaguing Bianca’s family for years. The fact that the solution is as simple as taking the charm off of Dort makes the rescue even more questionable. Neither Gabrielle nor Bianca ever tried to steal the charm away from their abusers?

Gabrielle may be a less-than-nurturing mother and a declining siren, but she certainly isn’t stupid, and neither is Bianca. If other Nevermore outcast characters regularly get species-specific help from their parents and family members to survive the pitfalls and enjoy the advantages of their respective outcast existences, why should Bianca be any different? Even if Gabrielle gave bad advice to Bianca rather than nothing at all, as it currently stands in Season 2, this would be more in keeping with other examples of outcasts receiving guidance from their parents. We see this clearly with Wednesday herself and troubled teen Hyde Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan) and his mother, Francoise (Frances O’Connor).

As a whip-smart and powerful siren who is critically and repeatedly misrepresented as weak in Season 2, Bianca is due a more accurate glow-up in Season 3, with no punches pulled in exploring her full abilities as both a siren and a character. The show needs to recognize her as the independent and compelling character she is, and someone to be reckoned with, not forgotten.

All episodes of Wednesday Season 2 are available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.