
In a manner reminiscent of Russian dolls, Owen Painter was progressively peeled back layer by layer in each episode of Wednesday season two. He was initially unveiled in an old ghost story called “The Tale of the Skull Tree,” which unfolded using Tim Burton’s distinctive stop-motion animation, and was shared by Pugsley Addams (Isaac Ordonez) and his dorm mates from their RA. This dark tale spoke of a gifted Nevermore student who was pushed to madness and death by his own ambition, serving as a cautionary tale. However, when Pugsley chose to investigate the Skull Tree to see if it were true, he inadvertently reawakened the dead boy. This marked our first glimpse of Painter: a mindless, almost skeletal zombie clambering out of his grave. Affectionately nicknamed Slurp by Pugsley, over the following eight episodes, Slurp devoured numerous “gnarly” brains, including that of Christopher Lloyd’s professor Orloff, in an attempt to restore himself to his original form.