SPOILER ALERT: This tale unravels secrets from Season 2, Part 2 of “Wednesday,” now streaming on Netflix.

The visionary behind the eerie elegance of “Wednesday,” production designer Mark Scruton, faced his most ambitious challenge yet: crafting the atmosphere for an extravagant fundraising gala.

But this was no ordinary gala—it was an event for the one and only Nevermore Academy. At the start of Season 2, the sanctuary for misfits welcomes a new principal, Barry Dort, portrayed with unsettling charm by Steve Buscemi. Among his first initiatives? A grand gala, with hopes that Morticia’s (Catherine Zeta-Jones) formidable mother, Grandmama Frump (Joanna Lumley), will open her purse. “We wanted to outdo what we did last season and create something entirely new,” Scruton reflects, “something utterly different, yet unmistakably Wednesday.”

Under the watchful eye of director Tim Burton, Scruton was given a directive as bold as it was vague: “go to town.” He was to dream up something opulent and magnificent, but rooted in the show’s dark reality. “I think the scenes are so richly written,” he explains. “The characters are so vivid, the situations so clear, that the sets almost design themselves. You just sit down, and you know exactly what needs to be built to bring that moment to life.”

Yet, the true test came not from imagination, but from time and space. “Twenty-four hours before we started building the gala ballroom, there was a massive forest set in that same space,” Scruton recalls. “That’s where Morticia and Wednesday dueled with swords.” His team had only a weekend to clear away towering trees, mud, and earthworks. “Within 48 hours, we were back in there, constructing the Grand Canal for our gala, rolling in the massive arches we’d built elsewhere.”

For inspiration, Scruton turned to the world of opera—where grandeur is painted on canvas as much as carved in stone. “That became the soul of the set. We borrowed elements of Venetian architecture and brought them to life on massive canvas arches. It was theatrical, but real. It had weight and wonder.”

The spectacle didn’t end there. His team also crafted a gondola that had to float down the artificial canal—completed from start to finish in just two weeks.

As the story unfolds, Principal Dort’s true intentions are revealed. Beneath his eccentric charm lies a hunger for Grandmama’s fortune—and a darker secret. He is, in fact, the architect of the Morning Song cult. In a dramatic turn, he takes Bianca hostage, only to be thwarted by Ajax, whose Gorgon gaze turns Dort to stone. But fate is crueler still. As Dort’s lifeless statue stands frozen, a chandelier crashes down, sealing his doom in a blaze of fiery chaos.

“Originally, that scene was meant to take place outside, with him crushed by a chandelier hanging from the sky,” Scruton reveals. “But as we neared the final days, the scene moved indoors—and we had to scramble, building another chandelier right there in the ballroom.”

And yet, in true cinematic magic, it all came together in one perfect take. “It fell. It shattered. Everyone was satisfied. And we walked away,” he says with quiet pride.

“Wednesday” Season 2, Part 2, is now streaming on Netflix.