A moment in the latest season of Netflix hit Wednesday took Pinoy fans by surprise as a couple of the characters, werewolves Enid Sinclair and Bruno Yuson, spoke in Filipino.
(Spoiler warning for season 2 of Wednesday.) In season 2, Enid (Emma Myers) has been getting close and cozy with a fellow werewolf named Bruno (Noah B. Taylor). In episode 6, Bruno’s phone has been buzzing with messages that he says were from his mom in the Philippines. Later on, he’s seen on a phone call while in school.
“Miss na kita. Miss ko na ‘yung pagpasyal natin sa beach. Miss ko na lalo ‘yung mga matamis na labi mo. Baba ko na ‘to, mahal ko,” he said, as a visibly angry Enid, who was involved in a supernatural switcheroo, came out to see him.
Bruno then explained that he was talking to his Pinay mother, but one thing he didn’t expect was that Wednesday Addams’ best friend could also speak his mother tongue.
“You and your mother are awefully close,” she said as repeated his lines to him. “Or was that your girlfriend back home that you failed to mention in an act of time-honored, misogynistic deception?”
Enid then explained that she learned Tagalog from her Filipino fencing instructor named Datu before breaking up with Bruno.
“‘Wag mo na akong kausapin, manlolokong taksil.”
The scene drew mixed reactions online, with several calling it a “Huy Philippines” moment.
“Galing ni Enid mag-Tagalog,” one user on Facebook wrote.
“That random Tagalog scene is so funny and cute sobrang conyo,” another said.
“I didn’t know [Bruno is] Filipino,” an X user chimed in.
Meanwhile, some users criticized how the dialog was written.
“The way I got jumpscared by the machine-translated Tagalog in Bruno’s phone,” a user said.
Another shared that they couldn’t stand that the Filipino dialog was “obviously just threw on Google Translate.”
“Wednesday writers, if [y’all] wanna include Filipino characters and a whole minute of Tagalog in your show, please don’t just use Google Translate. No Filipino talks like that,” they wrote.
Taylor, who plays Filipino werewolf Bruno, is a Filipino American actor and musician who bagged the role after graduating high school.
Netflix premiered the first four episodes of Wednesday season 2 on Aug. 6 and the latter ones on Sept. 3. It continues to follow the titular character, played by Jenna Ortega, as she returns to Nevermore Academy.
