| "We talk about Mom. Remember her?" -Tyler to Donovan[src] |
Francoise Sylvanne Galpin was the wife of Donovan Galpin, the mother of their son, Tyler Galpin.
She was often mentioned and appeared posthumously through photographs seen in season one. She is portrayed by Frances O'Connor and appears in season two.
Biography[]
Background[]
Francoise was born a hyde on 12 March 1974. She had a brother named Isaac who was a DaVinci and a father who was said to have been physically abusive towards her. During one Fourth of July holiday, Francoise was caught fraternizing with a normie boy named Dylan, an act that enraged her father who then slapped her across the face with such force that it triggered her first hyde transformation.
By 1990, Francoise and Isaac were both students at Nevermore Academy. There, Francoise was part of the school's fencing team alongside Morticia Frump, who had been the team's captain[2]. Knowing of the reputation hydes possessed amongst the outcast community, Francoise greatly feared the damage that her alter ego could do if she ever transformed, thus leading her to desperately crave a normal lifestyle. She befriended fellow student Larissa Weems, and their close friendship was protected by Weems, who never asked Francoise how she identified.
Determined to help his sister, Isaac, who was a scientific genius, created a machine in Nevermore's Iago Tower that would extract an outcast's abilities. The machine, however, required a great amount of electricity to power, which led to Isaac asking his roommate and close friend Gomez Addams for help in removing Francoise's hyde nature, as he believed his powers as a spark would be enough to make his invention work. However, unbeknownst to both Gomez and Francoise, Isaac had tricked his friend by not telling him that the machine would use his electrical abilities to the point where it would kill him, sacrificing his life to save Francoise's. The experiment attempt to remove the hyde from Francoise failed when Morticia intervened to save Gomez's life by cutting off Isaac's hand, leading the machine to explode and kill him in the process, leaving Francoise devastated over the loss of her brother.
Sometime after her brother's death, Francoise met Donovan Galpin, a normie living in Jericho who worked for the local sheriff's department. They later fell in love and got married, though she did not tell him the truth about her nature. The secret ultimately made Larissa decline being Francoise's bridesmaid, and they never spoke again.
After the birth of her son Tyler, Francoise's postpartum depression caused her to lose control of her transformations as a hyde. She was unpredictable and violent, often medicated for her episodes. Donovan built a secret underground shelter in the backyard as a safe haven for Tyler in case Francoise ever transformed.
In 2010, Francoise was institutionalized at Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital, where her death was faked by the facility's chief psychiatrist and Isaac's former science mentor at Nevermore, Dr. Augustus Stonehearst, who kept Francoise locked away in secret so she could be part of the Long-term Outcast Integration Study, a secret program developed by Stonehearst in which his goal was to extract powers from outcasts and give them to normies by using a replica of the machine Isaac had built years earlier.
The belief of Francoise's death would have profound consequences for her family in the years to come, particularly for Tyler, as he would be neglected by his grief-stricken father, who then kept his son at an emotional distance as he feared his son also inherited his mother's genetics. This fear proved true, as Tyler too would end up locked away at Willow Hill after his own hyde was unlocked and used in a series of murders whilst under the control of Marilyn Thornhill[3].
Season One[]
Enid gives Wednesday a tour of Nevermore. She pauses by the trophy case and notices a photo of the 1990 National Fencing Champions. Included in the photo are Morticia as the captain and Francoise, another fencer.
Tyler and Donovan have a tense conversation as Donovan presses to know what his son talks about in therapy sessions. Tyler finally snaps that they talk about his mom, asking if Donovan remembers her. Donovan ignores him and leaves.
Donovan briefly mentions her when talking to Gomez.
Donovan criticizes Tyler for talking to Wednesday again, warning him to stay clear of her. She's the type of girl who will hurt Tyler; he knows the type. Tyler asks if that remark is about his mom, but that would require his dad to actually talk about her. He questions if his dad ever loved her. Donovan morosely admits that he did, more than Tyler will ever know.
Wednesday finally puts the pieces of the hyde mystery together and kidnaps Tyler, now knowing he is the hyde. She presents Tyler with a photograph of the 1990 National Fencing Champions from Nevermore. She was distracted by her mother in the photo and didn't notice Tyler's in the background. Donovan fell in love and married an outcast. Thing stole her medical records from Donovan's garage, which revealed Francoise's postpartum depression and how it triggered her condition. They lied to everyone and said it was severe bipolar disorder. Francoise was a hyde, and Donovan had lived in dread, unsure if she passed the condition onto Tyler.
Galpin listens to recordings of Kinbott's sessions with Tyler. She chronicles how any mention of Francoise pushes Tyler into a cold and detached state. She believes the trauma of losing Francoise left Tyler with deeper psychological scars than she realized.
Wednesday tries to tell Weems everything about the hydes, including how Francoise was a hyde and a student at Nevermore. Weems remembers her but didn't ask what she identified as.
Wednesday confronts Marilyn Thornhill about being the hyde's master. She knows Marilyn's father kept tabs on the outcasts in town and told her about the Galpin family secret. She targeted Tyler and manipulated him by showing him who Francoise truly was. Wednesday is proven right when Marilyn tries to order Tyler into killing Wednesday, reminding him what the outcasts did to his mother. Ultimately, Tyler is defeated by Wednesday, who is ready to put Francoise and the hydes behind her.
Season Two[]
Francoise is discovered huddled up in her cell by Wednesday Addams, the daughter of her former classmates at Nevermore, Gomez and Morticia. Francoise asks if Wednesday is there to kill her, and when Wednesday shakes her head in denial, Francoise turns her head and tells her to leave her alone.
After Fester Addams uses his static electricity powers to knock out Willow Hill's power generator, all the prisoners of the L.O.I.S. program and patients of Willow Hill are set free. Wednesday notices her still lurking in her cell in a frightened state and personally helps her out with Francoise, then asks Wednesday what kind of angel she was. When walking through the now deserted hospital, Wednesday and Francoise see Tyler in his hyde form on the other end of a corridor. Seemingly unaware that the hyde was her long-lost son, Francoise was told by Wednesday to run while she dealt with Tyler.
Francoise returned to her former house back in Jericho, where she hid in the shelter that her now late husband had built for her. She listened to a police scanner and learned they were searching for Tyler. Francoise was later able to find Morticia at Rotwood Cottage, who in turn was shocked to see her alive. Francoise begged her old friend for her help finding Tyler. Morticia agreed to help Francoise under the condition that she was to take control of her son's hyde and leave Jericho with him.
When Morticia leads her to an abandoned structure where Wednesday and the nightshades had lured Tyler into a trap, Francoise transforms into her hyde and breaks through a window. She throws back Wednesday before she can inject Tyler with a plant-derived concoction to become his master. Before Francoise can attack Wednesday, Morticia calls out to her and reminds her of the deal they made. Francoise then signals for Tyler to run off before she follows him. She then takes him to the shelter, where she tends to his wounds and embraces him for the first time in years.
Francoise explains to Tyler that Stonehearst had lied to his father in regard to her supposed death. She then tells him that Donovan had built the shelter they are in after he was born in case she needed to transform. When Tyler discovers his ankle chained up, he accuses Francoise of not trusting him. But she informs him that he needs to recover after turning into his hyde the previous night and that she is now his new master. When Francoise offers to make him pancakes for breakfast, a resentful Tyler argues against her placating him, leading Francoise to slap him across the face, warning a stunned Tyler to never talk back to her like that again.
When Isaac arrives at the shelter later on, Francoise is shocked at seeing her brother, believing that he had died. Isaac confirms it is him by asking her if she remembered how after their father caught her on the Fourth of July with a normie boy, he slapped her so hard that it was louder than the fireworks being set off, and it caused her to transform for the first time. Francoise embraces Isaac and tells him she has dreamt of this moment for years before introducing him to Tyler, who becomes wary of his new uncle. When Francoise begins coughing up blood, she tells Tyler that it's her condition as a hyde and reveals that she is dying. Isaac offers to help her again, like he attempted to do over thirty years ago, and says that all he needs is resources to rebuild his machine again. Francoise tells Isaac that Stonehearst stole all of his research and that he built a replica of his machine at Willow Hill, which he corrupted in order to give outcast abilities to normies, and that Judi is carrying on his research. Isaac reassures Francoise that they don't have to worry about Judi anymore, as he implies that he killed her.
Francoise and Tyler later drive Isaac to Nevermore with Judi's car, where he kills Professor Orloff, the school's biology teacher who once taught Francoise and Isaac during their tenure as students there. However, Isaac was unknowingly spotted by Agnes DeMille, a vanisher student who cloaks herself invisible to hide from them and stows away in the trunk of Judi's car (with its former owner's cadaver) as they drive off to Willow Hill.
In the Willow Hill maintenance room, Isaac straps Francoise down on the table and prepares the machine. Tyler says he doesn't believe that being a hyde is a curse, but Francoise explains that every time they transform, it slowly kills them until it claims their life. While they are preparing the machine, Tyler senses and catches Agnes, whom he then locks up in one of the L.O.I.S. cells. The procedure once again fails after Wednesday and her friend Enid Sinclair arrive to rescue Agnes, who cloaks herself again to tinker with the controls, causing the machine's power to override and explode. Francoise, Tyler, and Isaac all take cover in one of the L.O.I.S. cells.
Francoise notices Tyler and Isaac arguing and warns them that if they turn on each other, they will all be dead. When Francoise has another coughing fit and runs out of medicine, Isaac and Tyler take her to a veterinary clinic in Jericho, where Isaac kills the veterinarian, and Tyler agrees to do a blood transfusion to help his mother.
Francoise, Tyler, and Isaac hide out in Donovan's old fishing cabin with Pugsley Addams, whom Isaac recently abducted. Francoise laments not being in any of the pictures of Donovan and Tyler that she sees clipped up on the board. Isaac assures her that they will both get the justice they deserve, and Francoise then quietly confers with Isaac and gets him to promise her that he will keep his word on an earlier agreement they had made back at the veterinary clinic.
After Isaac reattaches his right hand and regains his telekinetic powers. He, along with Francoise, Tyler, and the captive Pugsley, all head to Iago Tower, where Francoise watches with glee as her brother reconstructs the same machine he built over thirty years ago. After Tyler straps down Pugsley, Francoise then signals for Isaac to use his telekinetic powers to forcibly strap Tyler down to the machine. Tyler is stunned, and to his horror, Francoise reveals that it is too late for her to be saved and that there is still time to save him by extracting his hyde and giving him a new life. Tyler pleads with his mother not to take away his abilities, but she ignores him and tells him that she loves him. Isaac then activates the machine, which begins draining Pugsley of his electric powers and life and starts extracting Tyler's hyde in a painful process. Francoise then notices Wednesday and Morticia sneaking around underneath the platform and warns Isaac. She then heads down to confront them but loses sight of them. After Wednesday frees Tyler before his hyde can be fully extracted, Francoise watches as he transforms and attacks Isaac by throwing him off the platform. Francoise then tries to plead with Tyler, only for him to throw her to the wall. She then transforms into her own hyde, and she engages in a fight with her son. Francoise pushes Tyler out of the window, and they land on the balcony of Wednesday and Enid's dorm. They continue their fight on the rooftop of the school, where Tyler throws his mother off the roof, and she ends up dangling from the edge. Tyler tries to reach her to help pull her up, but knowing that she's already dying and that she is not suited for her role as a mother, Francoise deliberately falls and breaks her back after landing on a statue of a werewolf in the courtyard, killing her instantly.
Description[]
She is 5'5" tall and 119 pounds. She has long brown hair and brown eyes.
Personality[]
Francoise was remembered by many, including her former friend and classmate Larissa Weems, to be a kind and loving person, but she was also a person tragically affected by great misfortune that took place within her life, such as her abuse at the hands of her father, the death of her brother, and her years-long imprisonment at Willow Hill, which saw her separated from her family. By the time she was found in her cell by Wednesday Addams, Francoise had reached the point where she had given up all hope and wished for death.
After being held in isolation and experimented on in Willow Hill for many years, Francoise mentally regressed and became an erratic and unstable woman to the point where she almost killed Wednesday in her hyde form in a fit of rage despite calling her an angel for saving her life earlier, and also lashing out against Tyler by slapping him once he got angry at her for becoming his new master. She also resorted to treating Tyler as a little kid despite him being grown up.
The greatest source of Francoise's pain was her hyde. Due to the reputation hydes possessed within the outcast world, Francoise saw her power as a curse and greatly feared the damage her alter ego could inflict, to the point where she dreamed of being a normie so she could live her life in peace. But after being reunited with Tyler, Francoise's priorities changed from saving herself to saving him. Her desperation reached the point where she held no issue over the consequences or damage her brother Isaac inflicted on others in order to help her achieve her goal, such as the kidnapping and attempt to sacrifice Pugsley Addams in order to power Isaac's machine.
Powers / Abilities / Weaknesses[]
Powers[]
- Transformation: Being a hyde, Francoise can transform into a monster with long claws, fanged teeth, and immense strength, mobility, and resilience. Her hyde is visibly larger than that of her son's.
Abilities[]
- Fencing: As she was on the Nevermore fencing team during her school years, Francoise must have possessed skill in that area.
Weaknesses[]
- Mind Control: Whoever unlocks a hyde becomes its master. When that happens, the person loses their autonomy and falls under the control of their master. In Francoise's case, she had no master to speak of, as female hydes can live longer without one, as they are more dominant and powerful than the males.
- Self Destruction: Although female hydes can live much longer without a master, they eventually do succumb to their condition and die, as was the case of Francoise repeatedly coughing up blood. Even though Francoise was given pills at Willow Hill that helped prolong her life, when she transformed for the first time in years to retrieve Tyler from Wednesday, it ended up exacerbating her masterless condition.
Relationships[]
Donovan Galpin[]
Sheriff Donovan Galpin was Francoise's husband. They had a good relationship with each other because when Tyler asked his father if he had ever loved his mother, he replied, "More than you could ever know." It was revealed that Francoise kept her hyde condition concealed from Donovan, more likely out of fear of rejection. After Tyler's birth, as well as the truth about her hyde being revealed, Donovan secretly constructed a shelter underneath their house to keep Tyler close by in case Francoise ever needed to transform. Following her supposed death, Donavan became a broken man and greatly feared that her condition as a hyde would be passed down to their son and began emotionally distancing himself from him.
Tyler Galpin[]
Tyler Galpin is Francoise and Donovan's son, whom she spent many years separated from as she was locked away in secret at Willow Hill. After being reunited with both Tyler and Isaac, Francoise became increasingly determined to have her brother remove her son's hyde abilities, believing it would spare him the pain she went through for many years.
Although she loved Tyler very much and was willing to sacrifice her own chance at normalcy and prolonging her life for his, her trauma and fragile state made her unfit for her role as a mother, as she did not hesitate to slap him after he argued against her. She also did not hesitate to betray Tyler's trust by having Isaac forcibly restrain Tyler to his machine in preparation for removing his powers without his consent, fully believing she was doing the right thing for him despite his protests. When Francoise and Tyler fight each other in their hyde forms, Francoise decides to commit suicide, knowing well that she's already dying and that she failed her role as a mother to Tyler.
Morticia Addams[]
Morticia attended Nevermore at the same time Francoise did, with Morticia always treating Francoise with kindness. Both of them became part of the school's fencing team together, and in 1990, they were seen in a photograph together alongside their fellow teammates, celebrating a fencing championship title. When Francoise was believed to have died, both Morticia and Gomez sent flowers to her funeral.
In 2023, Francoise would be rescued by Morticia's daughter, Wednesday, whom Francoise would refer to as an angel. However, after the reappearance of Isaac in her life and the determination to remove Tyler's hyde from him, she held no issue over kidnapping Morticia's son Pugsley to use him as a sacrificial power source to achieve her goal to save Tyler.
Larissa Weems[]
Like Morticia, Larissa also attended Nevermore at the same time as Francoise, and they were close enough to the point where Francoise had asked Larissa to be her maid of honor at her wedding but was turned down after knowing that Francoise had kept her hyde nature concealed from Donovan. After this, Francoise and Larissa became estranged. When pressed about her by Wednesday Addams, Larissa falsely stated she was unaware of her nature as a hyde, only explaining that she remembered her to be a lovely person.
When Wednesday later investigates the Galpin home for any trace of where Francoise, Tyler, and Isaac could be, Larissa's spirit appears to Wednesday to tell her of her history with them, during which Larissa spoke about Francoise with pity and sadness, stating she recognized her desire for a normal life, and expressed regret over their estrangement.
Isaac Night[]
Isaac was Francoise's brother, whom she had an extremely close relationship with, often showing more physical affection towards him than to her own son. When she was younger, Francoise seemed oblivious to Isaac's cold nature, as Morticia stated that she had no knowledge of her brother's true intention to kill Gomez in order to remove her hyde.
Many years later, Francoise didn't seemingly care about the people Isaac murdered or the damage he inflicted, as she believed that he would be the only one to help remove both her and Tyler's hydes.
Quotes[]
| "Francoise: Are you here to kill me?… Then leave me alone." -Francoise Galpin to Wednesday Addams[src] |
| "What kind of angel are you?" -Francoise Galpin to Wednesday Addams[src] |
Appearances[]
Appears In[]
- Season Two
Mentioned In[]
- Season One
Etymology[]
- Francoise - means "from France" or free one.
- Sylvanne - means of the forest.
- Galpin - means son of Galopin.
- Night - Night is the period of darkness in each twenty-four hours; the time from sunset to sunrise. Night is also an anagram of Thing, the name of Isaac's animated right hand.
Trivia[]
- In the pilot draft, Francoise was originally meant to be the coach of the Nevermore fencing team. However, this idea was scrapped, and she was made a student instead.[4]
- Francoise's Willow Hill file stated that her birthday was 12 March 1974. However, her tombstone in Season 2 has 7 January 1969 as her date of birth. This is more than likely a continuity error, as Francoise was a student at Nevermore during the early 1990s, meaning her date of birth from her Willow Hill is more likely the correct version.
- In another continuity error, Santiago says that Francoise had been originally dead for fifteen years; however, her date of death on her tombstone had 2010 as the year she presumedly died. Season 2 takes place in 2023, which means Francoise would have been "dead" for thirteen years, rather than fifteen.
- Her patient number, 1938, was the first year Charles Addams was published in The New Yorker.
Gallery[]
Season One[]
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Season Two[]
Promotional[]
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Stills[]
_003.jpg "Francoise Galpin (2022) 003.jpg (166 KB)")
_001.jpg "Dead Francoise (2023) 001.jpg (161 KB)")
_001.png "Francoise Galpin and Donovan Galpin's tombstones (2022) 001.png (1.92 MB)")