Sure, the Wednesday dance scene is getting the lion’s share of attention for the hit Netflix show, but there’s another scene that demonstrates Jenna Ortega’s virtuosity as the titular character: the infamous cello scene. Turns out that piece is impossible to play, according to a teenage cellist on TikTok.
In the third episode of the ridiculously popular hit, Wednesday sits on the roof of her room in front of the stained glass window and plays a very complicated cello piece while several narrative beats happen around her.
The song she’s playing along to is an adaptation, or maybe a reimagining, of the Rolling Stones classic “Paint it Black.” Take a look.
Over on TikTok, Jeremy Tai posted a video titled “Professional cellist investigated the impossible Wednesday cello scene.”
“Not a skill issue, literally impossible,” Tai said in the caption.
He plays the song and comments on every section of it. Once Ortega gets to the part where she’s jumping from one part of the instrument to the other, however, he says “those leaps, oh no no no no no that’s not possible.”
Tai then shows himself trying and failing to play the part: “Those large shifts are not possible on one cello.”
Take a look at his attempt:
Of course, the commenters don’t buy it. “Skill issue on your part tbh,” said one user, who seems very confident in their opinion.
“Yeah but you’re not Wednesday,” someone else said. Can’t argue with that!
“I don’t play cello but I’m going to say Thing jumped in and helped her,” one user wrote, making note of a detail that’s probably worth considering.
Others pointed out that a different TikTok cellist that goes by ally.cello actually did play it. A quick perusal shows that yes, she did, but honestly, it’s not that clean. She also didn’t do the jumps and just played the high notes.
Judge for yourself below:
Regardless, Wednesday is currently streaming on Netflix.