School Spirits: Season 2 Shockers (Sorta) Explained
Even we haven't totally cracked the case!
Posted on Mar 19, 2025 | 09:00am
The Season 2 finale of School Spirits was … can we just say it? Killer. In fact, every episode of the season had us picking our jaws off the floor – then heading straight to our detective boards to try and fit together the latest pieces of Split River High’s ghostly puzzle.
But even though we – and the characters of School Spirits – unearthed long-buried secrets, and solved mysteries of this purgatorial world, there are still questions that the latest season finale left dangling. So, let's discuss: both the answered questions, and the lingering mysteries. And, yes, this means a MAJOR SPOILER-ALERT WARNING is in order.
We're about to discuss significant plot points. If you don't want Season 2 or Season 1 spoiled, then start your School Spirits binge-watch, all episodes now streaming on Paramount+. After you're caught up, but full of questions, come back here. If, on the other hand, you’re ready for a School Spirits deep dive that’s deadly thorough, scroll on!
Get Started
Season 1 concludes with the ghosts’ realization that Mr. Martin had been collecting reams of information about each of them for years. It also ends with a big reveal: One of the school spirits, a teen named Janet (Jess Gabor), has not crossed over to the other side like her fellow ghosts assumed she had. And we find this out in the most shocking fashion: The final minutes of Season 1 show Janet – in Maddie’s body – taking a seat on a bus, and heading out of town!
See, prior to the fire, Janet’s father had convinced the school board to dismiss Mr. Martin because of his unorthodox teaching methods. Then Mr. Martin’s fiancée broke off their engagement. Out for revenge against the institution that wronged him, Mr. Martin disconnected the gas hoses in the lab. Then, rethinking his plan, he reconnected them, and moved to open a window – right as Janet walked in, and began testing flint torches …
But it wasn’t always this way. When they first became ghosts, Janet and Mr. Martin were partners. Both keen scientific minds, they began their collaboration by observing new spirits’ behaviors, as well as each one's so-called “key” (the object each ghost died with). By studying these things, they thought they could deduce which elements would create an escape hatch from their Split River High purgatory.
Ultimately, Janet and Mr. Martin uncover that a key opens a “scar” (a hellish version of the locations where each of the teens died), and that the scars lead into one another in a kind of nightmarish map. Could this layout of scars point toward a way of “cross[ing] over”?
As Season 2 progresses, Maddie and her friends in the afterlife support group come to understand how the scars work, and wonder if the suddenly M.I.A. Mr. Martin has the ability to disappear through them. After all, the teen ghosts who’ve died at school can’t leave school, so how has Mr. Martin vanished without a trace?
As it turns out, Mr. Martin can hide in the scars, but he can only exit the school grounds in the way Janet has: through a living body. In Season 2, he finds the perfect vessel: Mr. Anderson (Patrick Gilmore), a Split River High English teacher, and close personal friend of Maddie’s mother. In this body, Mr. Martin-as-Mr.-Anderson follows Janet-as-Maddie, determined to get the girl back to Split River High.
Here’s the thing, though: Even though all four buddies believe that Maddie has become a ghost, throughout the series, the only living person who can actually see Maddie in her spirit form is Simon. But then a Season 2 twist: Xavier suddenly (if briefly) see ghosts, too. How? Why?
In a similar manner to how Maddie saw Janet during a charged moment, Xavier spots ghosts during a point of peak mental and emotional fragility. After Janet-as-Maddie knocks him into a coma with a commandeered truck, Xavier’s body lies unresponsive in a hospital bed. His spirit wanders the hospital’s corridors alongside various apparitions, one of whom is decked out in outdoor gear. Later, Xavier learns from a Nears family photo that this ghostly sportsman was Maddie’s late father (played by Danny Mac).
After he awakens from the coma, Xavier starts to believe Simon’s claims about Maddie’s untethered spirit, and it’s his newfound belief in spirits that helps get Nicole and Claire onboard.
"We are so thrilled to bring School Spirits back to our devoted audiences for another season of masterful storytelling brought to life by Peyton List and the incredible cast,” Shauna Phelan, Head of Live Action Scripted Series and Film for Awesomeness and Nickelodeon, said in a statement.
Get Started
Wally sees a similar door open in his scar, and we're left to wonder at the decision he’s about to make …
Until the final seconds of this mind-blowing season, Simon has never exhibited an ability to interact with any spirit except Maddie. So, what can this possibly mean? Has Simon become a spirit? Is he so mentally and/or emotionally exhausted through the process of helping Maddie that, like Maddie and Xavier before him, that he’s moved between realms? Here's the only thing we know for sure: It’ll be tough to rest in peace waiting for all the answers.
Get Started
But even though we – and the characters of School Spirits – unearthed long-buried secrets, and solved mysteries of this purgatorial world, there are still questions that the latest season finale left dangling. So, let's discuss: both the answered questions, and the lingering mysteries. And, yes, this means a MAJOR SPOILER-ALERT WARNING is in order.
We're about to discuss significant plot points. If you don't want Season 2 or Season 1 spoiled, then start your School Spirits binge-watch, all episodes now streaming on Paramount+. After you're caught up, but full of questions, come back here. If, on the other hand, you’re ready for a School Spirits deep dive that’s deadly thorough, scroll on!
Big Questions Answered
Where do we leave Maddie in Season 1?
The start of the first season finds Maddie Nears (Peyton List) rattled to discover that she's stuck between life and death, her spirit unable to leave her high school. Utilizing the help of an afterlife support group composed of four other, limbo-trapped ghosts – ’80s football-star spirit Wally (Milo Manheim), introverted ’90s spirit Charley (Nick Pugliese), sharp-tongued ’60s spirit Rhonda (Sarah Yarkin), and the group’s leader, science teacher, Mr. Martin (Josh Zimmerman) – Maddie investigates her mysterious disappearance. Her living friends also assist in her quest to expose the truth. But the closer Maddie gets to discovering what happened to her, the more secrets and lies she uncovers.Season 1 concludes with the ghosts’ realization that Mr. Martin had been collecting reams of information about each of them for years. It also ends with a big reveal: One of the school spirits, a teen named Janet (Jess Gabor), has not crossed over to the other side like her fellow ghosts assumed she had. And we find this out in the most shocking fashion: The final minutes of Season 1 show Janet – in Maddie’s body – taking a seat on a bus, and heading out of town!
Okay, so, how does Maddie die in Season 1?
She doesn't die … but she hasn’t been entirely alive since right before the argument with her alcoholic mother (Maria Dizzia) in the school’s boiler room. This fight left Maddie in such a delicate emotional state that she was suddenly able to see Janet, a ghost. Janet, realizing that the veil between the worlds of the living and dead had become thin, sprinted toward Maddie, forcing her spirit into Maddie’s body. Janet then exited the school premises in Maddie’s body, leaving Maddie’s spirit imprisoned in a purgatorial state.Why does Janet take Maddie’s body?
Janet wants a second chance. As we learn in Season 2, in life, Janet wanted to attend college, and become a scientist. Unfortunately, she grew up in a restrictive, 1950s household where her father, a reverend (played by David James Lewis), made it clear that she was to become a wife and mother immediately after high school. Though Janet had the smarts and grit to defy the odds, her premature death cut off any opportunity to achieve her dreams. On top of this, she’d been trapped in high school limbo for more than 60 years. Maddie’s body gives Janet the chance to leave Split River, and become the person she always wanted to be.How does Janet die?
The short version is: Janet dies in a chem-lab fire. But nothing's ever that simple at Split River High. The fire that killed Janet also killed Mr. Martin. And it turns out Mr. Martin has always led Janet to believe that she started the blaze. But in the Season 2 finale, Mr. Martin confesses that, though he committed the act by accident, it was he who caused the fire.See, prior to the fire, Janet’s father had convinced the school board to dismiss Mr. Martin because of his unorthodox teaching methods. Then Mr. Martin’s fiancée broke off their engagement. Out for revenge against the institution that wronged him, Mr. Martin disconnected the gas hoses in the lab. Then, rethinking his plan, he reconnected them, and moved to open a window – right as Janet walked in, and began testing flint torches …
How is the ghostly Mr. Martin able to leave the school grounds?
A little background: Throughout Season 2, Janet wants to escape Mr. Martin because she’s come to believe that he’s exploiting the teen ghosts.But it wasn’t always this way. When they first became ghosts, Janet and Mr. Martin were partners. Both keen scientific minds, they began their collaboration by observing new spirits’ behaviors, as well as each one's so-called “key” (the object each ghost died with). By studying these things, they thought they could deduce which elements would create an escape hatch from their Split River High purgatory.
Ultimately, Janet and Mr. Martin uncover that a key opens a “scar” (a hellish version of the locations where each of the teens died), and that the scars lead into one another in a kind of nightmarish map. Could this layout of scars point toward a way of “cross[ing] over”?
As Season 2 progresses, Maddie and her friends in the afterlife support group come to understand how the scars work, and wonder if the suddenly M.I.A. Mr. Martin has the ability to disappear through them. After all, the teen ghosts who’ve died at school can’t leave school, so how has Mr. Martin vanished without a trace?
As it turns out, Mr. Martin can hide in the scars, but he can only exit the school grounds in the way Janet has: through a living body. In Season 2, he finds the perfect vessel: Mr. Anderson (Patrick Gilmore), a Split River High English teacher, and close personal friend of Maddie’s mother. In this body, Mr. Martin-as-Mr.-Anderson follows Janet-as-Maddie, determined to get the girl back to Split River High.
Who is Yuri?
Introduced in Season 2, Yuri (Miles Elliot) is a half-Russian teen ghost who died in the school’s greenhouse in the 1970s. Until he meets the ghosts of the afterlife support group, he has never left the pottery wheel of the building’s art studio. He gets to know Maddie and her ghostly friends by revealing his history with Janet. During the course of the season, he and Charley engage in a shy romance.Who is Quinn?
Introduced in Season 2, Quinn (Ci Hang Ma) is a marching-band teen who became a spirit after perishing in a bus crash on the school’s grounds in the early 2000s. Though she thinks she doesn’t make friends easily, she forms a special bond with Rhonda.Why does Xavier start seeing ghosts?
Xavier (Spencer Macpherson) is Maddie’s ex-boyfriend. In Season 2, he and Maddie’s other living pals, Nicole (Kiara Pichardo), Claire (Rainbow Wedell), and Simon (Kristian Ventura), come to accept that the ghostly Janet has taken over their friend’s form, and they do everything they can convince Janet to return to Split River High to fix the mess she’s caused.Here’s the thing, though: Even though all four buddies believe that Maddie has become a ghost, throughout the series, the only living person who can actually see Maddie in her spirit form is Simon. But then a Season 2 twist: Xavier suddenly (if briefly) see ghosts, too. How? Why?
In a similar manner to how Maddie saw Janet during a charged moment, Xavier spots ghosts during a point of peak mental and emotional fragility. After Janet-as-Maddie knocks him into a coma with a commandeered truck, Xavier’s body lies unresponsive in a hospital bed. His spirit wanders the hospital’s corridors alongside various apparitions, one of whom is decked out in outdoor gear. Later, Xavier learns from a Nears family photo that this ghostly sportsman was Maddie’s late father (played by Danny Mac).
After he awakens from the coma, Xavier starts to believe Simon’s claims about Maddie’s untethered spirit, and it’s his newfound belief in spirits that helps get Nicole and Claire onboard.
Will there be a School Spirits Season 3?
Yes! On March 19, 2025, Paramount+ announced School Spirits had been renewed for a third season."We are so thrilled to bring School Spirits back to our devoted audiences for another season of masterful storytelling brought to life by Peyton List and the incredible cast,” Shauna Phelan, Head of Live Action Scripted Series and Film for Awesomeness and Nickelodeon, said in a statement.
Big Questions Unanswered … Still!
Xavier sees Maddie’s dad again! Why?!
Search us! As far as we knew Xavier hadn’t spotted a ghost since he slipped into that coma during the second season opener, "Whatever Happened to Maddie Nears?" But then in the Season 2 finale, "Fire, Talk to Me," he sees Maddie’s dad again – this time in Maddie's hospital room. Not even Maddie – who had only stopped being a ghost just hours before – can see her ghost father. What gives?!Does Wally cross over?
We don’t know! In the Season 2 finale, Janet witnesses a bright door open in her scar, inviting her to cross over. She decides, however, that she still has unfinished business left to complete before she can move on, and she allows the door to disappear.Wally sees a similar door open in his scar, and we're left to wonder at the decision he’s about to make …
What does Mr. Martin mean when he says, “There’s more to this school than you understand …”?
In the Season 2 finale, Mr. Martin asks Maddie and her ghostly friends, "Haven't you ever wondered why so many of us died here?". He implies that even Janet doesn’t know the extent of what Mr. Martin has done to protect the spirits. So, is Mr. Martin actually a hero? Is there some kind of evil force at play in Split River High?How does Simon end up in Mr. Martin’s scar?
Now, this is a major new mystery! The very end of the Season 2 finale finds Maddie’s best (living!) friend sitting with Mr. Martin (a ghost!), in Mr. Martin’s scar (ghostly!), and making conversation – and eye contact – with Janet (a ghost!).Until the final seconds of this mind-blowing season, Simon has never exhibited an ability to interact with any spirit except Maddie. So, what can this possibly mean? Has Simon become a spirit? Is he so mentally and/or emotionally exhausted through the process of helping Maddie that, like Maddie and Xavier before him, that he’s moved between realms? Here's the only thing we know for sure: It’ll be tough to rest in peace waiting for all the answers.