Paramount+’s School Spirits season two episode three kicks off with Simon (Kristian Ventura), Nicole (Kiara Pichardo), and Claire (Rainbow Wedell) searching for any indication that Janet survived. (Spoilers ahead!) Simon can’t figure out Janet’s motivation, but the reason won’t matter if she died in the fire. If she’s dead, then Maddie can never return to her body.
Nicole’s not ready to fully commit to Maddie being in the spirit world, but even she can’t figure out why Maddie would come to this random farmhouse that belonged to Janet Hamilton’s family. Simon locates the family graveyard and sees that Janet’s grave has been disturbed. Still, Claire refuses to jump on the Maddie/Janet possession thing.
Xavier (Spencer MacPherson) joins them with news that the cops didn’t find any bodies in the fire. (Xavier’s fully committed to #TeamGhost now.) Meanwhile, Janet’s buying food and a suitcase, ready to leave the area ASAP. She cleans up in the restroom bathroom and accidentally leaves the backpack with cash behind. It’s not until she’s at the register that she realizes her mistake, and races through the store looking for whoever picked it up.
Back at school, Quinn (Ci Hang Ma) has put together an impressive murder board (a la Veronica Mars) and then turns the investigation over to Maddie (Peyton List). What they know so far is that Janet and Mr. Martin were working together on crossing over until their relationship soured. Charley (Nick Pugliese) suggests Mr. Martin was tired of Janet being the leader, but Rhonda (Sarah Yarkin) is in a rotten mood and doesn’t understand what any of this has to do with actually locating Janet.
Also, where is Janet’s object?
Nicole messages the anonymous person who posted in the Weird Wisconsin forum, joking about luring a ghost out of hiding. Claire barges into Nicole’s bedroom, pissed she didn’t realize Nicole has a brother (Diego) and that she just busted in on him in the shower.
Simon tells Xavier the list of places people died at the school, which are the only places he can see Maddie. Xavier thinks that since he now believes in the Maddie ghost thing, he needs to give her a message. Simon shushes him since Maddie can hear them even when he can’t see her. He doesn’t want her to learn they’ve lost Janet.
Janet scans the parking lot and sees two women loading an SUV. She thinks they have her backpack, but they don’t. They think she goes to their college, which, of course, she doesn’t. Janet accepts a ride to campus because what other choice does she have? Everything she owned was in that backpack.
Nicole’s brother spots her as she’s walking around campus, looking for her backpack.
Back at the high school, Nicole leaves licorice in Maddie’s locker as Maddie watches. Next, she joins Claire in the cafeteria and is shocked to learn she quit the cheer squad. Simon’s also in the cafeteria, and Maddie accuses him of ghosting her. He claims he has nothing to report except that Xavier is on board now. And he doesn’t know why Nicole left licorice in her locker.
Simon reluctantly delivers the news that Janet burned down the farmhouse. Maddie wonders why she’d do that. Simon has no idea.
Nicole gets a text from her brother about seeing Maddie at the college, so they all head there to try to track her down. Xavier still can’t wrap his head around Simon talking to Maddie all the time, but at least he believes it.
Xavier and Nicole exchange messages on the forum (still totally oblivious that they’re talking to each other), with Nicole confirming she left candy in Maddie’s locker as ghost bait. (Like Reese’s Pieces for ET.) The foursome regroups on the campus, unable to find Maddie/Janet. However, Claire figured out they should look online to see if anyone posted a picture of her since everyone on campus is on their phones posting pics. And boom! Claire finds one of Maddie at a college party. They recognize the frat house and have a look around.
Maddie asks her ghost squad what they can remember about Janet. They remember that on her last day, Mr. Martin suggested they hold a Sweet 17 party to cheer her up. They threw a sock hop to celebrate, and everyone used costumes from Grease to get in the mood.
Before everyone arrived, Charley spotted Janet and Mr. Martin dancing, and it seemed like they were in a relationship. But then Charley heard Janet make Mr. Martin promise they’ll tell everyone that night. After the dancing was over, Mr. Martin suggested a limbo competition, but Janet pulled Wally aside. Wally (Milo Manheim) confesses he was really lonely because it was during the Covid pandemic and the living hadn’t been around to break up the boredom. Janet tried to tell him a secret, mentioned having a gift, and struggled to talk. Wally misinterpreted and kissed her, thinking she wanted to tell him she liked him.
The ghosts can’t believe Wally kissed Janet, but Rhonda has a weird reaction. Rhonda finally comes clean with what she knows and recalls Janet being super happy about her birthday gifts. However, Janet’s mood shifted when she opened Mr. Martin’s gift.
After the party ended, Rhonda eavesdropped on Janet and Mr. Martin. Janet was upset about all the gifts, especially Mr. Martin’s. Janet reminded Mr. Martin he said they were putting the experiments on hold. Mr. Martin didn’t want to, and Janet threatened to give them all back. Mr. Martin tried to stop her, and Janet warned him he had no idea what she was capable of.
Everyone but Rhonda thinks Janet is the real monster. Rhonda insists Mr. Martin was always the one with the power, and Mr. Martin silenced her when she defied him. She recalls Mr. Martin’s hands on Janet, just like her own killer’s hands were on her. But unlike Janet, Rhonda wasn’t strong and didn’t stand up to her aggressor.
Rhonda believes Janet wanted to give them back their objects, and Mr. Martin refused. Janet also wanted to tell them the truth (that was “her gift”) about what she’d learned. Mr. Martin locked her up to keep her silent.
Meanwhile at the campus, Diego rescues Nicole and Claire when frat boys hit on them. He helps them look for Maddie who’s super busy stealing clothing and wallets. The girls who gave her a ride earlier catch her in the act, but she’s able to escape when the cops show up to shut down the party.
Claire and Diego are flirting when Maddie walks up. Claire assures her it’s okay to return home, but Maddie escapes when Nicole, Xavier, and Simon cause Claire to look away.
Rhonda holds her acceptance letter from Berkeley and recalls her happiness as she went to tell her killer, guidance counselor Mr. Manfredo, the news. Reliving all these memories of Janet has been incredibly traumatic, and she needs time to herself to face the pain.
Charley, Wally, and Maddie meet in the greenhouse, and Maddie feels horrible for making Rhonda remember such painful moments. Suddenly, it dawns on Maddie that Janet’s mention of “keys” might be a reference to the objects they had when they died. The objects could be the keys. Mr. Martin was holding Janet’s watch, and when he gave it to her, she disappeared. Janet’s object was probably the watch, but that doesn’t answer where Janet and Mr. Martin disappeared to.
Unbeknownst to the gang, Rhonda’s holding her object (the acceptance letter) while standing in front of the door to the room where she died. A red light emerges from under the door, and she steps inside and back in time to the day she died. Mr. Manfredo’s about to attack her when she flees the room. She drops the acceptance letter, and when she picks it up, the red light shines under the door again.
Claire, Simon, Xavier, and Nicole return to Nicole’s house after the party, and Nicole confirms that she saw Maddie, but it was obvious that she was someone else. She’s still confused about the ghost thing but is 99% sure it’s true.
Simon confesses to Xavier that he’s worried about how to tell Maddie they lost Janet again. Xavier promises to do it with him, and Simon accepts his help, relieved not to do it alone anymore. Simon says he’ll pass along a message to Maddie for him.
The episode ends with Maddie’s mom returning home after one of many visits to crime scenes and the morgue to possibly identify Maddie’s body. Something gets her attention and she turns, shocked to see Maddie standing on the sidewalk outside their home. She runs and grabs her up in a huge hug.
- Season 1 Episode 8 “Maddie’s Body” Finale Recap
- Season 2 Episode 1 “Whatever Happened to Maddie Nears” Recap
- Season 2 Episode 2 “Field of Screams” Recap
- Season 2 Episode 4 “A Walk-In to Remember” Recap
- Season 2 Episode 5 “Ghost Who’s Coming to Dinner” Recap
- School Spirits Season 2 Episode 6 “Ghosts Pointe Blank” Recap
- School Spirits Season 2 Episode 7 “Anatomy of a Fallout Shelter
- School Spirits Season 2 Episode 8 “Fire, Talk to Me” Recap
This post was last modified on March 6, 2025 11:32 am