Yahoo Lifestyle School Spirits Finale Leaves Several Characters’ Fates in Limbo; EPs Reveal What That Could Mean for Season 3
Dear mortal readers, this interview covers the events of School Spirits‘ Season 2 finale, now streaming on Paramount+. Don’t want to get spoiled? You’ve been warned!
If you asked me how I thought the second season of School Spirits was going to end, it wouldn’t be a cliffhanger involving Mr. Martin, Janet and… Simon?! Yes, Maddie’s living bestie has found himself at the center of the Paramount+ drama’s latest cliffhanger. And with Season 3 not yet officially ordered, fans have every right to be on edge.
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In the nuttiest of nutshells, here’s what went down in the finale: Armed with the knowledge that Mr. Martin may have wanted her dead, Janet demanded answers. He eventually revealed that, at an extremely low point in his personal and professional life, he did consider doing something rash, even detaching the hose in the lab to create a gas leak. He changed his mind at the last minute, but it was too late; unbeknownst to him, Janet was testing flint torches, causing an explosion when exposed to the gas.
Back in their shared scar, an exit door appeared to the world beyond. Not only did Janet prevent Mr. Martin from going through it, but she also allowed it to close before she entered herself, saying that she had “unfinished business” to attend to before moving on. Catching Mr. Martin in the first place required the spirits to reenter their scars, generating an enormous amount of energy within the walls of the school and triggering a mysterious change.
The next day, all seemed well enough — at least for Maddie, who woke up in her own body at the hospital, where Xavier revealed that he had spoken to her father. But Janet’s mission wasn’t over. In the season’s final moment, she confronted Mr. Martin in their scar with more questions. He countered with a question of his own, gesturing to Simon, who had gone back into the school to find Maddie the night before. “What’s he doing here?” Mr. Martin asked. Dun, dun, dun!
“Simon has had access to a world that other people have not,” executive producer Oliver Goldstick tells TVLine. “He’s aware of another reality besides the one we all see on a daily basis. So we felt like, if you spent this much time trying to save somebody else and you had immersed yourself so deeply into that world, could you be sucked into the vortex of that until you were trapped as well?”
Acknowledging that “something happened to the school when they all went into those scars,” executive producer Nate Trinrud says the lore of the would continue to expand in a potential third season. But more importantly, it would also tackle a “potent and relatable” concept: “It’s really easy to lose yourself when you’re trying to save somebody else. How do you separate yourself from somebody else when you do get lost in someone?”
Of course, Simon isn’t the only one whose fate remains uncertain after the Season 2 finale. When we last saw Wally, he was facing an exit door in his own scar, presenting the opportunity for him to finally cross over.
“It was important for us to acknowledge in that moment that Wally has done so much to, for lack of a better term, work on himself,” executive producer Megan Trinrud explains. “So much of his journey was thinking about who he is and what he does and what he does for other people. He really has tried so hard to come to terms with his past, to understand his present, and what that scene shows in a lot of ways is that he did a good job.”
But let’s not get ahead of yourselves. Just because Wally can cross over, it doesn’t mean he necessarily will. “It’s big decision and it’s emotional,” Nate Trinrud says. “But when you get to that place where you feel like you’ve had a breakthrough or you’ve healed a part of yourself … just because you do that, it doesn’t mean that you’re ready to go.”
Look no further than Janet, who chose to stay behind and help her fellow spirits. “She had an opportunity to go and have this all be done,” Nate Trinrud adds. “But she realized that she has knowledge they don’t, and she could be the key to helping them all do the same thing.”
If Paramount+ opts to renew School Spirits, Nate Trinrud anticipates dropping viewers right back into the action, rather than adding a time jump between seasons. “Who’s to say exactly how we pick up,” he says, “but we have certainly created a tradition of just keeping the story going.”
What did you think of the School Spirits finale? Season 2 overall? Weigh in via our polls below, then drop a comment with your hopes for (fingers crossed!) Season 3.
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