Whatever Happened to Maddie Nears?
The teenage spirits haunting the school realize they can’t trust the teacher spirit that had been serving as their mentor. Maddie struggles to reconnect with Simon. Xavier learns about the world of spirits. And Janet, in Maddie’s body, returns home.
Season 1 Recap
In the first season of School Spirits, Maddie learns she “dies” at the school. She is haunting the area when her friend, Simon, ends up being able to communicate with her in places where people have died at the school. They go through a list of potential suspects who may have contributed to Maddie’s death like her boyfriend, Xavier, her former friend, Claire, her English teacher, Mr. Anderson, her friend, Nicole, the school janitor, Mr. South, and even her own mother. In the end, it was revealed that Janet, a spirit who died in a fire at the school in 1958, had possessed her body and forced her spirit from it. Maddie’s body is still out there even if her spirit is bound to the school.
Ed Araquel/Paramount+
Maddie and Simon
After Simon saw the image of Maddie driving away after hitting Xavier, he became convinced that her spirit was a coping mechanism for his loss. He changed his schedule to places she couldn’t communicate with him and started eating lunch in the greenhouse to get away from the cafeteria. However, Wally helps the other spirits see where people died and figures out someone died in the greenhouse, so Maddie makes a last gasp to regain his trust.
Ed Araquel/Paramount+.
She tells him all the things that she couldn’t have known if she were a coping mechanism. He’s ready to leave and he tells her about the day of her father’s funeral and his actions on that day. Still, he’s in denial and tells Nicole to turn in the Maddie who ran over Xavier. However, when turning in a paper to Mr. Figueroa, the teacher tells him how the letter Simon “found” in season one addressed to him provided him closure. (Simon wrote that letter based on information Maddie’s spirit gave him from her fellow spirit, Charlie). Simon realizes Maddie’s spirit must be real. He decides to help her and goes to open the fallout shelter in the school’s basement since it requires an actual person to open it.
Janet as Maddie
While Maddie’s spirit is stuck in the school, Janet is leaving town with Maddie’s body. The spirit from the 1950s took over Maddie’s body by running into her at full speed when Maddie opened the door to the fallout shelter. Of course, that leads to another mystery, how did Maddie see and hear the spirits there when no one living had been able to interact with them prior to then?
Meanwhile, Janet dumps Xavier’s truck near a bus station and hops on the bus. However, when a security guard sits near her during a 20 minute rest stop, she gets off and starts hiking through woods and fields.
The episode reveals she went back to her childhood home. In a flashback, her grandmother is supporting her interest in science, although it’s hinted that her father won’t support it. Given that she died in 1958, it’s clearly a time when many men thought a woman’s place was in the home. She sees her family’s graves and then digs up her own so she can lay at the spot where she was buried.
Ed Araquel/Paramount+.
The Other Spirits in Turmoil
Meanwhile, Charlie, Rhonda and Wally, three of the other spirits in the school, are struggling with the revelations. Mr Martin, the teacher who died in the fire with Janet, had been hiding her in the fallout shelter for the past year claiming she had “crossed over.” They learn that he had been studying them during their group sessions rather than actually helping them. This leaves the three of them feeling lost.
Ed Araquel/Paramount+.
Still, they work on their shared mission of helping Maddie return to her body. Rhonda feels guilt for telling Mr. Martin that Simon can interact with Maddie and wants to make it up to her. Charlie has been Maddie’s closest friend since her spirit got stuck in the school. And Wally has formed into an afterlife love interest for Maddie. This leaves him conflicted because he wants to help her but he also doesn’t want to lose her, and re-uniting her spirit with her body means she won’t be a spirit any longer. And all three are still searching for Mr. Martin to figure out what happened and why he was studying them for decades.
Xavier’s Crossover
During the course of this episode, Maddie’s former boyfriend, Xavier is in a coma. He was run over by his own truck in the season one finale when it was revealed Maddie wasn’t dead. Claire and Nicole have been watching over him and are trying to figure out what to do with the knowledge that Maddie, at least her body, was driving the truck.
Lindsay Siu/Paramount+
Xander’s spirit leaves his body and he starts seeing people who died in the hospital from different points of history. They tell him “welcome to the waiting room.” He sees his father watching over his body while doctors work to revive him as it appears he’s dying. However, he wakes back up. What will happen with this knowledge that Xavier has?
Rating
Not having this website at the time the first season was released in 2023, I wasn’t sure if I should try to review this show. However, since I jumped in on other shows like Ghosts and Star Wars: The Bad Batch, I figured I could review this coming-of-age suspense show. The twist at the end of the first season delivered an excellent punch to get me hyped for season two.
The first episode is a little slow, but it still comes through with the main points. Plus, the reveal that Xavier will know about spirits waiting to cross over makes it interesting to see how his bond with Simon will grow. Overall, I’m excited for what we’re about to see.
Check out School Spirits streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus.
Article Written By: Jeremy Brown for Stelmach Brown Media 2025
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