We’ve got spirit, yes we do. We (almost) got School Spirits Season 2, how about you? The first three episodes of the second season drop on Paramount+ on Jan. 30, with new episodes streaming weekly on Thursdays. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited about all the humor, supernatural drama, mystery, and, of course, every Milo Manheim scene this season has to offer!
Since Season 1 came out in March 2023, it’s definitely hard to remember everything that happened in the eight-episode season – and let me tell you, there was a lot that took place. To prepare ourselves for what’s to come, let’s take a trip down memory lane and recap everything that went down in School Spirits Season 1 before Season 2 premieres.
School Spirits Season 1 introduces viewers to Maddie (Peyton List), a high school student who’s been reported missing for several days. Unbeknownst to the students and faculty, Maddie isn’t simply missing — she’s already dead and now haunts the school halls as she’s forced to stay along the campus perimeters. Maddie is desperate to find out who killed her, despite having only sporadic memories of what happened that fateful day. But Maddie isn’t the only ghost roaming the school’s halls. Several students and faculty members have created an afterlife support group led by another ghost teacher, Mr. Martin.
The support group helps ghosts transition into the afterlife and hopefully cross over and introduces Maddie to friendly faces like Charley (Nick Pugliese), Rhonda (Sarah Yarkin), and Wally (Milo Manheim), who eventually becomes Maddie’s love interest. Season 1 unravels the mystery of Maddie’s death, pointing fingers at multiple suspects. In the living world, Maddie isn’t the only one searching for answers about her death. Her best friends, Simon (Kristian Ventura) and Nicole (Kiara Pichardo) are also piecing together the missing clues. But there’s a twist — Simon can actually see and speak to Maddie’s ghost! So, let’s break down each possible culprit and help Maddie piece together the truth after that jaw-dropping cliffhanger.
Xavier
Xavier (Spencer MacPherson) is the first major suspect in School Spirits Season 1. As Maddie’s boyfriend, their relationship once seemed perfect, but since her disappearance, Xavier has become noticeably irritable and hostile toward those around him.
In Episode 1, tensions rise when Simon lashes out at Xavier during class for not signing up for Maddie’s search party. Simon accuses him of knowing more than he’s letting on and, in a heated moment, grabs Xavier’s backpack. As everything spills out, Maddie’s missing phone is among the items, putting Xavier in an even more suspicious light.
Later, we learn that Xavier took Maddie’s phone not because he had a hand in her murder but because he was hiding a secret—he had been cheating on her with Claire (Rainbow Wedell). He had accidentally texted Maddie instead of Claire and, in a panic, grabbed her phone to delete the message before she could see it.
Simon and Maddie continue investigating in the school’s auto shop, where Simon finds a piece of Maddie’s destroyed phone. This discovery leads them to suspect that someone intentionally destroyed it, but they’re still unsure if Xavier is responsible.
Claire
At first, Xavier was a prime suspect in Maddie’s murder due to him cheating on her with Claire. Naturally, that put Claire under suspicion too, as Maddie believed she might have helped Xavier kill her. Maddie and Claire were once close friends, living near each other and bonding over their struggles at home. When they were kids, Claire once asked to stay at Maddie’s house, but Maddie refused because her mom was having a rough day. Shortly after, Claire moved in with her dad, and when she returned a year later, she completely distanced herself from Maddie.
Claire’s behavior became even more suspicious when one for the school’s teachers, Mr. Anderson, came up in connection to Maddie’s disappearance. She repeatedly questioned Principal Hartman about his involvement. At the Homecoming Dance, Xavier asked Claire to go with him to learn more about her connection to the case, especially after Maddie’s backpack was found at Claire’s dad’s house and Xavier discovered Claire had swapped Maddie’s phone.
Claire eventually admitted that she had been close to Mr. Anderson—not because of Maddie, but because she was blackmailing him. She had discovered he was embezzling school funds and selling drugs, so she used that information to get good grades from him. Nicole, Simon, and Xavier received an anonymous video of Claire and Mr. Anderson talking, sparking their suspicions. Claire had also seen the video before Maddie’s disappearance and feared Maddie might have been the one who recorded it. She took Maddie’s phone and gave it to Mr. Anderson to get rid of it, but she firmly denied having anything to do with Maddie’s disappearance.
Nicole
Simon also notices that Nicole’s art portfolio is entirely focused on Maddie, raising his suspicions. When he eventually confronts her, she comes clean. Simon and Maddie begin to suspect that Nicole might have had a motive for harming Maddie, especially since they once joked about Nicole being stuck in Maddie’s shadow. Though they later apologized, Simon and Maddie wondered if Nicole still harbored resentment.
Simon later catches Nicole in the AV lab deleting the video of Claire and Mr. Anderson, revealing that she was the one who originally blackmailed Claire. Nicole confesses that she did it because she needed the money to fund her dream of going to college in Chicago with Simon and Maddie. The art schools she applied to couldn’t offer her a scholarship, and she couldn’t afford tuition on her own.
So, Who Killed Maddie?
We still don’t know exactly who killed Maddie, but all signs point to Mr. Martin and fellow ghost student Janet. The two are connected through a tragic past—they both died in the school fire that Mr. Martin ultimately caused.
In the Season 1 finale, as Maddie walks down to the boiler room, she hears Rhonda, Charley, and Wally calling for help. The moment triggers a buried memory of the day she died—being attacked by the shadowy figure of Janet before hitting her head. Suddenly, everything clicks: in the living world, Janet is now using Maddie’s body, living as her while continuing to stay on the run.
Wait… ghosts can swap bodies with the living?! What other secrets are Mr. Martin and Janet hiding? There’s only one way to find out—by tuning into School Spirits Season 2!