The seventh episode of School Spirits season 2 is now streaming on Paramount+, which means we're reaching the end of the second installment. There's only one more episode after this, and we're looking forward to seeing how everything wraps up for Maddie and the others this season. In the latest episode, titled "Anatomy of a Fallout Shelter," Janet finally returns to Split River High and opens up about her secret work with Mr. Martin. Meanwhile, Maddie's living friends are being tormented by Mr. Martin, who has taken control of Mr. Anderson’s body.
Major spoilers ahead from School Spirits season 2, episode 7!
Janet escapes from Mr. Martin's clutches
If you remember from the last episode, Mr. Martin arrives at the cabin in search of Janet. He spots her by the lake and approaches her. That's where the episode ends. In episode 7, he takes Janet captive and forces her on a boat. As they paddle away, Mr. Martin attempts to lift her spirits by telling her that they've finally gotten what they wanted—a second chance at life.
However, Janet disagrees, stating that it’s not a second chance since she’s not in her real body. Realizing that Mr. Martin will never understand her perspective, Janet tells him he no longer needs her. Now that he’s swapped bodies, he’s free to go his own way. But Mr. Martin refuses to let her go. In response, Janet takes matters into her own hands, knocking him out with the paddle and sending him into the water so she can escape. Meanwhile, Simon and the others at the cabin search for her.
They finally spot her emerging from the lake. Once she steps out of the water completely, she firmly insists that Simon take her back to Split River High. While Simon takes her back, Xavier and Nicole stay behind at the cabin. As they clean up, they talk about Maddie and other topics. Unbeknownst to them, someone is lurking outside, watching through the window.
Xavier takes out the trash and notices footprints on the ground. As he inspects them, someone suddenly pops out of nowhere and covers his mouth. Later in the episode, Xavier is seen bound in a boat, drifting on the lake.
Two different couples hook up
In this episode, two couples become intimate. They are Maddie and Wally and Charley and Yuri. Maddie and Wally share a quiet date in one of the classrooms at Split River High. They begin by talking about the mysterious exit door Maddie found in Dawn's scar before shifting to a discussion about Wally's past.
As they lock eyes, the tension builds and they finally kiss. Clothes are quickly discarded, and they end up hooking up. Afterward, they continue talking, leading to a heartfelt conversation. Charley expresses his desire for Maddie not to return to her normal life, and Maddie, in turn, begins to question if that's what she truly wants either. Elsewhere in the school, Charley and Yuri have a pottery date before things escalate and they hook up as well.
Meanwhile, Quinn shows Rhonda what she found in her scar. It's the missing page from Janet's journal, and what's written on it isn't good. They gather everyone in the library to discuss it. According to Rhonda, the page details Janet and Mr. Martin's sinister plan to imprison the teen ghosts and experiment on them. She believes their ultimate goal was to use them as a means to escape the school. Suddenly, Simon's voice echoes through the PA system, instructing everyone to gather in the cafeteria. He's back, and Janet is with him.
Janet comes forward with the truth
As they gather in the cafeteria, Maddie and the others waste no time questioning Janet about the missing page. However, they begin by confronting her about why she lied about her death. Janet explains that she and Mr. Martin didn't want anyone to know the truth, which was that she was the person responsible for burning down the chemistry room. It was an accident, and at first, Janet felt guilty about being the cause of her and Mr. Martin's deaths. However, Mr. Martin was forgiving and didn't make her feel bad about it.
To make the best of their situation, they conducted various experiments in one of the classrooms at the school. Eventually, Mr. Martin discovered their scar (hidden space) and showed it to Janet. They wanted to understand what it was and what it all meant, so they started doing research. However, they couldn't quite figure it out. Five years pass by, and suddenly, the lights in the room start flickering. They go into another classroom to find cops dragging out a body bag. A scared Rhonda stands nearby. At that moment, Janet and Mr. Martin knew they were no longer the only spirits at the school.
They offered comfort to Rhonda and invited her to join their afterlife club. Rhonda inquired about Janet's death, and Mr. Martin fabricated a story, claiming Janet died from falling down a flight of stairs. He lied to protect her, and Janet allowed it. As they left the classroom where Rhonda had passed, Janet noticed that when Rhonda dropped her college acceptance letter, the red light under the door vanished. This is when she and Mr. Martin discovered what triggered their scars. They realized it was their keys, aka death items. They came to the conclusion that they shared the same key, which was Mr. Martin's watch.
As time passed, more people died at the school and became spirits. Dawn was one of the new spirits, and she and Janet had a conversation that led to Janet coming up with a theory. Her theory was that the scars were fueled by trauma, and that's what made them exist. After Janet revealed all this to the group, Rhonda asked her what caused the fallout between her and Mr. Martin. Janet then explained
On Christmas Day, Janet, Mr. Martin, Rhonda, Charley, and Wally gathered in a classroom at Split River High. When Mr. Martin went to retrieve the Christmas cookies from another room, Janet decided to join him. On their way, they discussed the plan they had been working on to escape the school. According to Janet, when someone enters one of the scars, it generates an energetic surge. She and Mr. Martin had previously hypothesized that the fence around the school, which keeps them trapped, is actually an electromagnetic barrier.
She believed that if they managed to activate all the scars at the same time, it would create a massive amount of energy that would basically overwhelm the barrier and allow the spirits to get past it. Maybe even make the barrier disappear. Mr. Martin was eager to put the plan into action right away, but Janet hesitated. The plan required trapping the other spirits in their scars, essentially condemning them to their own personal hells. While Janet couldn't accept that sacrifice, Mr. Martin saw it as a necessary step for the greater good. This fundamental disagreement drove a wedge between them, as their goals no longer aligned. Janet wanted to stop Mr. Martin, but she had to figure out a way.
She knew he wouldn’t stop just because she asked, but maybe she could persuade him to consider another approach. Her plan involved making herself the sacrifice instead of the other spirits. She began entering her scar more frequently and for longer periods, hoping that it would generate enough energy to break down the barrier. She and Mr. Martin didn't want anyone to disrupt the experiment, so they told the other spirits she had crossed over. However, the more Janet went into her scar, the more she began to lose herself. It got to a point where she was begging Mr. Martin not to make her go into her scar, but he would still force her.
The experiment appeared to be going nowhere, but everything shifted one day. While Janet was in her scar, enough energy built up to weaken the veil between the living and the dead within the school. Once Mr. Martin discovered this, there was no holding him back. Feeling trapped and desperate, Janet made the drastic decision to take over Maddie’s body on a night when the veil was at its thinnest.
Janet's key is actually Mr. Martin
After Janet explains everything to Maddie and the teen ghosts, Charley tells Maddie to give Mr. Martin's watch to Janet. Maddie hands the watch to Janet and tells her that while she knows she won't use it now, she'll need it later when they switch bodies back so that she can get back into her scar. Maddie then opens up about having been in her scar before.
As Maddie describes it, Janet realizes she's not actually talking about her scar. But whose scar could Maddie have gone in? It was Mr. Martin's! Janet then comes to the realization that the watch isn't her key. It's only Mr. Martin's. The reason she was able to enter her scar when Mr. Martin was forcing her was because Mr. Martin is her key.
Mr. Martin terrorizes Xavier and the others
Yes, it was Mr. Martin watching Xavier and Nicole from the cabin window. He was also the one who captured Xavier and left him tied up in the boat. Fortunately, Nicole, Claire, and Diego manage to find Xavier and rescue him. However, just as Nicole and Claire are untying him, Mr. Martin appears, wielding a sharp object and taking Diego hostage. He demands their car keys, and Diego quickly hands them over. Before leaving, Mr. Martin warns them not to follow him and then walks away. Later, Xavier informs Simon about Mr. Martin escaping.
Back at Split River High, Simon meets up with Maddie. Maddie tells him that Mr. Martin is Janet's key and that he needs to bring him back to the school so that she'll be able to cross over. Maddie will also be able to get her body back. However, Simon reveals there's a problem. The episode ends with Mr. Martin driving out of town in a car. Dun dun duuun!
Get ready for the School Spirits season 2 finale, set to land on Paramount+ on March 6.