The Ending Of School Spirits Season 1 Explained- Theories On Mr. Martin’s Secret And What We Could See In Season 2

Few series can pull off a twist as wild as School Spirits did. It was absurd, ridiculous, insane, and unexpected. It was also one of the best television series reveals in a long time. Paramount Plus’ School Spirits, which did not get the love it deserved until hitting Netflix recently, did the impossible. It turned a who-done-it murder mystery about Maddie, a teenage girl who has no memory of her death, into a possession story where Maddie isn’t dead, just possessed, and a whole lot of paranormal shadiness is going down. True friends have their sanity questioned, and long-buried secrets come to life.

Everyone wants to talk about poor Maddie, who had her body stolen by Janet and has been spiritually floating around, completely unaware ever since. While that is sad and interesting, Mr. Martin is the real prize in School Spirits. His motivations and dirty deeds should be the focus. He is a nightmare of pretend sympathy and wisdom. Why did he lie about the fire that claimed his life? What were he and Janet arguing about just before Janet escaped in Maddie’s body? What is he trying to do with the other ghosts? Here are some theories about what he is doing and what we could see in Season 2.

At the end of School Spirits Season 1, Simon and Nichole saw the photo of Janet in Maddie’s body driving the truck that backed into Xavier. Believing that Maddie had not been dead but hiding this whole time led him to believe he was losing his mind. Not only is he terrified he can’t trust what he sees and feels, but his best friend looks like a terrible person. It is enough to break him and make him cut ties with Maddie’s spirit, who is, in turn, scared, confused, and heartbroken. The school ghosts have just discovered that Mr. Martin is a sick twist studying them for years. They also know he lied about the fire that he claimed killed him and has been keeping trophies like some kind of serial killer from each of their deaths.

At best, Mr. Martin is a master gaslighter, and at worst, he is a killer who did horrible things in life and has continued to abuse teen ghosts and try to get back to the living world to do more sinister things. The only question is, does he want to help or hurt the spirits?

Mr. Martin orchestrated his own death in School Spirits

This is decidedly a bad plan, but if he somehow knew ghosts existed before his death and wanted to get away with literary anything forever, there is no better way than to stage his death and prey on the kids indefinitely. I can think of better ways to kill myself than by fire, but to each their own, I guess. In any case, if he was that committed to manipulating and hurting teens, he might have convinced himself that this was a great plan. He could have researched death prior to his death and continued his research after the fire. He and Janet could have had some bizarre death pact where they studied the paranormal and possessions.

More likely, the minor detail that the ghosts can possess the living when they are under hypnosis is the key to everything. If Mr. Martin tried experimenting with this technique to escape into the real world, all of his work with the students could be towards that goal. If Janet were working with him or found out about what he was doing, it would explain why everything went to hell. Mr. Martin could be enjoying his rent-free hunting ground or looking for a way to pop in and out of the living world whenever he wanted to hurt another student. It would be a genius way to continue getting away with murder and repopulating his ghost student numbers.

Someone knew Mr. Martin was a killer and killed him

Maybe Mr. Martin was killed by someone other than Janet, who was either trying to stop him from hurting them or anyone else. We know it wasn’t any of the core group, and it’s possible Janet didn’t do it either. There could be another child out there who knows what Mr. Martin was and kept the secret after his death out of fear. Janet could also have known what Mr. Martin was and set the fire to kill him. Her death could have been an accident. A kid setting a fire would be sloppier than a chemistry teacher who would understand chemical reactions and accelerants better. This theory of School Spirits could just as easily point to Janet being completely bad and Mr. Martin being a victim, though.

If Mr. Martin is a bad guy, he could have been protecting his deadly secret for sixty-four years. He may also have abilities that the others don’t. We know Dawn could affect electricity, and Mr. Martin could affect physical things in the living world without them resetting. He may have learned things because he had been a ghost longer than anyone else, or there might be something special about him that we will learn about in School Spirits Season 2.

Mr. Martin has actually been trying to protect everyone all this time

If Janet is the real baddie, then Mr. Martin has known about it from the very beginning. He may be trying to keep everyone safe and from turning to the dark side like her. It’s possible that Janet was a killer before the fire and set the fire to kill more people. It’s also possible she started the fire to try to kill Mr. Martin because he knew her secrets. All the other kids Mr. Martin managed to save were just collateral damage. We know Janet doesn’t care about anyone but herself, as witnessed by her hurting Xavier. She was arguing with Mr. Martin when Maddie heard them in the bunker. We may have been looking at things the wrong way from the beginning. Mr. Martin wasn’t trying to hold her hostage; he was trying to protect everyone, living and dead, from her.

If this is the case, he is a hero, albeit a short-sighted one. He redirects the ghosts to do their obituaries because he wants them to accept their deaths as opposed to Janet, who wanted out at all costs. He may be trying to correct his wrongs with the other students. His anger at Rhonda was not malicious secretiveness but terrified concern that this new crop of students was heading down the same dangerous path.

We don’t know why Maddie could see and hear Mr. Martin and Janet in the bunker. The speculation that she was emotionally wrought after her fight with her mother could have allowed her to see and hear the ghosts, or maybe Mr. Martin or Janet had that power. We know Janet was calling for help, but that doesn’t mean she was the victim and Mr. Martin was the perpetrator. One last theory to chew on: maybe Mr. Martin was possessed by someone else, and he is like Maddie, stuck in limbo. Who possessed him and why, we don’t know, but it remains an intriguing possibility. Hopefully, in School Spirits Season 2, we will get some answers.