Summary
School Spirits‘ pilot is a promising start for a whodunnit style of drama.
We recap the Paramount+ series School Spirits Season 1 Episode 1, “My So-Called Death,” which contains spoilers.
School Spirits is a drama based on a teen stuck in the afterlife who decides to investigate her disappearance with a group of people who are stuck in the same boat at their school. The ten-episode series stars Peyton List in the lead role and is based on an upcoming book of the same name.
School Spirits Season 1 Episode 1 Recap
The episode begins with Maddie sitting in the bleachers and the rest of her classmates preparing to listen to a man speak at the school. The teacher announces a missing person, followed by the students talking about the disappearance among themselves. The school funnily has the cheerleaders performing while Charley is in her ear, saying it’s only a matter of time before they realize she’s dead.
After some opening credits, Charley starts to break down some things, and they run into Nicole, Maddie’s best friend, who is alive, and unable to hear Maddie trying to talk to her. Then, Charley convinces her to go to a meeting to meet some of the others. Everyone gathers, and we meet Mr. Martin, who seems to be the leader of the pack. Maddie introduces herself, and Rhonda speaks up, asking her how she got there (how she died). Maddie doesn’t know, shocking everyone as it’s a first for the group.
Who was Maddie dating?
Maddie is dating Xavier. We find out early in the show that these two have been dating for some time. While Maddie seemed to be head over heels for him, Xavier had eyes for another girl at the school, Claire.
The moment causes Maddie to reminisce on the moments leading to what happened in her attempt to try and remember how she died. Next, we meet some of her friends, leading to a moment where she sees her boyfriend, Xavier, ditching school. She rushed outside to call him out about it, and he said he was ditching the gym and smoking in the car. However, we move back to Maddie being a ghost and her watching Wally, who doesn’t seem to be doing good.
In the classroom, Simon snaps at all the virtue signaling surrounding Maddie’s disappearance. He confronts Xavier, saying that he knows he knows something. One thing leads to another, grabs Xavier’s bag, and out flies Maddie’s phone. As Charley is chatting her up in the men’s locker room, Maddie gets a flashback of being with Xavier in that same room with him. It triggers something within her to chase down more information.
After the principal’s office lets Xavier out of his office, Simon confronts him and wants to know what he knows, and attacks him. After a skirmish, Xavier gets the best of him and punches him when they are finally broken up. Simon looks at Nicole and feels he has proved his point about his violent side. It causes Maddie to head back to Mr. Martin and ask him to use his powers to get a confessional out of someone. He tries to tell her that’s not how it works, but she storms off, saying she will figure it out alone.
Why did Xavier take Maddie’s phone?
A cop approaches Xavier about why he had Maddie’s phone. He tells the cop it was to protect her, and the cop wants to know from what. Xavier tells him he took it to avoid her finding out about him and Claire. We hear him go into more detail about how he accidentally sent a text to Maddie that was meant for Claire and that he stole the phone to delete the text, and that is it.
School Spirits Season 1 Episode 1 Ending Explained
As he tells the story, Maddie can hear everything he says to the cop. We hear him speak to the cop, “I didn’t know she wasn’t coming back, Dad.” Maddie stands there devastated. Next, Simon and Nicole are heading out, but Simon tells her he has to take care of something. We hear him talking to the teacher from earlier. Simon apologizes, and she accepts it. However, Simon says something happened; something terrible has happened.
Simon follows that by saying if she disappeared, he would know. They were best friends who had overcome a lot and wouldn’t run. As he begins to get more emotional, he says he doesn’t know how he will make it. Next, we see Xavier being put in the back of a cop car and his father telling him he will handle it. While everyone lit their candles, Simon is overlooking them, and Maddie looks at him and says thank you, and he turns to her and says, “Maddie,” as the episode ends.
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