School Spirits Season 2, Episode 5 features a historic twist where the main living cast of the series finally meets the ghosts of Split River High School—sort of.
In Season 1, Maddie's (Peyton List) friend Simon (Kristian Ventura) was the only living soul who knew about the afterlife at his high school and everything happening there.
As Season 2 progressed, more of Maddie and Simon's friends started to become aware of the supernatural as they learned that a ghost named Janet (Jess Gabor) was possessing their friend's body.
The Direct sat down with actors Kristian Ventura (Simon), Spencer Macpherson (Xavier), Kiara Pichardo (Nicole), and Rainbow Macpherson (Claire), who all play Maddie's close living friends, to discuss the eventful happenings in Season 2, Episode 5 of School Spirits.
School Spirits Twist: The Dead Meet the Living
The Monumental Scene Saw Ghosts and the Living Unite in the Gym
Warning - The rest of this article contains spoilers for School Spirits Season 2, Episode 5.
In Episode 5 of School Spirits Season 2, Simon (Kristian Ventura), Xavier (Spencer Macpherson), Nicole (Kiara Pichardo), and Claire (Rainbow Wedell) all meet up in Split River High School's gym, where they have a meeting with Maddie's dead ghost friends—none of whom they can see.
Those aforementioned dead souls included Wally (Milo Manheim), Rhonda (Sarah Yarkin), Charley (Nick Pugliese), and Maddie herself (Peyton List).
This meeting was an urgent and necessary one, as everyone on both sides, the living and the dead, needed to work out how to best approach Janet (now in Maddie's living body with Maddie's mom) and convince her to return to Split River High School.
- The Direct: "The first scene that I just have to talk about, because it was, it was so fun to watch, and I can only imagine it was a blast of film, was just the ghost debrief in the gym. The just blanket question, first and foremost, how was that? How did that go down?"
Kristian Ventura: You know, the second all of us landed on our marks. I think the crew erupted in [an applaud] because it was the final moment where all of us could be in a scene together. Wasn't that like that? Like, Whoa, this is huge.
Rainbow Wendell: Yeah, reading that and just [being] so excited to film that. It was very difficult because when they were speaking, we couldn't look at them, and they would say jokes or like, they would speak, and I would want to look at them, and I couldn't. That was probably the most tough part of filming that, but it was my favorite scene to film.
Kiara Pichardo: It made me a little jelly because I feel like they always get the the fun jokes. You know what I mean? Like, they're always joking. And that whole scene, it's like us being serious and kind of joking around. That's fun.
Ventura: Yeah, that's so cool to see how people work in context and in relation to each other. Like Spence, I didn't even know that moment where you were staring at Wally's jock, and he goes, eyes up here. Was that in the script? Or was that improv?
Spencer Macpherson: Oh no, we found that
Pichardo: No, that was improv.
- The Direct: "How often did you guys, because you obviously can't look at them, just because it wouldn't make sense. How often did your eyelines get to the wrong place? And they were like, reset, try again."
Macpherson: Well, I think that was part of the fun, at least in that scene, is Xavier has that moment where he's just staring at Wally's crotch. I think there's room for for bits, as far as, like, yeah, how we choose to—because that's a terrifying situation, too, if you think about it.
We're entering a room and there's ghosts in there. And for them, it's just a buoyant, light, conversation. But for us, there's a lot of like trepidation entering that situation.
Pichardo: We experienced that all the time, even offset Like they're just always joking around. And they have really good banter. They should make a show. There should be a spin off for Sarah and Nick
Macpherson: It was cool watching [showrunner] Oliver Goldstick kind of come in and be like, hey, try this line this time. And there was a lot of alts going on and we kind of got to have a front row viewing of different variations of the scene that Oliver was kind of throwing at them on the day.
That Big Janet-Maddie Dinner Scene
"There Was No Other Plan We Had...
The last half of Episode 5 sees Simon, Xavier, Nicole, and Claire going to Maddie's house to try and quietly convince Janet (who is residing in their best friend's body) to come back to the school and give Maddie's body back.
Though obviously, this is no easy task, one made harder by the fact that Maddie's mom, Sandra (Maria Dizzia's) is there the whole time, none the wiser to the supernatural situation in front of her.
- The Direct: "That big dinner, very, very intense kind of Janet-Maddie moment. Can you each go through how each one of your characters entered this dinner and how they approached the situation on their own, even if it was at odds with what they thought the group wanted?"
Kristian Ventura: I'll start. I know that Simon, he had that recording system right in his pocket, and he thought he just had the best plan. He and Claire were like, You know what? We're gonna fake this science experiment on the roof, and we're just gonna bait her.
And the second, it didn't work, there was no other plan we had. Like, that was the only thing we brought up. So we came in with a lot of confidence, and we just flatlined bad, like a real bad Super Bowl, like 46 to zero, it was just wasn't looking good. That's how Simon felt.
Rainbow Wendell: I think Claire is like, she's really good under pressure. She's had a lot of pressure put on her, so she's really good in those situations. But I feel like Claire is definitely the most removed from Maddie out of all the group. And so I think seeing her again, she knows that it's Janet in her head, and so she doesn't have this emotional connection that the rest of the gang have with what Maddie looks like.
Kiara Pichardo: Kiara: I think what Nicole, she went into this dinner [after having] thought of an idea, kind of outside of the box. And even though the rest of the gang wasn't about it, she's like, Well, I'm gonna do it anyway.
And it was one of the things obviously we see that she blurts out, and it had an impact. It had more of an impact than some of the other things that they tried. But it was definitely very much like, well, even though they're not going to listen to me, let me try this anyways.
Spencer Macpherson: I think Xavier is really torn. He has a line when they're entering the home where he says, I'm about to have dinner with my ex-girlfriend and the girl who ran me over, and that they're the same person. I think that there's a lot of little moments, if you look in the background, he's like smelling her, he didn't get that resolution with his relationship that he wanted, and he wants that, and she's there, and he can finally say things that maybe atone for some of his wrongdoing.
But at the same time, he's incredibly haunted by what happened to him at the end of the first episode, and he's clearly been on some deep Reddit threads. You know, the vampire has the wooden stake to the heart, the werewolf has a silver bullet, and ghosts have salt. And so he's just really preoccupied with quashing this evil entity while at the same time redeeming himself. There's a lot going on, and it's very unfocused and chaotic for Xavier.
Pichardo: No, and let alone the picture that you end up seeing at the end of the dinner. Oh my gosh, yeah, poor Xavier, a roller coaster.
- The Direct: "Obviously, the group goes in there knowing the situation with Janet and Maddie, but Maddie's Mom does not. How much were they navigating trying to keep that truth from her mom? Were they really worried about it slipping, or were they like, ah, if it slips, they'll try to explain it?"
Ventura: No, I don't think they wanted to bust [Janet's] cover at all. Notice how they don't even push when she says that she wants to go homeschooling. And we're like, oh, okay, all right. We don't really want to intervene with that.
Do you know what would have been a cool acting choice to play now that you ask a question like that? Is if any of us had sympathy for Cassandra throughout the whole dinner and thinking, wow, there's a different girl in her daughter's body, and she has no idea, poor woman.
But I truly didn't play that. I truly played, okay, let's get her to the school. But that would have been interesting to play a moment where you kind of feel for Sandra. Damn it.
Pichardo: I feel like I was a little bit thinking of that while I was playing in the dinner scene. Also just kind of pissed off that someone's in my friend's body in general...
But just also, too, maybe because I've had other scenes in Season 1... After the school dance, when I went to her house and I saw her break down... I think the the way Nicole tries to treat her and is like giving her hugs and trying to make her feel better. She was a little protective of her.
Then, I was trying to play that angle a little bit in the dinner scene, like that frustration. Like, Oh, I hate that [Janet is] doing this to her.
How Would Everyone Reason With Janet?
Each Member of Team Living Would Have Done It Differently
After the dinner unexpectedly comes to a close, Simon tries to reason with Janet alone in the kitchen. Sadly, his attempt to reach her doesn't go through, resulting in the group leaving empty-handed.
- The Direct: "Kristian, you had a one-on-one with Maddie, and you didn't quite get to her. So my question is, why do you think it didn't stick? Why did that not work out? And then for everyone else, if your characters had that same chance at a one-on-one to try to convince her what you guys needed, how would you approach it?"
Kristian Ventura: If you look at Simon's just energy levels, he's always like [choatic]... And when you're on the receiving end of that, you don't really want to give that person anything. So when I'm talking to Janet, and she's holding a knife and obviously implying that, hey, don't come any closer, or I'm gonna go for your throat, he just talks to her gently.
And that's a side of Simon that is more tactful... And he comes across very slowly and saying there's a girl named Don, and even when he has a one on one with her in the cabin, he doesn't want to raise his voice, he doesn't want to spook her. It's kind of like talking to a child that has the nuke button. It's like, hold on, sweetheart, don't go anywhere. Daddy's home, you know?
Spencer Macpherson: I think that there's a beat in the sixth episode that shows sort of how Xavier would react, given the opportunity to speak with Maddie. But I think that you know, to reiterate in that dinner, he's just very overwhelmed with the fact that he hasn't had the opportunity to make his peace with how he wronged Maddie.
So, it's almost difficult for him to reconcile that. This is Janet. It looks like Maddie. It smells like Maddie. You know what I mean? It sounds like Maddie. It's like he's just got this, he's preoccupied with, I think, his own guilt, and it throws him off the scent of the mission entirely.
Rainbow Wendell: I think in Episode 3, when Claire believes that it is still Maddie. She is incredibly sorry, and she feels like similar to saying what she needs to right her wrongs with her. So, I think she's a lot more sympathetic.
But then, when she realizes that it is Janet, I think she's pissed. Claire is pissed that this random person has taken her ex-best friend's life, and I don't think she would be very kind to Janet if she had a one-on-one with her.
Kiara Pichardo: No, I think, in a Nicole fashion, [like] she's [always] doing, not that she was doing sneaky things in season one, but she did a lot of snowball effect things where it just got bigger and bigger, like the blackmail, the money...
I think she would use the guilt tactic like, you know, she has a mom, she's a single mom, she lost her dad like she needs to live her life. Like, you died in the fire, but she didn't actually die. You literally stole her body, you know? Like a guilt trip tactic. Probably that angle.
The entire interview with the cast about Season 2, Episode 5 can be viewed below:
School Spirits is now streaming on Paramount+.
LATEST NEWS
TRENDING
