In another post-mortem discussion, The Direct's Russ Milheim sat down with School Spirits Season 2 cast members Simon (Kristian Ventura), Xavier (Spencer Macpherson), Nicole (Kiara Pichardo), and Claire (Rainbow Wedell), who are all revealed to be the ones that kidnapped Maddie (who is actually Janet) at the end of the previous installment.
Maddie's Friends Kidnapped Janet In Episode 6
The Action Was Surprising, But How Did They Come to That Decision?
Warning - The rest of this article contains spoilers for School Spirits Season 2, Episode 6.
- The Direct: "Episode 5 ends with Maddie/Janet getting kidnapped. Episode 6 reveals that, oh, it was you guys. And we see a little bit of this at the beginning of the episode. But just, how did that conversation go down in the car when you were like, 'let's kidnap her!' Because it must have happened really fast. You didn't have much time."
Spencer Macpherson: We discussed this. I remember whose idea would have been. And I think we landed on it being Simon and Xavier being like, alright, kidnapping, kidnap.
Kiara Pichardo: I don't think Claire and I were about it.
Macpherson: And I'm actually the one that did that. I wore a hood, and I stuck up, and I put that hood over both Jess [Gabor] (who plays Janet) and Peyton [List's] head. So that was actually me doing that.
Kristian Ventura: For some reason, I just had a flash of this one scene in Season 1 where Claire was given information. The next time we see her, she has a baseball bat and smashes a car window in the parking lot. That's an impulsive, dangerous girl. That's the kind of girl that's like, okay, let's just rob the bank. And we're like, wait, what? So, she kind of will take it kind of far.
Rainbow Wendell: I definitely [was] involved in that. But I think Claire would have made us, like, go back to the school, not the cabin. I think the cabin was definitely Simon's idea.
Pichardo: Oh my gosh, that's a good question. Why didn't we bring her to the school?
\Wedell: I think we did, did we not? And then Simon's like, she was like, screaming in front of the [school].
Kristian Ventura On Simon's Big Moment With Janet on the Docks
"It Was the Last Shot of the Day [And I] Had About Six Minutes to Do It."
- The Direct: "Kristian, you have another attempt at your 1:1 monologue [with Janet] in Episode 6, at the end on the dock that actually works, or it seems to mostly work. Can you talk about filming that scene and how it came out?"
Kristian Ventura: I was angry because it was the last shot of the day [and I] had about six minutes to do it. But no, okay, honestly, one of the most underrated tragedies of the show is that it's at the forefront of the second season, but Janet is a girl who died in a fire and lost her whole life.
So, when she says this line to Simon of, I wanted to go to college. I had an entire future that I never got to live because of this incident, and now I get to do that, and you want to take it away from me? Why? Because you're her friend. And I got me thinking lately, just like, if we were, for some reason, Janet Hamilton's friends, we would try to help her get her life back in some way, but now that we're Maddie Friends, we want Maddie to get her body back.
So, is this one of those situations where it's like, depends on who your friends are, or if you got any like, we don't like you Janet, because you're in Maddie Nears, but it's just, it feels like an underrated tragedy, because this is a girl who lost her entire life. And I do feel for her. It just kind of sucks that she has to say, if she wants to side with us, she has to say, 'Okay, I lost my life, and I'll lose it again.' That is so hard.
And I don't think there are many people on the show, Simon included, with the character to give it up again because we all want a second chance. So I don't know, Janet is like a hero in my eyes, and I find it unfortunate that, or I just find it interesting that we kind of help Maddie because we're loyal to her. But what is the right thing to do?
Simon says, 'You'll never be happy because you left an innocent person's spirit trapped in that school.' So, it is ultimately morally wrong, but her life was taken innocently, too. So yeah, I have no idea.
Actually, can I open that up to the board guys? Like it might not be as black and white as who's right and wrong, but I mean, what do you guys think? I mean, they're both people who lost everything innocently. So we have to pick who deserves it.
Kiara Pichardo: "Wait, no, Maddie didn't die, though. Janet died. Maddie got a ghost thrown into her body. She didn't die."
Season 2, Episode 6's Expected Pairings
Simon Spent Most of Episode 6 With Claire, and Nicole with Xavier
- The Direct: "Now the episode features two unexpected pairings with Simon and Claire and Xavier and Nicole. What was it like to get to explore those dynamics in such an intimate way that you don't really get to do very often?"
Rainbow Wendell: Kristian's the best scene partner. I had to do an emotional scene with him in Episode 4, and he definitely was the most safe place, safe person to do that with. Christian, you always jump into scenes head first, and you always encourage us to take risks and actually, like, be in the moment and do whatever we need to do to be in that moment. And you went, Yeah. You made it a really safe place for [me].
Kristian Ventura: You know, and sorry, Rainbow, if I'm, like, damaging your reputation by saying this, but you are one of the most—You freak out the most about your big scenes, more than anyone. You're like, Kristian, 'I can't do this.' And I'm like, 'Come on. How have you prepped?' She goes, 'This is my homework,' and she shows all the work she's done for her character, writing all these subtext and backstories for each line and each one of my lines. And she prepares so much.
But, yeah, she's always the one that panics the most. But I think it's better to have someone on set who cares that much to fail than just the, (yawns) what scenes are we doing today, you know? So, I admire how emotionally fretful she gets.
Kiara Pichardo: For me and Xavier, Nicole and Xavier, I really liked that this season, because in Season 1, we had a few scenes together, and it was kind of like the beginning of, I guess you could say, our pairing or friendship.
But this season, we got to play a lot, like humorous wise, like we had a lot of comedic moments, and we didn't really have that in Season 1, and so I enjoyed that a lot. It was so fun, especially our bit with Diego. And just like the little bits in the cabin, like when we're complaining... 'Oh, why'd you untie her? Wait your brother's here,' like all that stuff, the pie, you falling asleep. It was really fun.
Spencer Macpherson: The pie bit didn't really land, huh?... The way the scene was lit, you couldn't really see, but I smeared the jelly all over the side of my face, and I had the pie when I was passed out on me, and they kind of just cut around that. I guess it didn't really land.
But it's interesting watching these things. There are so many moments that we like to try and put in, and some of them make it in. Some of it doesn't. That's just the nature of filming these things.
But I think that a lot of what Xavier and Nicole did at the cabin was just a really cool evolution of both of their characters and added a real camaraderie between them and understanding. They understand each other on a deeper level, I guess because of this online pen pal situation that's been going on, and I think it just really opens up a whole other layer, 'Dirty Dancing,' included.
- The Direct: "Nicole and Xavier [obviously] figure out who each other are on the forums or whatnot, and there's a lot of contention, but towards the end, you guys seem to get a good little closure moment, and you seem okay. Would you say that conflict is now resolved, in a sense, and you guys are a little past that, or is it still going to maybe kind of rear its head every now and then?"
Pichardo: Well, there's a few more episodes, right?
Spencer Macpherson: Personally, I feel, in that moment, they have an understanding of one another. I think that a big thing with Xavier is like at the beginning of the series, he is thought of as a murderer, as a psychopathic murderer by everyone in the town, and everyone, the audience included, has to have this journey of understanding that he's not that.
I think in that moment, Nicole really sees him and sees that he's been cast in this light by almost everyone his entire life. And there's a depth there that, there's someone that cares and he sees her for everything she is, and they have to have that really beautiful, connected moment.
The full discussion about Episode 6 can be viewed here:
School Spirits Season 2 is now streaming on Paramount+.
