School Spirits: Here’s Who Killed Maddie (How Did She Die?)

For those wondering who killed Maddie Nears in the Paramount+ original series School Spirits, this is the place to get that answer.

The streaming show followed Peyton List's Maddie Nears, who suddenly wakes up to find that she's stuck at her high school in the Afterlife. There, she meets other trapped spirits, who tell her that she's dead now.

The problem? Well, besides being dead in the first place, Maddie has no recollection of how he left the land of the living.

Who Killed Maddie Nears?

Season 1 of School Spirits is all about figuring out who killed Maddie Nears. After all, she is in the afterlife, so somebody did it... right?

Well, it turns out the answer is one nobody expected.

The season finale revealed exactly who killed Maddie: nobody; no one killed her. Instead, her body is very much still alive roaming the real world.

This all happened because Maddie was simply in the wrong place at the wrong right. While alive, she accidentally stumbled into Josh Zuckerman's Mr. Martin (who has been counseling all the lost souls) and Janet's spirits, both of whom are intensely arguing.

Maddie never gets the chance to figure out what she is walking into as Janet, a spirit everyone thought peacefully passed on, sprints into her—swapping places with her spirit.

Now, Janet's spirit inhabits Maddie Nears' alive body, while Maddie's spirit is stuck in the Afterlife.

The season ends with a cataclysmic fracture between Maddie and Simon, who believes she's just a figment of his imagination.

To add to that, Janet, in Maddie's body, is now on a bus to an unknown destination. And the real Maddie is left standing face-to-face with Mr. Martin after remembering all of these terrifying revelations.

What Will Happen in School Spirits Season 2

The big finale of School Spirits Season 1 flipped the entire series on its head, with the cliffhanger being bigger than most would have expected. Needless to say, fans have tons of questions.

The most pressing of these is, can Maddie get her body back?

One would have to assume if she can be possessed from the Afterlife once, then she could pull it off again.

But how will she convince Simon that she is the real deal and not just in his head? It won't be an easy conversation, that's for sure—and Maddie will undoubtedly need all the help she can get.

Hopefully, the show also has an intriguing answer about what exactly Mr. Martin and Janet were up to before Maddie was prematurely ejected from her body.

Thankfully, School Spirits has been renewed for season 2. The downside is that due to the recent strikes, it's unclear when more episodes will finally arrive—but don't be surprised if it's not until 2025.

School Spirits is now streaming on Netflix and Paramount+.