Despite School Spirits being about literal spirits, I never for a second thought it was even remotely fear-inducing, but man, that one jump scare in this episode really got me. It looks like things are finally falling into place, because in episode 7 we get to see Maddie and Janet finally come together. In this episode, we find out the truth about Janet and Mr. Martin’s plan and how exactly Maddie and Janet switched places. Also, we’ve got to take a moment to talk about the wordplay in the title of the episode, “Anatomy Of A Fallout Shelter.” In episode 7, there’s also one more connection we get to see, Rhonda and Quinn, and we get a little insight into Quinn’s feelings too. Overall, I feel like this was one of the better episodes of the season so far, and I’m excited to see which way things will go. School Spirits episode 7 begins with the gang looking for Janet after Simon leaves her to chill by herself for a bit. In the next moment, we see that Mr. Martin has got her on a boat and is telling her that they’ve finally succeeded in getting out of the school and they have their freedom. How will Janet respond?
Spoiler Alert
Does Janet Go Back?
Janet argues that this is not the freedom she wanted. It’s not her body; it’s not her life that she’s getting a second chance at, so she wants to go back. She even tells Mr. Martin to go off by himself if he likes, but he refuses to do so. They get into a scuffle, and Janet steals the oars, then whacks him on the head to escape. Janet returns to Simon and the gang with blood on her neck, Mr. Martin’s, of course (well, Mr. Anderson’s). She then asks Simon to take her back to the school without telling them what she did to Mr. Martin. I mean, if the girl had just told them, the other kids would’ve stayed alert. In the meanwhile, Claire tells Diego the whole story, and he somehow believes her, agreeing to help them and they drive back to the cabin.
At school, Wally decides to give Maddie a break from everything, and they finally end up doing the deed. Oh, and Charley and Yuri recreate the scene from “Ghost” before they get handsy(er) too. Meanwhile, Quinn discovers her key and, with it, something else that will affect the whole team. Quinn’s key leads her to discover a sheet of paper with Janet’s handwriting on it. This note says that Janet and Mr. Martin planned on locking all the kids up in each of their scars to help them get out of the school. Later, when Janet explains what the plan was, she says that each of the rooms has an energy, i.e., trauma is energy, so if more energy was produced, they could get rid of the magnetic barrier around the school that was stopping them from getting out.
Why Is Quinn Sad?
Rhonda takes the note back to the other kids, and now they’re all mad at Janet. Of course, they don’t know the full story. So, when Janet arrives with Simon, they bombard her with questions like “Why did you lie to us about your death?” and “Why did you plan on locking us up?” Janet answers all the questions clearly. She tells them about the experiment, but she then says that she realized it was wrong and wanted to talk Mr. Martin out of the whole thing. Mr. Martin was the one who lied about her death to “protect” her. Janet says that on her birthday, to save the rest of the kids, she told Mr. Martin that instead of getting everyone in their scars, she just had to be in hers a little while longer. Mr. Martin and Janet then started experimenting and pushing her to stay in the scar longer and longer for weeks. But after a point, Janet couldn’t do it anymore; she was just being forced. This is when Mr. Martin discovered that the experiment was actually working, and her time in the scar made a rip between the real world and the afterlife. So, I guess, during one of these sessions, Maddie walked into the fallout shelter, and the rest is history. Also, Dawn discovered her key herself after listening in on Janet and Mr. Martin, and she went into her scar all by herself. She told Janet that she wasn’t afraid of going into her scar and imagined marigolds to get rid of her fear. I wonder if being unafraid helps spirits crossover.
While listening to a bit of this, Quinn realizes that she’s caused the group to fight, and this makes her upset, so she goes back to the marching band. It seems Quinn was guilty of causing a fight in the marching band as well, soon after which they died. Her intention was always just to make a connection, but she never had that. However, when she’s telling Rhonda all of this, Rhonda tells her that she has, in fact, found her connection in Rhonda. Sometimes, all you need in school is a good friendship to make everything better.
What Happens To Xavier?
On the other hand, Nicole and Xavier, who are cleaning up the cabin because it seems like the best thing for them to do at the moment, get talking a bit. Nicole asks Xavier about his near-death experience. He tells her about how Maddie’s dad asked him if he was staying. Nicole asks Xavier if he considered it, but he tells her that he didn’t. Xavier doesn’t want to be dead, no, but Nicole tells him not to bring this up with Maddie because it would make her want to stay back. Then Xavier goes out to dump the trash and doesn’t come back. That’s because Mr. Martin tied him up and put him on the boat in the middle of the lake. By this time Claire and Diego also make it back, so they all start to look for Xavier together. After they find him and untie him, Mr. Martin gets his hands on Diego and threatens to kill him if they don’t follow his instructions. He asks for the car keys, and Diego gives them to him. Mr. Martin says not to follow him, but the kids don’t even have a car, so there’s really no chance for them to. He drives off, but it’s definitely in the opposite direction of the school.
What Is Janet’s Key?
Meanwhile, Simon and Maddie have a heart-to-heart, and he realizes she wants to stay back because of Wally. They have a mini fight because he tells her that he messed up his university interview because he was trying to help her. She tells him that she didn’t ask him to mess up and she was trying to get him to snap out of it, but he couldn’t hear her. Simon walks away, but he makes a call to the university asking for a second chance, saying he lost a friend recently. But a bit later, Maddie apologizes to Simon and tells him what Janet’s key is.
With Quinn and Rhonda returning, the story is basically complete, but there are a few missing parts. They’ve been thinking Mr. Martin and Janet share the same key, his wristwatch, but when Maddie describes the room she went into and speaks about a woman who was trying to tell her something, Janet has no idea what she’s talking about. It seems the watch was never Janet’s key; it was only Mr. Martin’s, and Maddie went into his scar. Guess the woman is his mother, but what else is he guilty about, huh?
At the end of School Spirits episode 7, Yuri realizes that Mr. Martin himself is Janet’s key. By this time, Simon’s got a call from Xavier saying that Mr. Martin has escaped with Diego’s car. Simon tells him that he won’t be able to come get them, but he needs them to come to the school as soon as possible. If Janet wants to cross over, she needs Mr. Martin to go into her scar. “The only way out is through.” How will the gang bring Mr. Martin back? Also, where is Mr. Anderson in all of this? He’s conveniently been missing this whole time; maybe he could’ve helped the kids. It’s not like he follows Sandra out. The laws of possession in this show are completely different; Janet can see all the ghosts at the school, probably because she’s still dead.
