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I apologize I am addicted to making these for every fandom

🛑School Spirits Episode 7 Spoilers🛑

Okay so I have a theory, for those of y’all who don’t want to read that much just look for the timelines, also disclaimer not everything might be perfect info so feel free to correct me if I get something wrong :)!!!

In episode 7 we see Maddie’s mom, Sandra, sitting in her daughter’s room with a thick envelope. She’s clearly distressed in some capacity by it and decides to hide it in Maddie’s dresser. I think this is the money, and her hiding it in Maddie’s room is important.

Later, we see Simon and Nicole realize someone took the money, and Simon asks if Sandra followed her, to which Nicole reacts confused and a tad spooked, “why would Sandra take this money?”

This immediately triggers a bunch of blurry flashbacks and I think the scenes they show are important.

1. Sandra arriving at the school and hitting a curb, which was shown to us not long after Maddie reveals her mom is not supposed to be home for another 2-3 weeks (iirc).

2. Maddie reacting to the event, showing us that she is aware that her mother is back, first of all, but more importantly that she showed up at the school for some reason. It is revealed in one of the episodes that Sandra was not exactly involved in her daughter’s education so her showing up at the school, even if you ignore her supposedly being gone another 2-3 weeks. So, Maddie sees her mom show up at school weeks early and clearly in a bad state (potentially drunk driving) so she is likely concerned.

3. Maddie walking down the hall looking upset or stressed about something, all while playing with her necklace emphasizing that she had it as she walked toward this destination. I doubt the directors would’ve told her to do this if it weren’t important in some way, as it is a short scene that is very plot heavy so it needs to convey its intended message in a small period of time, so why give attention to something unimportant? She is also, quite clearly, in the school.

4. Maddie and her mom argue. The first time I saw this I assumed it was just a flashback to a fight at home but as I thought about it I realized there is no evidence of this. Despite the previous 3 scenes being fairly linear, I just assumed this one had nothing to do with them. But if her mom is at home, why is she wearing what looks like a coat, and why is Maddie in the outfit she died in throughout this sequence? So, hear me out, this is in the school.

The most important part of scene 4 to me is the dialogue, which is the explanation for a huge aspect of my timeline I’ll provide later. It goes like:

Sandra: You’re being a brat!

Maddie: that belongs to me!

Sandra: you have to get over it!

Sure sounds like that might be related to the money that the episode is so focused on, huh?

My theory’s interpretation of this flashback sequence is a prelude to Maddie’s death. While this show doesn’t shy away from darker topics, it has never shown a death scene, rather the build-up and aftermath (which I very much appreciate, but that’s another thing entirely lol) and I doubt they would start right before the big finale, so I think this is the prelude. The timeline would go something like:

1. Maddie realizes her mom is back early, not only that but is at her school (unusual) and might be drunk (alarming)

2. Maddie goes to find her mom, who is very much drunk, and freaks out that someone might see her mom like this so she somehow gets the two of them into the first secluded room she can think of in the middle of a school day: the boiler room.

3. Maddie’s mom reveals the reason she is there is because she found out about the money and wants to use it to pay off debts she’s accumulated over her years of being an alcoholic who clearly is not able to care for herself enough to get a stable job.

4. Maddie, rightfully upset and frustrated, argues that since the money is hers, her mom has no right to take it, and probably provides the many reasons a high schooler aiming for a big university needs money.

5. In a fit of drunken rage, Sandra injures her enough to draw a considerable amount of blood and knock her over. Maybe she uses the crowbar?

6. Out of shock, Sandra runs off, and her brain blocks out the memory through a mixture of how drunk she was and blocking it out because it was traumatic. She is more determined than anyone that Maddie ran away because she’s mad at her, maybe because she’s aware something happened between them but is unaware of the true nature of it all.

I think at some point she takes Maddie’s necklace, because she knows it’s important to her daughter. Why would someone else take the necklace? Idk, I can’t figure this one out but the mom makes the most sense for a potential necklace thief

Here’s where my theory kinda becomes two, sorry

7A. Maddie dies at the hands of her mom.

8A. The counsellor is a ferryman of sorts but has become lonely and jaded and doesn’t want people to move on because it means he’ll be alone again so he intentionally keeps info from them and holds them back.

Where my theory gets foggy is with Maddie’s death. By that I mean how Maddy was hit with a crowbar and dragged through a tunnel to hide the body. Maddie’s mom is not a good person, but I don’t believe she’s a monster who would hit her daughter with a crowbar and hide the body, especially since she’s been shown multiple times to be unable to care for herself or remember things or even clean up after herself. What reason would she have to use the crowbar? How could she have planned a disposal in the state i theorize she was in?

Sandra does seem to show genuine anger towards the janitor suspected of harming her daughter, and while you could argue she did that on purpose to make her sadness believable, with how distraught and mentally frail she is I really doubt she’s capable of scheming at that level right now.

That’s where the counsellor dude comes in. He’s clearly not good, and something is up with him. He seemed almost desperate to know more when it was slightly hinted that Maddie may have contact with the living, and that leads me to wonder if the ghosts may be capable of more, but are unable to find that out because from day one you’re encouraged to leave the living alone and focus on the sessions, and don’t forget, nobody can interact with the living!

Also, a thing I want to point out bc it’s important to the next part is how nobody, more importantly none of the ghosts, were there when Maddie died and her whole situation is iffy, but when the swimming girl almost dies there’s a bunch of ghosts around, so nobody (the counsellor) can mess with her spirit because of the witnesses.

So to continue my timeline, though this part I’m less sure of;

7. The counsellor sees an opportunity to do something when Maddie is on the brink of death and nobody is around.

8A. The counsellor somehow manipulates the physical world of the living and hides her body somewhere

8B. The counsellor either out of cruel curiosity experimentation or a desperation to help has Janet take over Maddie’s body, somehow kill Maddie out of her body with the crowbar, then take over her body and run off with her stuff into the woods in some abandoned house.

Idk what the motive would be for either of these but hey it’s just a theory, a gam-

So basically,

Sandra injures Maddie, the counsellor is heavily involved. Janet will be important later.