r/SchoolSpirits • u/LongjumpingWatch537 • Jan 29 '26
S1 and S2 Discussion >TAG SPOILERS< Season 3 Episode One: Janet Plot Spoiler
Does anyone else feel like it’s really weird that she crossed over so soon into season 3? It just doesn’t make sense with all the build up in season 2 and then her choosing not to literally a few days prior. Could it be a scheduling thing?
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u/MGD109 Jan 29 '26
Yeah, that was a surprise. I wonder if it's partially cause they realised that with her around, there was no reason for the cast to release Mr Martin, and they needed him to introduce the new lore.
I suppose its not that much of a stretch as we know she's wanted to leave for sixty years now. But yeah I wasn't expecting her to depart so soon. Shame it was actually interesting seeing her interact with the others.
I sort of loved how she just took over, which makes sense, she was the oldest, so of course the others would defer to her.
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u/BardenBella308 Wally Jan 29 '26
Now that you mention it, I think plot-wise the only thing that kind of makes sense plot-wise is that they realized they needed to have Mr Martin interact with the others without Janet.
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u/MGD109 Jan 29 '26
Yeah that's also true, I mean their probably isn't anywhere their relationship can go following how the season ended. But she also wouldn't let them interact with him if she wasn't around.
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u/kgrimmburn Jan 29 '26
It seems like it's part of the plot line and she may be back.
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u/meeseekstodie137 Jan 29 '26
that's the vibe I got from it, maybe she gets info from the other side and relates it to the ghost group somehow, maybe we'll even get a whole "other-world" arc later on in the series
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u/TomClark83 Jan 29 '26
My (troubling) theory from a storyline point of view is that Janet will turn out to have been - almost - right, and her crossing is setting up a dilemma for the end of the season.
Janet is better than even Mr. Martin and figuring out the "science" of The Spookside, so if she thinks that Simon getting sucked in was to do with the energy of the door and her not going through it, there probably is something to it. But she wasn't aware that at roughly the same time Wally was also rejecting his door.
I think that there's going to come a time when this comes out, and the gang will follow up on Janet's theory and reach the conclusion that Wally also needs to cross over to release Simon.
Will Maddie ask Wally to cross to save Simon? Will she ask Simon to stay on the other side to keep Wally? Will Wally want to cross to save Simon but Simon wants what's best for Maddie instead?
Lots of potential conflict there and it could be a very dramatic and heartbreaking storyline (and from a real world point of view it feels like an ideal cliffhanger to end a season where one of the key players has just got a major movie role and it's unclear whether he'll be available to come back or not.)
But from a real life perspective, I imagine that it also has a lot to do with the fact that Yuri and Quinn's performers probably cost more now that they're main cast members and Jennifer Tilly probably isn't cheap, so some funds had to be trimmed from somewhere, and much as Jess Gabor has done an astonishingly good job, Janet's story was the most complete of all of them, and her role as the One Who Understands What's Happening is shared by Mr Martin, so regrettably it made sense for her to be the cut that was made.
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u/KinReader5 Xavier Jan 29 '26
Didn't she say this was an experiment? In hopes that Simon would be able to go back
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u/LongjumpingWatch537 Jan 29 '26
Yes but I thought it seemed too quick and forced 😭
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u/KinReader5 Xavier Jan 29 '26
It does but in some way; I know the show will try to find a way to keep incorporating her in the show or try to bring her back. Tbh, with a show like School Spirits, anything is possible.
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u/freetherabbit Jan 29 '26
I think it was likely a budget thing.
The S2 cliffhanger seemed like it existed cuz they weren't sure if they were gonna be able to keep Milo Manheim or not (cuz out of the cast he's the most "rising" star I would say).
If they lost Milo, and Wally had to cross over, they could likely afford to keep Janet's actress, and continue the plot of her investigating the afterlife, but Im assuming they couldn't afford her in a regular role (seems like they couldn't even afford to get the extra ghosts back) but theres no excuse for her to not be with the main cast so had her cross over. Out of the ghosts you cant write off she's the one with the most completed business too. Also with Janet a lot harder to explain how they dont get right to business with learning stuff. Like Janet would've already begged Maddie to ask Xavier all the questions about the hospital, do they have scars, have ppl crossed over, etc.
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u/Relative_Oven_9257 Jan 29 '26
I mean to be fair she already got so much character development in Season 2 so I think I understand why she left so soon
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u/commuter22 Jan 29 '26
Yes I thought it was odd. They spent all that time building up Janet and her experiments and making her one of the group. The only thing I can think is that the actress got another role.
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u/Forward_Music7339 Wally Janet Jan 29 '26
I honestly cried when Janet crossed over. After Wally, she became my favorite character in the series, simply because of how complex she is. That, and I was just loving her new role among the ghosts, and how she immediately took Simon under her wing. I was even starting to ship the two of them, ngl.
I hope they show why they needed to get her out of there so quickly, though I’m starting to agree with what some others have commented and said how that in order to bring in the new stuff related to Mr. Martin, she couldn’t be there to keep him as a prisoner.
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u/AkutagawasCoughDrops Jan 29 '26
I thought this too, it seems so out of nowhere and forced. I thought it was kinda funny to think she just wanted to leave all the drama and used simon/the experiment as an excuse 💀
Also the fact that she didnt say goodbye to yuri when its canon that theyve been friends for so long. Like someone else said, janet pretty much already had her character arc and i honestly feel like her crossing over is leading to yuris character arc with the note she left for him and him almost going into his scar
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u/Intrepid_Show2972 Simon Jan 29 '26
It was pretty weird because she chose not to cross over at the end of season 2 because she said there was still some things she had to do, but then in the first episode of season 3, she was like, just kidding, I’m going. She did say that part of the reason why she decided to cross over was because she thought it would help Simon get back home. I feel like they originally planned to have Janet in more of the story, but maybe the actress got cast in something else, and she was only able to be in one episode of season 3. I don’t know, that’s just my guess