School Spirits EPs Answer Our Burning Questions About Season 3!
Season 3 of School Spirits is bolder, darker, and more ambitious than ever. The writers manage to keep us on edge, delivering shocking reveals nearly every episode. Long-game callbacks prove they are dedicated to carefully mapping out this story. The finale is packed with big swings that change everything. What is beyond the ghost doors? What does the broken boundary mean? What's next for Van Heidt? Kristen Maldonado spoke with School Spirits showrunner Oliver Goldstick and co-creators Megan Trinrud and Nate Trinrud for Pop Culture Planet about the burning questions we have from season 3. Spoilers ahead!
Pop Culture Planet: In a previous interview, you mentioned that Split River had a darker history that’s been teased since Season 1. Now that we’ve seen more of that unfold, what did the long-term planning for that mythology look like in the writers’ room?
Megan Trinrud: I think that there was a question always of, I mean we asked it very early on, but then of course fans and viewers asked it: Why is this happening at Split River High School? What is it about this town or this place that so many kids are stuck here? So many people are stuck here? So very early on we realized that was a question we needed to answer and we've sort of been slowly building up to it. We knew that we wanted last season to be a little bit more contained where they're still figuring out just the school, but that led us into a broader discussion because everything's connected. History is always connected. So it was a really easy stepping stone from what's in the basement of the school that reaches out into the whole entire town. We found the journey as we went, but we knew we wanted to answer that question.
Oliver Goldstick: By the end of the second season, the hospital scene that Nate and Megan had put in, the wonderful scene they put with the ghost sitting in that waiting room, I think we were like, "Okay, so we know now there are dead people elsewhere. It's not just the school." That was an illusion to there's something else that's bigger in this town. Something is unresolved. Something is dark. Something happened that is not allowing us to move on. And again, […] we're affected by current events too. The idea of erasing history and the idea of trying to take history out of our schools, taking things that are uncomfortable out of our our curriculum, we wanted to address this too without getting overtly political. We just felt like, what is the price one pays for erasing the past?
Nate Trinrud: It was almost like season one we asked the question, what haunted Maddie? Season two, we focused on what haunted all the other ghosts and Janet and people that we knew at school. Season three is about what haunts communities, what haunts towns, what haunts places. And I think that ultimately we believe all that's connected. It all feeds until it stops. You know, if you feed it, the cycle continues.
MT: Exactly. Trying to erase it, all it does is it comes back stronger. […] I think that we've had actually a really good time looking into the broader idea of a community being haunted.
PCP: The theme song has been hinting at “The Forgotten” since Season 1. How early did you know that would become central to the larger story?
NT: Look, our composer made the title song. Anna Waronker is brilliant. Sometimes we don't know how prophetic she can be.
PCP: Was there anything people noticed now that you set up previously that was really satisfying to see, or even something people still haven’t caught onto yet?
OG: This is not a mystery thing. Nate and Megan know this. I'm a little late to the party with Quinda. I didn't think that was turning into that when we created this character and brought them in. I don't think we were all like, "This is Rhonda's love interest." None of us were in that place. I think actors have chemistry. I think something happens in writing, things evolve. So, we could say to you, "Oh, we knew.” Not everything is calculated. We're as surprised as you are, Kristen. We're like, "Oh, this is actually an interesting moment between these two." […] It was the “Foolish Little Girl” record scene. […] The moment between the two of them when Quinn healed Rhonda and said “You need to understand the past because you're holding on to something. It's not allowing you to move forward.” You were like, “Oh, wow, there’s something between these two.” Then there was that beautiful moment in [episode] seven… [Megan: when they tried to go back to the marching band]. “You’re not leaving me alone.” I mean, I know it's a little thing and these things, Kristen, [we] would like to say to you it's all thought through. It's not. The editor, God bless her, included a moment that was in one of the takes where Quinn closed their eyes in Rhonda's arms. Nate, Megan, am I right? That was not even in the first cut. And when we saw it, I think Lori [Ball] said, "I wanted to include this. What do you guys think of this?" And I was like, "Oh my god, I'm so moved by this now." And then suddenly a world opens up. So, just to tell you, we want to seem really smart, but we're not that smart always. We want to pretend we know everything. We discover like you discover. The audience may have been ahead of Nate, Megan, and I with that relationship. We didn't know it was going there.
NT: There are some fun Easter eggs. In the moment, we generated ideas or thoughts, and then we were able to pay them off later. Things like when Maddie goes into Dawn's scar, she hears nature sounds on the other side of the door and Don laughing. Now we know that could have been literal. Things like Mr. Hartman in season 2 gets a phone call from a very upset woman on the other line. It's Deb Hunter-Price. There are certain things that got to inform story in fun ways, but yeah, we try our best to give you guys Easter eggs.
PCP: Every season has a standout musical moment and this one is no exception. Can you tell us about it?
OG: It was senior trip. I know exactly what it was. It got taken literally. Because these seniors can't go anywhere, our poor ghosts, they did. So we thought, what would a senior trip be for them? We thought, let's use that word loosely. We thought we would have all of them on this trip at one point and we were going to put them all through the fourth dimension. But Quinn felt like the most outrageous one because of Quinn needing to self-actualize. This whole season [Quinn] was a character we could take from being so guarded, being so frightened to be authentic, to really coming into their own and absolutely living in their skin.
MT: Speaking of a small Easter egg, I don't even know that I can say this is intentional, but it's very meaningful to me seeing them do this huge dance number and have all of these people welcoming them and being like, "Come on, we're all a big family. We're all a big community." I kept thinking back to the dance in season 2 when Quinn is watching the other ghosts do their dance that they've done for years. You can tell they really want to just be a part of it. They jump in and they do a little bit of it. It made me feel like, “Oh wow, it's really full circle.” Not only are they part of the dance now, not only are they part of this tradition, they're truly a part of this group. They are truly a part of this family. And they feel it for the first time. They feel, "Oh, I belong here. These people have my back. These people care about me." It really was a moment that started from a fun idea and just evolved into such a joyful, beautiful scene. I have to be honest, when somebody pitched that it would be kind of like modern, I was like, "Okay, okay. I guess I’ll have to see it.” The minute I saw it, I was just blown away by how moving it was. That's a testament to our choreographer, Katie [Spellman]. I think it's a testament to everybody on set, the crew, Brian [Dannelly], and a huge testament to Ci Hang [Ma], who just brought so much joy to this performance. It was just a really incredible part of the experience this year.
PCP: I’d love to hear about going beyond the ghosts doors and how you came up with what was there.
NT: For me, at least, the idea of getting your door was always about having a breakthrough, having an emotional awakening to some part of you that allows you to move forward in your life. For all of us, we just believe that when you do those things, when you have those moments with yourself, it's not the end. It's not suddenly that you are completely healed because you had one epiphany. It takes you to the next level where you not only have to apply what you've learned, but there are more questions waiting. That is the way that healing and graduating within yourself works is what's the next level, We knew that there'd be something there and now you see where we've landed.
MT: The first level in the school is healing your external scar. What's hurt you? What haunts you? For me, I think going into this next level, the mirrors represent now you have to turn inward and look at these other pieces of the journey and face that as well. I don't think that's as easy. I think we came up with that ‘cause we kept noticing, particularly with our director Hannah MacPherson, she would always include these great shots of of mirrors in the ghost world. I kept thinking, “How can we incorporate this? It feels so intentional.” It felt like a really natural progression to say, "Okay, now you have to look at yourself and where does that take you when you turn inward? Where do you go with that?" And even if it's a good thing, is it just as hard to escape that as it is getting stuck in the bad things, the things that you you're trying to heal?
OG: In season one, Kristen, one of the writers had mentioned lay lines. There are certain parts of the planet that are just charged where people can experience things they can't experience in daily life. So the idea was lay lines became this ongoing theme throughout the couple seasons and then when it came down to this season we knew that it had to be a third world. We knew that Maddie had already straddled these two worlds that the audience knew intimately. How could we create an unknown, a new world when you go through that door? Like Nate and Megan have said, it's not like, “Oh, this is the pearly gates, this is heaven,” but actually a different place. Maybe you don't just go to those pearly gates or whatever that is, but there's another transition that has to happen.
NT: Who knows where these things connect? We've seen these different ghost worlds in town. Who knows how they can be connected.
PCP: We got this huge revelation that the ghost boundary is broken. How does that shift the rules of the world and where the ghosts can go? What does it mean for Maddie, Simon, and Xavier who have been through a lot and have been able to see the ghosts? Is there anything you can tease about what this means?
MT: I don't know that we can say too much about where it will lead them, but I think something we've talked about to a certain extent is the ability to go from such a small contained space back out into the world. The fact that that is going to be scary because you're leaving a really safe environment that you know backwards and forwards for a very big unknown place that has just kept changing. And as much as the school changes, the world at large is going to change even more. It's going to be very unfamiliar, but it's also going to be populated with places and people that maybe they did know in life. That is a huge question for them. Now that I have the chance, do I want to try to make contact? Do I want to see what's happened? Do I want to go back to these places that maybe I've been thinking about for 30, 40, 50 years? What does that mean that now they can? Is it really going to help them heal?
OG: There's a lot of things that are still unresolved for these characters. So seeing relatives, seeing loved ones from 40 years ago who didn't pass through the doorways of the school. I think the three of us were so moved by Wally's mother. The idea that in season one really, and I know it resonated for all of us, it was like, “Huh, she still comes to these games.” What about those who didn't come to games? What about those relatives who didn't come back to that school because it was too painful to even think about having lost their kid on that campus or their sibling on that campus? You know what I mean? So I think that going out into the world allows all those stories to be told.
PCP: This season, we finally get a breakthrough with Maddie and her mom. But then you guys switch things up on us again and now Maddie’s mom is possessed by Van Heidt. What can you tease about his role moving forward, waht this will mean for Maddie, and just how much more of this town’s buried history is still waiting to surface?
MT: From his point of view, I think it's very intentional in some respect because he did threaten Maddie. It's going to be interesting to see just what he intends to do getting so close to her. He knows who our heroes are now and they are a threat to him. It's scary. He is there very much on purpose.
NT: Look, ultimately, […] the backbone of [the show] has been Maddie and her mom's relationship. We draw a lot from our own life as far as what it means to have a parent who struggles with addiction. We saw in season one, like the big reveal was Maddie’s mother basically killed her. She crushed her spirit enough that all of this stuff has now happened. For us, the really interesting question flying out of season 3 with her big cliffhanger is, what does it mean to have to try and save the spirit of the person who may have crushed yours? It gives Maddie a real chance to have to try and restore her own relationship with her mother with these really high stakes surrounding it.
MT: And that speaks to a much broader thing that we're constantly talking about on the show and that's forgiveness. Who we choose to forgive, who we choose not to forgive, why we choose, what we do when we want forgiveness. It's a really big part of the show that keeps weaving its way in and I think that's going to be a big question for Maddie and her mom.
OG: And just to build on top of that too, sacrifice. Because there was talk in the second season about Maddie’s mom willing to even give her her body to let her come back into life. We had talked about that story and batted that around for a while season two, but this now actually allows us to really explore that as well. What is the ultimate sacrifice to help your mother regain her spirit once you have this relationship again?
All three seasons of School Spirits are streaming now on Paramount+.
