The following article contains spoilers for School Spirits Season 1, Episode 3, "Dead and Confused," streaming now on Paramount+.
In Paramount+'s School Spirits, young Maddie (Cobra Kai's Peyton List) wakes up a ghost at Split River High School. She can't leave campus, per the rules of this afterlife, resigning her to wandering the halls and hanging out with other ghosts. However, they know what happened to them, while Maddie has memory loss, robbing her of closure.
She's desperate to solve her case, hoping to find her own body and solve the mystery. Thankfully, she's made contact with her best friend, Simon (Kristian Flores), who's acting as her proxy in the real world. With that in mind, let's break down who could be responsible for the teen's death in this Gen Z spin on The Sixth Sense.
School Spirits' Claire Has Sinister Motivations
As Maddie runs the gamut of suspects, Claire is high on her list. It turns out, Maddie's boyfriend, Xavier, was cheating on her with Claire, who's always spotted throwing scowls and nasty glares at Maddie. Claire's clearly jealous to the point where time is missing and could've attacked Maddie in the basement, killed her and hid the body.
Ironically, Maddie does see an endearing side of Claire, per when a swim team member almost drowns, but Simon warns her not to be distracted. Claire did tell Xavier she'd do anything to be with him, and the fact she tries to hook up -- not caring about Maddie's death or some people think Xavier is a suspect -- is a major red flag. It may well be Claire just wanted to be his number one girl and enacted a crime of passion, adding suspense and drama to what many assumed would be more of a supernatural comedy like CBS' Ghosts.
School Spirits' Sheriff Baxter Has a Dark Aura
Xavier immediately becomes a suspect after being found with Maddie's phone. However, he stole it to delete an accidental text he sent to Maddie that would've have outed his affair. In fact, he's helping Maddie's mother, Sandra, and her friend, Nicole, scour the woods for her body, so he's ruled out. But his father, Sheriff Baxter, cuts a creepy energy.
Baxter constantly keeps telling him to get over it, wanting him to stay away from school. In fact, Sandra calls out the sheriff on trying to cover stuff up, as he doesn't want to rattle the town with elections coming up. Baxter's aiming to keep his job, but the way he's invested in vilifying Maddie, it hints he has ulterior motives. He wants to pin something on her, and clues have been dropped Maddie stumbled upon a money scandal, which seems to be what Baxter is tracking.
School Spirits' Mr. Anderson Isn't a Kind Friend
Anderson is the teacher that helped Maddie a lot, as he related to losing a father so early in life. He even aided Maddie when her mother got into a drunken car crash, covering it all up. But Simon is worried as Anderson is hiding evidence he gave him involving Maddie's phone. Anderson is definitely covering something up, which ties into the aforementioned money scandal.
After chatting with other ghosts around, Maddie's spirit finds him arguing with someone over the phone about money, and how he had to pay Maddie off. He's uncharacteristically angry, suggesting his nice guy act is a facade. The big moment comes when the teens find a stash of cash hidden in his classroom, leaving people wondering if he's working with Baxter in a crime ring, and if he blackmailed Maddie after using her that ended with him having to kill the teen. Ultimately, it would explain why he's trying to throw Simon off the scent, and keep police out of the loop.
New episodes of School Spirits premiere on Paramount+ every Thursday.