Who kidnapped Janet at the end of School Spirits S2E5, and why?

Spoilers follow for School Spirits Season 2, Episodes 5 and 6.

The kidnappers are Maddie Nears’s four closest living friends: Simon Elroy (Kristian Ventura), Xavier Baxter (Spencer MacPherson), Nicole Herrera (Kiara Pichardo), and Claire Zomer (Rainbow Wedell). The reveal comes in Episode 6, “Ghost Pointe Blank” (aired February 20, 2025 on Paramount+). What the Episode 5 cliffhanger stages as a threat turns out to be an intervention, carried out at Maddie and Sandra’s family cabin, with one stated goal: persuade Janet to return Maddie’s body voluntarily.

Why the episode makes it look like Mr. Martin

“Ghost Who’s Coming to Dinner,” the fifth episode of Season 2 (aired February 13, 2025), plants strong evidence pointing toward Mr. Martin (Josh Zuckerman) before the bag goes over Janet’s head. Early in the episode, Maddie and Wally Clark (Milo Manheim) find Mr. Anderson (Patrick Gilmore) walking through Split River High and realize he can see them. That ability means one thing: Mr. Martin has escaped the school’s grounds by possessing a living body, and Mr. Anderson is his vessel.

The possession comes with a telling mistake. Mr. Martin, inside Mr. Anderson, visits Sandra’s house and hands her a copy of Fahrenheit 451, claiming Maddie loved it. Fahrenheit 451 was Janet’s favorite book, not Maddie’s. Mr. Martin is fluent in Janet’s memories, not Maddie’s, and the book exposes him. He also tells Sandra he will return the next day, giving himself a pretext to reappear at the house where Janet is staying.

That same evening, Janet catches Simon in his own lie. He tells her that Mr. Martin is gone and it is safe to go back to school. Janet notices the phone in Simon’s jacket pocket is still connected, with Maddie’s ghost listening on the other end of the call. She pulls the phone out and drops it into a pot of boiling water. When she takes the trash out a short time later, including the unwanted Fahrenheit 451, a hooded figure steps up from behind and pulls a pillowcase over her head. The episode ends there.

Who actually did it and how the plan came together

Spencer MacPherson told The Direct that the physical abduction fell to him: he was the one wearing the hood. The group landed on the plan after debating it, with Simon and Xavier as the primary architects. “We landed on it being Simon and Xavier being like, alright, kidnapping, kidnap,” MacPherson said. Kiara Pichardo told The Direct that Nicole and Claire were not fully on board at the outset.

Simon, Xavier, Nicole, and Claire had been parked outside Sandra’s house earlier that evening, watching Mr. Martin-as-Mr. Anderson make his delivery. They had already seen their own dinner strategy collapse when Janet exposed Simon’s open phone line. The kidnapping was the backup.

What happens at the cabin

Nicole and Xavier stay at the cabin with Janet while Simon and Claire return to Split River High to gather evidence. Janet is not passive. She reads Xavier’s emotional vulnerability around Nicole and exploits it to get partially untied, a move that shows how quickly she can assess people she has just met.

Simon’s argument to Janet is blunt rather than sentimental. He acknowledges she lost her entire life to a fire in 1958. He also points out that she will not be happy living in someone else’s body, even if nothing technically stops her. Kristian Ventura, speaking to The Direct about the scene’s moral weight, put it plainly: “Janet is a girl who died in a fire and lost her whole life.” Kiara Pichardo told The Direct that the distinction matters: “Maddie didn’t die, though. Janet died.”

How it changes Janet

Watching Maddie’s friends risk kidnapping charges gives Janet her first evidence that unconditional loyalty exists, a reference point she has never had. The effect comes less through Simon’s argument and more through what she witnesses directly.

Jess Gabor, who plays Janet and is known for her recurring role as Kelly Keefe on Showtime’s Shameless, told The Wrap that Janet has no frame of reference for what she witnesses at the cabin: “Janet doesn’t know what that’s like to have friends that have your back.” She has spent more than sixty years in the afterlife under Mr. Martin’s influence. He is responsible for the 1958 lab fire that killed them both, a conclusion the show develops across multiple Season 2 episodes. He then spent decades telling her the fire was her fault.

Gabor described the core of Janet’s trauma in an interview with Screen Rant: “The person that she relied on most in this world, Mr. Martin, abused her and completely took advantage of her and her innocence.” The episode does not show Janet as an easy convert. She is still using Maddie’s body, still arguing her case. But what she sees at the cabin begins to shift her position.

What the intervention produces

By the end of Season 2, Janet decides not to cross over. She chooses instead to stay in the afterlife and help the other trapped ghosts find their way out. That choice is framed explicitly as defiance against Mr. Martin rather than selflessness: he does not get to dictate when she exits.

The friends’ cabin intervention did not coerce that outcome. What it gave Janet was evidence that genuine loyalty exists, something she could not have learned from the inside of Maddie’s body while avoiding Split River High. The “kidnapping” is the moment that changes Janet’s understanding of her own situation, not by force, but by comparison.