phantomoftheorpheum

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me: I'm really gonna write a short fic this time. 10k max.

the fic: -one half of the ship just figured out they're attracted to the other person 25k in-

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AUSTIN BUTLER Dune (2024) • Behind the scenes dir. Denis Villeneuve

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things that i think about instead of sleeping #7

it's 2025 and every year of my life I only love Jess Mariano more.

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sorry about the Wheel of Time cancelation, this is 100% my fault. I finally watched the show a couple weeks ago and my attention is pretty much the kiss of death to any and every tv series.

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— you’re still a contender.

happy birthday, @ernestonlysayslovelythings ♡

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I can't even begin to explain how much anxiety I experience when I see bookshelves organized into a rainbow, and I can clearly see books from a series separated because they're different colors.

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I fully believe Harlan Coben's Shelter could have been every bit as successful as School Spirits if given the correct promotion and time to build its audience.

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because i like to make lists and polls and join bandwagons, behold! my list!

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School Spirits Season 2 (episode 8) liveblog/thoughts

**Spoilers for School Spirits Seasons 1 and 2x01-2x08

Here we go, season finale!! I’ll get to see how right or wrong I have been. I have hopes, I have expectations, and a few fears. So let’s see.

Okay, but can we just acknowledge this school has the worst security of all time? All the doors are just unlocked.

I’m honestly a little unclear on what the “official” story of the fire is, anyway. Because the original article that Wally and Charley read reported that Mr. Martin was responsible, but Janet says she was, and I’m not sure what version of events Claire and Nicole think happened.

Y’all seriously didn’t have a better plan than Simon just straight up announcing Mr. Martin has to go through him?? Like you couldn’t have him sneak up on him or anything? lol. I mean, yes, Janet eventually tased him, but that still put Simon in wildly unnecessary danger.

As expected, the taser has now been used! Will it be used again? Who knows.

I mean, tbf, Xavier, there’s a pretty big mental leap between generally trusting your child and believing there are ghosts running around body snatching people. How skeptical would Xavier have been if he hadn’t literally died and seen the ghosts himself?

Did he say volcanically? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard someone use the word volcanically in a tv show, tbh. Interesting choice.

Oh, okay, that body swap was easier than I imagined. Can’t have been a lot of fun for Mr. Anderson, though. His poor body has been through a lot.

I honestly don’t have as much commentary for this episode so far because a lot of the scenes so far aren’t really raising additional questions or anything, like Sandra and the Sheriff talking obviously makes him start to question some stuff, but it’s not new info to us.

Who is the “them” Eugene is referencing? He says he heard “them” talking about Mr. Martin getting fired because of Janet’s dad the day after she died. It also sounds like he says “she died” not “they died” like… did they not die at the same time? I did assume Janet's father was why Mr. Martin was fired, but it feels like a massive jump in behavior to go from being concerned for your talented student and murdering her for something her dad did. Like a big swing in character.

Mr. Martin implying there is something about the school which causes deaths would be an explanation for the excessive number of people who have died on campus, and also seem to reference whatever thing he seemed so scared of in the first episode (when he told Maddie he wishes he had never dug into things or something like that), but omg I wanted to shake the answers out of him, like this is not a time to be vague! I mean, he’s doing it on purpose, I very much do not believe he has Janet or the other ghost’s best interests at heart, but it’s still frustrating.

We’re less than halfway through the episode, so I still very much expect things to go wrong, but Maddie saying goodbye to the ghosts is 😭

What does Simon see when Maddie is hugging the ghosts? That’s got to be a weird POV, right?

Janet very much appears to be sincere so RIP my hopes that she was a villain mastermind, I still wish that had been the case, it would have been so fun.

Umm… Call me selfish/callous, but I genuinely think Maddie should have gone back to her body when things went wrong 😬 like how the hell is Simon (or the living friends in general) supposed to just keep Maddie alive, like how would they have the power to do anything about this?? Also, if the ghosts all going into their scars is a bad thing (this trap that Maddie’s talking about) because they would overload the system with energy, wouldn’t her going in after them be even worse?

I have to admit, I’m not actually sure why overloading the system would be a bad thing. Didn’t they theorize that it would stop them from being trapped at the school? Why is that bad? What negative consequences would there be? Maddie risking her life going after them for something I'm not even sure is bad is A LOT.

Maddie’s key being her necklace is something I’ve seen theorized a lot, so no surprises there.

Well, there’s Maddie’s dad. Except, not really Maddie’s dad, just like scary scar version. I figured the water scenes from the promo had to have something to do with her dad's drowning.

I know everything that’s going on is high stakes, but Charley in the football scar was objectively hilarious. Tonal whiplash, but hilarious.

Wally again seeing his mother in the scar, but not being able to address it, feels like unfinished business.

✅ for the woman in the scar being the fiancée.

I wanted a mastermind villain so badly. Mr. Martin lied a lot a clearly became an increasingly terrible person in his desperation and the lengths he was willing to, but he ultimately feels quite powerless and weak.

That being said, WHAT is Mr. Martin afraid of? No one seems all that concerned about this element, but he keeps alluding to something.

I also don’t really have a strong idea of what’s keeping Janet from crossing over now, she’s clearly emotionally prepared, so what’s her unfinished business?

I can’t help but think that Maddie was entirely unnecessary in stopping Mr. Martin/saving Janet. She just shows up and repeats that he killed her for revenge, but apparently that wasn’t even true, and they were already asking questions. Also she doesn't mention anything about it being a trap and everyone going into their scars and the energy overload? Isn't that why she followed them in the first place?

“Let him, he’ll be fine.” Claire what in the absolute ever loving fucking hell are you talking about? He’ll be FINE?? Simon is running, alone, back into a school where you KNOW there is at least one malicious ghost who has stolen a person’s BODY before.

Um. Are we not concerned about all the flashing red lights in the school? Everyone isn’t checking in with everyone else to make sure they’re okay??

Well, Janet and I are on the same wavelength about Mr. Martin, but I still don’t understand why she’s stayed.

Istg if they actually end Wally’s arc here (as in he’s just crossed over and isn’t a part of season 3 and we never address his actual trauma and the stuff with his mother), I’ll… well, I’m not the rioting type, but I will write a scathing criticism.

I’m sorry? It’s literally the next day and no one has bothered to look for Simon?! Y’all are the worst friends on the face of the planet. No, but seriously, Claire, Nicole, and Xavier had no idea what was happening with Maddie and the other ghosts and Mr. Martin like the last they knew Maddie was chasing them into the scars and so the last thing they were aware of was that all the ghosts were potentially in danger and they KNEW that Mr. Martin could be a fatal threat to a person and they weren’t worried about Simon??? Sometimes I feel like there isn't even one collective brain cell in this group. Maddie was literally in an ambulance, there was nothing left for you guys to do and you just left a clearly distraught Simon at the school alone to go to the hospital??

Xavier CAN see ghosts (well, some ghosts, at least A ghost). I knew it was coming eventually. They didn’t introduce Maddie’s dad for no reason and all of the teases of him seeming to sense something finally paid off.

Oh, Simon. I, agree, Janet. I have more questions. Simon being inside the scar implies he’s dead/a ghost, but 1. How the hell would he have died? 2. How would he not remember it (Maddie was the first person not to remember and that was because she hit her head/was possessed)? Is there someone else running around possessing people? Where is his body? How did he get into Mr. Martin’s locked up scar? If he’s not dead… again, how did he get in there and can he just see all the ghosts now? What happened to him?

Okay, also? Why is Mr. Martin so calm now and why does he think Janet has answers?

Well. A lot of what I expected and a few things I didn't. Taser was used ✅. Fire backstory ✅. Mr. Martin's fiancée ✅. Maddie's dad/Xavier ✅. Major character (besides Maddie) left in peril ✅. Maddie's fate of getting back into her body or not left up in the air ❌. Not my worst day.

Oh, also forgot about this while I was watching, but Diego evaporated. Not literally, but he might as well have.

Obviously they have hopes for a season 3. I really hope they get it. I particularly want to know what's happened to Simon, Wally, and what's going on with the school.

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School Spirits final season 2 pre-finale thoughts

**Spoilers for School Spirits Seasons 1 and 2x01-2x07

just a few hours ahead of the season 2 finale, I just have a few thoughts/predictions that I'd like to put out there before the show airs.

first of all, I don't think we're getting an ending tied up in a bow. I expect a cliffhanger. I've been unsure about this for much of the season, because the reality is that many, many streaming shows get cancelled before they reach a 3rd season, and they try to hedge their bets a bit with their season endings. The season 2 to 3 gap is one of the most dangerous times for a show, and I thought they might be a bit scared to commit to a cliffhanger ending. But I think that's what we're getting. I hope it is. As unsatisfying as it is to have a show end on a cliffhanger and never get to tell the rest of the story, I'm tired of timid writing.

I still have hope that we're going to get a twist "Janet actually is a villain" unmasking in this episode. It would make her character a million times more interesting to me, and I think it would be fun, so I'm going with it.

I don't think we're going to know if Maddie gets her body back. What I mean is, I think we're going to be left wondering if the attempts made in the finale worked or not. There's also a lot of promotional material implying that another character's life/existence will be left hanging in the balance.

Will we have another living character die? I have some mixed feelings about the implications of something like this happening, which I will discuss after the finale if/when necessary.

There's been a lot of discussion throughout the season of the ghosts crossing over, who will be first, etc. etc. This is another situation where I'm a bit at war with myself. If the show thinks it has a solid shot at season 3, then you generally want to keep your primary cast. That's just logical business. This would point to characters like Mr. Martin, Janet, Yuri, or Quinn possibly leaving us, but make it more unlikely that we lose Charley, Wally, or Rhonda. That being said, narratively they've made such a big deal about the crossing, that it would feel a bit limp to just have another minor character (like Dawn in season 1) cross again. So, I can honestly say that I'm not sure how the show is going to handle it. I can see an option where no one crosses (that the finale unfolds in such a short period of time that it's an emergency situation where no one has time to focus on anything like that at all), I can see an option where one of the minor characters crosses, and I can also see an option where one of the major ghosts crosses.

So, all that being said, I want to share my personal interpretations of the 3 main ghosts (excluding Maddie, since her situation is unprecedented) and what needs to be resolved with them for a satisfying narrative conclusion to their arc. I was thinking about what each of the ghosts need to move on, and I do think each trauma has a very specific theme.

Rhonda's theme is trust. She was betrayed and murdered by someone she trusted. She then felt betrayed again by her best friend because she thought the song she wrote was calling Rhonda foolish. This season, she felt betrayed by Mr. Martin and Janet, which caused her to break and lash out. She hasn't been able to move on because her inability to trust needs to be healed first. Rhonda's relationship with Quinn and the information they have discovered together has begun to help her move in that direction.

Charley's theme is self acceptance. Charley admits to struggling with internalized homophobia and basically trying to cover that up with making light of things and not addressing it. He even jokes with Maddie about how everyone thought his death was funny because he was a gay guy who died from choking on nuts, and while he's the one who brings up the "joke," this is clearly very painful for him. In season 1, he was able to gain some confidence/closure with his letter to Emilio, but he still was struggling to accept himself. He hasn't been able to move on because he needs to fully accept himself first. Charley's relationship with Yuri, and being vulnerable with Wally and expressing his own self doubt, has begun to help him move in this direction.

Wally's theme is self confidence. This might seem counterintuitive because he's so extroverted, but Wally is a people pleaser. He tells Maddie that he never really loved football, he just played it for his mom. In his flashback we see that he struggled to stand up to his mother and speak up for himself. We learn in season 2 that in life he was complicit in bullying, unwilling to rock the boat or stand up to the status quo. He was hard on himself throughout season 2 because he didn't feel like he could compare with Simon and be what Maddie needed, again trying to make himself into the version of himself that other people want. He was so upset about Mr. Martin's betrayal because he had followed him blindly (trying to please), just like he did with his coach and his mother. Wally hasn't been able to move on because he needs to find the confidence to stand up for himself and his convictions/belief, instead of trying to please others. In this case, I don't think Wally has made significant strides in this area. There have been baby steps. He is somewhat aware of this struggle (his season 1 convo with Maddie about football and his season 2 convo with Charley at the reunion, him explaining to Maddie why he was so hurt by Mr. Martin), but he still has quite a ways to go, imo.

So... what do I expect to see tonight? Well, for one, I expect Nicole's taser to come into play. I expect to learn exactly how/why/who details around the fire, and I expect something we learn about the fire to add a twist. I expect to discover the woman in Mr. Martin's scar is his fiancee (I don't think she's a ghost, just a manifestation). I expect Maddie's father's death (and what Xavier knows) to play a role. I expect to be left on a cliffhanger and not be sure what Maddie's fate is. I expect some other major character to also be left in peril. I also expect there to be a major twist (on the level of Janet is possessing Maddie's body) to close the season. So... I guess we'll see!

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Laurie and Jaclyn in 3x03 when they're beginning to realize how Kate voted.

Please tell me I'm not the only who immediately thought of this meme.

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School Spirits Season 2 (episode 7) liveblog/thoughts

**Spoilers for School Spirits Seasons 1 and 2x01-2x07

Okay, idk how this is gonna go because I have been nauseous all day, and I thought about not doing the episode tonight and waiting until tomorrow in the hopes that I will feel better and enjoy it more, but when I get nauseous it really cranks my anxiety up, so I can’t sleep (because of the feelings of dread for no reason) and time is passing veeeery slowly, so I’m hoping this will distract me somewhat.

To be fair, feelings of dread don’t seem particularly out of place in the year 2025 so far.

Maybe it’s just because my anxiety is so high rn, but Simon walking out into the dark at a secluded cabin the woods has every ounce of me screaming. I don’t think anything is actually going to happen to him, but there is a 0% chance you would find me voluntarily doing that.

Wait, Mr. Martin knows that Simon can communicate with Maddie (and so through her the other ghosts) since Rhonda told him, so why is he questioning how they know Janet’s name? The other ghosts have been chasing him around for days and Maddie confronted him, so surely he assumes they’ve put SOME pieces together.

No offense to Diego, but I have yet to see a truly compelling reason for this character to exist. I know he saw Maddie at the college, but it’s not like that’s the way they had to find her. Maybe he’ll have a real role in this episode or the next, but I am skeptical.

Mr. Martin saying “we need more time” when the woman in the scar of the fire said “need more time,” makes me continue to think that the watch is Mr. Martin’s key and not Janet’s.

Janet does seem to feel legitimately bad about stealing Maddie’s body at this point, and I don’t really know why she would lie about it to Mr. Martin, so I generally believe her. I just keep hoping for an additional true villain.

So…. Janet hitting Mr. Martin over the head with the oar… what’s that going to do to Mr. Anderson’s survival chances? I don’t think Mr. Martin’s original possession of Mr. Anderson’s was as violent as Janet’s of Maddie, and we haven’t seen any sign of him being severely injured like Maddie was, but NOW he’s been hit in the head real hard.

First of all, I see a projector, so I think I know where this scene is going. But also, is that a real bed?? Surely not.

This Ghost reference with Charley and Yuri not only feels relevant because, well, ghosts… but also because Demi Moore might actually win an Oscar this weekend. Anyway, they’re cute, though I wasn’t expecting a steamy scene with them this episode! I wonder what that means for the odds of Charley or Yuri (or both) crossing over in the finale? I thought Rhonda was the closest with her storyline this season, but Charley’s storyline has really picked up steam in the last episode and this one. If I thought that season 2 was written as a definitive end, I would definitely expect to see some ghosts crossing in the finale, but if they wrote with a season 3 in mind, I doubt they’d want to decimate the cast in the season 2 finale.

Aaaaaww, Charley pausing to tell Yuri how happy he is was adorable.

WHAT is so bad, Quinn?? What’s on the paper??? Like obviously the scar is bad, but like she said, that’s predictable, so presumably the very bad thing has to do with the paper.

Y’all I am speechless, I did not have this show in my list of shows where I expect someone to have their cheeks out 💀 and not just a little bit out either, like that was just full ass out.

Getting that out of the way, Maddie and Wally are so sweet, but also they make me sad because I don’t see a happy ending here.

One thought I’ve had a few times is that if Maddie does get her body back and that inevitably separates her from Wally, I think it could be really lovely but also really devastating if he was somehow able to send his necklace with her. He always has it on, even right now when he has nothing else on, and though they haven’t discussed it, it feels so symbolic of his character. Of course, I don’t know how that would be possible because it’s a ghost object, but maybe if Janet can make things that don’t reset, there’s a way they could make a phantom object real? Anyway, probably won’t happen, but I’ve been thinking about it off and on this season.

Rhonda walking in on them 🙈

Janet possibly having a sadistic streak? See, now that’s interesting to me. I just find her more compelling as a villain than a victim. But also why would she hide that page in the bus? If Janet can make objects not reset and she didn’t want anyone to know she had planned to do this, then why wouldn’t she just burn the page or something? It definitely doesn’t FEEL like the show is framing Janet to actually be a bad person, so I feel like it’s going to get explained away as her having a change of heart (which is why she told Mr. Martin she wanted to return the keys).

Huh. It never even occurred to me that Janet and Maddie swapping back would be potentially terrible for the other ghosts if she were actually evil.

So what you’re telling me is that so far Janet in Maddie’s body has- hit Xavier with a car and nearly killed him, burned a house down, stolen a large sum of extorted money, and now bashed Mr. Martin/Anderson over the head and presumably left him to drown (I mean, I don’t think he will actually drown, but she took the boat back to shore, so it doesn’t seem like she knows that). I am not sure I would want my body back atp.

I’m with Xavier on this one, you gotta give Maddie all the information and let her make her own decisions, whatever they are.

Who has the taser? Is it Janet or Simon? I couldn’t tell.

Hhmmmm, Simon is getting suspended and they bothered to show us that. Is this set up for a season 3 where he is unable to be on campus and therefore the communication with Maddie is cut off? Regardless, there's no reason to show us that if it doesn’t come into play in one way or another.

I thought Janet would probably be able to see all the ghosts, since she saw her father and seemed to see Mr. Martin (though idk if that was more a stylistic choice, since none of the other ghosts seem to see Maddie’s body as Janet).

Xavier is about to get snatched, this is clearly that scene.

So now I’m not sure if I think that Mr. Martin has been lying to Janet about how they died, or if Janet is lying to the other ghosts. But the story she tells doesn’t fit together the pieces we’ve seen in the flashbacks. She makes it out like they were just there experimenting and something went wrong, but we still have her storyline with her dad, the fact that Quinn said that Janet and Mr. Martin appeared to be planning to leave together (still not sure if she meant they were planning to cross over together or if she meant in life they were planning to leave), Mr. Martin’s firing, the woman in the scar, and the way Eugene ties into the story and either knows something or did something.

Also, maybe I’m missing something, but why did Mr. Martin seemingly freak out and hurry to turn the projector off? I tried pausing to see what it was projecting in that moment, but I couldn’t really make anything out. Was there something on that film he didn’t want Janet to see?

I’m not even halfway through this episode; I need to pick up the pace.

I still think it’s more fun if Janet is feigning remorse (over their deaths and over what’s happened to Maddie) and pinning everything on Mr. Martin by claiming all the lies were his idea and she went along with it. That just feels more fun, but I’m not convinced it’s that complicated; I just want it to be.

How DID Anderson /Martin beat Claire and Diego back to the cabin (and by that much?)

Oh, Xavier, the world has not been kind to you this season.

So they’ve made a point to bring up the electricity being connected to the rooms and either Janet or Simon have Nicole’s taser. Idk if those two things are connected, but I definitely think the taser will get used and I could see it playing a role in the whole electricity thing.

Where is Quinn going??

Okay, now where is Simon going? Clearly what Janet said about getting lost in another person struck a nerve for him, but I’m not sure what he’s doing. Is he just... leaving?

I don’t see how Quinn thinks this is her fault. She’s just figured out answers, not created them.

You know, I DO think it’s important/healthier for Simon not to be 100% focused on Maddie, but they’ve definitely complicated things by her maybe being able to live (this is a somewhat urgent issue that does need to be addressed). It definitely feels like her getting her body back is the more likely scenario to me (after all the time spent with that goal), but in season 1 I really felt like the themes of grief and denial vs acceptance were some of the strongest material they had. So I’m just very conflicted on what I think resonates better emotionally and thematically.

Mr. Martin quite literally threatening to murder Diego is pretty extreme. Did I forget something? How did he get to the cabin so fast, but still need Diego’s keys to leave? I remember Claire slashing his tires, but I’m not clear on how he got to the cabin.

Listen, not to beat a dead horse, but I seriously think it would be so satisfying if this entire Janet story was a manipulation. There are some missing links around her death, but even if there weren't, it's also kind of hard to square the person who volunteered to basically be repeatedly tortured and only coped with it because she knew she was sparing others with the person willing to steal another’s body, spend literal weeks in hiding as she's plotting to get away (so lots of time to think about it), and then return to that person’s home and life with the intention to steal all of that (remember, we saw Janet practicing how to be Maddie, she very clearly had no intention of returning Maddie’s body until very recently), quite literally replacing them. Those don’t feel like the same person. Plus, we saw that Janet is not above using manipulation to get what she wants (we saw her demonstrate this with Xavier in the last episode, but it pretty much amounted to nothing even though he did cave, so why was it there?). So, anyway, I think I’ve made it very clear that I would love a heel turn from her in the finale, so I will stop talking about it now.

I KNEW that wasn’t Janet’s scar. And I was pretty confident that was his fiancée Maddie saw.

Mr. Martin being Janet’s key certainly complicates things.

So one thing that I can’t stop thinking about is that Maddie yells “it’s a trap!” in the trailer. We haven’t seen this yet, and so I’ll definitely be looking out for potential traps in the finale to see if I can spot this coming. I expect a big finale twist (and I expect to fill in some of the Janet/Mr. Martin death gaps), but I don’t know if it’s something I can really predict.

We also know (from the trailer) that Claire and Nicole will be breaking into Eugene's (I'm assuming) storage unit in the finale, so that confirms to me that we still have a twist around the fire to reveal.

The other major loose thread is Maddie's dad. This definitely feels like it could be setting up for a third season because it's very hard to imagine that whole plot point being resolved in the finale. This could certainly be a complicating factor for her in getting her body back if she learns about it.

Do you think the fence/boundary trapping the ghosts at the school is coming down next episode?

I also feel like they've set up thing so I could see any of the ghosts except for Wally crossing over in the finale. The reason I think Wally is the furthest from it is because he is the only one who really hasn't confronted the issues of his scar. Rhonda has learned that her trust in her best friend wasn't misplaced and has been able to open up with Quinn, addressing Rhonda's trust issues surrounding her feeling like she died for trusting the wrong person and therefore keeping people at arm's length. Quinn has found a sense of belonging when all she wanted was to find her people and be accepted as she is. Charley was able to pass his letter to Emilio and has confronted his internalized homophobia. Yuri has left his pottery room and isn't hiding from the world anymore. But Wally's scar is based around his mother, and we haven't had any development on that front, so he feels the furthest away from healing that wound. He's had some lovely moments with various characters, but nothing that feels related specifically to the trauma around his death, imo. It feels like it would be a lot to fit in to address that in one episode that also has to function as a season finale.

There was so much stuff in this episode, it took me nearly 2 hours to get through it while taking notes and I’m still nauseous, so I’m gonna go now and I’ll be back for the finale. I might do a predictions pre-finale post if anyone's interested. It depends on if I think of anything new.

[phantomoftheorpheum]

SCHOOL SPIRITS (2023-) S02E06―Ghost Pointe Blank

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"get into a car and drive to the other side."

[phantomoftheorpheum]

School Spirits Season 2 (episode 6) liveblog/thoughts

**Spoilers for School Spirits Seasons 1 and 2x01-2x06

I cannot imagine keeping it to myself if my daughter disappeared again, like I cannot begin to fathom the panic. I know Sandra has had her issues as a mom, but this has been beyond rough on her.

I’m not sure that kidnapping Janet was the best plan, but I guess we’re here now. Good call on whoever said the woods location from the trailers was probably the cabin Sandra bought!

I’m already experiencing secondhand embarrassment and I paused it as soon as Nicole started playing that song on her phone so I haven’t even seen Xavier’s reaction yet, but omg that is the last way I would ever approach this topic. I am not good at confrontation, this would kill me.

Update- idk how he didn’t seem more unsettled by that. Does Nicole think he knew it was her the whole time? Why is she being so hostile?

Xavier not making the connection AT ALL until confronted directly is so on brand for him this season.

I cannot tell you how many times I have paused so far because I need to recover from the cringe. Nicole, WHY WOULD YOU ASSUME HE KNEW IT WAS YOU?? Xavier actually has a lot more reason (in this moment) to think Nicole knew the whole time, considering how she handled this. “Why is this my fault?” is such a legitimate reaction. Much like Janet wishes to, please let me escape this situation.

Much needed lighthearted dance sequence ✅ thank god I needed it. Also Wally continuing to be the voice of the people and the number 1 Charley/Yuri shipper is adorable.

I know Maddie is upset, atm, but with her walking down the hall cut with the dance sequence, I just kept thinking there was going to be a hilarious shot of her looking in a window and seeing the ghosts dancing without the music, but sadly that did not happen.

I have been saying all season that I think the fandom is harder on Nicole than she deserves, but I have to be real, I do not like the way she’s handled anything in this ep so far. I feel bad for Xavier, the poor boy is not built to be left on his own to make decisions. Janet is going to eat this man alive.

So clearly Simon currently has the one collective brain cell shared between him and Xavier this season in his possession atm because Xavier definitely does not have it.

Is it just me or did the watch Maddie is holding look different in the scar than it usually does? I thought it had a light face, but that one looked like it had a dark face?

So much just got thrown at us with that scene. Who is this woman in the scar?? Is it Mr. Martin’s fiancée? I have suspicions that she was involved in the fire and I’ve also had suspicions that this isn’t Janet’s scar, but Mr. Martin’s, but no solid evidence as of yet. Or maybe their scars have melted together.

“Need more time” is interesting, since this scar is accessed by a watch and the first time Maddie was here it was showing her all of Janet’s lost potential, now possibly showing her Mr. Martin’s lost future?

So Maddie escaped from the fire scar into Rhonda’s, I’m assuming, because of the music and Mr. Manfredo. I don’t remember that old lady, though, has she always been there? Presumably this was how Mr. Martin was moving around the school and avoiding them.

I’m not sure where the reunion stuff is going yet, so I’m reserving my comments until later.

Xavier half untying Janet and then falling asleep while eating a snack is ALSO so on brand for him this season.

I’m still not really sure what we’re looking for in Dawn’s scar, but okay, I’m on board with the pathways thing.

Oh, Xavier. No thoughts in that head.

Hilarious that Nicole spent season one in an elaborate blackmail scheme and no sign of Diego (probably because I don’t think he existed in season 1), but then he comes looking for her in the middle of nowhere for no particular reason at the worst possible time.

Mr. Anderson seems to be having a fantastic time being dead? I wasn't anticipating that, but at least someone is.

😞 Charley.

We’ve found the marigold room, which is Dawn’s… I hesitate to use the word scar for this one because it seems pretty chill (presumably because she crossed?), but idk what else to call it.

It’s a bit hard to take Mr. Martin seriously as a big bad when he is literally so out of the loop of the events of season 1 that he doesn’t even know Mr. Anderson was possibly going to prison.

It’s really hard to imagine Wally as a bully (I mean, I can imagine him brushing over stuff, for sure, but it’s hard to imagine him being mean to someone himself, just because that doesn't feel like part of his personality that we've seen), NOT that that makes it okay, but I also guess everyone might be considerably different now than they were when they died decades ago. This makes me think that it would be really interesting to get more flashbacks of the ghosts from when they were alive, so we can see how different they were (that could be really fun for the actor's too).

😭 Charley. I think the way they've approached this topic is very interesting. Charley internalizing so much of the homophobia he grew up with makes a lot of sense, and even if he can recognize it, it's hard for him to move past. I also think the angle of the conflict being Charley struggling with being comfortable and accepting of himself, rather than him being upset with Wally (like I do think it was important for him to hear what Wally had to say and affirm how much he loves Charley, but that they let the conflict of this scene be centered around how Charley feels about his own identity and less about how other people feel about it was nice) was a more nuanced and interesting take. Charley is definitely a highlight of this episode.

Aaaaand on another note, Diego may have just stolen Xavier’s crown for fewest thoughts 😂

God, Maddie seeing/realizing Sandra is drinking again is legitimately devastating.

Mr. Anderson (actual Mr. Anderson) just used the phrase “the only way out is through,” which is exactly what Maddie heard Mr. Martin say to Janet right before she was possessed.

If Janet is going to be ultimately good (which is the direction it feels like they’re going), I can’t help but hope for a bigger villain or conflict reveal coming up. I want something to shake up the game. Honestly I would be SO here for Janet’s guilt over what happened to Maddie to be fake (though, like I said, it doesn’t feel like that’s the vibe), because I LOVE a manipulative villain who tricks everyone into thinking they've had a change of heart, even if that would be quite a dark/cynical turn.

Charley/Yuri ship fully sailing ❤️

This Sandra storyline is hard, but realistic. I really feel for her and Maddie.

Unsurprisingly it seems that the ghosts have to move through their scars to move on, I’m just a little confused why Janet doesn’t seem to know this, when it appears that she and Mr. Martin were doing research for so long and knew about the scars and Mr. Martin seemed to be expressing this exact philosophy to her before the start of season 1, but I guess I am going to reserve judgment on it for now.

Only two episodes left! I feel like we’re working towards another cliffhanger, and honestly, I hope so. I think this universe feels like it has room for more, and I’d like to get it.

I could have used more Xavier and Simon, but I'll let it pass.