What To Know
- School Spirits immediately addresses Wally’s fate in the Season 3 premiere.
- It shows him confronting a mysterious glowing doorway that could lead him to the afterlife.
- Milo Manheim explains the ambiguous scene to TV Insider.
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers from School Spirits Season 3 Episode 1, “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife.”]
School Spirits‘ Season 2 finale left viewers wondering if Wally (Milo Manheim) would leave Split River behind for the great beyond — and Season 3 premiere wasted no time in revealing his fate.
Picking up exactly where Season 2 leaves off, Wally finds a glowing doorway in his scar, which would allow him to cross over to the afterlife. The ghost approaches it, even going as far as to touch its handle, but then the light dims. It isn’t totally obvious if Wally pulled the door shut or if he was about to push it open — which Manheim told TV Insider is by design.
“Actually, we shot this scene — although there’s no words, and it’s quite a simple, short moment — we shot it many times, many different ways,” the actor said in a joint interview with costar Peyton List. “But I really love what they did because it’s kind of ambiguous.”
Manheim plays Wally’s reaction ambiguously, too. Wally doesn’t look overtly sad or disappointed once the light goes out, even though he’s been stuck in limbo for about 40 years. He stares at the door for a moment before turning around and walking away to rejoin his ghostly friends. Though it remains dark, the door lingers in the middle of the football field where Wally died.
Paramount+
“I personally read it as he’s just closing the door and deciding to come back,” Manheim explained. “But that was the question for me. The question was never, ‘Is he going through the door?’ The question is, ‘Can I come back to the door?’ Is this a now-or-never situation? But yeah, no, I think that while the universe and the spirits of the ghost world or the rules of the ghost world might think he’s ready, I don’t know if he has fully realized it yet.”
Wally has “unfinished business to tend to” at Split River High, the actor teased, which fans will see play out over the course of Season 3. Let us know your theories about what’s next for Wally in the comments section below.
School Spirits, Season 3, Wednesdays, Paramount+