School Spirits: Rhonda's Death Explained

Paramount+'s supernatural teen drama "School Spirits" centers around Maddie Nears (played by Peyton List, who's also known as Tory from "Cobra Kai"), a girl who died under mysterious circumstances and is investigating her own case from the afterlife. While Maddie doesn't know how she died, Rhonda Rosen (Sarah Yarkin), the lollipop-loving member of the Split River High Afterlife Support Group, remembers her own death all too well. In fact, she has one of the most harrowing stories of all the members of those stuck in the afterlife at the school: Rhonda was murdered by her high school guidance counselor when she went to tell him about getting into her college of choice.

Despite being dead and trapped in the school since 1963, because of the traumatic way she died, Rhonda has trouble trusting people, even the fellow members of the Afterlife Support Group. And although she cares about the other teen ghosts, she has trouble expressing it. This makes her cynical and unhappy. However, Rhonda wants to move on from the purgatory of the high school and tries to do so with the help of their ghost mentor, a former chemistry teacher at the school named Mr. Martin (Josh Zuckerman). But first Rhonda has to confront her fears, not the least of which is the man who killed her.

In the 1960s, Rhonda was just another teen at Split River High School. She had big dreams of getting into Berkeley, and her guidance counselor, Mr. Manfredo (Ryan Dumontel), encouraged her in that pursuit. According to Rhonda, Mr. Manfredo was the nicest man she'd ever met. Her father was too busy working to see much of her, and her mother cared more about how their home looked than she cared about Rhonda. But Mr. Manfredo saw she was special and championed her. He said he wanted her to get out of high school and see the world. 

However, when Rhonda got her acceptance letter to Berkeley and brought it to him to see, things changed. He shut down, and Rhonda realized things weren't quite right. They argued when Mr. Manfredo recognized that Rhonda didn't return his romantic feelings for her. Finally, Rhonda went to leave his office, and rather than let her go, Mr. Manfredo killed her by strangulation.

Mr. Manfredo was caught and died in prison for his crime, but it didn't do Rhonda any good. She's still trapped in the school all these years later, and now she feels she can't trust anyone because nobody is really who you think they are. It's a difficult outlook to have, and it's one of the reasons her ghost story has been going on for about 60 years with no hope of moving on from the high school by crossing over.

At the end of "School Spirits" Season 1, Rhonda, along with her fellow ghosts Wally (Milo Manheim) and Charley (Nick Pugliese), finds artifacts, called death items, that were with them when they died. The ghost teacher Mr. Martin and his student Janet (Jess Gabor), who died in the chemistry lab fire alongside him, have kept these items from them for years. In the third episode of the second season, "Can't Hauntly Wait," Rhonda uses her death item — her acceptance letter from Berkeley — as the key to opening up her scar, which is her own personal Hell. In Rhonda's case, this is her last day on Earth alive with Mr. Manfredo.

Rhonda is terrified by the encounter, but it gives the ghosts, including Maddie, new information about their afterlives. Specifically, that their scars glow red when they are approached by keys that can open them. This is a worthwhile thing to know, because, judging by the color of the glow around them, both Mr. Martin and Janet have a connection to the scars. Maddie can use that to get to the bottom of the mystery of what happened to her and ultimately get her body back (Janet has possessed Maddie and switched places with her in the afterlife, but that's a story for another time). While Rhonda isn't quite as lucky as Maddie, she at least learns to trust some people a bit more, making her that much closer to crossing over.