Maxton Hall season 2 ending explained: The scandal that sabotages Ruby and James’s happy ever after

School’s back in session at Maxton Hall, where a scholarship student and the entitled rich kid must fight to overcome the world between them and make their love work.

Based on Mona Kasten’s best-selling book Save Me, the first season of MaxtonHall had the most successful series launch of any non-American Prime Original ever upon its release.

Things weren’t looking so good for Ruby and James, however, as season 1 ended in tragedy. Just as their romance finally got back on track, James and his sister Lydia were confronted with the worst news imaginable. Their mother Cordelia had died after suffering a stroke.

Season 2 kicked off with James spiralling so much that he wrecked his relationship with Ruby entirely. But Maxton Hall being Maxton Hall, it wasn’t long before the pair reconciled. As such, the drama came instead from James’s awful father, who continues to make his son’s life as hard as possible, with Ruby often taking the brunt of his cruelty. The only thing crueller is us being forced to sit through this schlock in the first place.

That’s not all though. Beyond this family strife, another controversy brewed, one that takes centre stage at the end of season 2 in what must be one of TV’s weirdest, most uncomfortable developments of 2025. Read on to find out how Maxton Hall season 2 ends and see just what we’re on about.

Maxton Hall – The World Between Us season 2 ending explained

The previous episode ended with Maxton Hall’s Principal discovering that one of his teachers, Graham Sutton, has got Lydia pregnant.

This plotline is all kinds of gross and icky by the way, especially because of how the writers romanticise it – and in a teen show, no less. James’s sister and the professor are in love, which apparently makes this power dynamic something worth rooting for? Or at the very least, something we shouldn’t be condemning outright?

The head has the right response though, dramatically looking into the distance with sheer horror in his eyes (even if he’s only thinking of himself). Season 2’s finale starts in much the same way, this time with him dramatically ending a call about the same problem, eyes still agape in camp disbelief.

Meanwhile, James is skipping out on a vital investors meeting to play lacrosse. It’s an important match to be fair, make-or-break for the championship, and his dad sucks, so leaving him in the lurch like this is definitely the right call.

The game between Eastview and Maxton Hall is shot like a clash of the titans on Mount Olympus. With every fall and every tackle, the camera shakes and the ground seems to shake with it in booming magnitude. It’s silly and over the top in ways that don’t fit the show in any shape or form, but it’s not like logic has ever held the writers of Maxton Hall back before.

Lydia runs off to the bathroom when gossip around Mr Sutton and his mystery lover starts making the rounds. Back at the investor meeting, one of the head business guys runs off too, enraged that James didn’t bother showing up. “I will not entrust a man who can’t even handle his own son with another penny.” Mortimer is not best pleased.

But hey, James was needed at the game because the teams are drawing and there’s only ten seconds left on the clock. This is the kind of original, daring storytelling that Maxton Hall has become known for, and I for one am happy to see it continue now in season 2.

Prime Video

As if that wasn’t dramatic enough, blame at the meeting inevitably brings up Mortimer’s dead wife yet again. “I’m glad Cordelia didn’t have to see this,” says someone for the umpteenth time, giving her more screen time now she’s dead than the show ever bothered to give Cordelia when she was alive.

Mortimer blames Ruby Bell, obvs, as does Cyril when Maxton Hall loses the game. Sure, why not?

Sutton and Lydia meet to talk about the scandal growing around them. She reckons Cordelia is leaving the family business to her and James in the will reading that’s about to happen, so the Professor offers to be a stay-at-home dad to look after their baby. “Seems I’m gonna have a lot of time on my hands soon…” adds Sutton. You know why that is? Because he’s going to get fired for impregnating one of his students. Ew.

James and Ruby text each other with quick updates on their lives, signing each text with their initials like they’re pensioners writing letters from war rather than the 18-year-olds they’re supposed to be.

James’s voiceover uses big terms like “cognitive consistency”, which aren’t particularly interesting or relevant, feigning intelligence for both him and the writing at hand.

At the will reading, it’s revealed that Cordelia has left all of her assets and shares to her husband, Mortimer. He’s super smug about it, revelling in his children’s misfortune. James gets all up in his face, threatening to ruin his father. Sure, James. Good luck with that.

Prime Video

There’s a scene where Ruby’s family starts singing the “Be Happy” song to lift each other’s spirits after her mum’s bad news. I mention this here, not because it’s relevant, but because it’s a perfect encapsulation of just how silly this show really is. I can’t possibly convey how cheesy this all plays out on screen. Words do not do it justice, I’m afraid.

James goes to Alice, the woman who revoked Ruby’s scholarship grant a few episodes prior when Mortimer asked her to do so. He tries his mother’s memory to guilt her into doing the right thing, to turn against his father, but Alice points out that Mortimer’s financial support helps her do a lot of good in this world through charity.

Things aren’t looking good, but there’s still some hope that Ruby can pass her scholarship exams and get into Oxford. She holds onto this hope pretty strongly in some weird slow-motion scenes where – I kid you not – actual butterflies dance around her. But then it all comes crashing down again.

When Sutton is called in to explain himself to peers, he explains that he and the student under his care “have fallen in love with each other”. Mortimer is randomly there too because he’s on the school board, apparently. “I’m curious what her parents will have to say about it,” he mentions, which is kind of weird because his daughter Lydia is the one who is directly involved.

Sutton is understandably confused, and so are we. That is, until Ruby is suddenly called to the headmasters’ office just before she heads into the exam. Her mother arrives, also confused, and then it happens. The head reveals the photo everyone’s been talking about, but that’s not Lydia in the picture. It’s Ruby in a photo that was taken of her with Sutton at the welcome party last season.

“That was a completely harmless situation,” Ruby points out, and she’s right to say it. Still, that doesn’t stop the headmaster from rather cruelly suspending her with immediate effect. “No diploma, no studies… Oxford? you can forget about it.”

Prime Video

Ruby then runs out crying in slow motion as a police car picks Sutton up from the university. James and Lydia look on in confusion, but the gross professor gives her a reassuring nod as he climbs into the vehicle. Yep, it looks like Sutton didn’t correct the teachers in a bid to protect Lydia, thereby ruining Ruby’s life in the process.

She and James cry in each other’s arms as the Snow Patrol song Chasing Cars plays over the credits. Is it a particularly relevant or original choice to end on? Of course not, and that’s Maxton Hall in a nutshell.

The show brings drama, make no mistake about that, and it’s morbidly fun to hate-watch at points. What doesn’t sit right though is how this student/teacher relationship is framed as merely misunderstood. Of course Lydia and Sutton are into it, but it’s uncomfortable that the show itself seems kind of into it as well.

Let’s just hope the already-confirmed third season rectifies this somewhat. As it stands now, this ridiculously absurd ending is built on a weird, uncomfortable story arc that isn’t being treated with the skill and nuance it deserves. But maybe that’s my fault. Maybe I’m asking too much of Maxton Hall, which, two seasons in, remains one of the worst shows on streaming.

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