Warning: This story contains major spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Maxton Hall.
Maxton Hall ended its season on a cliffhanger, but this time Ruby was left in a heartbreaking crisis.
The Prime Video German teen drama is loved for its soapy plots, suspenseful relationship dynamics and the powerful chemistry between leads James Beaufort (Damian Hardung) and Ruby Bell (Harriet Herbig-Matten).
But their enemies-to-lovers romance brought a lot of strife into their lives due to the class difference between them (hence the subtitle “The World Between Us”).
If it wasn't clear from season one, season two firmly established that James' father, Mortimer (Feja van Huet), is the big bad of the series. Following the death of his wife in the final minutes of the Season 1 finale, his efforts to control his children, James and Lydia (Sonja Weisser), only intensified.
He circumvents their efforts to modernize the family company, seemingly removes them from their mother's will, and of course tries to keep James and Ruby apart. First they canceled Ruby's scholarship, and then they forcibly took over the Bell family's bakery.
But it's this last manipulation that makes up the shocking final moments of season two.
What will happen at the end of Maxton Hall season 2?
The last few moments of the Maxton Hall season undo all of Ruby's efforts to secure her future as an Oxford student.
In the sixth episode, which was released on November 28 on Prime Video, it was revealed that Professor Graham Sutton (Aideen Jalali) was having an affair with a student. Since the first season, he has been on and off with Lydia Beaufort, who is now pregnant with twins. He was called before the school authorities, including Mortimer, to explain what had happened.
During this meeting, it was revealed that the case had been discovered through a photograph. (Remember: in episode five, Elaine (Eli Ricciardi), who is in love with James, and Cyril (Ben Felipe), who has been pining for Lydia for a long time, discovered Lydia and Graham hugging in the woods during a school event and took a photo as proof.)
But when Graham sees the photo that started the investigation, it turns out that it is not a photo of him and Lydia, but of him and Ruby from the school party in the first season.
The scene then cuts to a meeting with Ruby, her mother, and the principal. He tells her that she has been expelled from Maxton Hall and will never go to Oxford.
There is no dialogue in the final minutes of the show, just an acoustic performance of “Chasing Cars”.
As Ruby goes out into the courtyard in tears, Lydia watches as Graham is escorted out of Maxton Hall by police officers in handcuffs.
Without exchanging words, James hugs a shell-shocked Ruby.
Damian Hardung told TODAY.com it's unclear what James thinks is happening at this point.
“What we're seeing now is obviously how beautifully Harriet played that scene, just seeing everything fall apart and just looking at her face and reading it in her eyes,” Hardung says. “He's just in complete shock, but he doesn't know what direction to go in.”
It became more emotional because “a minute ago everything was perfect,” Hardung adds. After his character changed Ruby in the first episode, James began therapy and the couple finally seemed to be on a healthier and safer relationship path.
Herbig-Matten says her character was “in conflict with herself” throughout the season.
“She knows that she needs to let him go, and that he needs to fix himself, and that she is not responsible for his feelings and losses, and that he is falling back into his toxic behavior or personality traits,” she says. (“What do you mean?” Hardung interjects jokingly.)
She cites James's speech in episode three as a turning point for her character. In a last-minute appearance at Ruby's gala, James opened up about his mother's death and his mental health – even at the risk of incurring his father's wrath.
“She decides to give him a second chance, and I think I like that about her,” Herbig-Matten says.
But, as expected, after such a finale everything can fall apart.
“I think it's a Maxton Hall-type roller coaster,” Hardung says. “And one of the reasons why this show is so successful is because we have such a tight structure of high and low moments throughout the episodes.”
But the second season almost ended on a completely different scene, the cast says.
How the season was originally supposed to end
Herbig-Matten and Hardung say the show's creators originally wanted to cut scenes in which she learns of her expulsion and cries in front of James.
“We all thought: We need this ending,” Herbig-Matten says. “I need this ending for my character.”
They saw the show at a screening around June 2025, and “it ended when Graham… saw the photo,” Hardung says.
“But then the audience wouldn't know what it means for Ruby, what it means for the couple,” Hardung adds.
“We saw it all on screen. We're like, 'You can't do this,'” he continues.
After “a whole conversation”, they changed the ending to include scenes of Ruby's reaction.
“Now we have our ending back,” says Hardung.
