Every secret has its time and place.
Secrets of Sulphur Springs is a Disney Channel horror/mystery series that premiered on January 15, 2021.It follows Griffin Campbell after his father Bennett uproots their family from Chicago for mysterious reasons and purchases the Tremont, a run-down hotel in his hometown of Sulphur Springs, Louisiana, with the intent of fixing it up and reopening it. The hotel is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of Savannah, a young girl who disappeared from the hotel's summer camp in The '90s.
Griffin and his new friend Harper discover a fallout shelter under the hotel that contains a portal that allows them to travel back to Savannah's time. Together, they work to uncover the mystery of Savannah's disappearance and how it intersects with their parents' mysterious past.
The show was renewed for a second season, which premiered on, January 14, 2022. On February 7, 2022, the show was renewed for a third season, which premiered on March 24, 2023. On January 30, 2024, the series was announced to be canceled
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Contains examples of:
- Accidental Time Travel:
- Griffin and Harper accidentally go back in time 30 years.
- This is the ultimately revealed to be the cause of Savannah's disappearance in 1990. She found the portal, accidentally traveled back to 1960, and was then stuck there.
- In Season 2 Daisy, Harper's ancestor from 1930, discovers the portal and ends up accidentally traveling forward to 2020.
- In Season 3 Topher and the twins accidentally discover the time portal when they follow Savannah back in time. Bennett goes back in time too, chasing them, but never realizes it; he wasn't there long.
- Almost Kiss: In "Checkout Time" Harper and Griffin lean in for a kiss before panicking and pulling away.
- Anachronism Stew: At the camp dance in The '90s, Savannah has the DJ play a cassette recording of "I Don't Know" by The Prams, a song that wasn't released until 2015. Of course, given the nature of the show's plot, it is possible that she somehow acquired this from the future, but no one at the dance reacts as if the song is new to them.
- Alpha Bitch: It turns out that Harper's mother, Jess, was one back when she attended Camp Tremont in her youth.
- Can't Take Anything with You: Downplayed. Griffin is able to take a tablet computer back with him, hoping to show Savannah news of her disappearance, but an electric jolt that hits whoever exits the portal first shuts it off.
- Cliffhanger: Season 1 ends with the gang traveling back to the 1930's and Harper running into her lookalike.
- Season 2 ends with Mr. Campbell discovering the fallout shelter, with a still-young Savannah just out of his sight.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: It's revealed that when they were young, Harper's mother, Jess, had a crush on Ben Campbell (Griffin's dad) and was jealous of Savannah's close friendship with him.
- The Constant: Hotel Tremont. It is a rundown, abandoned property in 2020 that the Campbells move into and start refurbishing. In 1990 however, it was a highly successful and lively place, with a summer camp for kids. Later in the season, we see the hotel in its earlier years in 1960, as well as in 1930 back when it was a farmhouse owned by Harper's ancestors.
- Control Freak: Bennett Sr. is, some ways, domineering and controlling towards his son.
- Did Not Die That Way: Harper thinks her father died in a car accident. He actually died in a boating accident later that day, saving her life, and her mother heard Harper say it was a car accident and rolled with it to spare Harper the guilt. Maybe. Or maybe Harper's dad died in a car accident in the original timeline, and when Harper saved him from it when she went back to 2011, the timeline corrected itself by making sure he died later that day. Harper's suppressed memories of the boating accident don't surface until after she returns to 2020, after all. It's not clear yet whether she actually succeeded in changing the original circumstances of the accident.
- Exactly Exty Years Ago: The portal allows Griffin and Harper to travel back in time exactly 30 years from 2020 to 1990. In "As Time Goes By" they travel back a further 30 years from 1990 to 1960. In "No Time Like the Present" this is subverted, as they figure out who to control the portal and travel to other years like 1962 and 2011, and at the end of Season 2 there's a jump into the future, to 2024. By the end of Season 3, Sam has finely attuned the time machine to allow them to go to any date.
- Fake-Out Make-Out: They don't actually kiss, but Harper pretends their sneaking off to the portal are actually secret trysts to throw off their parents. Later, Griffin was like, "That's the best you could come up with?!"
- Fake Relationship: After Harper lies to their parents about sneaking off to have her first kiss with Griffin, everyone in their family thinks the two of them are together.
- Feet-First Introduction: We're first introduced to Harper when she kicks open Griffin's locker for him.
- First-Episode Twist: Griffin and Harper discover a fallout shelter under the hotel that contains a time travel portal back to Savannah's time.
- Foreshadowing: Clues to Savannah's fate are shown when a recording of her camp song is found in the hotel on an open-reel audio tape way too old to be from the nineties.
- Foster Kid: Savannah was one. She ruefully mentions at one point that no one will care if she vanishes. She is eventually Happily Adopted by loving parents after traveling back to the 1960's.
- Ghostly Chill: The twins document several cold spots all around the hotel. When Sarah considers leaving she sees a mirror frost over with the word STAY written on it.
- Happily Adopted: Savannah, after traveling back to 1960 finds loving adoptive parents.
- I'm Mr. [Future Pop Culture Reference]: In The '90s, Griffin and Harper go by Harry and Hermione. They later tell the hotel manager that Griffin's parents are James and Lily while Harper's parents have no first names at all.
- Identical Grandson:
- Harper looks exactly like her ancestor, Daisy.
- Sarah also looks identical to Mrs. Walker.
- Intergenerational Friendship:In season two Savannah and adult Sam become friends
- It's All My Fault: Bennett's feelings about Savannah's disappearance. They both spent the night in the basement after being dared by Jess but Ben got scared and ran, leaving Savannah alone the night she disappeared.
- Kid from the Future: Griffin and Harper travel back in time to 1990 and meet Griffin's dad Ben and Harper's mom Jess when they were kids at Camp Tremont.
- In Season 2 Harper meets Daisy, her great-grandmother, back when she was a kid in 1930 and looked identical to her.
- Lip-Lock Sun-Block: Griffin and Harper kiss in front of the stadium lights of the football field at their high school in the final episode of Season 3.
- My Beloved Smother: Male version. Ben has this relationship with his father, who refuses to let him do anything for himself.
- No Equal-Opportunity Time Travel: Harper isn't allowed into the Tremont when they travel back to 1962. When Griffin complains to the Black porter that Harper's his best friend, he does, at least, get a genuine "Good for you, kid" from him.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: We learn that Harper's family, at least on her father's side, has been in Louisiana for several generations, but Harper doesn't speak like she's from Louisiana.
- On the Next: Like Andi Mack and Gabby Duran & the Unsittables, each episode ends with a preview of the next episode's events.
- Percussive Maintenance: Harper uses it to get Griffin's new locker open, calling it "the worst-kept secret of Sulphur Springs". It's the first time we see her. She later uses it to get a mysterious radio that controls the time portal working. Savannah also uses this to get the radio working in 1962 after adult Sam gives up on it.
- Power Crystal: The radio in the shelter seems to be fueled by one.
- Red Herring: It's hinted that there is a ghost in the Tremont but it's not Savannah.
- Throughout Season 1, there are hints that Ben or Jess was responsible for Savannah's disappearance, or know what happened to her, based on their suspicious behavior and secretive nature in both 1990 and 2020. Ultimately, it turns out that while they knew more about what happened that night than they were letting on, neither knew what really happened.
- San Dimas Time: When Griffin and Harper travel back to 1990, they are 'missing' in the present for the equivalent amount of time that they spend in the past. Needless to say, their long and frequent abscences worry their parents who, in "Long Time Gone", suspect they've run away together and call the cops to find them.
- Series Goal: Solve the mystery behind Savannah's disappearance and find out why she disappeared.
- Season Two: discover who is haunting the Tremont and how to set them free.
- Season three: prevent the evil ghost from destroying all of their futures.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Harper tries to travel back to 2011 to save her father from the car crash that kills him. She succeeds in warning him before he gets into a car accident, but her dad dies in a boating accident later that day, while saving Harper's life. Harper's childhood memory of the boating accident resurfaces when she returns to 2020 after failing to save her father.
- Shipper on Deck: Zoey for Harper and Griffin
- Spooky Séance: Griffin's younger siblings Wyatt and Zoey attempt several of these to contact Savannah. However, they have no idea what to offer her as tribute because they have no idea what she likes. They settle on money, cheese, and a photo of a "hot 90's guy."
- Stable Time Loop:
- When they first move in, Griffin discovers an old photo of his father holding the trophy from the Camp Tremont talent show. After traveling back in time, Griffin convinces Ben to play an original song rather than the "classical" song his father wanted him to play. This results in Ben getting nervous and playing poorly when his father shows up to watch. They wonder if they changed the past but Ben still wins anyway after Jess, who has a crush on him, rigs the votes in his favor.
- Griffin and Harper don't "save" Savannah because she never needs saving. Her disappearance was caused by her discovering the portal under the hotel and traveling back to the 1960's. There, she's adopted by a kind family and decides to stay.
- Harper goes back in time to prevent the car crash that killed her father. She fails because her father never died in a car crash. He died in a boating accident while Harper was with him and she repressed it. Maybe. Or maybe she prevented him from dying in the car accident, but the timeline corrected itself by making sure he died in the boating accident. After all, her repressed memory doesn't come out until after she comes back to 2020 from trying to save him.
- In Season 2, we learn that Sam Tremont invented the time-portal, and he only ended up completing it in 1962 because Savannah, who had already used it in the future, pushed him to do so.
- Sucks at Dancing: Griffin claims to be a great dancer as an excuse to attend the camp dance. Then he actually attends and the campers find out that's not the case.
- Take a Third Option: After seeing the contract from 1930 showing the Tremonts were unlawfully forced off their land, Jess has to decided between claiming ownership of the hotel or giving ownership back to the Campbells. Instead she decides to became a 50/50 business partner with Ben and Sarah. Thus allowing the Campbell to continue living at the Tremont.
- Trapped in the Past: Savannah accidentally traveled back to 1960 and was stuck there due to a storm causing a tree to fall on the hatch leading to the time-travel portal. However, she is adopted by loving parents, and thus chooses to stay in the 1960's even when Griffin and Harper show up to rescue her in 1962.
- In season two Harper and Daisy switch places leading Harper to be stuck in 1930, while Griffin (in the present with Daisy) tries to figure out how to fix the time machine and switch them back.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Bennett Sr. cannot understand why Ben would rather do his own thing than something that benefit the family.
- Write Back to the Future:
- Harper does microfilm research on the Great Storm of 1960 and how the town rebuilt from it, and discovers a 1962 photograph of the Tremont's re-opening with Savannah in it. That's how she knows she survived the storm.
- Savannah writes a letter to Bennett saying she ran away from camp to look for her parents and hides it in the treehouse where they used to hang out. This does a lot to give Bennett and Jess closure.
- Savannah later comes to the present day to show a 1930's photograph of Harper that was hidden in the Tremont walls. Or perhaps it was an ancestor of Harper that happened to look like her.
- In Season 2 Harper, who's trapped in 1930 writes a note for Griffin in 2020, asking him to use the portal to rescue her, and hides it under a floorboard in the Tremont's basement. However, Savannah ends up finding it in 1962 and substituting it for another note for Griffin telling him about her suspicions about Sam, while setting out to rescue Harper herself.
