The next paragraph already contains spoilers, so this is your last chance to turn back now if you haven’t watched the whole season yet. SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT!
This season of ’13 Reasons Why’ was all over the map (in terms of storytelling) and this post might be too. Aside from the focus on Clay’s mental health it seemed unsure of what it was trying to accomplish and even now I’m struggling with where to start in discussing it. I think the best way might be by breaking it down into biggest events of this season and then a character round-up. Fair warning that I’m going to discuss Justin last and it’s going to be a novel, because in all honesty, his ending left me (and most fans of the show) pretty shocked and upset for numerous reasons. Yes, it made a lasting impression, which is what creators usually want, but did they make the right lasting impression?
Anyway, here’s your itinerary:
– Avenging Monty.
– Tracking Apps.
– Lockdown
– Walkout.
– Character Round-up
– Justin
Avenging Monty
At the end of season 3 we were introduced to the next plot already. Winston (Monty’s hook-up? Boyfriend? Lover? All of the above?) was going to find out who framed him for Bryce’s murder, because as we know Monty was killed in jail. I had a few issues with the idea of the plotline, because first of all, Winston claiming to be in love with Monty after first being beat up by him and then sleeping with him one time is pretty problematic all on its own. Secondly, Winston trying to insert himself into the original “gang’s” storyline was too reminiscent of Ani last season, which is unfortunate, because she was made to be such an annoying character. I’m sure that’s part of the reason she disappears for a while this season. Still, I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, but Winston’s plotline was so easily lost and forgotten repeatedly with everything going on in the show and Diego’s presence. Diego was another issue altogether, because while it might have started by him wanting to find out who framed his friend, it really just felt like he was spending his time pranking Clay and seeing how far they could push him. If all that lackluster wasn’t enough the whole plotline ends in the most anti-climactic way when Winston finds out that Alex was responsible for Bryce’s death and…does absolutely nothing, because apparently he loves Alex too. C’mon now, writers, you totally missed the mark on what you were selling this season as and it really felt like you abandoned ship on this storyline.
Tracking Apps
There were two moments this season when I thought I had accidentally clicked on ‘Riverdale’ instead. 1. The camping trip episode – which seemed to be one big hallucinated horror dream (what was the purpose anyway?) and 2. The parents tracking their kids on apps that they downloaded to their phones (which the kids don’t delete even after figuring it out…?). The parents all meet at the school to discuss how the tracking is going and while their intentions are meant to keep their kids safe from anymore….you know…murder and stuff, it just comes across as an episode of ‘Black Mirror’ combined with the most cringe of ‘Riverdale’. Yet, still a sad reality, because I feel like this tends to be the relationship a lot of parents have with their teenaged kids nowadays.
Lockdown
My sister had told me to let her know once I had reached episode 6, to presumably text her my thoughts throughout it. This episode was harrowing for its content, but I also felt like this was the point where it started to redeem itself, because it didn’t back down. It painted a horror show of a mocked shooting and you had to watch characters live through it in confusion and fear, because they had no idea that it was a drill the whole time and neither did we (the audience). For the duration of the episode I was rapidly texting my sister predictions and worries about who the shooter could be and yelling at my favourite characters to quit making ridiculous decisions. After all the panic I felt just as angry as Clay did when it was revealed that the entire elaborate lockdown was a drill. What. The. Actual. Heck?! I have never quite understood why we practise lockdown drills at all, to be honest, but that’s a whole other discussion to be had, so I won’t digress. On the show you witness what could very well be causing the characters PTSD. One kid is rocking back and forth on the floor, Clay is talking to “ghosts” of students that he hates, Alex’s TBI acts up and he has a full blown panic attack, almost giving everyone away by yelling. Zach and Winston get high and share secrets in case one of them dies, Tyler locks himself in a washroom stall and Jessica calls home in tears to make a “last call” in case she doesn’t survive. This. Is. Trauma. How does this do anything to help? This, in my opinion, was by the far the most suspenseful episode ‘13 Reasons Why’ has ever written. I hope it continues to spark conversation and raise awareness for gun control and mental health.
Walkout
Another moment that I was happy to see the show cover this season was police brutality and white privilege. We see it a bit in season 3 when a police officer drops all of Tony’s things onto the floor during a search, yet all the white kids have their belongings searched through respectfully. A similar scenario is shown earlier in season 4 when an officer confronts Tony and pronounces his last name incorrectly on purpose. The issue reaches its peak when Justin and Diego have a fight in the hallway and an officer intervenes. Diego is immediately targeted over Justin and slammed against the lockers. Justin tries to help and take some of the responsibility, but is shoved aside and a gun is pulled on an already terrified Diego. Both are held at gunpoint against the lockers, but it is only Diego who is taken into custody. Of course the students are outraged and stage a walkout. The school’s reaction? Call in more cops with riot gear. What?! Running on adrenaline the students charge and a fight breaks out until a car is literally set on fire and explodes. Maybe it seems absurd, but why do I feel like the show predicted the future if they don’t start changing now? Let me be clear that I’m on the students’ side for this one, but you would definitely think something would happen as a repercussion to the their actions, right? Nope… They even win their prom back if Jessica promises not to cause anymore “trouble”. One of the show’s biggest problems is that they expose you to a lot of huge issues, but they don’t go into enough depth to show any solutions or changes. Half hour shows like ‘Degrassi’ even did a better job exposing these kinds of issues and providing its audience with possible solutions or at least showing damage in their wake better than ‘13 Reasons Why’ does with an hour an episode. Instead they tried cramming too many huge issues into the few episodes they had left in their series and instantly forgot about them by the next episode. When what they should have been doing this season was tying up loose ends and bringing closure to each characters’ storyline, because if this show got anything on point, it was their casting choices. The content wasn’t always great or handled delicately enough, but the acting was always consistent and despite some mediocre writing, the audience stuck around because they cared about the characters.
With that said…
Character Roundup! (The Original Main Cast Edition)
Tyler
Let’s start on a happier note! Tyler had been one of my favourite characters since season 1 and I was crossing all appendages that he would get a happy ending (I was also doing the same for Tony, Justin and Zach, but we’ll get there…). Tyler represented every kid that had difficulty making friends in school because maybe they were a bit awkward socially or no one understood them or their interests. I knew a lot of kids like Tyler in school. They were some of my favourite people because they were so incredibly unique and weird in the greatest way. Over 4 seasons ‘13 Reasons Why’ showed both extremes of what could happen to a kid like Tyler; one being negative and one being positive. I’m thankful that they ended his story on such a positive note. One connection can be enough to save a life or several lives.
Jessica
Truth be told, Jessica was never one of my favourite characters and I think that was because of how hypocritical and contradicting she could be. Obviously these were all coping mechanisms, but I found it annoying more than anything else. I wasn’t a fan of how she continuously played her friends and their emotions like pawns in a chess match because she didn’t know how else to deal with her own problems. Alex and Justin were her favourite boys to play games with and she was either too flippant or too aggressive when another challenge arose. You can probably imagine how peeved I was when one of Jessica’s last scenes is with Diego at the clinic after they both test negative for HIV. It’s a bit unclear how much time has passed since Justin died, but a month seems pretty quick to approve Diego asking her out. It’s thankfully not Jessica’s last scene in the series, but I’d predict her having many issues in her future. She never did learn how to be single and properly love herself first. Until she can do that, none of her relationships will work out.
Tony
Tony and his red Mustang have my heart. He’s not without flaws, but Tony remained a solid friend until the very end of the show. His storyline with his family being deported is another that really mirrored reality and I was happy that his father lectured him enough to realize that he could let go of the shop, which wasn’t even his dream in the first place. Also kind of weird, because I felt consistently confused anytime Tony was shown as a student in high school. Are we supposed to believe he’s a teenager? He has the maturity and responsibilities of a 35 year old man (well, some 35 year old men). Anyway, I like how the series showed Tony venting his anger in a healthier way (boxing), and in the end it was boxing that got him into a good school. I was emotioned out by the last scene in the series, but if I had still been capable of feelings, I bet I would have been teary eyed to watch Tony and Clay driving off into a new adventure.
Zach
I was literally the heart eye emoji when Zach played the piano this season and then surprised us all by deciding to skip out on coaching sports to take up music instead. Zach has been another favourite throughout the series for me. He’s done some annoying things too, but he always made things right in the end. One of my favourite Zach moments in the series is when he goes against his mother’s wishes and takes his little sister home when there is a celebration for Bryce (a rapist). So I’m with everyone else questioning why the writers felt the need to take it so far with Zach this season. I understood the downfall, but was it necessary to have him so wasted that it was hinted that he was about to rape the woman he brought to prom after she basically passed out on the couch? That felt like a whole other character in that moment and completely ruined Zach for a lot of fans. I’m really happy we didn’t end it there with him, because holy moly. NO. I would rather focus attention on his relationship with Alex this season. I adored how he handled Alex kissing him on the rooftop. That was approached in all the right ways and exemplified exactly why Zach is so loved. Let’s continue to pulverize toxic masculinity!
Alex
I still can’t handle the fact that Alex was let off the hook for murder so easily and I had difficulty empathizing with him anytime he was triggered by guilt over what he did. That’s probably why I have such mixed feelings over his ending in the show. Exactly why did Alex get the happiest ending? Even he kept saying he didn’t deserve it, and, well, no… At least not so easily. Then when he did find love it was of course with Charlie – the sweetest character on this show by far (as sweet as someone can be as an accessory to covering up a murder). When Alex was continuously ignoring or shutting down Charlie’s elaborate prom-posals I was ready to smack my T.V. No, I really don’t think you deserve Charlie either, but if this is how it’s going to play out then you better accept the proposal, you little twit! Of course Alex isn’t all bad. None of the characters are all bad and that’s what makes this situation so complicated. Yet Alex was a lot like Clay in that he was always making terrible choices and it was really frustrating to watch.
Monty
I understood why Monty’s “ghost” kept showing up this season and I actually did like the fact that Clay asks if Monty could ever forgive him for framing him for the murder of Bryce. As horrible as Monty was, he didn’t deserve to be murdered in jail and then have his name attached to a murder he didn’t commit. I’m still not sure the Winston and Monty dance was needed, but, hey, to each their own. I personally found the pairing problematic, but I know a lot of fans sold their souls for “Wonty” content, so I hope they’re happy with the ending.
Bryce
Again, I could understand why they had Bryce’s “ghost” return this season, but I didn’t find it as needed as Monty’s. For me Bryce already had his closure at the end of season 3 when the group listened to his tape. It showed signs of actual remorse and change. I would have preferred that they left it there, but it wasn’t so much about Bryce this time as it was Jessica. Which is why Bryce’s ghost was back to being so aggressive and saying all the wrong things, because that’s how Jessica would envision him. It could also be that the writers felt like Bryce was given too much empathy by the end of season 3 and wanted to backtrack and remind the audience how problematic he was. If that was their intention then they succeeded. When Bryce walks away at the end it feels like a villain calling it a day.
Courtney and Ryan
I mean, it was nice to know that they still visit and are still a part of that group even though they graduated a year earlier. However, their presence would have had greater impact if you weren’t missing…
Sheri and Marcus
Uhm, where were they??? Was there scheduling conflicts with the actors? I hope it was scheduling conflicts and not just the writers’ lack of attention.
Clay
I have found Clay a sometimes difficult character to like since the beginning, either because he wasn’t doing anything or because he was doing too much. This season was a particularly difficult one to be “team Clay” for because of how he was 1. Throwing himself into dangerous situations repeatedly because he has some kind of weird hero complex. 2. Never having to face repercussions for his ridiculous actions and 3. Having complete disregard for others’ feelings (especially Justin this season). Obviously not all of this is his fault, because we later find out that he has dissociation disorder. Which is also pretty frustrating when you realize everyone must see what a mess Clay is, but don’t actually do anything to help. His parents are the biggest culprits for not insisting he get even further help or treatment than he already was. Then again, Clay easily escaped the hospital after being admitted – leading to one of my favourite, “funnier”, Justin moments of the whole season:
Justin: “He left? You mean he escaped?”
Police: “Yes.”
Justin: “HOW!?”
Right? How?! Some system they’ve got going there in their little town. Dylan Minnette did such an amazing job portraying Clay this season through all the breakdowns and raw emotional scenes. When I was annoyed with Clay I was yelling at my T.V., when Clay was heartbroken over Justin I cried too. By the end of the season we are left with some hope that Clay is on the road to getting his life back together after so much loss. I just hope they actually medicated him properly this time to get him where he needs to be.
Also, did we ever find out what the design Clay was tagging everywhere meant? It sort of looks like a ‘V’ with a squiggly arrow through it. MAYBE a hint for a possible continuation of stories in a fifth season if the ‘V’ represents roman numerals and the arrow is pointing to the future…? Let’s be honest though, who wants to watch a fifth season of ’13 Reasons Why’ if Justin Foley isn’t physically present and thriving in college?
Which leads us to…
Justin
Justin was always a character I liked, but I didn’t even realize exactly how much until the last two episodes, so let’s talk about what everyone actually cares about this season: WHOSE DUMB IDEA WAS IT TO KILL OFF JUSTIN FOLEY?!
I imagine that very few people are happy about what happens to Justin and more so how it happens. Except maybe the writers…who ultimately decided to take one of the most loved characters since season 2 and make every terrible thing imaginable happen to him within the 10 episodes of season 4. I just finished re-watching the series and had forgotten about a lot of things that happened. Even from season 1 you’re able to tell that Justin isn’t going to be the jerk jock that you assume he’ll be because he’s shown as being a pretty empathetic character with a conscience. Throughout the series you see this put into motion: like his attempt to apologize to Hannah for his poor decisions or taking responsibility for the role he played in Jessica’s rape by testifying or looking out for Clay like a brother would. Knowing what his ending would be, re-watching the series hit a lot harder. Like anytime I watch ‘Titanic’, I’m always going to hope it ends differently.
I actually do understand why the writers made the choice to have Justin die, however, I feel like their approach was executed all wrong. With what we know now about HIV and AIDS, Justin’s illness should have been a more center point for discussion starting from season 2! I am not a doctor, nor do I know much beyond the basics of what HIV is/does and how it is transmitted, but from a quick search and a bit of reading individuals’ first-hand experiences with the disease I have gathered that HIV takes 10-15 years to progress to AIDS, and even then 1-2 years before it severely affects an individual. In rare cases I read that it can spread much faster and that HIV could progress to AIDS within a couple years, but when you literally had Justin dancing at his prom before dying days later, nothing about it felt right. I myself had noticed the lesions on Justin’s neck and face around halfway through the season, but my brain didn’t make the connection. At first I thought the one on his neck was a hickey (I mean, it is Justin Foley after all). Then when he had the flu, I figured he was going through withdrawal again. Upon a second viewing of season 4, I tried to keep tabs on symptoms and realized he not only had lesions on his neck and face, but also on his stomach, back and hands. Justin must have known for sure that something was wrong, but was either too afraid to have anything confirmed, or didn’t feel like he was worth saving.
HIV is no longer the death sentence it was in the 80s, so long as a person is tested and treated for it. You wouldn’t guess that based on how the show approached the issue. Instead of using fear tactics by having Justin die because he wasn’t tested, I feel like the writers could have really utilized his character to educate their audience (both young and “old”). We could have went on the entire journey with him if they had introduced his HIV diagnosis in season 2 when he returned from living on the streets, instead of having some crash course filler from the doctor. It felt very irresponsible in how it was all revealed to the audience within a half hour period to digest, process and grieve, because 40 minutes into the episode Justin passes away. Even then, if this was going to happen, then maybe more attention should have been placed on Justin’s storyline this season. I imagine the writers made the choice they did because they thought it was bringing awareness to HIV and AIDS and that it would bring Clay’s character some kind resolution about life, but I really wish they had used their platform to better educate about the disease and to show that someone could lead a relatively normal and healthy life if they sought out help and treatment in time. I don’t even remember if it was addressed in the show at all that if Justin had been tested earlier he could have been treated. The creator discusses the fact in an interview, but where was that information in the show? It’s a bit important, no? Some of your viewers may not even know what HIV is. I think this series had already shown multiple times what can happen when you don’t get the help you need. How great would it have been to show the outcome if help WAS received? I can’t say I’m surprised though, because there was a lot this show probably didn’t address in the best way they could have. In short, if they really needed Justin to die, they could have picked any number of alternative ways for it to happen. Or maybe just not have it happen at all. His life was tragic enough.
We really need to acknowledge Dylan Minnette and Brandon Flynn’s acting this season as Clay and Justin respectively. That goodbye scene is by far one of the most difficult and emotional scenes I’ve watched in a TV series. First of all, kudos to the makeup department for actually making Brandon look downright ill. Justin was pale and sweaty and had lesions all over. Brandon nailed a raspy voice and inconsistent breathing pattern when he was trying to speak or even just lying still. He didn’t overact the shaking, groaning and wheezing, so I was believing it all. The writing itself is nothing special, but the delivery of the lines on Brandon and Dylan’s part easily had me drowning in my own tears. Dylan was fantastic at pausing in the right moments and for the right amount of time; his emotion felt all too real and it was so easy to believe that these two cared about one another like adoptive brothers. “Will you hold my hand, bro?” sounds so simple, but the way Justin has to pause to breathe and compose himself through emotion to get the words out hits you hard (and don’t even get me started on the fact that Clay is still holding Justin’s hand when he flat lines later). The way he tries to laugh about it, but is crying made me ugly sob. I am not joking or exaggerating when I say I cried off my makeup. I literally did. The vulnerability between these two characters in that scene alone is beautiful and heartbreaking. I don’t think it’s something we see happen very often between two platonic male characters in a television series. Such a great reminder that boys have emotions. Boys can cry. Boys can be afraid. Boys can love one another romantically or platonically or in any which way they want and say it aloud. Boys can hold hands. Boys can let their guard down and show vulnerability.
Give them an Emmy for that scene alone! If we didn’t know they could act before, we sure as heck do now! And I suppose some credit needs to be given to the writers. They wanted you to be rooting for Justin by the end, and gosh darn it, we all were! This show began with Justin confronting Clay and ended with Justin comforting Clay. I consider that a fully redeemed character and that’s why his death is so difficult for fans to digest. J.T. Yorke level of sad in my books.
However, no one loves Justin Foley more than Brandon Flynn, so in case watching Justin die wasn’t emotional enough for you, try and get through Brandon discussing Justin’s story:
’13 Reasons Why’ is not a perfect show and a lot of people feel very strongly that it is a dangerous show for teenagers to watch. I am not a teenager, but being an active participant on Twitter it seems like the show covered many issues that are relevant to the younger generation. What right do we have to say ’13 Reasons Why’ is too problematic for them to watch? Maybe it’s exactly what they need to be watching. I agree that some episodes are extremely difficult to view, but like ‘Degrassi’, it’s not necessarily the episode that is important, it’s the conversation that (hopefully) follows it up. It shouldn’t be the end all be all, it should be the start for more meaningful discussions across generations. Teenagers are saying these storylines are relevant and relatable, so let’s start listening to what they have to say.