TV Review: 13 REASONS WHY: Season 1, Episodes 1-13 [Netflix]

13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 12: Tape 6, Side B

Tape 6, Side B contained an initially unbelievable event, until the viewer contextualized the event within all the other events of 13 Reasons Why. If something was going to push someone tittering over the edge, it would be what Bryce Walker did to Hannah Baker in Tape 6, Side B. Bryce was a predator who may not have understood what he was doing was wrong because of his absentee parents and privileged upbringing. Normally, a person would be bound by morals, a conscience, and a fear of the United States legal system. Bryce Walker seemed to live in a world without any of those guidelines or constraints. That lack of litigious fear, oversight, and moral-mooring created a morally corrupt individual.

The triumph of Tape 6, Side B was Clay Jensen getting Bryce Walker’s confession about Hannah Baker’s rape on tape. It was a victory for Hannah Baker post-mortem, something that she would never have imagined happening or that Clay would be resourceful enough to obtain. Clay’s howl of victory, figuratively speaking, could be heard across television and computer monitors around the globe. Viewers far and wide felt exactly like Clay Jensen did in that moment.

Not giving Bryce Walker Hannah Baker’s tapes was a wise move on Clay Jensen’s part. Those tapes probably never would have landed on the desk of Recipient 13 if Clay or Tony Padilla had done as Hannah wished. It was surprising that Tony didn’t realize that. Bryce Walker had too much to lose by proliferating those tape any further.

13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 13: Tape 7, Side A

Tape 7, Side A showed that Guidance Counselor Kevin Porter (Derek Luke) completely failed Hannah Baker when she needed him the most. In the key moment between Mr. Porter and Hannah, even Hannah knew that she was getting messed up advice from Mr. Porter.

To paraphrase: “Maybe you should move on. He will only be here for a few more months.” It was an incredible piece of dialogue.

How did Mr. Porter let a person that admitted to being sexually assaulted a week ago by a senior in his high school walk out of his office?

A Special Victims Unit police detective would have drawn the events of the evening Hannah Baker was raped out of Hannah through precise questioning, letting Hannah, the victim, fill in the details. Mr. Porter didn’t have that training but he also didn’t seem to care enough, especially considering what Hannah had said and suggested to him. In addition, Porter made assumptions and jumped to certain conclusions, at least that was what was implied, by the types of questions he asked and how he stirred those questions during his conversation with Hannah.

When Hannah said during Tape 1, Side A that she wished that the other guidance counselor, Mrs. Antilly, had still been present, that maybe things wouldn’t have turned out the way that they had if she were, it was a cryptic statement. By the end of Tape 7, Side A, the viewer knew exactly what Hannah Baker had meant.

As the rape occurred in Tape 6, Side B, the viewer literally saw the last remaining spark in Hannah peter out and die as Bryce thrust into her. It was the most graphic and horrifying moment in 13 Reasons Why next to Hannah’s suicide in Tape 7, Side A. Afterward, when Hannah Baker said to Mr. Porter that she was empty inside, that she felt nothing, the viewer could sense the authenticity behind those words. Throughout 13 Reasons Why, the viewer say how Hannah Baker had come to know those words intimately and believe them.

So had Clay Jensen.

Clay couldn’t save Hannah Baker. He hadn’t known that she’d needed saving or was friendless. But Clay knew that Skye Miller (Sosie Bacon) needed a friend. Clay stepped up to be that friend. Hannah Baker’s tapes had opened his eyes. Hannah Baker’s tapes had opened a lot of people’s eyes, including, hopefully, a few of the viewers’ eyes.

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