13 Reasons Why – Tape 1, Side B

By starrymag | April 14, 2017

By: Nicole Dintelman

If you saw someone hurting and you were the cause do you think you would try to ease their pain or would you just go on as you always had and ignore the issue?

In the previous episode, Justin (Brandon Flynn) ruined Hannah’s (Katherine Langford) first kiss and then humiliated her at school, which landed him as the subject as Side A of the 1st tape. As we begin the second episode we’re all anxious to find out who the subject of Side B will be. However, before we can get to that, Clay (Dylan Minnette) is losing his mind. He’s seeing things that are not there, he’s not sleeping and he’s just acting a little nutty. Can we really blame him though? He is listening to tapes from a dead girl.

 

Clay has also made it his mission to punish Justin for what he did to Hannah. The problem is Justin has stopped coming to school and isn’t showing up for basketball practice either. Clay is starting to draw attention to himself, which in the case of this group of students is not a good thing. He’s not exactly stealth about eavesdropping on conversations or his detective work so he gets caught easily and frequently by anyone and everyone.

 

The former best friend.

 

Hannah and Jessica (Alisha Boe) met a couple of weeks after school started their Sophomore year. They were both new to the school and thanks to the school counselor she got them together thinking they could be friends. And, yes, that’s a little lame. Hannah and Jess were good sports about it though as they used their sarcasm to bond and actually did become great friends. Jessica had also experienced some of the things that Hannah had already experienced before she and Jessica became friends. They did everything together, told each other everything and it was easy to see why they became best friends.

 

While at Monet’s, the local coffee shop, one day after school they met Alex Standall (Miles Heizer). Alex was another new kid to town so the twosome quickly became a threesome. The three went to the coffee shop every day after school to talk about their troubles and used the phrase “FML” before announcing their issue. It seemed like nothing would separate these three, until one day it did and it got so bad between Hannah and Jessica that Jessica is the subject of Side B.

 

One plus one plus one equals a third wheel.

 

Something that Hannah wasn’t counting on was Jessica and Alex developing feelings for each other. When Alex stopped coming to the coffee shop after school she thought it was just because he started hanging out with Justin and his crew, but then Jessica stopped coming also. Then, Hannah saw Alex and Jessica making out at school in the cafeteria and put the pieces together and realized what really happened to their friendship.

 

It’s hard to tell if Hannah was really upset by the coupling, but we could tell that she was a little hurt. Maybe she also liked Alex more than a friend, but it was more about losing Jessica for her. Everyone needs a best friend and when you lose your best friend, you’d give anything to have them back. Hannah doesn’t understand if she lost Jessica just because she started dating Alex or if it was something more so this loss was especially hard for her.

 

The slowpoke

 

Tony (Christian Navarro) tells Clay he’s the slowest yet to listen to the tapes, but still won’t tell him who else has listened to them. Clay could be slow because while he’s listening he’s trying to right the wrongs of the past. So far that’s just with Justin and Jessica, but Justin is hiding out in Bryce’s pool house. Zach (Ross Butler) and Marcus (Steven Silver) are now asking Clay if he wants a ride home from school or better yet maybe he’d like to come with them to Bryce’s (Justin Prentice) house to “hang.” Yeah, we’re thinking that’s not such a good idea. Could they have already listened to the tapes? Does that mean they’re on one of them?

 

Clay finds Jessica at Monet’s and grills her some more about the tapes. Jessica, of course, tells him not to believe what he’s hearing and tells him that Hannah wasn’t as good of a person as he thinks she was. Clay asks Jessica what she thinks that Hannah would have to gain by lying about things that people would hear after she’s gone, and Jessica really can’t answer that question. Clay also let it slip that Zach and Marcus wanted to take him to Bryce’s house and asked her if she knew how he would have gotten these new friends and she replied: “They’re not your friends.” Hopefully, the subtext behind that will be explained soon.

 

Would you like a piece of Smack-Cake with your coffee?

 

After the fabulous three split apart and became the smooching two, Jessica and Alex met up at the Crestmont on a Wednesday night to see a movie. While this may not seem out of the ordinary, Wednesday nights are usually Hannah’s night off but she was covering someone’s shift for them so she was working the ticket booth. She gave Jess her ticket for free, “What good is having a best friend that works at the movies if you can’t get in free?” Hannah asked her. However, when Alex arrived she charged him the full ten dollar ticket price. Ouch. Guess maybe Hannah is a little mad at Alex.

 

A couple days after the movie encounter, Jessica told Hannah she needed to talk to her after school. Hannah knew that meant she wanted to meet her at Monet’s and that it wasn’t going to be a friendly chat. Once at Monet’s, Jessica instantly starts the conversation with “I should have known.” Hannah is a little confused, but then realizes she must be talking about the list. We’re all thinking, “What list?! Did we miss something?” Jessica then says she’s heard the rumors about Hannah and she knows how she is. Hannah tells her they’re just rumors, but Jessica isn’t listening and tells her that Alex broke up with her and accuses Hannah of being with him now. Hannah is thoroughly confused because she had no clue that Alex broke up with Jessica, none of us did. Still, Jessica did not want to hear it and called Hannah a slut. Having your former best friend slut shame you was a little more than Hannah could handle and she replied to Jessica “F**k you.” To that Jessica slapped her across the face. We think it’s safe to say these two won’t be making up anytime soon.

 

“Friendship…It’s Complicated.”

 

Hannah thought friendship was complicated and in our opinion she’s right. Friendships do take work on everyone’s part. According to Jessica, it was Hannah who stopped coming to Monet’s first and since Hannah isn’t alive to ask it’s now a she said/she said situation. Bryce, being the good friend that he is, is letting Justin stay in his pool house or hide out rather. Not sure why he’s hiding, unless he has something to hide. The word at school is he talked with the counselor, Mr. Porter (Derek Luke), then bailed and hasn’t been seen since. This group of friends has secrets and we’re guessing Hannah discovering some of these secrets could be some of the reasons that led to her taking her life.

 

Tony seems shady, but he is looking out for Clay. Clay is reluctant to trust him as he does always seem to show up at the weirdest times, but if he didn’t Clay would be in some serious trouble. It still remains to be seen why Tony had the tapes, but he’s not on them. Hopefully, Tony is going to be able to stop Justin and his friends from “dealing with Clay” since he’s now listening to the tapes. What are they so afraid of him hearing? Tony also seems to have a weird relationship with Hannah’s parents. Hannah’s mom (Kate Walsh) found a mysterious piece of paper in one of Hannah’s books that they retrieved from her locker with names on it attached to labels like “best lips,” “best kisser,” etc. and it was Tony they called. Could this be the mysterious list that Jessica and Hannah fought over?

 

Two episodes in and we can’t stop watching, nor do we want to.

“13 Reasons Why” is definitely going to rank as one of the best shows of 2017. We wouldn’t be surprised if it wins a few Golden Globes and/or Teen Choice Awards. It really is a show that will resonate with all age groups. We’re only into episode two and it’s already covered bullying and slut shaming. This series is keeping us on the edge of our seats and is one that keeps us pressing play for the next episode.