13 Reasons Why – Tape 2, Side B

By starrymag | April 21, 2017

By: Nicole Dintelman

 

How can everything on the surface seem fine, yet underneath be so very wrong? Everyone has a secret, you just have to know where to look.

 

In the last installment of “13 Reasons Why” we learned what landed Alex Standall (Miles Heizer) on the last tape. It was the ranking list that was started by Bryce (Justin Prentice) and the rest of the basketball team. Alex decided he would put Hannah (Katherine Langford) as having the best backside and Jessica (Alisha Boe) as having the worst since Jessica wouldn’t go all the way with him. This led to the destruction of Hannah and Jessica’s friendship and also unwanted male attention for Hannah.

 

Justin (Brandon Flynn) is still hiding out in Bryce’s pool house (we still don’t know why) and even though Jessica was able to get him to leave to find a Halloween costume he’s still not doing too well. Everyone at Liberty High is on edge these days with Mr. Porter (Derek Luke) poking around asking questions about what could have led Hannah to take her own life. What doesn’t make sense though is why? If these kids have nothing to hide, why are they all so scared?

 

Let’s listen to Tape 2, Side B and see if we’re given more clues as to what this group is hiding, shall we?

Don’t get caught, Clay.

 

If you remember from the last episode, Clay (Dylan Minnette) came home drunk and was grounded, well at least we think he was. His mom wanted to ground him, but his dad said to hold off on the sentence. Anyway, for the next tape, Hannah tells the listener that they have to be sneaky and not get caught. So what does Clay do? Sneaks out his window, of course. Not exactly sure that was what Hannah was going for, but it works.

 

Clay again runs his bike into a parked car. DUDE! Take some riding lessons. Hannah directs Clay to go to location A4 on the map. She said that A4 was the location of her stalker. Wait, someone was stalking Hannah? How did this not come up before now? We didn’t see anyone following her around in the first three episodes. Now Clay is outside someone’s window waiting to see who it is and Marcus (Steven Silver) sneaks up on him and scares the crap out of him! Clay doesn’t understand why Marcus is there and is even more confused because Marcus is in costume. Marcus tells Clay that he’s not the first to come to look at the famous window, just as Tyler Down (Devin Druid) walks into view.

Not just the school photographer.

 

From the outside looking in Tyler was the school photographer. He took pictures for the yearbook and for the school magazine, but he also used his camera for other sinister activities it seemed. One night after Clay walked Hannah home from work Hannah heard a camera shutter and she ignored it because she thought it must just be a tree branch. The noise chased her while she was getting ready for bed. At the time she didn’t know who was following her.

 

Clay follows the trail back to her house where he witnessed her parents arguing about trying to figure out who caused Hannah to take her life. Her mom want to keep fighting, but her father was tired of it. He wants to just let Hannah rest in peace. The next morning Clay’s dad (Josh Hamilton) lets him know that he was able to get the grounding lifted if he leaves his door open and starts opening up to them. Yes, all teenagers like telling their parents everything about their lives, right?

That girl’s name was Hannah.

 

Mr. Porter hosts a parent meeting for the parents to get tips on the signs of suicide. Many of the parents do have several questions and one parent asks: “Then why did that girl do it?” It is Mrs. Baker (Kate Walsh) who spoke from the back of the room and quips, “That girl’s name is Hannah.” Mrs. Baker then goes on to tell the parents if they want to know why Hannah killed herself they needed to go home and ask their kids. Hannah was bullied like a lot of kids at the school are. There is graffiti on the bathroom walls to prove it. Principal Bolan (Steven Weber) tries to calm Mrs. Baker down and get her to stop talking, but she tells him that this is something the school community needs to know.

 

After the parent meeting, Principal Bolan and Mr. Porter go to the restrooms to look at the graffiti and honestly can’t believe their eyes. The principal asks the counselor how they didn’t know this was there and Mr. Porter tells him that the administrators are not permitted inside the student restrooms. Our question is, the janitorial staff cleans the restrooms correct? Why didn’t a member of that staff let one of the administrators know these types of things were written on the bathroom walls? Surely they saw it. Principal Bolan orders for everything to be repainted immediately, but can you really repaint over the damage that’s already done? We think not.

The new friend and a trap.

 

Hannah bonds with Courtney Crimsen (Michele Selene Ang) in class when Courtney wakes her up after she’s fallen asleep. Courtney asks her what is making her so tired and Hannah confesses that she thinks she has a stalker. Courtney tells Hannah that the two of them can set a trap for the stalker. Hannah agrees and the girls plan for Courtney to spend the night with Hannah that evening.

 

Meanwhile, Clay confronts Tyler in the darkroom about what he did to Hannah. Clay tells Tyler that if he doesn’t delete and destroy the pictures then he will turn him in for stalking Hannah. Tyler explains to Clay that he wasn’t stalking her. He loved her and he knew that Clay loved her, too. Clay was still adamant that Tyler deletes the photos. At the costume contest later Marcus is still trying to get Clay to stop listening to the tapes and invites him over to Bryce’s for a party that night. He tells Clay that he will feel better if he stops listening. Tony (Christian Navarro) tells Clay that Marcus and his friends are lying to him and he needs to stay away from them.

Date Night.

 

Hannah sends her parents off on date night so that she and Courtney can put their “stalker takedown” plan into action. Hannah also decides that she and Courtney need liquid courage to get through the ordeal. We understand, busting a stalker is serious business. The girls, under the influence, totally begin to bond and open up to each other. Things started to go awry when the girls start to play a game of “dare.”

 

Courtney dares Hannah to kiss her. Courtney says it didn’t mean anything, but we’re thinking that to her it did. Pretty soon it was a makeout session, but Hannah heard the camera clicking, grabs a flashlight and exposes Tyler as her stalker. Courtney is furious that it was someone from school and they would know her secret. The next day at school Courtney wants nothing to do with Hannah. It was like they were never friends. Hannah gets the pictures from Tyler or so she thought.

An Acquaintance.

 

Clay is riding by the Baker’s house, like he does frequently these days, and sees some kids toilet papering the trees. While trying to stop them, Mrs. Baker came out and thinks it was him but he explains to her he was trying to stop them and he was friends with Hannah. Mrs. Baker invites Clay inside to talk and he reluctantly goes inside. Once inside Clay sits down with a distraught Mrs. Baker. Clay tells her that he and Hannah worked together at the Crestmont and Mrs. Baker wants to know if she talked to him about school. He lies and tells her that she didn’t and then excuses himself to the bathroom.

 

Before making his way back to the living room he stops in the doorway of Hannah’s bedroom, where Mrs. Baker finds him and asks him what he was doing. He tells her he got turned around, but he was really imagining Hanna there. Mrs. Baker tells him that she remembers him as she saw him staring in Hannah’s window a couple of nights before. She told Clay she isn’t angry, but wants to know if he would help her go through some of Hannah’s things. Clay tells Mrs. Baker that he really needs to get home. Mrs. Baker pleads with Clay, telling him they didn’t get a note – they had no reason why their daughter did this and to them she was an acquaintance. When Mrs. Baker goes to get Hannah’s things Clay sneaks out of the house. Nice one Clay, real nice.

Another group text.

 

Tyler tells Hannah he gave her all of the pictures, but that was before he sent one of them out via mass text to half the school. The picture was of Hannah and Courtney kissing and Courtney was not happy about it. Luckily, it was hard to tell who was in the picture, but Courtney didn’t think that it would take long for people to figure it out. Many of the students thought it was two boys or tried to guess which two girls it was – no one thought it was Courtney and Hannah.

 

Clay has reached the point where he has had enough. He is ready to box up the tapes and send them to someone else. He puts them in his backpack and tells his parents he has to go somewhere after dinner, but when he got downstairs Tony is waiting for him. Oh Tony, still always popping up at the right time. Clay doesn’t believe there was a second set of tapes so Tony pops a tape into the tape deck in his car and the tape starts playing. Tony called your bluff Clay, what now?

We’re on the edge of our seat and have no idea what’s next!

 

Once Clay figured out there was, in fact, two sets of tapes there was no way he was going to Bryce’s. He heads back over to Tyler’s and instead of throwing a rock through the window like everyone else had done he sees that Tyler is getting dressed for bed and snaps a photo, which he then mass texts to the school. Oy Vey. These kids fight dirty that’s for sure. Tony sent Clay a text asking “What the H-E-double hockey sticks?” and Clay writes back saying that he was making his own justice. Okay, we’re not sure who made him “Walker Texas Ranger,” but you go on with your bad self Clay. Apparently, his justice is an eye for an eye, which we’re not entirely sure is the right way to go.

 

This episode gave us a lot to process. Tyler is a camera-toting stalker, but let’s face it, most stalkers do carry a camera. Courtney is still exploring her sexuality and is embarrassed about it, but Hannah was totally willing to help her through it. However, Courtney didn’t want her help. Hannah seemed curious herself and we’re sad that she didn’t give herself more time to explore more. Justin is going to end (whatever that means) Clay if he doesn’t fall in line and stop listening to those tapes and Tony is still being weird.

 

Join us next time as we see who is the subject of “Tape 3, Side A.” If you’re like us you can’t wait to find out!

 

 

We’d also like to take the time to note: If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts or feelings of suicide please contact The National Suicide Prevention Line 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255.