13 Reasons Why – Tape 3, Side A

By starrymag | April 25, 2017

By: Nicole Dintelman

 

Sometimes just one person, one random act of kindness, one voice of reason can change the future. Remember that.

 

In the last episode we learned the subject of Tape 2, Side B was the school photographer Tyler Down (Devin Druid). He was stalking Hannah (Katherine Langford) and taking photos of her at night outside her bedroom so she and another girl from school, Courtney Crimsen (Michele Selene Ang), made a plan to catch him in the act. The girls had a little too much to drink and ended up in Hannah’s room playing a game of Dare, which led to them making out. They didn’t know it at the time, but Tyler was outside the window ready to catch all of the action. Courtney was mortified when Hannah exposed the stalker as Tyler. Tyler promised Hannah that he gave her all of the photos, but he had sent one of them out via text to the entire school. No one in the school found out it was Hannah and Courtney, but Courtney still wouldn’t talk to Hannah after the whole ordeal went down.

 

Clay (Dylan Minnette) is still having issues listening to the tapes. He wants to stop, but Tony (Christian Navarro) still will not let him. Tony tells him he has to keep listening because it’s what Hannah wanted. Tony proves to Clay that there is, in fact, another set of tapes when he plays one in his car. Clay has the guys from the basketball team hounding him, Tony following him and his own conscience eating him alive. We think pretty soon he’s going to crack.

 

Let’s get into Tape 3, Side A and see if he does!

Boys are a$$holes and Girls are evil

 

Episode Five of “13 Reasons Why” starts off at the school dance. Hannah’s on one side of the gym and Clay on the other – neither one of them dancing. We sort of feel like this is a middle school dance where girls think boys have cooties, but there are some couples dancing so that’s progress we suppose. Jeff Atkins (Brandon Larracuente) comes and sits next to Clay and tells him to go dance with Hannah. Clay tells him that he knows that he can’t dance and Jeff replies, “Tonight you can, I promise.” Clay begins walking towards Hannah, all the while she’s thinking in her head that all boys are a$$holes. Well, not all boys when she looks up and sees Clay.

 

Hannah meets Clay in the middle of the dance floor and the two of them begin dancing to “The Night We Met” by Lord Huron. Hannah asks Clay if he’s been taking dance lessons and he tells her that he’s been watching “Strictly Ballroom,” to which Hannah laughs. Clay asks Hannah to stick with him, then asks her if she can do that – stick with him. She says that she can. Suddenly, Hannah pulls away from him and there’s blood on Clay’s clean white shirt where Hannah’s wrists were and she’s bleeding and pleading with him to help her and she’s again saying “boys are a$$holes.” Jeff yells to Clay “What did you do to her?” Jeff now has blood on his head, but we’re not sure where that came from. Courtney runs in and says “I’ll help” and raises a knife above her head and stabs Hannah in the back and Hannah says “And girls are evil.”

If you smell something, it’s probably Clay.

 

When Clay wakes up from that very vivid dream, admit it you were freaked out, too. He was drenched in sweat. He is taking his sheets downstairs and his mom met him and she asks him what he was doing. He tells her he was doing laundry, which she didn’t buy for a second. Mrs. Jensen (Amy Hargreaves) asks Clay if he’d had an accident, but Clay tells her he isn’t seven years old so he hasn’t had an accident in years. She still insists on doing his laundry and informs him to be at breakfast in ten minutes.

 

While at breakfast Clay’s dad asks him if he showered and Clay says totally. Mr. Jensen (Josh Hamilton) says, “I think it’s possible that you didn’t shower” and Clay confesses that he didn’t. What we’re wondering is if Clay’s dad could smell him, did he not even put on deodorant? Clay rushes out of breakfast to make a stop at Monet’s where we learn our next subject. None other than Courtney Crimsen.

Popular and nice just don’t mix.

 

Courtney is the most popular girl in school and on the surface one of the nicest. Hannah wanted so very badly for them to be friends. Once that picture of the two of them was out Courtney wanted nothing to do with her; however, was still friendly in public to keep up appearances. She even tried to get her to buy a ticket to the dance. Clay purchased one because he lost a bet with Jeff and Courtney told Hannah how much fun it would be if she were to come. Another ticket selling girl at the table makes a snide comment about Hannah’s backside and Courtney sticks up for her. Hannah is hoping maybe they could be friends after all, but we’re thinking that Courtney is pretty good at faking it.

 

While in the office Courtney runs into Clay’s mom. Courtney was there to make copies, but it wasn’t clear why Mrs. Jensen was there yet. Mrs. Jensen tells the secretary that she needed to see Principal Bolan (Steven Weber). Once inside the principal’s office, Mrs. Jensen makes it clear why she’s there – she’s representing the school district in the lawsuit against the Baker’s. Mrs. Jensen asks Principal Bolan general questions about the climate at Liberty High and he tells her that it’s been rough on everyone losing two students in the span of a month. Wait, what? Two students? Who’s the other one? We all know about Hannah, but who else has died? Does this have something to do with the blood on Jeff’s head?

The counselor needs training.

 

Mr. Porter (Derek Luke) pulls Tyler in to ask him about the photo that was sent around of his bare backside. It leads to him being pantsed in the middle of the hall. Mr. Porter asks him what Tyler could do to protect himself. Tyler wonders why is it that they always blame the victim. Tyler tells Mr. Porter that he and everyone else should be blaming the kids that make kids like him miserable and make kids like Hannah kill themselves. Mr. Porter tries to get Tyler to talk about Hannah, but Tyler storms out.

 

Courtney tells “the tape group” that Clay’s mom was at the principal’s office that day and, of course, they automatically thought that Clay told his mom about the tapes. Tyler tells the group that he wants in with whatever they were going to do, but he wasn’t welcome at the table. Rude much? Hannah’s parents pick up the rest of Hannah’s things for the lawyers to go through to see if there are anything for them to go through to gain any insight into why she made the decision that she did.

The Dance.

 

Hannah confronts Courtney a few days after everything went down with the Tyler situation about not talking to her and their talk is interrupted when Courtney’s friends sit down at the lunch table. The girls were talking about the dance and Courtney’s friends ask Hannah if she could drive because Courtney’s car was too old. Hannah asks her mom later that day if they can rent a limo, but Mrs. Baker says that would be too expensive and Mr. Baker (Brian d’Arcy James) says Hannah can just take the Jeep. Hannah says that the Jeep is a million years old, but resigned to drive it as her only choice. The night of the dance Mr. Baker surprises Hannah with a newly leased, brand new Jeep. Of course, Hannah’s friends thought that Hannah’s parents bought her a new car especially for the dance and she let them think that.

 

Tyler was there to greet them with his camera, claiming it was for the yearbook, and he’s lucky that Hannah didn’t break it. Jessica (Alisha Boe) and Hannah try to talk until Alex (Miles Heizer) interrupts the conversation just as quickly as it began. Alex tells Jessica he loves her and he wants to get back together with her, but she’s having none of that. We’re beginning to see sparks fly between Justin (Brandon Flynn) and Jessica at the winter formal as well. While Hannah is dancing with Courtney and her court, leave it to Bryce (Justin Prentice) to ruin everything. He seems to have figured out that it was them in the picture and wants an encore performance. Hannah brushes it off in stride, but it really upsets Courtney. There are also sparks flying between Tony (Christian Navarro) and Ryan (Tommy Dorfman). We’re totally on board with this, they’re super cute together.

Dreams do come true.

 

Clay and Hannah share a dance at Jeff’s urging. Just like in the dream, they find each other across the room and meet in the middle of the gym floor, but it’s during a fast song and Hannah tells Clay, “You look adorable.” They begin jumping around to the fast song and on the other side of the gym Courtney is doing damage control when asked by Montgomery (Timothy Granaderos) about the picture of her and Hannah again. Tony slows the music down and Hannah and Clay almost share a kiss, but it is interrupted by a very drunk Jessica. Hannah feels obligated to take care of her being that they used to be best friends. Before Hannah can get to Jessica she is confronted by Montgomery. Courtney tells him that Hannah was the one that liked girls and had asked Courtney to do a three-way with her and Laura (Gabrielle Haugh). Courtney also confirms that all of the Justin rumors were true. Hannah finds Courtney in the hallway and tells her how messed up what she did was. Hannah was there for her and now she was throwing her under the bus.

 

Hannah goes back into the gym to get Jessica and tells her it’s time to go home. Jessica is reluctant at first because she’s having so much fun, but finally complies. Montgomery tells Justin that Hannah is a “crazy lesbo” and Justin gets really mad and tells him to “F off.” Well, at least someone is sticking up for Hannah. Hannah is such a good friend. She’s taking care of a friend that hasn’t been there for her, who’s talked about her behind her back and who’s been a horrible friend to her. Unfortunately, Hannah’s battery is dead and Tony has to jump it. He also gives her a cassette tape with the song that she danced to with Clay. Hannah tells Tony that she loves that he still uses cassette tapes and that her parents still sell them in their store.

Clay is drowning in guilt, the rest of the group is on edge wondering what Clay will do next and we just want to get to the bottom of why did Hannah Baker kill herself?

 

After listening to Courtney’s tape Clay asks her to take a drive with him somewhere. He tells her that he’s not doing very well and Courtney radically agrees. Clay directs her to the cemetery where Hannah is buried.  We didn’t see that coming. Once at the cemetery, Clay tells Courtney that she has a part in what Hannah did and Courtney says that it was Hannah’s decision. However, Courtney is still reluctant. Courtney asks Clay what he thinks would happen if she were to come out when she has two gay dads, what would people think? Clay says it wouldn’t matter as she hid behind Hannah and ruined her reputation because she was afraid to accept who she was. Courtney gets really upset and leaves. We bet you can’t guess who shows up though. If you guessed Tony you’d be right! Good ole Tony! Always popping up when he’s needed.

 

Tony confesses that he hadn’t been to Hannah’s grave yet as he couldn’t bring himself to come. Tony also gives Clay a tape with the song that he and Hannah danced to that night. Clay had asked him about it at school that day, but couldn’t remember the name of the song. Clay tells Tony that he wishes he could go back so he could kiss Hannah when he should have, eat ice cream with her and do the things he should have.

 

Hannah’s grave doesn’t have a headstone on it yet so Clay rips out a piece of notebook paper and writes her name on it to lay in its place. After he leaves the cemetery, Clay is riding his bike home when Alex, Zach (Ross Butler) and Justin block the road and make him get in the car. Alex then tries to get the car to go as fast as he can to try and scare Clay. He succeeds, but then won’t slow down so they are pulled over. That’s when they all learn that Alex’s dad is a cop. Justin then tells Clay that they are bulletproof and Clay can’t touch them.

 

Finally, Clay makes it home and Mrs. Jensen finally tells Clay that she is representing the school in the lawsuit that the Baker’s filed against them. She asks Clay again about his relationship with Hannah and he again lies and tells her that he barely knows her. This rips Clay apart because the episode ends with Clay breaking down in the shower. Well, at least he finally showered. Until next time boys and girls when we’ll dive head first into Tape 3, Side B.

 

If you are struggling coming out to your friends and family The Trevor Project can help. They’re available 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386 or online at www.thetrevorproject.org.