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A Brief 13 Reasons Why Recap, Because It's Been a While Since You Listened to the Tapes

05/04/2018 - 06:45 PM

Netflix's 13 Reasons Why [1] garnered criticism and praise in its first season thanks to the teen show's graphic depictions of suicide and sexual assault. It was never an easy viewing experience, but the heartbreaking story behind Hannah's death was a reminder of the impact we have on each other's lives.

Season one began with Clay Jensen receiving a box of tapes [2] from Hannah Baker, his former classmate who had recently died by suicide. Each tape took Clay deeper into Hannah's world, and revealed a tangled web of secrets that seemed to involve all of the major players in his high school. By the time the first season ended, Clay had learned the terrible truth about Hannah's suicide, and another one of his classmates was driven to attempt to take his own life.

13 Reasons Why [3] is set to return for a second season in 2018, and if it's been a while since you listened to the tapes, then you likely need a refresher about what went down in season one. Don't worry, we've got you covered with a full recap of everything you need to know about the teens of Liberty High School before the new season starts.

Hannah Baker

Season one begins with Hannah's suicide, leaving her classmates shaken, particularly Clay. Through flashbacks it's revealed that Hannah recorded 13 tapes before her death, with each one directed at someone she feels contributed to her death [4]. Her troubles begin almost the moment she moves to town. From Justin, her first kiss, taking photos of her without her permission to her friend Alex's "hot list" leading to her being groped daily by the boys in the school, Hannah begins to sink into a depression that the people around her can't seem to see.

The one bright spot in her life appears to be Clay. Through flashbacks, viewers watch the two grow closer until they finally share a first kiss during a back-to-school party. Unfortunately, Hannah is so traumatized from being repeatedly assaulted by the boys in her school that she ends up freezing and screaming at Clay to get out when things get too intimate between them, even though she says on the tapes that she wants him to stay. He leaves her alone at the party, and she ends up witnessing her friend, Jessica, being raped by the school's most popular jock, Bryce.

Hannah's mental health continues to get worse after the events of that night, until she too is raped by Bryce. She attempts to confide in the school's counselor, Mr. Porter, but he tells her to move forward with her life. Feeling as if she has nowhere left to turn, she ends up recording the tapes, giving them to Tony, and then slitting her wrists in the bathtub, leaving her family and Clay devastated.

Despite Hannah's story seemingly being wrapped up in the first season, the character is set to return for season two, and actor Katherine Langford promises that fans will see a different side to Hannah [5].

Hannah's Parents

Olivia and Andrew Baker [6] are grieving their daughter at the beginning of season one, while at the same time dealing with their failing drug store. Hannah's parents are certain that the school is in some way responsible for their daughter's death, and they're pursuing a lawsuit against Liberty High. Olivia finds multiple pieces of evidence that point to her daughter being bullied, including Alex's "hot list."

At the end of the first season, Tony puts all of Hannah's tapes on a USB, and then he gives them to Hannah's parents. The season ends with them listening to the tapes, which could be the evidence they need to take down the school over their inaction surrounding Hannah being harassed and bullied.

Clay Jensen

Clay is on a mission to find out what happened to Hannah, and his journey is intensified when the tapes end up in his hands. Unlike the other students who receive Hannah's tapes, Clay listens to each one slowly, and then confronts the people Hannah names. This puts him in a dangerous position, as people like Justin, Bryce, and Courtney all want him to stay quiet about what he hears.

The more Clay listens to the tapes, the more they seem to trigger his own issues with anxiety, although the show has yet to fully delve into Clay's past. However, Clay is determined to find justice for Hannah no matter how much the other students threaten him. Ultimately, he ends up getting a taped confession out of Hannah's rapist, Bryce, even though he suffers a beating for his efforts. In the finale, Clay confronts Mr. Porter and tells him the full story of the final day of Hannah's life. He also hands over the tapes to the counselor in the hopes that he will choose to do the right thing with them.

In the final shot of the season, Clay is seen riding off into the sunset with Tony, Tony's boyfriend, and Skye, a barista that Clay has reached out to in hopes that she doesn't feel as if she has nowhere to turn like Hannah ultimately did.

Clay's Parents

Clay's parents spend most of their time being understandably stressed out over their son's mental state after the sudden loss of not just one of his friends, but two. They insist on family breakfasts, and try to give Clay his space even as they let him know that they're there for them. In a twist, Clay's mom, Lainie, ends up representing the school in the Bakers' lawsuit — a move that her son is not a fan of.

However, once Lainie realizes that Clay and Hannah had been close, she offers to give up the case if it will help her son.

Jessica Davis

Jessica [7] and Hannah both start Liberty High around the same time, and they're paired up as buddies. This leads to them becoming best friends for a while. Alex later joins them, and they become a support system for each other until Jessica and Alex begin dating. A rift forms between the friends, and when Alex's "hot list" names Hannah's ass the best in the sophomore class, Jessica slaps Hannah, and accuses her of being involved with her boyfriend.

After her rift with Hannah and breakup with Alex, Jessica begins dating Justin. On the night of her back-to-school party, Bryce rapes her while she's unconscious, and Justin fails to stop his friend from assaulting his girlfriend. He's also determined to keep it a secret from Jessica, until Clay pushes the issue. Once she finds out what really happened at the party, she begins to spiral.

Not only does she cut ties with Justin, Jessica begins drinking heavily, and appears to be interested in making Bryce pay for what he did to her. She doesn't reveal that she knows about the tapes when she's called in to give a statement for the Bakers' case against the school, but she also doesn't want Clay to destroy them.

Tony Padilla

Throughout season one, Tony is seen as an ally to Clay [8], and someone who appears to get along with everyone while staying just outside of the school's drama. He is the person that Hannah trusted with her tapes, and he takes her final wishes so seriously that he's initially against the idea of going to the police or to her parents. Instead, he offers his unwavering support to Clay, and protects him from the other students whenever he can.

Ultimately, Tony begins to agree with Clay that it's better to find some justice for Hannah than it is to blindly follow her instructions to pass the tapes from student to student. At the end of the season, he copies all of the tapes over to a USB drive and gives them to Hannah's parents.

Bryce Walker

Bryce is the most popular guy in school, in addition to being a star athlete. His parents rarely ever seem to be home, but he undeniably lives a life of privilege that he uses to manipulate the other students. He often provides Justin with a place to crash when things get too bad at his home, which leads Justin to feel indebted to him. This leads to inaction on Justin's part when Bryce rapes an unconscious Jessica at the party. He is also seen harassing Hannah on multiple occasions before he gets her alone in a hot tub at a party and rapes her as well.

When Clay confronts Bryce about his actions, he shows no remorse [9]. He beats Clay for daring to threaten him, but he also admits what he did. Clay records the confession without Bryce realizing it. Given the long list of his misdeeds, one of the other students on the tapes, Tyler, suggests that they use the jock as a scapegoat. However, the others refuse to turn Bryce in for fear that they will get into trouble, too.

Justin Foley

Justin [10] is the first person that Hannah ever kisses, and he betrays her by taking photos of their interaction without her consent. He later shares them with his friends, leading to Bryce forwarding them to the entire school. Thanks to his troubled home life, Justin often relies on Bryce to give him a safe place to stay. However, Bryce uses this to manipulate him.

At the party, he and Jessica are going to sleep together until he realizes that she's too drunk to consent. He intends to leave her alone, but Bryce forces him to open the door to Jessica's room, leading to her rape. Afterward, he's desperate to keep the information about what happened that night away from his girlfriend. In fact, he's so dedicated that he even threatens Clay with violence to keep the truth from coming out.

Once Jessica discovers that she was in fact raped, and that Justin allowed it to happen, she dumps him. Justin then tells her that he will kill Bryce if she'll take him back, but she's not interested.

Alex Standall

Aside from Clay, Alex is the student who is the most upset after receiving Hannah's tapes. He feels extremely guilty about the ways in which his actions made her life harder, and he appears to be struggling with depression. Alex has withdrawn from his friends, and he understands Clay's desire to bring Bryce to justice, but he also wants to admit his own culpability. He is the one character who consistently feels that they should all share the blame, and he faces major conflicts with the others as a result.

Ultimately, Alex's guilt becomes so intense that he shoots himself in the head [11]. He is in critical condition at the end of the finale.

Tyler Down

Tyler [12] is a nerdy photographer who deals with intense bullying at school. He stalks Hannah by hanging around outside of her window and taking photos of her, and when she refuses to go on a date with him, he distributes photos of her kissing Courtney in retaliation. When Clay finds out what Tyler did to land on the tapes, he sends a naked photo of Tyler to the entire school, because he feels it will in someway offer Hannah some small bit of justice.

Instead, his actions only make Tyler's already difficult high school experience harder. In the finale, he's seen with a huge cache of guns [13], and it's implied that he could be contemplating a school shooting.

Liberty High School Officials

The principal and teachers at Liberty High are shown to be negligent at best during season one. They actively deny that they could have prevented Hannah's suicide, and Mr. Porter goes so far as to destroy evidence of Hannah's visit to his office on the day of her death. Clay's mother is representing them in the lawsuit, which they seem confident they can win, as long as those mysterious tapes everyone keeps talking about don't surface.


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