The first season [1] of the hit Netflix [2] series 13 Reasons Why [3] tells the sad story behind Hannah Baker's death [4] through a series of cassette tapes [5]. Each tape is dedicated to one of her peers and outlines how that person's actions pushed her one step closer to suicide [6]. The second season [7], however, leaves that conceit behind in favour of courtroom testimony from the case Hannah's family files against the school district. Some of the testimony seeks justice for Hannah [8] while other portions tear her down [9] and reveal new secrets about their sophomore year [10].
The season gets pretty complicated, so here's a (near) complete breakdown of the major storylines.
Tyler Down
Tyler is the first to testify in the Bakers' case against the Evergreen School District, and he decides to tell the truth on the witness stand. Doing so makes him a pariah at school, so Tyler takes refuge in the friendship of a fellow outcast named Cyrus [11]. The two soon engage in a series of pranks aimed at Marcus Cole [12], Zach Dempsey [13], Ryan Shaver [14], and the new athletic field [15] donated by Bryce Walker [16]'s father. Unfortunately, Tyler's friendship with Cyrus falls apart when Tyler insults Cyrus's sister [17] and inexplicably posts pictures of their vandalism on Facebook.
Tyler's punishment for his misdeeds is a diversion program that takes him away from school for several weeks. Upon his return, Montgomery de la Cruz [18] and a couple other jocks attack and sexually assault Tyler with a broom handle [19]. The emotional incident destroys Tyler's resolve, so he prepares to attack the student body during the Spring Fling. Fortunately, Clay learns of the plan and stops Tyler [20] before can enter the school and open fire.
Courtney Crimsen
Courtney sets the record straight regarding the photograph where she's seen kissing Hannah Baker [21]. She reveals to the jury that had a crush on Hannah, and the only reason Hannah kissed her back was to help Courtney have a positive experience for her first kiss.
Jessica Davis
Jessica returns to Liberty High only to find that Bryce Walker [22] has twisted the story behind the night of her rape. He claims their hookup was her idea and that she concocted the assault story to spare Justin Foley [23]'s feelings. To add insult to injury, she receives a series of threatening notes and pictures designed to keep her from testifying [24]. When she does take the stand, she calls out the bullying culture at Liberty, but she is unable to admit the truth about Bryce.
Over the course of the season, Alex Standall [25] and Clay Jensen [26] help Jessica find her voice and even track down Justin to support her story. Ultimately, she shares the truth of her sexual assault with authorities, and Bryce finally faces charges.
Though she goes to the Spring Fling with Alex, Jessica ends up having sex with ex-boyfriend Justin in the locker room.
Marcus Cole
Worried about his family's reputation and his recent admittance to Harvard, Marcus lies on the witness stand. He claims Hannah Baker rejected him during Dollar Valentine because she secretly had a crush on Bryce Walker [27]. This lack of honesty makes him a target for Tyler Down [28] and Cyrus [29] who find a salacious video of Marcus getting a lap dance and use it to blackmail him into working against Bryce.
Ryan Shaver
Ryan testifies to the events surrounding Hannah Baker's poem [30] and discloses that much of her work has to deal with a continued infatuation with Justin Foley [31]. After the trial, he visits Hannah's mother [32] to apologize for failing to do more to help Hannah. Mrs. Baker then asks him inside to help her interpret several poems that contain information about "the Clubhouse."
Zach Dempsey
Zach's testimony leads to the truth about his relationship with Hannah [33]. In the Summer after sophomore year, after the infamous note taped to her compliment bag, Zach starts visiting the Crestmont to get closer to Hannah. The two soon become friends and then secret lovers in a pact to lose their virginity together.
Unfortunately, the relationship falls apart at the end of the season when Zach's baseball buddies return to town. Their mistreatment of Hannah during a trip to the Crestmont puts Zach in a tough position. Although he wants to defend her, he's unable to do so due to the secret nature of their relationship. Hannah sees this dilemma and decides to end their love affair to avoid further complication. Zach concludes his testimony sharing how much he regrets the decision to give up on the relationship and is sad to know that Hannah felt the same.
The Bakers
Olivia and Andy Baker find their lives torn apart in the wake their daughter's suicide. During Andy Baker's testimony, we learn the Bakers' marriage stood on shaky ground prior to the tragedy and that Hannah caught her father cheating with another woman. A series of flashbacks show Hannah threatening to tell her mother when her father refuses to confess. Eventually, we learn that the unnamed mistress is Andy's current live-in love interest.
Intertwined with the aforementioned storyline, we find Olivia Baker struggling to make sense of her daughter's secrets by pouring over her poems [34] only to find the entries Olivia originally believed to be about Hannah's school woes are actually a reflection of the struggles experienced during her parents' tumultuous partnership [35].
Season two ultimately leaves the door open for Olivia and Andy's marriage to be restored.
Kevin Porter
Mr. Porter's status as Liberty High's guidance counselor grows more tenuous as the trial progresses and as Hannah's tapes [36] become public domain. Because he feels guilty about his inability to help Hannah when she needed it most, he takes it upon himself to confront Bryce Walker [37] and his mother [38] about Hannah's rape. He also attempts to reach out to the other kids mentioned on the cassettes, but no one wants his help.
Despite receiving a brick through his car window telling him to "know his place," Mr. Porter testifies with the truth in mind. His statements align with Hannah's rather than the school district's. Then he reveals Bryce as Hannah's rapist and admits he could have done more.
After his testimony, he attempts to help Mrs. Baker [39] find evidence of "the Clubhouse," a storage shed on campus where the jocks party and often assault female students. They fail in the endeavor. Soon after, Mr. Porter loses his job over the trial testimony, but he remains diligent in his efforts to find justice for the kids affected by the school's series of tragedies.
Tony Padilla
Tony's episode opens on a shot of him and his new boyfriend sitting alongside his Mustang, which someone has vandalized as a warning not to testify [40]. But Tony seems more concerned about his role as a witness for the school district, who will want him to talk about how Hannah blamed people for her problems and wanted revenge on her enemies. Such a testimony would force the Baker's lawyer to counter by making him look unreliable. Tony realizes that whether he tells the entire story or plays things coy, he'll ruin the Bakers' lives as well as his own.
On the stand, Liberty High's lawyer succeeds in twisting his words so that Hannah looks like a bully while the Bakers' lawyer brings out his anger management issues and his probation for assault charges [41]. When pressed whether Hannah left written instructions for the cassettes, he lies and says that she did not. He then continues the lie by admitting he had no way of knowing Hannah's intentions and that he doesn't know why Hannah left him the tapes.
After the trial, he admits the truth to Hannah's mother telling her that Hannah left him the tapes because he owed her for protecting him from arrest during one of his assaults. The two bonded in that moment, and Hannah shared how she bullied a girl at her old school [42]. Tony explains to Mrs. Baker [43] that if he told the truth about why Hannah gave him the tapes, he'd also have to reveal her past. Basically, Tony didn't want that information exploited in court.
Bryce Walker
Bryce lies on the witness stand about his relationship with Hannah Baker [44] by building upon the bogus story Marcus Cole [45] told during his testimony. Bryce claims he and Hannah had "an on-again, off-again" sexual relationship that mostly took place at Hickman's Bridge where she would often talk about the frailty of life.
When asked if they ever had a committed relationship, he says he felt uncomfortable with the idea because Hannah had a reputation of being promiscuous. In addition, he claims Hannah wanted a deeper relationship and asked him for one the night of the hot tub party where they had sex. He goes on to say his refusal to persue a relationship spurred Hannah to claim rape.
This fake testimony has four major side effects. The first is an epic battle at school that starts as a brawl between Justin and Bryce but quickly escalates into a clash of good and evil as the jocks square off against the misfits. The second is that Chloe, Bryce's girlfriend, decides to testify on the Bakers' behalf. The third, and the creepiest, is that Bryce's mother confronts him about Hannah's assault, and he callously relays the truth behind the event [46]. The last is that Bryce reflects on the very real crush he had on Hannah. We learn that the pair did take platonic visits to Hickman's Bridge where he was the one to use the landmark as a metaphor for the fleeting nature of life.
Unfortunately, Bryce doesn't get prison time. He's on probation temporarily, and he agrees to transfer to another school. Oh, and he's also (likely) the father of Chloe's unborn baby.
Justin Foley
Instead of opening with testimony, this episode starts with a flashback to Justin's childhood, showing how he came to befriend Bryce Walker [47]. Then the scene shifts to the present where, in the hours following Bryce's false testimony, the boys finally cut ties. Justin rebukes Bryce's intimidation and lets his former friend know he will abandon all loyalties and testify in the Bakers' trial, "Bryce, I've got nothing left to lose — that makes me the dangerous one." The declaration is a powerful one knowing that Justin also had to deal with a neglectful mother, homelessness, and a heroin addiction before coming to this moment of strength.
Once on the stand, Justin describes Hannah as a sweet girl who often cared more about others than herself. He then tells how Bryce turned the innocent Rocket Slide photo into something lewd and how Bryce forced himself on Jessica during the infamous back-to-school party junior year. Of course, the school district paints Justin as an unreliable witness due to the amount of alcohol he drank that night and his heroine addiction.
So despite his best efforts, his last-minute testimony fails to help the Bakers' win their case against the school district, but it does play a role in Bryce's arrest for felony sexual assault and his own arrest as an accessory in Jessica Davis's rape case [48]. Clay's mother [49], who is an attorney, explains that Justin knew the arrest was the risk he faced in testifying but that he did so anyway . . . for Jessica and Clay Jensen's friendship.
The season ends with the Jensen family adopting Justin, but we still that he's still struggling with his heroin addiction.
Clay Jensen
Clay has two episodes dedicated to his point of view. The first is his testimony during the Bakers' trial, and the other revolves around a memorial for Hannah Baker [50] where Clay finally says goodbye to the girl he loves. But telling Clay's story isn't as simple as summarizing the two episodes, so we'll briefly cover three major plot points — the trial [51], the Polaroids [52], and the thwarted school shooting [53].
When Clay testifies, the words bounce back to hurt him. He tries to inform the jury that Hannah experienced bullying at Liberty High, but the defense argues his status as Tyler Down's bully (for the bare-ass photo) [54] and his vandalism of Zach Dempsey [55]'s car makes him a key part of the system he so desperately wants to condemn. They also cite a night he spent with Hannah doing molly [56] as a sign that she was already depressed and that her suicide wasn't the school's responsibility.
Meanwhile, Clay receives a series of Polaroids in his locker. The mystery develops into a conspiracy surrounding the jocks of Liberty High taking advantage of female students in a storage shed dubbed, "the Clubhouse." With the help of Justin Foley [57], Jessica Davis [58], Sheri Holland [59], and Tony Padilla [60], Clay discovers the location of the shed and obtains the incriminating Polaroids taken prior to each conquest.
Following Bryce Walker [61]'s contrived trial testimony and the sudden theft of the Polaroids, Clay resolves to take matters into his own hands. He heads to the Walker home with a loaded gun borrowed from Tyler, determined to threaten Bryce into telling the truth. The voice of Hannah rings in his head describing the rape, and we come to realize that Clay is having a major breakdown [62].
Justin Foley follows our hero and tries to reason with him. Clay replies, "No one's going to get justice for her . . . . I can't count on anyone else anymore. I have to do this myself." When Justin tells Clay that hurting Bryce won't bring Hannah back, Clay puts a gun to his head to stop the voice of Hannah. Clay looks as if he might pull the trigger, but Bryce walks onto the scene, and the voice stops. Clay knows that killing himself would mean victory for Bryce and a perpetuation of the cycle of the pain cycle that Hannah hoped to avoid.
In fact, the support Justin offers in this moment mirrors some of the advice Clay gives to Tyler in the final episodes of the season when the photographer attempts to shoot up the Spring Fling [63].