Dissecting 13 Reasons Why
- Andrea Ayala
- Jun 26, 2017
- 12 min read
Season two might just be around the corner. A lot of theories have been floating in the internet as to whose suicide story will it be. We were left hanging from season one on its season finale. There was Alex who shot himself and in critical condition. Although some people said Tyler could have shot him. Justine left his home town out of guilt. But before he did that, he told Bryce about Hannah’s tape and that clay have his confession about the rape. Jessica might tell her father that she was raped. Tyler bought a gun and we see that he have a lot of type of guns in a trunk in his room. Which made a lot of conclusions that he might go out on a shooting spree since it is a common thing these days in the U.S.
But enough of the theories on what season two will be. Let’s dissect season one. This new TV show that has made a lot of negative, as well as positive reviews.
At first I ignored this series when I first saw it pop up in my Facebook feed. A TV show about a girl being bullied and end up killing herself. But before that, she made these tapes as her suicide notes.
Episode One: We see here that Hannah Baker, the girl who killed herself and the main character of the story is already dead. The whole school is in mourning and students are placing pictures and flowers on her locker. This is also the episode we learn as a viewer that Hannah Baker made 13 cassette tapes that represents 13 people who contributed to her decision of committing suicide. This 1st tape was about Justin Foley. The school hunk that after she flirted with, invited her to sneak out in the middle of the night to the local playground wearing a short skirt and play slide.
Like c’mon girl, you are wearing a short skirt and when the guy said slide down, you bimboly slide down flirting even if you saw him took a photo from below -_- what kind of stupid are you? Ofcors you’ll be flashing his camera with your white panties. And Girl, you didn’t even do anything to deny what Justin was spreading. You could have straightly confronted Justin for posting the photo of you down the slide and demand an apology and make him take back what he said that something happened between the two of you. You should have put a corked on it. But no, what you did was mopped around and boohood.
Episode Two: As a new student in a new school she has made friends with also with a new student. Jessica Davis and Alex Standall. Alex’s father is a police while Jessica’s father is in the air forced. While watching this episode it made me laugh. Why? Because years ago, this somewhat happened to me. I made friends with this girl and a boy. We were close friends and eventually the girl and the boy dated. The difference here is that the boy and girl made it a secret from me and in this show; Jessica and Alex simply avoided her. Probably they were too ashamed to admit it in front of Hannah that they are dating. Yes it does hurt if you are in Hannah’s shoes right about now. I mean, it isn’t like she had a crush with Alex. In fact, if only Jessica and Alex were open to Hannah regarding their relationship, she could have been happy for both of them. But Jessica was being a bratty princess that blamed Hannah when she and Alex broke up. Which Hannah pathetically accepted Jessica’s anger. Like c’mon Hannah, you could have told Jessica that she doesn’t have the right to be angry coz in the first place they have alienated you in their relationship and why would you care about them breaking up. You could have also pointed out to Jessica that her anger is in a wrong direction that it should be at Alex’s direction. Like c’mon it’s not as if you slept with Alex behind her back.
Episode Three: Here we found out why Jessica thought Hannah was the reason why she and Alex broke up. Turns out Alex made a list about people in school and Hannah got the “Best Ass”. And Jessica took this as an insult. True it is harassment because lately men at school are checking up her bum. But girl, if you get the best ass award in school you should be proud of it. Take it as a complement and when some dumb perverted guy whistles at you’re bum, you give him the finger and tell him “You’ll never get to touch it loser” and laugh it off.
This is the episode that I have started to realize that Hannah Baker, you are such a weak girl.
Episode Four: So Hannah learns that she might have a stalker and Courtney the school stereotype Asian who is a top of her class helps her out. Turns out Courtney is gay, nothing wrong with that. But said stalker turns out to be the school photographer Tyler and was able to photograph Hannah and Courtney making out in Hannah’s bedroom topless (well, they have their bras on) Hannah was calm about it and told Courtney the next day that she will get the photos from Tyler. Tyler said his apologies to Hannah that he has no malicious intent for the photos. However, when Hannah left his photography place, he tried asking Hannah out which Hannah just laughs it off. Which was stupid and arrogant of her and as I expected, Tyler spread the said photo in school the next day.
Girls, here’s a thing. When a guy ask you out, don’t arrogantly laugh, especially when he holds something that can be used to whore sham you. What Hannah did was the reason why Tyler spread the photo. You hurt his feelings and this is a teenage boy. And some teenage boys tend to retaliate aggressively when you hurt his ego. Heck, even some adult guys tend to retaliate aggressively when their ego gets hurt. The right approach of this could have been telling Tyler lightly and humbly as possibly not to hurt his feelings that what makes him think she will go out with him after he stalked her. Adding that maybe let’s be friends so you don’t have to stalk me anymore.
Episode Five: So the photos have been spread but the faces couldn’t be recognized. Nothing to worry about that. However, Courtney was too paranoid that people in school will recognize her in the photo and will find out that she is gay. In her panic she falsely spread a rumor about Hannah. Which Hannah gets points from me for confronting Courtney for being an ass.
Episode Six: So they have this one dollar Valentine’s date in school and she ended up being profiled for Marcus. But Marcus was being a dick. Because of Hannah’s reputation in school naming the Justin incident and the photo incident, rumors have been spreading that she is an “easy” girl. So Marcus made a dickish move to try to finger her in public. She was able to fend herself from him and self-pitied. Hannah could have turned things around for Marcus on this one. I mean, they are in a diner and there are adults there. She could have screamed stop touching me or rape. Coz you know, she’s in America and I’m sure an adult in that diner will step in for her and Marcus could be labeled as a rapist once the diner incident reaches school. And it might stop the rumor about her being an “easy” girl.
Episode Seven: Zach actually tried to comfort Hannah after Marcus left her in the diner but she just quietly sat there until Zach left her alone. Next scene, Zach tried to ask Hannah out by saying he was expecting her to be her one dollar valentine. In this moment, it is understandable that Hannah is in a paranoid state thinking every guy is just asking her out because of the rumor that she’s an easy girl. But it didn’t give her the right to be again rude to a guy who is trying to ask her out. She could have told him to fuck off and how much is the wager? But not scream it in the cafeteria for everyone to hear. So, I understand why Zach reacted the way he reacted. She even assumed that Zach is sabotaging her positive notes in communication class, she didn’t even realize that maybe it was him who has been putting that positive notes for her. She tried to reach out to him for comfort, perhaps she realize that he is indeed serious to her. But pouring her entire emotional ache to him was a bit too much in this stage of their “friendship” (which there wasn’t any). She could have at least waited until they were that close, close enough to be called as best friends or she could have poured her emotional ache to Clay. I mean, they seem to be good friendship there and a spark.
Episode Eight: So she found an outlet to her emotional aches. Poetry. I too have turned to poetry when I was a in my emotional stage of life. In fact it is a good outlet to let out your hearts ache in poetry. She managed to write a poem that was so nice that Ryan, the editor of their unofficial school paper wanted to publish her work. But she turned it down, said she is shy about letting her words go out there. Ryan mentioned that she doesn’t need to write her name on it. But still she refused. However, Ryan still published her poem anonymously and without her consent. True, Ryan disrespected her decision on this. But Ryan didn’t post her name on it; it was a contribution from an anonymous contributor that was stated in his magazine. True her poem was about her personal problems, but she overly reacts to this incident. It was even admired in her communications class. She could have turned it to something positive, but she was too scared to be found out that she was the one who wrote it.
Episode Nine: Another Justin Foley tape. I don’t know the exact time line in this TV series, but somewhere after Jessica and Alex broke up she hooked up with Justin. Yes, the same Justin who spread a false rumor about her exFriend Hannah. She could have seen it as a sign that Justin is a dick and is definitely not a good boyfriend. So, a house party, people get drunk, Jessica ends up being rape. Justin didn’t do anything because he thinks he owes everything to Bryce. And Hannah, oh Hannah was just hiding in the closet while her friend is being raped in her own bedroom. True that it is Justin’s fault for being a loser who can’t stand up and defend his girlfriend by being raped by his friend. But what were you doing? You could have stopped Bryce. Ok, you were afraid coz you’re a girl and you couldn’t handle Bryce. Then you could have told Jessica about it, ok you are also afraid that she will shut you out from being jealous coz Justin is with her now. Then you could have reminded her how a dick ass person Justin is and reported him to the school and if the school does not believe you then the police and if the police won’t do anything because the victim is not filing a case then at least you tried and you could have stayed away from his place. Which brings us to episode twelve.
Episode Twelve: I am jumping two episodes and we will get back on that after this. Now, you’re day has been shitty. On top of that you have lost your parent’s money which you volunteered to deposit it in the bank. Shitty day. But that doesn’t mean you walk up to a house party, inviting yourself in and not leaving even after you found out it’s the house of the boy who raped your friend. And worst, you jump right into his Jacuzzi. When you found yourself alone and suddenly said rapist joined you, instinctively you should leave right away. But you didn’t. You did fought back when he started to rape you but you didn’t fight back enough. No, I am not blaming the victim here. Perhaps the reason she invited herself in the party because secretly she wanted to belong to the cool kids in school and who doesn’t want to. But these cool kids are full of bullshits and most of them are assholes. So why push yourself into them? Why didn’t you just go to Clay and talked to him about it? Speaking of Clay.
Episode Eleven: Now, the reason why Hannah ended up in Jessica’s bedroom closet was because she and Clay nearly had sex. Nearly because she had a panic attack when they are about to do it. Flash back of what she has experienced lately in school. So she pushed Clay away. Clay wanted to comfort her asked her what’s wrong and of course Hannah being a girl demanded Clay to leave her alone, so he left.
Girls, when dealing with men you need to tell them exactly what you want. They can’t take hints. You cannot expect them to decipher your coded emotion. You yelled at him to leave you alone. Ofcors he will leave you alone. You can’t expect him to stay after yelling him to leave you alone. And blame him for leaving you? And blame him for not seeing that you are hurting, that is unfair to the guy.
Episode Ten: I don’t know why this reason even got into the tapes. This is such a shallow incident. Ok fine someone died because your friend is being a reckless driver, knocked over a stop sign. Geez get over it. Or at least confront her the next day that she should own up her mistakes. Instead she blames herself and what did she do? Nothing.
Episode Thirteen: After finishing all twelve tapes Hannah decided to give life a chance. She went to their school counselor. Which he dismissed her, in her own interpretation. Again, you can’t drop hints of being raped and not naming the rapist won’t help you either. She could have been straight forward. “I was rape by Bryce and I want an advice on what to do.” That was the ideal sentence she could have said to their school counselor. But knowing Hannah, whose mind thinks that people won’t believe her because of her “easy” reputation drops hints and wouldn’t admit it was Bryce who raped her. And well, on Hannah’s defense, the counselor in her school looks like he doesn’t know what he is doing.
This is my conclusion to this show: Hannah you could have fought back head on with these people. But you can’t blame them all. There are moments that you also acted like a dick. Your revenge is taping the reasons why you killed yourself and now you have also destroyed some of them. Some of them were sorry of what they have done and some took it like you do. Took it weakly and thought suicide was the solution or might cause a shootout in school.
I don’t know much about the deep feeling of depression and anxiety. I read a lot about it saying it’s a feeling of helplessness and the feeling of fear for being rejected or being blamed for having a problem like that. The typical “You don’t know anything” cry. But ofcors we won’t know anything, because you god damn didn’t tell us what’s wrong.
There was one time in life that I had suicidal thoughts. I wanted to kill myself because I felt like I can’t do anything I want and it felt like all the things I do is never enough for my parents. I didn’t feel happiness in my life anymore. And I wasn’t even a teenager; I was like 10 or was it younger or 11. I was afraid to die, but gradually I tried to make myself not afraid to die. But eventually I realize, killing myself means I quit. I took the white flag and surrendered. I started to fight back. I refused to be bullied. Sure there are times I want to just end it all but here I am after decades in surviving all the shit that life has thrown at my face. Skye was right, Hannah was a coward. Suicide does not make things better.
I am in a depressing mode right now. It has been for a while, I couldn’t talk to my friends like I used to before and I believe I have exhausted all the help I can get from them without knowing. But you also need to understand that they have their own issues to deal with.
Back then I had friends whom could I talk to; Hannah didn’t even trust her friends with her emotional problems (well looking at Jessica and Alex, the only sane person who I think she can talk to and trust was Clay but she ruined that). We all have this thinking that we are more important than anyone that the world should stop for us, but reality is, it doesn’t and we should learn to live with it.
The lesson learned here is, suicide is never a solution to a problem. It will just create a ripple of problems to the people you left behind. Something is bothering you, talk to a friend. No friend? Talk to a priest? No priest? Sign up in a social media, go anonymous and do spill out all the problems you are having there. Some my judge you but I am sure you will meet someone there that will listen to you. I know coz I am speaking in experience. Stop whining that nobody loves you, stop moping and feeling everyone laughs at you. Be strong. Fight the bullies. Show them they are the losers.
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