It seemed like no matter what I did, I kept letting people down. I started thinking how everyone's lives would be better without me. And what does that feel like? It feels like nothing. Like a deep, endless, always blank nothing." - Hannah Baker
This is the first episode where the tape is the B-plot. Everybody else gets a lot more room to shine in this episode, and gets a lot more to say. Even Clay is a smaller player this episode, not doing much until the final 25 minutes. This really works for the most part, as we finally get some better understandings of where these characters are coming from.
The tape itself is about the final party that Hannah goes to before her suicide. It happens to be Bryce's party, which she goes to after she makes a huge mistake in accidentally losing a bunch of money that her parents entrusted her with. She goes, and at first has a good time, until Bryce enters the hot tub with her and eventually rapes her. Like the last time this happened, it's a well-done scene done with taste and tact. This is the event that pushes Hannah to make the tapes and to eventually kill herself a week after the party.
Clay's story this episode involves him going to Bryce's house in order to get a confession out of him about how he raped Hannah. He gets it, but at the cost of getting severely beaten up, and he celebrates by escaping Bryce's house. We don't see him after that, which makes me wonder what'll happen next, especially given the end of the episode. But we'll get there.
The rest of the teens involved with Hannah's tapes meet at Monet's in a sometimes hilarious and character building scene, in which they mostly agree to finally tell the police the truth. The entire truth. How that plays out will have to be seen in the next episode, but I'm hoping they actually do it and don't skimp out on it.
Justin gets thrown out of his house while Jessica tries to stop drinking, and something happens at the end of the episode. We hear ambulances going by Clay's house at night, and then we hear in the ambulance that a 17 year-old has been shot, and somebody is dying. We don't know who yet, but since we've got one more episode, I'm sure we're gonna find out.
All in all, this episode is a really good one. It doesn't compare to some recent ones, or the last episode, but it does manage to effectively set things up for the finale, and manages to craft an entertaining and well-written story to boot. There's only 60 minutes left in 13 Reasons Why, how do they all tie it up?
+The truth is finally coming out
+Character development
+The Monet's scene
+Bryce's story
+The Killing Moon
+Great writing
9.6/10.
