“One more bad decision.”
It’s no secret that 13 Reasons Why has been building up to Clay’s tape for a long time now. One of the show’s – and, I guess, the book’s – smartest moves was to not make it first or last; this gave all the other tapes a sense of tension instead of suspense.
The tapes are about Hannah, of course, but Clay is the audience surrogate here, and it’s through his eyes and reactions that we experience the dreadful events that led to Hannah’s suicide. So it’s natural that, for ten episodes now, we’ve been anticipating, with anxiety and eagerness, Clay’s tape. So the show really had to deliver on it. Thankfully, it does.
We’re back at Jessica’s party – her horrible party – to which Clay has adorably showed up five minutes early (like a high school-aged me, he missed the memo that when a party starts at 7 you should probably show up at 9). Clay being Clay, he offers to leave but ends up staying to help. It’s all good character definition.
He’s waiting for Hannah, and true to form as soon as she shows up he decides it’s time to leave. 13 Reasons Why dramatizes this remarkably well: that moment when a friendship is becoming something more. Here are two people who speak easily at school and at work, yet now they find themselves at a loss for words around each other.
What comes as an always-welcome surprise is Clay’s present-day intrusion into Hannah’s story. Clay has issues with the way that Hannah is telling the story, saying it’s not the truth and lamenting that he’s just like everyone else on the tapes. “She’s telling her truth,” Tony tells him, and it’s a good point to make.
The ironclad truth is less important than Hannah’s interpretation of it. I don’t think, and never have, that she’s outright lying, but even if she were it’s immaterial. What happened is not nearly as important as how it made her feel and how it pushed her to the point of no return.
The most heartbreaking moment of “Tape 6, Side A” is when Hannah admits that she didn’t feel good enough for Clay, which is terrible, because Clay has idolized her almost since the day they met. But when they’re making out, Hannah can’t help but conflate him with all the men (like Bryce and Justin and Marcus) who have objectified or belittled her – she’s so traumatized by her treatment that she can barely differentiate positive physical attention from negative.
In a welcome development, the present-day story is just as engaging as the story on the tape. The trial is moving forward, and Mr. Porter is noticeably nervous about it; we even get a glimpse of his home life, a jarring rarity for adults on this show (at least ones who aren’t parents of kids on the tape).
What’s most engaging, though, is Jessica’s continued breakdown. Alisha Boe is knocking this material out of the park, and it’s genuinely nerve-wracking to see her call Justin a pussy while trying to get him to throw screws at a lightbulb (it makes sense in context). Most distressingly, she takes Bryce back to her house and then follows him to his, much to Justin’s consternation.
When Justin shows up to collect her, she goads him, sitting on Bryce’s lap and demanding that he play cards with them. It’s all part of her plan, though, her plan to get Justin to admit that he knows that Bryce raped her. She storms out of Bryce’s house, and in a sickening facsimile of compassion, it’s Bryce who texts her asking if she’s okay.
“Tape 6, Side A” is certainly 13 Reasons Why moving into endgame, and it does so with terrific aplomb. All the kids involved are going to be subpoenaed (which means Lainie should really recuse herself) and most damningly, Olivia finds a shoebox in Hannah’s room with what looks to be a first draft of the tapes, as well as a diagram showing how all the kids are connected. Something that 13 Reasons Why has never lost, even after eleven episodes, is the sense that this doesn’t end well for anyone.
A Few Thoughts
- It’s incredibly sweet of Tony to drive Clay around while he listens to his tape. Tony has been helping Clay this whole time – not just emotionally mind you; remember that Tony is using Clay’s Walkman and wouldn’t be able to hear these tapes without him.
- Lainie gets a nice moment; when Clay heads out to the party she shouts after him, “Don’t do any hard drugs! Or any drugs!” I liked that. But then later she offers to coach him through his deposition. My notes describe her as a “monster” and a “soulless ghoul,” so I think my feelings about her are clear.
- I loved the hypothetical conversation between Hannah and Clay, especially the way it was directed by Jessica Yu (Grey’s Anatomy), who washed the whole scene of color, making it stark and pleasingly unrealistic. It was even more effective because we’ve never seen this technique used on the show before.
- Guys, I’m sorry, I know these are garbage pictures. I can’t stress enough what a pain in the dick it is to find pictures for this show. I don’t like using the same banner picture for every other review, either.
- Oh, two corrections: in past reviews I wrote Zach’s last name as Dempsie. It’s Dempsey. And I wrote Courtney’s last name as Crayson; it’s Crimsen. I’m putting this here because there’s no way I’m going back through old reviews to make these changes.
Final Score:
4.5/5
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