All things considered, I watched the final season of 13 Reasons Why pretty quick in the world of binge-watching! When I first heard the air date of the last batch of episodes, I thought, “man, that was a quick turnaround.” But then I remembered that I waited an awful long time to watch the third installment. At least all of the events were more fresh in my head.
The main thought that kept running through my head throughout these ten episodes was, “is high school really like this now?” I only graduated ten years ago, and if this is a true depiction of the modern teenage life, then the world is screwed. I mean, I understand that somewhat ridiculous things happened in the prior season (other than the premiere season), but everything that went down this season just seemed wild. I guess everything could happen, it just seem likely that it would all happen at one place.
I digress. Clay is our narrator this season (thank goodness no more Ani voice-overs), and he is losing it. Finally, all of the secrets he’s had to keep are burying him, and he is hallucinating big time. Mainly the apparitions of Bryce and Monty. Although, Jess isn’t doing much better. She’s also seeing Bryce. The case on Bryce’s death is “closed” until Sheriff Diaz opens it again, but the core group of friends is sticking to it that it was Monty. And since Monty is dead he certainly can’t defend himself. But, his alibi, Winston, gets himself enrolled at Liberty High to avenge his secret lover’s death somehow. He just has to figure out who did it.
With all this garbage going on, the group is also trying to get into college. I feel like this is all happening really late in the game. But anyways, they’re all a mess. As I said before, Clay is losing it, so he starts seeing his therapist again, although no real progress seems to be made. Tony gets recruited by the police to fight in matches, and Tyler is also recruited by the police to bring down illegal arms dealers. Meanwhile, Justin is struggling with sobriety after his stint in rehab, Jess and Ani live together (briefly), Alex is struggling a little bit with his sexuality, and Zach is the class drunk. Zach’s character was almost useless this season, as was Ani. Which was strange considering how big of a role she filled last season.
We only get a brief flash forward of someone’s funeral, but the other half of the season is filled with Clay’s hallucinations. Super fun trying to figure out what’s real and what’s not. There are several extremely distressing moments for Clay where he seems to dissociate, but nothing is as intense as the senior camping trip and the “active shooter” lock down at the school. Sure, my high school lock down drills might not have been quite as intense, but that stuff does happen, and it’s been happening since Columbine.
With all of that garbage going on around them, they also find out the parents have been spying on them and tracking them! After a riot breaks out at the high school, the students try to gain back some trust from the parents by telling them partial-truths to get the prom reinstated. Success! And for one whole episode, all of these messes of people seem somewhat happy. That is, until Justin collapses at the dance.
SPOILER! Justin dies. Of AIDS! It was devastatingly sad, and totally random in my opinion. Sure, there were lesions on his neck about half way through the season, but they almost appeared to be bruises. Also, way to take something that’s not nearly as terrifying anymore and just shoving that in people’s faces during Pride month. Anyways, Justin’s death was the catalyst for a lot of tears in the two-hour finale episode. That was followed by lots of heartfelt speeches and goodbyes, and the underlying knowledge that this show is done for good. They end with graduation and burying the final copy of Hannah’s tapes, and I hope that these fictional teens find some normalcy in their life after high school. For the long-term fans, watch it, but otherwise, it might not be worth it.