13 Reasons Why (Season 1 Summary)

This series is the latest hype. This also changed my preferences with the kind of series that I watch. I usually watch Korean dramas, preferably fantasy and suspense. 13 reasons why I started my addiction to the NetFlix series.

Each episode is about an hour, which means I spent 13 hours, and I regret none of it! To anyone who has not watched this series, I encourage you to watch it. It’s actually perfect despite the claims that it is depressing and promotes suicide (contrary to what the series really urges.) To anyone who can’t find the time to watch the series, then you can read my summary. (I do summaries of movies and series that I watched and the books I read because I know I’d forget it sooner, so this does not serve as a spoiler.)

• • • • • • • • Date finished: April 21, 2017
              • Season 1, Episode 1-13

Since I am writing this very late because I got hooked on other tv series, the summary will not be specific, unlike most of my resumes.

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It starts with Clay Jensen finding 7 tapes from Hannah Baker, the girl who committed suicide. She made the tapes and made sure they reached the people who did her wrong and contributed to her suicide.

The tapes are for:

1. Justin Foley, whom she sort of dates. They kissed on the playground, and Justin took a picture of her; his friend (Brys) sent it to everyone, and rumors spread about her.

2. Jessica Davis – her very close friend with whom she argued. There were three of them, including Alex, who later Jessica dated. Their last encounter was in the cafe where Jess slapped Hannah, accusing her of fooling around with her boyfriend, Alex

3. Alex Standall – He was just pissed because Jessica wouldn’t have sex with him. To make her jealous, he wrote Hannah’s name as “best ass.” It was the list that made Jess slap Hannah. It got to the point where other students kept checking her ass out, including Brys, who even touched it.

4. Tyler Down – He kept stalking Hannah, and it became very creepy. He was doing it for the yearbook, but it came to the point of taking photos of Hannah in her room. He once asked Hannah to hang out with him, but she turned him down. He also sent the images of Hannah and Courtney, but no one recognized them, although some got suspicious along the way.

5. Courtney Crimson – Hannah felt like someone was stalking her; someone was always taking photographs. She told Courtney about it, and she volunteered to stay over to catch the stalker. They drank in Hannah’s room as they waited for the stalker. As they waited, they took off their bras and kissed, and the stalker took a photo of it. The stalker turned out to be Tyler. When the picture was released, and someone got suspicious, she cleared her name and spread terrible rumors about Hannah instead.

6. Marcus Cooley – Hannah thought he was a nice guy. He asked her out for Valentine’s day since he got her on the list. Hannah waited for an hour for him to arrive, and when he arrived, he was with his friends. After a while, he sat beside Hannah and started touching her thighs. Hannah got angry, and Marcus told her, “I thought you were easy.”

7. Zach Dempsey – He was with Marcus on Valentine’s day, and he tried comforting her after Marcus did. He asked Hannah out, and when she turned him down in an embarrassing way, he got mad and started having little revenge on her.

8. Ryan Shaver – they were in a poetry club together, and he published Hannah’s poem without her permission. The poem starts with “today I am wearing lacy black underwear,” and she was bullied again for that.

9.  Justin Foley – he got 2 tapes. The second one is allowing his friend, Bryce, to rape his girlfriend, Jessica, during the party. She was hiding in the same room when the incident happened.

10. Sherry – During Jessica’s party, Sherry took Hannah home, but they bumped into the stop sign at the intersection. Hannah insisted on calling 911, Sherry insisted not to and left Hannah on the road. It caused an accident where Jeff died.

11. Clay Jensen – He was different, and he never bullied Hannah. He liked Hannah (even loved her). They were hanging out during Jessica’s party and ended in Jessica’s room, kissing and taking off clothes, but Hannah made him stop. She was probably traumatized by what the previous guys did. She yelled at him to go away, and she just felt like Clay hated her for doing that. (Maybe Clay is not one of the reasons, he just has to be on the tapes so Hannah could explain.)

12. Bryce – Hannah narrated how she ended up being raped by Bryce. She had a walk to clear her thoughts (after losing the money her parents asked her to deposit) when she saw a party at Bryce’s place. When the other people left, Bryce raped her. (I assume the tapes never reached Bryce because he never knew about it, not until Justin told him.)

13. Mr. Porter, the councilor, is the last one on the list because Hannah talked to him and asked for advice. She was looking for signs but couldn’t find any. She even told him about how Brys raped her, and he didn’t help or protect her at all.

Hannah died by cutting both of her wrists while she was in a bathtub. It was her mother who saw her, but it was too late. In the last episode, Tony handed Hannah’s parents a flash drive containing a copy of the tapes. Tony is Clay’s friend who allowed Hannah to borrow the recorder. Hannah also gave him a copy of the videos just to make sure.

The ending in the tv series suggests season 2 because Tyler recently purchased a gun there was a hint that a teenage boy was shot in the head.

Update as of July 2020. There are currently 4 Seasons available on Netflix, but I have decided to stop at Season 1. I am not sure if the succeeding seasons are good, but I did try watching the first episode of the 2nd season and decided that I would no longer proceed.