The fourth episode of “13 Reasons Why” picks up right where episode 3 left off. Clay begins the B side of Tape 2, where he hears Hannah telling him to go to the fourth mark of his map. “Be careful,” she says, “and don’t get caught.” Clay sneaks out of this bedroom window, and goes off on his bike.
Hannah begins the tape asking about the desire to watch someone. “You spy on people everyday,” she says, stating that we are always following someone, or being followed ourselves. As Hannah puts it, social media makes us all stalkers in a certain way. But, “stalking someone in real life is a whole other thing.” Enter the subject of Tape 2 Side B: Hannah’s stalker, Tyler Down (Devin Druid)
Let’s start with Hannah, and work our way to Clay. Hannah believes that someone is watching her at night from outside her bedroom window. Paranoid and scared, Hannah has problems sleeping at night, and starts to fall asleep in class. Her classmate, Courtney, notices her sleeping.
Courtney Crimsen - Asian American - Dresses preppy and girly - Is very involved in school activities - Has overbearing parents
Hannah tells Courtney that she hasn’t been sleeping much because someone has been watching her through her bedroom window. Courtney comes up with a plan: the two will set a trap for the stalker.
Courtney comes over to Hannah’s house to put the plan into action. For fun, Hannah offers Courtney some of her parent’s alcohol, and the two girls soon become drunk. Soon, Courtney and Hannah completely forget about their plan. The girls continue drinking and having fun, and end up giving each other dares. They start innocent, daring each other to drink more, until Courtney dares Hannah to kiss her. As the two kiss, Hannah hears a camera snapping pictures outside her window. She realizes that her stalker is Tyler Down, the school’s yearbook photographer. Courtney becomes panicked and leaves Hannah’s house as fast as she can.
The next day at school, Hannah approaches Courtney to talk about what happened. Courtney brushes it off, and wants to pretend nothing happened. Hannah assures Courtney that she will get the pictures from Tyler and destroy them. Tyler gives Hannah the pictures, and asks if she would ever want to hang out with him. She laughs at him, and leaves, making him angry. Tyler sends the picture of Hannah and Courtney kissing around school. No one could figure out that the picture was of Courtney and Hannah, but it was still too much for Courtney to handle. She approaches Hannah crying, and tells Hannah to stay away from her, at the risk of people finding out that Courtney is struggling with her sexuality.
And now, for the present day. Clay begins listening to the tape, and soon runs into Marcus from school.
Marcus: -African American -Popular -Friendly to Clay
Marcus makes it clear that he has listened to the tapes. He casually suggests to Clay to just pass them on without listening to all of them. He continues the tape, but starts to consider Marcus’s offer.
The school is holding a suicide prevention meeting for parents. Hannah’s mom show’s up and reveals what she found on the bathroom walls during her last visit to the school. The other parents look on, shocked and silent.
At school, it’s Halloween time and everyone is preparing for the costume contest. Bryce and Zack are still trying to get close to Clay, and invite them to hang out with them. But the only person on his mind is Tyler.
Tyler Down - School photographer - Brown hair - Thin - Quiet - Always has his camera
Clay confronts Tyler, and demands that he destroy the photos that he took of Hannah. Tyler says that as school photographer, he kind of stalks everyone, not just Hannah (not making yourself look any better there, Tyler). Clay tells Tyler to destroy the pictures, or he’ll report Tyler, which could result in jail time. Tyler says that he never meant to humiliate Hannah. In fact, he was in love with her. Taking her pictures was his way of getting closer to her. When Tyler took her picture, he could see who she really was. “I saw her,” he said. (But that doesn’t make it any less creepy). Tyler loved Hannah, and insists that he knows Clay loved her too.
It’s Halloween night, and Clay is, of course, riding his bike around town. He sees kids toilet paper-ing Hannah’s house and tries to stop them. He is stopped by Hannah’s mom, who recognizes him as Hannah’s friend (and the guy looking outside Hannah’s window after she died). She invites Clay inside to talk, hoping to find out more about Hannah.
Hannah’s dad is also having a hard time. He owns a small drug store in town. But the opening of a huge supermarket is taking all his customers away. The family business is in jeopardy, as the entire town is choosing the new supermarket over Baker’s Drug Store. Hannah’s parents worry that it’s more than just the supermarket. They may be losing costumer because people are afraid to approach them after Hannah’s death.
But back to Hannah’s mom and Clay. Hannah’s mom is searching for a reason for Hannah’s suicide, and would like any kind of answer that she can get. Clay wants to help, but he ultimately does not tell her anything, fearing that she would blame him for Hannah’s suicide. Clay says that the two were merely acquaintances. Hannah’s mom says that with her daughter gone and no answers to her suicide, it’s like Hannah and her mom are merely acquaintances now too. Clay gets scared with the questions Hannah’s mom is asking him, and leaves in a panic (much like Courtney left Hannah’s house in a panic.)
When Clay gets home, he receives a text from Marcus asking him to hang out. He decides to go, but as he leaves, he realizes that Tony is at his house. His mom invited him over for dinner (and Tony took the offer to keep Clay from seeing Marcus and the popular crowd). After a very tense dinner, Clay says he wants to stop listening to the tapes, but Tony says he can’t. Tony tells Clay not to go to Bryce’s house, and not to listen to Marcus. “It’s not what Hannah wanted,” he said. Clay says that Marcus told him that he passed on the tapes, but Tony insists that Marcus was lying (hinting that Marcus may show up on later tapes). Tony also offers an excuse to when Clay saw him beating up someone. Tony says the guy hurt his sister, so Tony and his three brothers got back at him. Tony says he couldn’t go to the police in his neighborhood, so he had to “make his own justice.”
As Clay finishes the tape, he returns to site four on the map, which turns out to be Tyler’s house. He listens to Hannah talk about how Tyler’s stalking damaged her. She says that even when Tyler stopped coming to her window at night, she was still afraid. Even when he stopped coming, she still wasn’t safe anywhere. Tyler made her paranoid, but Hannah knew that after making this tape, people would be going to Tyler’s window, just like he went to hers. Clay listens to Hannah’s narration outside of Tyler’s window. He looks inside Tyler’s room and sees him changing his clothes. Clay takes a picture of Tyler changing and sends it around in a group text. The popular kids receive the picture, Tony receives the picture, Jessica receives the picture, and Tyler realizes that a nude picture of him has been sent around school. No one can see his face, but he knows it is of him. Tony text Clay after receiving the picture, asking him what he has done. Clay responds that he is “making his own justice,” and rides off on his bike into the night.
Something extra:
– It’s shown that people have been throwing rocks through Tyler’s window. Perhaps other people that have listened to the tapes. But who exactly?
– Marcus is friends with Justin, Bryce, and Alex. Marcus is clearing being nice to Clay just so he won’t go to the authorities with Hannah’s tapes. Justin says that if Marcus’s good cop strategy doesn’t work, then Justin will be the one taking care of Clay. And it sounds like his way will be more of a good cop strategy.
– Hannah’s parents have a very emotional scene at the dinner table where they look at what their life has become, but more importantly, what life has become without Hannah. “Our little girl has a face,” her father says, meaning she is not just an anonymous statistic. “And a name,” Hannah’s mom replies.
If you or anyone you know are struggling with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicicde Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.
