13 Reasons Why- Season 2 Episode 3- Drunk Slut

This weeks theme was labels.  We all use them daily and some are harsher than others. In our current political environment, both sides love using them.  Labels are even more challenging for teens, as they are working on developing their identity, and a label can thwart that.

Jess is going on the stand and thus, she is the narrator of the episode.  Over all I think it was a decent episode, but I find the series is still struggling a bit (in comparison to the first season). Jess’s story arch is not as strong and she is starting to get a little annoying.  She feels stuck and this episode didn’t resolve this for her, so her struggle continues.

Jess the drunk slut

Most of the content from this week highlights Jess.  She is a character that is torn by labels.  She states in the opening monologue, that girls have it harder than most boys when it comes to labels, and I agree.  Society has not been easy on girls and we are so quick to put them in boxes with labels firmly printed in bold letters on the side.

Jess was raped by Bryce in season one and has yet to disclose this to the authorities.   Alex, Clay and her are in the cafeteria when Clay begins to tell her that she needs to testify about the rape.  She fears she can’t, because she is a girl and also because she is black.  The rumor has already spread that she made up the rape allegation to save face in front of her boyfriend.  Matters get worse when she goes into a classroom and pictures of her drunk are plastered on the chalkboard with the phrase “Who would be a drunk slut.”

The trial revolves around why Jess and Hannah stopped being friends.  Jess begins by saying that it was the famous “hot or not” list that was put out by Alex in season one.  Sonja the attorney does her job well by pressing the witness to break, and she does. She grills Jess with the premise that Hannah was jealous.  Jess and Alex started dating and that ruined the friendship of the two girls.  On top of that, Jess was dating Justin who was Hannah’s first crush in the city.  There was a moment where the attorney gave Jess the opportunity to share what happened with the rape when she asked her if there was any other reason for their friendship to end.

The tension mounts.

Jess says no.

Her one chance for resolution and to come clean died.  Guilt fills her after court and Olivia approaches her in the bathroom at the courthouse.  Olivia is aware that Jess is the girl on tape 9, but Jess runs out when Olivia tells her; more to come on this next episode?

Clay

Last week, Clay saw Skye taken away in an ambulance.  The assumption was that she went home and was cutting again, and we were right.  He’s at the hospital trying to get in to see her, but they won’t let him. He takes off to go home and a car turns around and tries to run him off the road. He survives but leaves with scrapes on his face.

Eventually he gets into the room to see Skye and when he’s there she breaks up with them.  They both have their own shit to get through and Skye says that it’s better for them to do it separate.  He leaves feeling deflated. Throughout the rest of the episode he continues to keep in contact, but isn’t able to connect with her since she was moved to a new facility.

Clay has two major events that are putting pressure on him. The first is Skye breaking up with him.  The second is that Jess didn’t testify about the rape.  The ghost of Hannah shows up in the middle of his moping and tells him he needs to find a way to get Bryce.

He goes to Jess’s house to talk with her about what happened on the stand.  She says it’s harder for her because of her ethnicity and gender. Clay asks her about Justin, since he’s the only other one that knows she was raped by Bryce.  She looks a postcard on the mirror but says she hasn’t heard from him.  Clay pics up a postcard and see’s that it’s from Justin.  He gets Tony to go with him to find Justin. After snooping around, they eventually find him homeless on the street and appears to be on drugs.  They pick him up and take him back home, but he stays with Clay. The last scene is Justin taking out a pipe and appears to smoking crack.

We aren’t quite sure how Justin is going to help convicting Bryce, but we know that he’s gone off the deep end.

 

Minor Storylines for this episode

• Marcus is stressing out about testifying throughout the episode. He ends up being harassed via the burning of his dad’s election sign on the front lawn.
• Tyler’s new friend Cyrus brings him into his group of friends. Tyler also starts to have romantic feelings for Cyrus’s sister as evident by the long lingering looks.  Cyrus also starts to get Tyler involved in something to do with a detonator, more to come on this in upcoming episodes.
• Porter’s does a home call to Bryce’s house because he’s concerned about how Bryce is treating girls at school