What We Hope to see in Season 2 of 13 Reasons Why
The teaser for 13 Reasons Why’s season 2 was posted online last month just days after the official announcement that there would be a second season. Fans had hoped to find out what happened to the characters at the end of the first season as so many stories seemed to have loose endings.
How would Jessica deal with her sexual assault and what would happen to Bryce? What would happen next for Justin? Was there going to be a (very well) planned school shooting and did Alex take his own life? Among many others, viewers wanted to know what happened to these people but they also wanted to know what happened to Hannah, from the perspectives of those who were assigned tapes after her death.
The series was met with a lot of mixed reviews because it’s a series that paints a painful image, but it’s one that needs to be shown. There are children and young adults who are victims of assault, rape, suicide attempts, and some don’t survive – some take their lives and those around them are left wondering why.
From the looks of the video, not much is given away, but it does appear to show that these places that meant something to Hannah will be reapproached, maybe from a different lens, perhaps with another side to a story.
After watching the teaser for the second season, set to be released in 2018, we thought about what we’d really like to see in season 2. From what they were building in Tyler’s character to those final moments we see in Alex’s story before his fate is uncertain, we’ve got questions.
How will Jessica’s father react to her sexual assault? The last we see of Jessica is when she’s on the brink of telling her father that she was raped. It took Jessica herself some time to believe that she was actually sexually assaulted, so her bravery in telling her father is huge. Will he urge her to press charges? Will he be tempted to take matters into his own hands? How will this change things for not only Jessica, but for Bryce? Will he FINALLY be held accountable for his actions?
What happened to Alex? As Hannah is telling the story the missed signs that she was suicidal, it’s possible that we’ve missed the signs of Alex too. At the end of the season, we learn that Alex has been shot and it’s self-inflicted (while some believe that isn’t entirely the case) it’s what we’re left with. Alex shot himself. Looking back, it’s not hard to see that this was coming – but we didn’t see it at the time. We do have to address Tyler’s situation, which we will below, but Alex did show signs of being suicidal. From the immense cleaning of his room towards the end of his story to tossing himself in the pool earlier on – and all of the signs in between (like quitting the activies he loved and becoming socially withdrawn), Alex was hurting more than we noticed. If he did shoot himself, does he pass away or does he survive? If he didn’t shoot himself, did Tyler removing his photo mean something that we’re all afraid of now?
Does Clay change the way he treats those around him? During some of Clay and Mr. Porter’s last moments speaking, Mr. Porter tells Clay that you can’t love someone back to life. Clay’s response is simple – you can try. While it’s not something that will change the outcome for Hannah, will he be more open with his emotions towards those people who are in his life now? We’re anticipating an entirely different Clay when season 2 arrives and that conversation is what spurred that on.
Has Tyler been planning a school shooting? The biggest question we have is the one that revolves around Tyler. Were we missing more signs here? Has Tyler been planning a school shooting for most of the film? He crossed the line when it comes to privacy, he was painted as a stalker and he was bullied for it – he was also seemingly bullied for being different. There are times in the series where, again – if you watch it again and pay close attention – where he shows signs. Then, there are the two big signs – he has a collection of guns and he has photos of his classmates strung up in a dark room but he removes Alex’s photo. This made some feel that he shot Alex, some thought that he learned of Alex’s suicide and took the photo down, but no-one knows for sure…not yet.
When you reflect back on the series, the one thing that becomes clear is that we, as viewers, treated the other characters the way they treated Hannah. We forgot to look at their signs because we were preoccupied with Hannah’s…maybe that’s a bigger part of the story than we realize yet.
What do you hope to see in season 2? Let us know.
‘…but I knew him’
