Summary: In flashbacks, Clay and Hannah connect at Jessica's party and hook up but Hannah shoves Clay off after remembering her past. In the present, Clay listens to his tape and struggles through it, but he makes it through with Tony's help. Justin finds out Jessica is at Bryce's and tries to take her away. He reveals that Bryce raped her.
The Good: This episode was much better because the show felt like it had a purpose here and wasn't just filling time. There were always important scenes going on. Clay's story was a pretty good examination of how one can be afraid to face their past and always blame themselves for the tiniest of things even if it wasn't their fault. While there were some flaws in this approach (see: The Bad), it did send a powerful message about how people would react when a friend commits suicide. Dylan Minnette hasn't been fantastic in the role of Clay, but I felt he did a great job here. I thought the humour for once was very good. Usually the humour in this show doesn't come off particularly well, but there were a lot of funny moments here which successfully put a smile on my face. There was some smart dialogue which I thought worked very well. I enjoyed small things like Clay arriving early which fit his character, and Hannah bringing up the oddity of Clay's name. This episode was really hinged on us caring about Clay and Hannah's relationship, and thankfully that has been one of the show's strong points. Both characters have great chemistry and it's easy to see what they like in each other. Their scenes had some good power to them and the tragedy of Hannah's ultimate death gave the scenes a fitting sadness to them which also paid off by making us care about what Clay is going through in the present day storyline. There were some really good pay off scenes for the side storylines. I was very glad to see the rape of Jessica addressed and thankfully it has had immediate consequences as Jessica appears to have finally shut Justin out and there will likely be some tensions between Justin and Bryce now. I really like the reveal that the lawsuit will involve the kids now. It adds a lot of tension to the final 2 episodes (see: The Unknown) and really makes me anticipate whatever comes next. The Bad: Unfortunately the lawsuit story does circle around the stupid idea that the Bakers never found the page of names in all of Hannah's stuff. They were searching her room, so how on Earth did they not find that earlier? The rape story was held down because I really don't care about the characters involved which is a real shame. Had Justin and Jessica been more fleshed out and likeable, this could have been a really great storyline with a powerful conclusion. Instead it's a weak story with a decent pay off. The reasoning for Clay being on the tapes is awful and it unfortunately undercuts a lot of what was the show's most powerful episode. It's hard to buy that Hannah would put Clay on the tapes for this and possibly ruin his life without any thought for his well-being. Clearly Hannah cared about him, so it makes no sense why she would do this to him. This also feels far too much like a cop-out because the writers didn't know what reason to put Clay on the tapes for. Unfortunately the big moment of Hannah blowing off Clay didn't have the impact it should have. This is because it draws on us buying into how traumatized Hannah has been by the previous guys she had hopes for. But sadly the show failed at doing that and only ever told us that Hannah was hurt by this, without ever showing us. This was one of my biggest complaints earlier in the story and it's really damaged one of the show's biggest scenes now. That really goes to show how important it is to make us care early on instead of waiting for later. There were a couple of nitpicks for Clay's story too. The tension of Clay killing himself was non-existent. Of course he wasn't going to kill himself, so it really wasn't worth teasing that. The Clay and Skye argument was really petty too and almost felt like a fight between grade 3s. I felt that they should have been shown as more mature and it would also help to at least get a better idea of their relationship. The Unknown: Who will have to talk for the subpoenas? Presumably it will be everyone on the tapes. Will anybody reveal the existence of the tapes? What will they say about Hannah? Will the Bakers or the school learn any important new information? Will anything be said about Bryce? I'm very interested to see what happens. What is Skye's story and history? What is her purpose in this show? She still feels only like an extra character. Does Alex still love Jessica? There have been some awkward moments in the past which highlighted his affections for her, but does he still have those feelings? Or have the writers just forgotten? Perhaps he feels so guilty that he no longer feels that way. Best Moment: I really loved the vision Clay had of him actually comforting Hannah instead of leaving her. It was tragic and very emotional to watch and was a really nice take on how somebody with regrets would play out themselves not making a big mistake. Character of the Episode: Clay. Conclusion: This was a really great episode at times and had a lot of emotion to it, but unfortunately the sloppy nature of this show once more takes away from what could have been a tremendous episode. This ends up being simply good instead of being as great as I feel it could have been. Score: 63
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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