13 Reasons Why - Season 3 - Review

General opinion: If you asked me to describe my opinion of season 3 of 13 Reasons Why in one word, that word would be “Meh”. It’s not that I hated it, but I sure as hell didn’t love it either and there were quite a few things I had issues with. As you will soon find out. At first, I liked the direction the show had taken. I liked the mystery aspect but after a few episodes I got tired of the writers constantly repeating the “new suspect, turns out they didn’t do it” routine. Maybe if the season had been shorter, like 10 or 8 episodes instead of 13, it would’ve worked better? And personally, I’m also not a fan of “falsely accused” storylines. Which is on me, I know. But we all knew Clay didn’t do it, right? And the police’s blind focus on him bothered me a lot, especially since they seemed to be doing it mostly because Bryce’s mother pointed them in Clay’s direction. Below you won’t find every aspect of this season (that would be insane because there was a lot of stuff happening) but only the ones I most want to talk about. Those of you who have read other reviews by me know that this is how I operate. So enjoy. 

Harsh but necessary: I’m gonna start with something I haven’t seen a lot of people talking, probably because it was only really featured in one episode and it happened pretty early in the season. But while everything Chloe went through was horrible, I think it’s important to shine a spotlight on just how awful it is to get an abortion in America. Now, I’m not going to pretend to know what the procedure is like in my country but since religion is not such a huge factor … well, everything, I’m going to assume it’s not quite as bad as we saw on the show. Until just recently, I had never even heard of these false abortion clinics. How messed up do you have to be to run a place like that? This whole ordeal is already painful enough without other people shaming the women that go through this. And do you really think having a baby out of guilt is a great idea? Yeah, I’m sure that kid will have a great life. I’m glad Chloe didn’t have to do this alone. No one should have to go through all of that by themselves. 

Let him be happy, you monsters: Zach really can’t catch a break. We didn’t see all that much of him this season (which was a shame, to be honest) but things sure took a turn for the worse for him. Zach is one of the reasons I’m so not on board with Bryce’s redemption arc. What he did to Zach this season was horrible. All Zach did was be a good friend to Chloe and he got his future wrecked because of it. As was pointed out earlier in the season, a lot of guys rely on sports to get them into good colleges or universities. It’s their ticket to a higher education and better jobs, without having to put yourself in debt (great system you’ve got there). With Zach unable to play the possibility of a scholarship vanishes. So I totally understood when Zach beat the crap out of Byrce. I even cheered him on. And he felt so guilty thinking he’d killed him and that Clay would take the fall that he actually went to the police and confessed, which is more than can be said from some other people. Since season 4 will be the final season, can this guy please get some happiness in his life? 

I did a complete 180: So, at the beginning of the season, I was of the same opinion as Zach. I kept wondering why everyone was protecting Tyler when he nearly killed a bunch of people. Because, let’s face it, the only reason he didn’t was that Clay talked him out of it. And I still don’t quite get the reasoning for everyone wanting to help, we knew what had happened to Tyler but they didn’t. And he needed serious help, more than they could’ve given him. I’m not sure they really thought their plan through, honestly, but by some miracle it actually worked. And by the end of the season, I was genuinely concerned that Tyler would end up in jail. I’m not saying I didn’t acknowledge the trauma that he’d been through in the beginning. He went through something horrible, but that still does not make it okay to (try to) shoot up a dance. We saw this season just how many people had faced sexual assault. None of them attempted mass murder because of it. Don’t get me wrong, I would’ve been totally okay if it had just been the people responsible that he wanted to shoot. But not a room full of innocent people. But like I said, by the end of the season I found myself caring about what happened to him. I was so proud of him for picking himself up again that I sort of forgot what transpired at the end of last season. But now that the guns have been found… I guess we’re about to face it again. 

So proud of you: One of the highlights for me this season was Jessica. I love how much she’s grown over the duration of the show and how strong and outspoken she’s gotten. But she also knew her limits. She saw that here group was headed in the wrong direction and spoke up about it. By handling things a different way, while still standing up to the administration (which was very necessary) she got much better results than when they let their anger take control. I’m still not quite convinced her relationship with Justin is all that healthy, and maybe it would be better if the two called it quits, but at the end of the day, it’s her decision. And Justin’s not a bad guy, he’s just made a lot of mistakes. 

Hot mess: Someone else who’s made quite a few mistakes, a lot of them this season, is Alex. He’s kind of turned into a loose cannon. Between the steroids and what happened to Bryce, he’s headed down a dangerous path. Did the steroids play a part in what happened with Bryce? Maybe, they sure didn’t help his anger. And I don’t really blame him for losing it and pushing Bryce into the water. But it bothered me a lot more that he was going to let Clay take the fall for it. Even if he thought they wouldn’t end up charging Clay, with his dad on the police force he had to have known that there was a real possibility. At a certain point, you have to face the consequences of your actions. How can you say that Bryce and Monty should’ve been punished and then frame someone else for what you’ve done? My opinion of Alex became a lot lower this season. 

Favorite relationship: Remember when Justin and Clay hated each other? How was that only 2 seasons ago? Now they’re brothers who would die for each other and I absolutely love it. In fact, their relationship was one of my favorite aspects of this season. Despite the many drug-related mistakes that Justin made this season, Clay never gave up on him. They leaned on each other a lot and I don’t think either would have made it through this season without the support of the other. More of this next season, please. 

Who are you again? Alright, so we met quite a few new people this season but none were featured as heavily as Ani. In fact, Ani got even more screen time than some of the characters we already know and love. I’m not sure that having a new character narrate the season was the best idea. For one, I found her to be a very unreliable narrator. Of course, this was later revealed to be because she was giving the cops an adjusted version of the facts, but this made me seriously question whose side she was on. I did not trust her all throughout the season, especially not after she started sleeping with Bryce (for which I seriously question her intelligence). And her plan to blame everything on Monty… I’m still not on board with it. 

I’m so conflicted: Which of course brings me to Monty himself. I want to hate this guy so badly for what he did last season. And yeah, he’s an asshole. But in the end, I just pitied him. He was so deep in the closet, so terrified of who he was that he just lashed out at everyone. And his life was filled with bad influences. First his dad, then Bryce, both had way too much power over him. Did he deserve to go to jail? Yes, absolutely. Did he deserve to die and then get blamed for a murder he didn’t commit? No. It’s pretty easy to blame the dead guy who can no longer say anything in his own defense. And maybe I have a bit of a double standard going on here. Feeling bad for Monty while saying that Bryce deserved what he got but they were not the same. Monty was in pain and needed professional help to deal with all the internalized hatred that he felt. Bryce, on the other hand, was had everything handed to him and felt entitled to the world. 

Yeah, nope! Which brings me here, my biggest issue with this season was Bryce’s redemption story. Sure, mommy and daddy didn’t give him enough hugs as a kid. And with a dad (and grandfather) like that, it’s easy to feel like you’re owed something. But at a certain point, you have to take responsibility for your own actions. And I still don’t believe that Bryce did that. He only started to feel bad about his actions after everyone started dropping him for what he’d done. And I’m still not sure he actually felt bad. At certain points, it seemed like getting forgiveness was more important to him than respecting his victims’ boundaries. If he was truly sorry he would’ve stayed the hell away from Jessica and Hannah’s mom. He would’ve never even considered going back to that school, forcing Jessica to come face to face with her rapist every single day. He taunted Clay with his relationship with Ani. The day he died, he shattered Zach’s chance of a scholarship all because he felt like Chloe still somehow belonged to him. Hell, minutes before he died he ranted about how he was going to destroy Zach. Yeah, he seemed really redeemed. 

Season 4: So it’s already been announced that season 4 will be the final season. Probably for the best since I still feel that this show should’ve never gone past 1 season. So I guess next season will be all about those guns that were found. Tyler, Clay, and Tony will have a lot of explaining to do. And then there’s the guy Monty was seeing. I have a feeling he won’t let this go, as he shouldn’t. I truly hope Alex fesses up next season. His dad already knows he had something to do with it, but he’ll probably try to protect his son. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. 

Best quotes: Clay: “That’s not decorating, that’s putting shit up.” Ani: “I apologize, I should’ve used a more manly verb.” 
Clay: “Football and soccer field down there, baseball field out there. Clearly, the nicest parts of the school because athletes are our heroes and deserving of everything they want including the ability to sexually assault girls and never suffer any sort of consequences, because why should they?” 
Jessica: “There’s like the insanity of us doing this at all, and then there’s the insanity of “Oh my god, you built a website”.” 
Clay: “Do you think I’m a sad, skinny kid?” Ani: “Uhm, I think you are a lean, but right-sized, very handsome, very complicated kid.” 
Mr. Porter: “He could’ve gone to an adult.” Alex: “Hannah went to an adult.” 
Bryce: “How did we get like this, you and me?” Justin: “You raped my girlfriend.” 
Mrs. Baker: “Did you know that this department has put more investigative efforts into solving the murder of a convicted rapist than it ever did for any of his former victims?” Sheriff Daughtry: “I’m sure that is not correct.” Mrs. Baker: “And did you also know that one of those victims had to come down here twice before anyone in this building would even believe her?” Sheriff Daughtry: “I did know that, yes.” Mrs. Baker: “So maybe you can understand why I might have difficulty trusting your operation or any police, in general, these days, sheriff, because I can’t help but wonder if all this added muscle all of a sudden might have something to do with the family that rapist was born into.” 
Zach: “Why do you have me up there?” Tyler: “I can take it down if you want?” Zach: “No, it’s a great photo. It actually makes me seem good looking, so....” Tyler: “Holy shit, dude. You know you’re good looking, right?” 

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