It’s been almost a year since the Netflix’s hit series “13 Reasons Why” shook viewers. The series is narrated by Hannah Baker as she tells viewers the story of her life, or more accurately how it ended, in a set of 13 cassette tapes left behind after she committed suicide.
With each of the tapes explaining the role of a specific individual in Hannah’s decision to take her life, the series provide a different viewpoint toward teenage pressure and suicide. However, it ended with plenty of questions begging for answers in Season 2, which is set for release this year.
Here is a list of 13 questions that fans have been demanding further exploration in the next installment of the series.
1. What happened to Alex?
In the final episode of “13 Reasons Why,” viewers were presented with some true remorse in Alex, one of Hannah’s ex-best friends who “helped to destroy” Hannah’s reputation through a sexist list he created. According to Hannah, this list changed the way some of the guys acted around her, which led to more than one form of assault.
Alex shot himself, as viewers were led to believe, and was rushed to a hospital, leaving his fate unknown. The last of Alex that we have ever seen in Season 1 is the removal of his image from Tyler’s display, making death a widely popular hypothesis regarding this character.
2. What is Tyler planning?
Throughout the series, viewers learn that Tyler himself is bullied. He also begins to stalk Hannah and take photos of her. One of his photos eventually is passed around the school, prompting another friend of Hannah’s, Courtney, to betray her.
Courtney uses the rumors of Hannah’s easiness to hide her true sexual identity, which increases the intensity of Tyler’s bullying. Tyler is then seen hiding numerous guns and other weapons in his room.
He also has pictures of students who have wronged him on display. His removal of Alex’s photo after Alex is taken to the hospital for his possible suicide attempt prompts the question of what Tyler plans on doing. Is Tyler planning revenge on these students? Was he involved with what happened to Alex?
3. Will Sheri face criminal charges?
It is later learned from Hannah’s tapes that Sheri ran over a stop sign at an intersection. When Hannah pleaded her to report the damaged sign, Sheri drives away. Hannah runs to find a phone to call the police, but by then an accident has already happened, killing one of Clay’s friend, Jeff, at the scene.
Sheri turned herself in during the last episode, leaving behind the question of whether she will face charges of manslaughter. Will Sheri be put on trial? Will she have to face Jeff’s parents?
4. Where did Justin go?
After the big reveal of what happened to Jessica, she leaves as Justin stood by. He later begins to feel guilty and says he’ll do whatever to make it right after spending the night thinking of killing himself. He goes on to say that if the only way to make right what happened to her is to kill Bryce, then he would do it and pay the price.
After Jessica tells Justin she never wants to see him again, he leaves town, but not before telling Bryce he’ll get what’s coming to him. Where does he go? How does he deal with losing Jessica and being partly responsible for her assault?
5. Will Bryce be convicted?
What Bryce does to Hannah pushes her into ending her life since she refers to Bryce as “the one who broke my soul.” When Hannah decides to give “life another try” she finds herself at Bryce’s party, in which she was raped by Bryce.
When she seeks help, people tell her that she should move on. However, after learning of what Bryce did to Hannah through the tapes, Clay Jensen gets a recording of his confession, creating the 14th tape of the series. Viewers are left to wonder whether this new addition to the collection of tapes will lead to Bryce’s conviction in Season 2 of “13 Reasons Why.”
6. How will Jessica heal?
Upon the revelation that Jessica was raped by her boyfriend’s best friend, she attempts to handle the assault. She meets with Clay at the coffee house after he told Jessica that he will burn the tapes if she doesn’t want to share her incident, but will help if she wants a fight.
When Clay leaves the coffee house, Jessica tells him not to burn the tapes. However, viewers have already seen Jessica’s doubts on justice when she asks Clay whether Bryce will get what he deserves, “do you know what happens when girls try to get help?”
In the final episode, Jessica begins to tell her father what happened to her, which lead to the ultimate question of how Jessica will face her own doubt in the healing process. Will Bryce be held accountable? Will the tapes help? How will Jessica deal with her assault?
7. What will happen to Mr. Porter?
Perhaps one of the hardest scenes to watch in “13 Reasons Why,” aside from those of rape and suicide, was Hannah’s reaching out to Mr. Porter as part of her attempt to give life another try. She tries to tell him of her rape and her feelings of emptiness. She even says she doesn’t care about anything and “needs life to stop.”
With his phone interrupting her numerous times, Mr. Porter simply tells Hannah to try to move on, after which she storms out of his office and waits outside with the faint hope he’ll come after her. But he doesn’t.
Hannah concludes this tape with “some of you cared, but none of you cared enough.” Will Mr. Porter be fired for his negligence? Will he finally admit his role in Hannah’s death?
8. What will Mr. Porter do with the tapes?
Clay passes on the tapes to Mr. Porter, the 13th person in the series, also the 13th reason Hannah killed herself. Mr. Porter’s set of tapes now includes the addition of tape 14 — a recording of Bryce’s confession of raping Hannah.
Clay tells Mr. Porter no one did enough and now he gets to decide what to do with the tapes. Will he turn them in? Will he listen to them himself to understand Hannah’s death and his role in it? Will this motivate him to help Hannah receive justice?
9. Will the tapes make it to court?
Viewers know that among Tony, Mr. Baker and a few others, there are potentials that the tapes will be turned in to court. When being questioned, Justin reveals the existence of tapes and tells the school’s defending lawyer (Clay Jensen’s mother) that he thinks Clay has the tapes.
Will the authorities call for these tapes to be brought forward? Or will someone else step up and turn them in?
10. What will happen after the Bakers’ hear the tapes?
Throughout the series, viewers witnessed the desperation of Hannah’s parents about their daughter’s death, especially when they have to provide answers. Hannah’s mother even says, “My husband and I never even got a note,” citing that Hannah left them with nothing to explain why she would take her own life.
In the final episode, Tony decides to give Hannah’s parents a copy of her recordings. Will they press charges against Bryce? Tyler? Or any of the other kids who wronged Hannah?
11. What happens with the lawsuit?
The students are being questioned on the stand as part of a lawsuit between Bakers vs. the school. Out of all the lawyers, Clay Jensen’s mother is selected to defend the school.
In Season 1, only the deposition process has begun. Will the lawsuit continue to a full-fledged trial? Will the truth about the photo of Courtney and Hannah come out? Will Mr. Porter face any sort of charges? Will the tapes lead to the school’s loss in the lawsuit? What will the Baker’s gain?
12. What is Hannah’s role?
Creators of “13 Reasons Why” have released that Hannah will no longer be the narrator in Season 2. However, they also said that Hannah Baker’s story “is still very much not finished,” and she will be back for a second season. What else do we have to learn of Hannah? Will questions on the trial or convictions lead to even more stories about what led her to suicide?
13. Does it get better?
In the last episode of the first season, Clay tells Mr. Porter he refuses to accept that it was simply Hannah’s decision to kill herself. He says we all failed Hannah and “it has to get better. How we treat each other, how we look out for each other.”
So, does it get better? Does someone pick up on the destructive signs and put an end to what Tyler is planning? Do the students admit to their wrongs and help one another cope? Do they change how they treat one another?
Does Jessica fight what happened to her, feeling support from her peers? Does Courtney finally feel comfortable enough to come out? Do students have a better outlet to share suicidal thoughts and receive help?
