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  • Why did Clay send the tapes to the next person? Hannah said things in the tapes that could potentially stop a rapist from hurting more people. The whole point of the second set was to basically blackmail the people Hannah deemed responsible for her miseries, and force them to keep the tapes going. But, Clay didn't do anything. Hannah herself said so. He could have refused to send the tapes to the next person or send the tapes to the cops. Why continue the chain?
    • In the series, Clay doesn't follow the chain. The chain in the series was Justin > Jessica > Alex > Tyler > Courtney > Marcus > Zach > Ryan > Justin (assumed Ryan passed it on to Sherri) > Sherri > Clay > Bryce > Mr. Porter, and according to the rules set out by Hannah, he was supposed to give the tapes onto the person on the 12th tape, which was Bryce, after he is done with them. But however, Clay decides, instead of giving it to Bryce like the rules told him to, to give it to the person on the 13th tape, which was Mr. Porter. The in-universe reason is that Clay knows that Mr. Porter, as a teacher, will have to report the tapes to the authorities after he is done with the tapes.
      • OP Here: Apologies, when I initially posted this it was before the series had come out. The question was in reference to the book, the series fixed this little head scratcher.
    • For his book counterpart, it seems that Clay did it because it's what Hannah wanted. He's been badly affected by her death, so he's probably not thinking in his right mind. He is only sixteen afterall. Clay also might feel guilt anyway for not doing anything that could have saved Hannah, so mailing the tapes along as she wanted might be a way to make up for that in his mind.
      • It's actually better that Clay bypassed Bryce and passed them on to Mr. Porter. Bryce's family apparently has money and power and would do anything they could to protect him from rape charges. Even knowing the tapes were out there would have given them time to find and destroy them (including Tony's copy), work to legally suppress them, or otherwise plan a counter-attack.
      • That is, if his parents (in the series, that is) are home at all. It doesn't really look like they care too much about their son because they aren't home that much. Going on vacation without him etc.
      • Word of God is that his father is worse and may be where he picked some of his 'charms'; by seeing his father in action. This is to be explored further in season 2 of the show. It's obvious what Bryce will do with the tapes, "Keep me clean" remember? That's probably a line I think now that he must have learned from his father.

  • Why is Courtney still scared of being outed? It seems that the most popular and influential people in school know her secret anyway
    • Courtney says her fathers have dealt with intense homophobia their entire lives (and she has by extension). She also feels that it would perpetuate the gay parents raise gay kids myth. She also has a crippling fear of disappointing her parents (remember when she told Hannah she'd never lied to them before?), and shattering the reputation she's created. As her parents clearly think she's straight (one Dad ships her with Marcus apparently), she'd consider coming out as letting them down.
    • Also the only influential people at school who know are also on the tapes, and they aren't going to out her at the risk of revealing their own secrets.
    • To put it bluntly, heteronormativity's a hell of a drug. Despite how accepting our culture can be, most LGBTQ+ people experience some form of internalized homophobia/transphobia at some point. Consider also that as an adoptee of two gay parents, Courtney's very family life hasn't just been mocked and misunderstood be people around her, it's been a political talking point by right- and left-wing politicians for years. Courtney is already obsessed with being a "perfect" student and citizen of the school; it's doubtful she wants to stand out for anything vaguely controversial.

  • Alex and Tyler flat-out say terrible things to Mr. Porter's face, show every warning of having been deeply affected by something and storm out of Mr. Porter's office before providing any explanation other than "why do you think?". How can he be so incompetent as to not call their parents, call them back to their office and have them explain their cryptic messages, etc.
    • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Mr. Porter has grown desensitized to outbursts from students, and what is an intense problem for them is just another day in the office for him. It's also implied that because of his experiences at an inner-city school where "kids shot kids", he considers Liberty High students privileged and petty in comparison, which is not really far off from the truth from what we've seen.
      • Mr. Porter is also overworked as it is, before the lawsuit. He argues to Ms. Bradley that he has more than 300 students that he's responsible for. Considering the context of his work, he's probably not going to call parents for every single student who mouths off at him. He's shown to give everyone the benefit of the doubt considering the circumstances of Hannah's death, and lots of school counselors tend to be lenient when it comes to students expressing frustration (few forgive all-out abuse, but really, the kids were just being mouthy). Which actually plays into his whole character arc: Mr. Porter might think he cares about his job, but he's not good enough at it where he needs to be. He thinks he's letting the students express themselves and blow off steam (and, frankly, he's saving himself the effort and paperwork) by not disciplining them for being rude, instead of looking further into their remarks.
    • I thought it was to perpetuate the red herring that Porter was the ringleader, that he knew about the tapes and he maybe heard them and he was the one keeping everyone in line and from revealing the truth about the tapes.
    • Well Season 2 shows him suffering a Heel Realization. And you see that when he does make a house call to Bryce's mother, the principal tries to stop him from doing anymore. So in Season 1 he was just part of the system that didn't care what its students did. They were clocking in and clocking off and felt everything was fine as long as the students weren't killing each other.

  • The Asian ethics teacher is someone that Clay has sophomore AND junior year? how many semesters of ethics does the state require a junior to have?
    • It's a Two-Teacher School.
    • Liberty High has a disproportionate number of assholes in the student body, so the school requires more ethics classes than traditional high schools.

  • In Kat's testimony, she mentioned that the teachers and Principal Bolan feed into a toxic school culture. What was the type of toxic school culture that she was referring to?
    • She's referring to how at Liberty High male jocks are placed on a pedestal, and feel entitled to treat women horribly and bully other students. She feels that these attitudes are reinforced by the school through the actions of their staff (such as giving Bryce a leadership award, the basketball coach/history teacher making attending basketball games homework, Monty getting a slap on the wrist for beating Alex up). Also Mr. Porter's victim blaming approach to Tyler being bullied and Hannah being raped reinforces the toxic culture at Liberty. The school only covers up graffiti slut-shaming and bullying people once it becomes an issue in the Baker's lawsuit.
      • They also failed to treat their students with the proper care as a educational institute and only started kicking their dormant policies onto gear only after Hannah was dead and buried?

  • In Episode 2, Clay is called to the office because for some reason, Liberty High school staff put him on attendance alert, despite Clay claiming he has attended all of his classes. Who called the school to put Clay on attendance alert?
    • Probably Mr. Porter.

  • Who passed on the tapes to Clay — or Sherri, Ryan, Tyler and anyone outside the core group, for that matter? Justin, the first recipient of the tapes, was friends with Jessica, Bryce, Zach, Alex and Marcus — he would have likely informed all of them about the existence of the tapes and the allegations on them before actually "passing" them on like they were supposed to do. Since most of them are doubtful about Hannah's intentions, it's unlikely that Justin, Jessica, Marcus or any of the other more insensitive characters would have simply passed them on because it's "what Hannah would have wanted." While it's understandable that they might at least inform people like Courtney and Ryan of the tapes' existence in order to make them aware of the situation, the likelihood that they'd willingly reach out to Tyler, whom they all hold in total contempt and barely acknowledge the existence of, and Clay, whom they know from the tapes held a special place in Hannah's heart and is known to be a "good kid" are pretty low. Considering how desperate they are to keep Bryce uninformed of their existence, the chances that they'd let them get to Clay are low. There's a second set of tapes, but only one "second" set, and they're being used as collateral.
    • Two possible explanations: One, Tony has more that a second copy of the tapes; he has been making copies as the week goes on to ensure that everyone is informed. The other explanation is that Tony checked up on the likes of Justin, Jessica et. al and retrieved the tapes. He doesn't hold much influence among them, but judging by the actions of him and his brothers, he could possibly pose a physical threat.
      • The group is already publicly trying to put forth any effort to keep the tapes from Bryce — publicly intimidating Clay right within earshot of Tony, going to all lengths they can to get him out of the picture (but not, for some reason, Tony). So it's clear that they don't take the threat of exposure seriously, and they're actively trying to stop the cycle. So seriously, how did they manage to let the tapes get to Clay? Realistically, with Justin Foley being the first recipient, odds are he would have assembled the group of at least Jessica, Zach and Alex — probably Marcus and Courtney too, since they seem to be friendly with each other. Letting them get to a bully target like Tyler Down probably wouldn't have been in their best interest, let alone to known do-gooder Clay. And clearly, they didn't withhold the tapes and simply let Tony send another set along, because Tony promised to "release the tapes" if the instructions were not followed.
    • Well Justin is the first tape, and he was dating Jessica at the time. So it makes sense that he would show her the tapes - and she would listen to them to verify any of Hannah's information. As Alex was her ex-boyfriend, it's not unreasonable to think Jessica would ask him to listen to them after she did. Tyler's not well-liked, so Alex passing them on to him might have been a Kick the Dog moment. And Tyler passing them onto Courtney could be pragmatic; as he could be busted for being the peeping Tom, he might go "I'm taking you down with me" as Courtney is clearly desperate to stay closeted. Courtney and Marcus appear to be friends as well, so him and Zach being drawn in makes sense too. The tapes getting into Clay's hands is explained by Sheri being the one who's before him. She's the one who shows most remorse by what she's done, so maybe she gives them to him as a way of ensuring they get into the right hands.

  • On top of Hannah letting Clay dangle and thinking he's done something wrong, why do the rest of the recipients seemingly tease Clay into thinking his reason for being on the tapes was something horrible? While perhaps they are doing this to intimidate him into dropping it (although this would be fairly stupid, since convincing a person that they're implicated would probably motivate them to listen more), they also discuss Clay's presence on the tapes when he isn't around, and act as though he will freak out when he gets to his tapes. The truth is, they've all heard Clay's tape and know that it essentially exonerates him.
    • Given that she doesn't have dirt on Clay, unlike the other kids (who are on shakey moral, and in some case legal ground), they're likely trying to intimidate/manipulate him into staying quiet. Or they're employing Never My Fault.
    • When Clay asks Tony if he killed Hannah, Tony says yes. Tony has no reason to lie to Clay here, and no reason to believe his answer is true. So why did he answer yes?

  • It seems really strange that Clay doesn't at all remember what he's done to Hannah and suspects that he's done something truly awful. While the last month of losing two friends has been traumatic, Clay seems to think by the time he gets to his tape that he has done something on par with the outright awful actions already depicted — which, at this point, includes a least one rape, stalking and accidentally causing a fellow student's death. It seems that Clay might just be self-flagellating at that point to truly think that he's done something THAT wrong.
    • Clay is implied to not have the best mental health, even before the events of the series (his mom alludes to him being medicated at a young age and seeing a therapist). Hannah's suicide is confusing and he angsts over having not been able to help her, so his reaction to being on the tapes isn't absurd. Also some of the students on the tapes have more minor infractions, but ended up hurting Hannah a lot, so Clay might think that he's in that category. He initially thinks that Zach's tape is about him, for example.
    • This troper thinks that Clay may be suffering from schizophrenia. Symptoms: Delusions-that his role in Hannah's death was greater than it was, that people are accusing him towards the end of the series, etc. Hallucinations-he sees and hears Hannah like she's right there. His hallucinations are so real and vivid that he often gets swept away in them and dissociates from reality instead. Disorganized thinking (speech)-a lot when he's conversing with Hannah, but that would imply it started before her death, but he still hasn't got 100% clarity after her death either so... Extremely disorganized or abnormal motor behavior- the dude crashes his bike a lot, especially in episode 1. And as far as fights, he can get like one punch in at best. He also goes unresponsive a lot, at least during his hallucinations "Behavior can include resistance to instructions, inappropriate or bizarre posture, a complete lack of response, or useless and excessive movement." and he's definitely been restless, rebellious, etc since the tapes. And finally, the most damning symptom of all "Negative symptoms. This refers to reduced or lack of ability to function normally. For example, the person may neglect personal hygiene or appear to lack emotion (doesn't make eye contact, doesn't change facial expressions or speaks in a monotone). Also, the person may have lose interest in everyday activities, socially withdraw or lack the ability to experience pleasure." Hygiene neglect? check, lack of emotion? check, persistent facial expression?? gloomy one, speaking in monotone? check, lose of interest in everyday activities, social withdrawal, lack of pleasurable experiences? check check and check. And specifically teens are more likely to hallucinate and less likely to have delusions (which he doesn't suffer from as much as his hallucinations, but he still deludes himself into thinking his part in her death is greater than it was. Not only did he not 'kill her' but the only reason he's even on the tape is so she could sort of apologize to him instead. And teen specific symptoms include "Withdrawal from friends and family, A drop in performance at school, Trouble sleeping, Irritability or depressed mood, Lack of motivation" which are all things we noticed during the course of the show. So the delusion part is why he thinks he did something awful, and everyone teasing him about his part could also be a delusion of his, or it could be that being on the tape they figure that Hannah also blames him as much as the others, for his inaction, even though that is what she asked him to do.
    • Well in the show there are lots of instances where Clay is talking to Hannah and something he says causes her to flip out. The "do you think I could be as pretty as Jessica?" conversation, accidentally offending her by saying she should be happy she's on the Hot List, and Slut-Shaming her after the photo goes around. A few of the recipients were Obliviously Evil, so Clay does have good reason to think it might be one of those moments.
    • Literally one of the most arguably Anvilicious points of the story is that just because you don't know at the time that what you're doing/saying hurts someone, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're not hurting someone. There are a lot of people on the list who did something most people would brush off as being trivial (just check out any level of criticism of Hannah and you'll see that there are a lot of people who don't get why the thirteen reasons pushed her to suicide) but through the tapes, Clay starts to understand how something as relatively stupid as a "Hot/Not" list or stealing a bunch of compliments from a bag or starting/embellishing a rumour can affect someone who's already not in a great place. It's actually a big point that most of the reasons are, at least on the surface, trivial and small things anyone can be guilty of without even really thinking about it. It makes a lot of sense that Clay would start being paranoid about his interactions with Hannah and whether he might have been guilty of just doing something thoughtless like Alex or Zach did and hurting Hannah unintentionally. (Fun fact, one of the biggest criticisms of the book (not so much with the series weirdly) was that Clay didn't do anything and his being included as the Token Good Teammate of the tapes subjects was a cop-out). Also yeah, Clay's not exactly in the best state of mind by the time he gets to his tape - and bear in mind that although the reasons themselves might not be getting worse, Hannah's situation is worsening as the tapes go on. If you're on, say, side 8 and your name still hasn't come up, you'd probably be forgiven for thinking you'd done something pretty damn serious (as far as Hannah's concerned) to warrant having to wait so long.

  • The timeline of the series seems weird — the story seems to take place without a single day unseen by the audience, with most of the episodes representing a single day. And yet, almost every episode in the present takes place on a school day — there are no weekends in the universe. At least three days take place between episodes 6 and 10, since that is the length of Montgomery's suspension, but there are still seemingly no weekends.
    • Writers Cannot Do Math.
    • While the events are more closely packed towards the end, and take part during say about a week for example, the rest of the season takes place over several weeks. There were a few days where Clay refused to listen to the tapes, especially around the start, probably over the weekends, and they wouldn't have shown them since nothing plot relevant really happens. We aren't told exactly how long Clay has the tapes, just that he takes WEEKS to listen to them all, and that he really spaces them out because he has trouble hearing them, he can't bear them. Long story short: the story skips weekends/irrelevant days, and Clay keeps the tapes for weeks, but we just see the days when shit happens, which are usually weekdays.
    • It's also worth noting that one of the days (I want to say it was the day after the list or the day after the dance) that Tony and Clay are in the gym and Tony refers to the events of the previous episode as "Friday". i.e. Clay didn't listen over the weekend.
    • More time than a few days clearly passes - considering that Courtney's hair visibly grows over the season. It's bound to be a few weeks.

  • Obvious Retcon aside, how are we supposed to make sense of Zach and Hannah's summer fling in regards to his inclusion on the tapes and his general behavior in Season 1? The photo on his phone seems to prove that he was not lying about them hanging out at least once that summer, and the show never reveals that Zach was lying like it does with all of the other false testimonies. Clay's Hallucination!Hannah implies that the real Hannah left out that large and important chunk of her life because she respected Zach's intense desire for privacy, which is just laughable considering Hannah's otherwise total disregard for the feelings of anyone who hurt her and that she had no problem whatsoever with including personal information about the also-very-private Clay (who didn't even do anything wrong) and, lest we forget, Zach himself, just for the sake of telling the complete story of her downward spiral. Having her boyfriend choose his misogynist bully friends over her was somehow less hurtful than thinking he threw away a note she wrote him? Speaking of the note: If Zach apologized for being insensitive before they became friends/started dating, how did it never come up then or in the weeks they spent together, and why did he still guiltily keep it during and after that summer if he thought she'd forgiven him? But, beyond all that, Zach's attitude towards Hannah's memory and towards Bryce throughout the series simply doesn't line up with his claim to have cared for her beyond physical attraction; he acts like he barely knew Hannah in Season 1, still seems hung up on the fact that she initially rejected him, and comfortably co-exists with Bryce for a long time after learning of his crimes toward someone he loved.
    • Potential explanation: Zach and Hannah did repeatedly hook up, but only as acquaintances-with-benefits for a very short period of time, with Zach's flashbacks comprising the entire span of their time together. Hannah's initial proposition of sex is phrased like someone who was just eager to lose their virginity, and perhaps that really was all that she valued at that point in her life after pursuing relationships with popular kids had already consistently let her down. Perhaps Zach viewed their interactions that way too, at least initially, and he only prescribed deeper feelings to their limited interaction after guilt toward not preventing her loss had time to compile. Their relationship being short and shallow would leave plenty of time and room for Hannah to feel lonely without the loss of it contributing greatly to her overall pain.
    • If we take the flashbacks with a grain of salt, they are framed from Zach's point of view. So in light of Hannah's death, he's viewing them much more idealistically and romantically - essentially putting this girl he just slept with a few times up on a pedestal as someone he loved. In Season 1 we never actually see anything that happened during the summer - just that Hannah decided she wanted a fresh start by the end of it and changed her hair for that reason. When viewed as something she did after she called it off with Zach, it does make a bit more sense - "okay, I'm done with jocks now". She didn't put it on the tapes because the split was amicable and it was something she initiated. We see in the finale that she considered putting the likes of Kat and Mrs Antilli on the tapes too, but changed her mind. So she could have been planning to mention her little fling with Zach in his tape but chose not to - because he didn't hurt her and the memory was a good one. Compared to the boys who did hurt her - Justin, Bryce, Marcus - she must not have felt Zach was worth attacking over losing her virginity to. Especially since that was her idea and she was the one who ended it.
    • A small detail, but I don't think the list Hannah made was necessarily people she "considered putting on the tapes." She started writing out "where she thought her life went wrong." Kat moving away may have been a part of that, but that doesn't mean she considered making a tape for her. Hell, Hannah didn't even know when she made that list that she'd make tapes.
    • As for Zach acting like he barely knew Hannah in Season 1, the summer they hooked up was also the summer his father died. It's shown that in his family, they don't talk about their feelings or anything. So Zach copes with the death by repressing anything tied to that time. His hook-up with Hannah is associated with that time, so he ignores it.

  • A weird retcon that gets lost amidst some of the other more obvious ones in Season 2: why does the entire "in crowd" suddenly hate Alex when he comes back to school? Alex was still good friends with everyone up until his suicide attempt. Even despite his fight with Monty, he was still invited to hang out, play cards with the guys, etc. So why did he suddenly come back such an outcast that even Zach helping him out was treated like some sort of big social risk? I know Liberty High has a disproportionate amount of Jerkass students, but is it really believable that a kid's attempted suicide would be met with outright mockery? That's most confounding is that the exclusion of Alex is led by Bryce, who wasn't even present for Alex's righteous crusade against some of the people on the tapes. They also, frankly, act like they barely knew him, usually referring to him as "that guy" or "your [Zach's] friend." It's like the writers forgot that Alex was a core part of their group for most of Season 1.
    • Alex is the only one in the group who showed genuine remorse back in Season 1, and he wasn't quiet about it. I think inviting him to be part of the gang even after his fight with Monty was more of a pragmatic attempt to stop him from revealing the tapes - because that is where he looked like he was going. And he was MIA for six months, which is quite a long time in high school land. They're teenagers and prone to changing their attitudes.
  • Why is Tyler’s statement that Hannah was “sexting” someone taken as the gospel truth? Unless he somehow got a hold of or hacked her cellphone he would have absolutely no way of knowing what Hannah was going to do with the boob picture she was allegedly taking. Plenty of people take pictures (even nude ones) of themselves that they never intend to send to anybody. Yet it’s always just treated as a fact that she sent some mystery person that picture. Also, how could it even be known that she was taking a boob picture? She could have just happened to take a picture of something else after unbuttoning her blouse- unlikely, but it happens.
    • Convicted by Public Opinion. Remember that Tape 1 was about an upskirt photo of Hannah that got sent around the school. She also had an Urban Legend Love Life that isn't exactly debunked by the tapes - since they're from Hannah's perspective and she wasn't in the best mental state at the time. So Hannah had a reputation, and it wasn't unreasonable to think she took a picture of her boob to send to someone.

  • The show manages to subvert Hollywood Law fairly well, although it's not perfect. So with that in mind, how in the hell was the trial in Season 2 not declared a mistrial? Almost every single episode featured at least one element of the trial that could lead to a mistrial. From testimony being leaked by a true crime blog to Jessica's sneaking in of non-admitted evidence and the release of the tapes from the very law firm representing the defense there were numerous things that objectively could have resulted in a mistrial. On a more subjective note, many of Sonya's in-court antics were easily construable as leading the witness, which could have given the Bakers a chance to appeal.

  • What is with Bryce, Zach and the other jocks being on like all the sport teams (American Football, baseball, basketball at least)?
    • That happens sometimes, high school athletes playing multiple sports. The baseball and basketball seasons don't overlap. The only tricky part is gridiron football—the season doesn't overlap, but highly competitive schools will train all summer, which would interfere with baseball.

  • Did Cyrus take the fall for the school shooting 'false alarm'? It shows flashbacks to Zach, Justin and Cyrus being interviewed by the police and Cyrus is saying stuff like "it was just a joke". I don't think it's ever addressed after that but obviously the 'false alarm' came from somewhere and they covered up Tyler's involvement.

  • One thing confused me about the characters' worry re: Tyler and the spring fling 'false alarm', and I'm not American so my knowledge of the specific laws in various states is limited. What I don't fully understand is what kind of legal trouble Tyler would be in with events having played out the way that they did. Yes he arrived at the dance with the intention of doing something with those weapons (shooting Monty and those who took part in the assault seems obvious, and with the amount of weapons he brought he presumably intended on shooting others as well) but he never actually went through with it. We cannot know for absolute sure that he would have even without Clay's intervention - he could have found himself unable to go through with it when it came down to the moment. With that in mind, what crime could he actually be charged with? Intending on committing a crime but then not following through with it is, for one thing hard to prove, and for another not a crime in and of itself (at least where I live). Could he be charged with violating gun laws? Are they simply taking artistic license for the sake of drama? Are the characters worrying needlessly due to being high schoolers and not knowing how the legal system works?
    • If you want to get into specifics, for one, Tyler could be charged with assault with a deadly weapon for simply pointing his rifle at Clay (assault implies a threat, battery is the actual act itself). That alone carries a hefty prison sentence depending on the weapon and the intent, and given Tyler’s intent, it’s 20 years minimum. Also, considering that Tyler went through the every step in the process (formulating a plan, making a suicide note and suicide tape, purchasing ammunition and weapons, and being right on the steps of the place he intended to commit the crime at) short of actually committing the crime, it’s most likely he could be charged with attempted murder (conviction may be difficult depending on circumstances)
      • Thank you, that clarified it a bit for me. Though unless Clay, Jessica or Justin tell the police about Tyler pointing the gun at Clay they would never know it happened. I honestly didn't even consider the point about attempted murder but you're definitely right about that. I also think you're right about conviction possibly being difficult - if Tyler never stepped inside the building and pointed the weapon at someone, is it attempted murder? I find that question interesting.
    • It's US Federal Law that merely having a gun on school property is a felony (unless you are authorized by the state, such as police or a concealed carry license holder), and even though he's probably a minor during that episode, Tyler could still be charged as an adult.
  • Why did everyone end up protecting Tyler from the authorities during the Spring Fling incident? It makes sense for certain characters to do so (Clay for wanting to avoid a Hannah incident and feeling like he wasn’t their for him, Alex for being the only one who’s friends with him, and maybe Tony for wanting to avoid the cops and observing something happened to him.) However, nobody else had any motivation to keep this a secret from the cops. Zach hated Tyler and thought he was a psychopath. He wasn’t on good terms with Cyrus and his gang. And he literally pointed a gun at Jessica and Justin. Even in the case of Clay and Tony they weren’t particularly close to Tyler. It’s hard to believe that no one turned him with so little time to coordinate a story and the police were already there. Zach especially had the most motivation to do so even if it was the next day.
    • Justin explained to Zach that if he called the cops on Tyler, Clay and Tony (and possibly Jess and Justin himself) would also get in trouble. Most of the kids who were on the tapes had become pretty close by that point so they banded together to protect each other, even though some of them (really, just Zach) didn't agree with it.

  • Why are the police so dismissive of Zach's confession on assaulting Bryce? They just dismiss the confession since Bryce was killed by drowning and not beaten to death, but for all they knew Bryce could have tried to get up and accidentally fell into the water. Hell Zach leaves him there stranded with no way of calling someone since he threw Bryce's phone into the water. Even if He didn't drown he could have froze to death. But the way it plays out Zach doesn't face any jail time or even face charges.
    • The show's been heavily criticized for its use of Hollywood Law, but there's a legitimate reason they might not have charged Zach – charging him with aggravated assault or suddenly pivoting to assembling a new theory that Bryce's death was accidental looks bad on local police and prosecutors. When a murder investigation is launched, the ideal outcome is charges for first- or second-degree murder, ideally a conviction. Charging Zach weakens the case and essentially embarrasses the police force for putting public money, time and resources into their investigation, especially because they'd already named a person of interest.

  • What happened to Justin's mom? Did she run away from Seth or did Seth end up killing her?
    • She probably just ran away. IIRC, Justin gave her some of the money he stole from Seth and told her to run away. Seth is probably capable of murder, but I'm not sure that he would have been able to cover it up for this long if he'd killed her.
      • Season 4 confirms that she had remained away from Seth but still involved with drugs and eventually died.

  • How old is Caleb supposed to be? In the second season he appears to just be a boxing instructor, but it later turns out he owns the gym (and even lives there, on his own – implying that his family doesn't have a part in it). He has the capital to buy out Tony's parents garage by the fourth season as well. In the second and third season it's confirmed that he's definitely beyond high school age, because he says he never went to dances and used to play football. He does not appear to be in college, but is in favour of Tony going to college. Essentially, there's no way he's only a year or two removed from high school if he owns as successful of a gym as he does, and the more years you put between him and Tony, a high school student (albeit one who looks 30), the weirder the dynamic of their relationship starts to seem. Especially because Tony started out as his student.

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