Tape 1, Side B
Clay is beginning to strain under the guilt of not being there to support Hannah. He spots Tony's car parked at the front of his house and rushes to go outside to meet him but is met by his parents. They're staging an intervention, obviously worried about their son's own mental health after the traumatic loss of his friend. His mum offers him breakfast, which Clay accepts willingly until he sees she's brought home a bottle of pills. He insists he hasn't needed them in a while and hurriedly leaves.
Justin has met with Mr. Porter (Derek Luke), the guidance counsellor and decides to skip school for the day. His coach is disgruntled as Justin is supposed to be at a pep rally later that day. Justin's girlfriend, Jessica Davis (Alisha Boe) is also frantically looking for him. We are introduced more to Jessica throughout the episode. Jessica is a friend of Hannah's, who later became more popular and a high school cheerleader.
Clay is also looking for Justin after listening to the tape. Unable to find him, another cheerleader called Sheri (Ajiona Alexus) offers Clay help. She's kind and friendly, telling him that Jessica is concerned about Justin. She also mentions that, too, was a friend of Hannah's and she knew that Hannah did like Clay.
We learn more about Hannah and Jessica's friendship via flashbacks. Hannah and Jessica started at Liberty High at the same time. Both being the new students, they were automatically put together by the old guidance counsellor, Mrs. Antilly. The girls got on straight away, playing off each other's sense of humour and began getting coffee at the local cafe, Monet's. This turns out to be a significant location on Hannah's map.
Meanwhile, Mr. Porter manages to track down Justin, has met up with Jessica and now wants to speak to Clay. Hannah has mentioned on her tapes that she was saddened and disappointed that Mrs. Antilly left the school and they ended up with Mr. Porter but this isn't elaborated on yet.
Hannah continues with her explanation of her friendship with Jessica. We see the pair meet up in the coffee shop regularly and notice a male student from the same school keeps making eyes at them. He's Alex Standall. They invite him to join them and the trio become fast friends. Hannah tells us that she enjoyed their friendship and how they would meet every day and recite their FML's (fuck my life). As the story continues, we can tell that things didn't last long like this. Alex is the first to stop coming to Monet's; Hannah decides that he had found a cooler upgrade group of friends to hang with. But then Jessica moved on too. Hannah then discovers that Alex and Jessica have begun dating. When Hannah begins to wonder about herself, she asks Clay if he thinks she's as pretty as Jessica. He replies that he thinks she's 'special', a remark that further fuels Hannah's insecurities. Hannah then mentions that Jessica began to hate her for something she didn't do.
Alex has written a 'Hot List', featuring a list of what physical attractions certain girls have in the school. Jessica blames Hannah for Alex's newly found mean behaviour and the fact that they have now broken up. We aren't shown exactly what happened but Jessica is angry enough with Hannah to slap her in Monet's.
Back to the present and Clay's behaviour has caused the jocks to start paying attention to him. Zach and Marcus offer Clay a ride to Bryce's house, where Justin has been hiding out in his pool house. However, Tony arrives in time to save him from that trip. Clay finds Jessica, who tells him that he has too much faith in what Hannah says and she lies. Hannah was actually the second person to stop going to Monet's, not her. When Jessica later finds Justin in Bryce's pool house, he's acting suspicious and scared. She wonders whether Hannah's words weren't all lies.
At the Baker's house, Olivia is going through some of Hannah's things. She comes across the Hot List that Alex had written. She takes the list to her husband, Andy and brands it proof that bullying was happening to Hannah in the school. She calls Tony, who arrives shortly whilst Clay watches from a distance.
This episode provides examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Jessica and Hannah getting each other's names wrong helped their friendship to blossom.
- Ambiguously Bi: Jessica mentions having had erotic dreams about Scarlett Johansson.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After their argument in Monet's gets worse, Jessica slaps Hannah and looks like she immediately regrets it before leaving.
- The Reveal: Jessica is the subject of the tape because she left Hannah during her time of need due to untrue rumours of Hannah going after Jessica's ex, Alex.
- Two Girls and a Guy: Hannah, Jessica and Alex were this until their friendship fell apart.
- The Unfair Sex: Hannah makes a lot of teasing remarks about Clay's personality etc to his face. However, if Clay does it back to her, she normally storms off in moods. Hannah randomly asks Clay if he thinks she's as pretty as Jessica however when Clay takes a few seconds to answer, she takes the silence as an automatic no. When Clay then explains that Jessica is pretty but that Hannah is special, she takes that remark as her being 'special needs'. She blames his lack of social skills despite asking an impossible question and then disliking the answer given.
