Tape 7, Side A
After feeling her outlook shift slightly after recording the 12 tapes, Hannah decides to give life 'one last try'. She's poured out her deepest secrets, her darkest moments on the tapes and now feels she should ask for help. She heads to her parent's pharmacy and buys a cassette tape and a pack of razor blades.
Present Day. Zach is on the stand during his deposition. He admits that he said some mean things to Hannah whilst she was alive. Marcus does the same but he claims it was due to him thinking Hannah wanted to date him. Then Courtney has her turn. She refuses to call Hannah her friend and lies about knowing who it is in the photo of the girls kissing.
At Clay's house, Tony arrives to speak to him. They both have their depositions the following day. Clay plays Tony part of Tape 14 that he's created; the one with Bryce's confession. Clay thinks they shouldn't give the twelfth tape to Bryce. He believes that should stop doing what Hannah wanted and do what she needed instead. Tony warns Clay that if they release this tape, it could blow everything up. Clay feels that's exactly what they should do. Justice for Hannah, for Jessica and any other girl Bryce may have hurt.
Clay heads to Monet's to meet Jessica. He explains that he can burn the tapes if that's what she wants. Or he can help her fight against Bryce. Jessica tells him that she's not ready to tell her father or go through her story in court yet. Clay keeps the tapes for now but Jessica asks him not to burn them.
Back in court, Hannah's friend Kat returns. She explains that Liberty High is run by the jocks and athletes. She regrets ever letting Hannah date Justin after she left. She feels Hannah would still be alive if she hadn't of left. Justin Foley is dead to her.
Back at Monet's, Justin is waiting outside in the hopes of bumping into Jessica. When she goes to leave, he begs her to listen. He claims that he was close to committing suicide after what happened but didn't because he knew what it would do to her. He just wants to make things right and will do whatever it takes. Jessica tells him that she wants to never see him again.
Flashback.Hannah tells us that she walked by Bryce in the school hallway and he had the audacity to wink at her. Her last conversation with Clay was short and not filled with much importance. Hannah says she stopped herself from telling Clay what she was intending to do, instead telling him she'd see him in class.
This brings us to Mr. Porter; the subject of tape 13. Hannah goes to see him in his office. Hannah's last try was to ask her school counsellor for help. She tells him that she doesn't feel anything anymore, that she wants everything to end. Mr. Porter doesn't seem to click on to how severe Hannah's situation is. Hannah begins to tell him about the party. She reveals that she was assaulted by a boy at the party. But instead of comforting her, Mr. Porter asks all the wrong questions. Did you say no? Did you tell him to stop? Hannah explains that she isn't ready to go to the police and accuse this person. Mr. Porter simply tells her that if the boy is a senior, he won't be at the school for much longer. If she won't go to the police, she just needs to move on.
With that, Hannah leaves the office to do just that.
We see that Hannah had recorded her meeting with Mr. Porter. After leaving his office, she waits outside in the hopes that he would follow her out. Instead, he answers his phone and lets her leave.
Present Day. Clay meets with Mr. Porter to go through what had happened. He tells him that it was Bryce Walker who raped Hannah Baker. He then details what happened to Hannah after she had left his office that day.
Flashback.Hannah finishes the 13th tape. She realises that no one was going to help her and she knew what she was to do. She explains that some people did care but not enough. She didn't care either. She then apologises.
She takes the set of tapes to Tony's before posting off the other set. She drops off her uniform to the Crestmont. She makes her bed and puts on some old clothes. She gets into the bathtub, where she takes a razor blade and slices into her wrists. Her parents find her after noticing the bath water running under the door. They're too late.
- NOTE: this scene was edited out of the show in 2019 due to its graphic depiction of suicide*
Present Day.Clay hands the tapes over to Mr. Porter. They ask each other whether you can really blame someone else for someone's suicide? They disagree on the answer but Clay hopes that tape 14 will point Mr. Porter in the right direction. When Clay leaves the office, he spots Skye on her own in the hallway. Determined not to let another friend down, he asks Skye if she'd like to hang out.
Tony gives Hannah's parents the audio files of her tapes on a USB. Meanwhile, Tyler tells the lawyers about the tapes during his deposition. Jessica claims she knows nothing about the tapes but does tell her father about what happened to her. Justin decides to leave town, taking alcohol with him from Bryce. Tyler is seen in the photography dark room, pinning up photographs of various students. He takes down a photo of Alex. We then find out that the gunshot victim from several episodes ago was indeed, Alex Standall who had shot himself in the head and is in critical condition.
Hannah's parents are left to listen to the tapes as Clay leaves. We see him in the car with Tony, Brad and Skye driving to an unknown location.
This episode shows examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: Mr. Porter decides to essentially interrogate Hannah about what Bryce had done to her. Whereas, in the book, he just didn't reach out as much as he should have done.
- Adults Are Useless: Mr. Porter completely fails to support Hannah in every way.
- The Atoner: Alex started the season trying to avoid taking accountability for his actions towards Hannah's death. Soon enough, he feels guilt and wants to atone for what he did. This results in him attempting suicide.
- Back for the Finale: Hannah's best friend, Kat who moved away at the start of the season is hit with a subpoena for the Baker's lawsuit.
- Bath Suicide: Hannah is found in the bath when she decides to commit suicide.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Hannah dies in the show by cutting her wrists. In the book, she overdoses.
- Bowdlerise: Netflix removed Hannah's graphic suicide scene two full years after the season had been on the service.
- Cliffhanger: The season ends with Alex having attempted suicide, Sheri handing herself into the police, Justin homeless and Bryce preparing to have his crimes outed. It's also shown that Tyler has quite the collection of firearms.
- Hope Spot: Hannah says she did feel some relief after recording her twelfth tape however her meeting with Mr. Porter screwed it up and she felt that that was the last straw.
- Poor Communication Kills: Mr. Porter's last meeting with Hannah was horrendously handled on his part. He ends up asking her questions that no rape victim could answer, makes assumptions about Hannah's actions and tells Hannah she just needs to move on if she won't out her attacker's name! Hannah ends up losing all hope and kills herself a few hours later.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kat gives one during her testimony by calling out the school's toxic culture. She calls out the school's protective nature surrounding the athletes and jocks and how they can seemingly get away with anything and everything.
- The Reveal: The last tape subject is Mr. Porter because he didn't recognise Hannah's desperate cry for help and told her that if she wasn't going to out the name of her attacker (Bryce) then she needs to move on and get over it.
- Talking Down the Suicidal: Hannah wanted Mr. Porter to do this however she could have set him up to fail. He did fail in the end and their meeting was what tipped Hannah over the edge.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: When Mr. Porter tells Hannah that if she doesn't name her attacker, she should move on and forget about it.
