13 Reasons Why (2017) s01e99 Episode Script

(Hannah): A rumor based on a kiss ruined a memory I hoped would be special.
In fact, it ruined just about everything.
13 Reasons Why was a really special story to me, especially when I read it for the first time when I was 14 because people were just really mean in middle school.
And it really did change my perspective on how to treat people, because you really don't know what other people are going through.
(Luke): High school can be a tough environment for an individual to grow and to come in their own.
(Langford): One of the big differences about 13 Reasons is that we're treating the audience like young adults, not as teenagers.
We're treating them as people.
(Flynn): There's nothing about this story that's polite.
You can really tell a story that's gonna start a conversation.
As a society we tend to shy away from these hard topics.
Sometimes in cinema we do that, too.
This is great because it says, "No.
This is a problem and it needs to be addressed.
" (Asher): The whole issue of suicide is an uncomfortable thing to talk about, but it happens, so we have to talk about it.
And it's dangerous not to talk about it because there's always room for hope.
We wanted to do it in a way where it was honest, and we wanted to make something that can hopefully help people, because suicide should never, ever be an option.
(Minnette): To not seek out help, or to end it, is just tragic, because who knows what you could have gone on to do? Just see the future, know that there is so much life ahead of you.
(Walsh): These are all things that need to be discussed, and we need to educate both young men and women.
(Zach): If one thing had gone differently somewhere along the line maybe none of this would have happened.
(McCarthy): At the end of the day, we tell stories.
We're storytellers, and our job, probably more than anything, is to entertain.
But you get a piece of material like this that's about something, you know, you take that seriously, and and you really hope the discussion begins and will continue.
(Yorkey): We wanted to begin by telling the truth about what effect these events would have.
We felt like if we could tell a story, not only with integrity, but hopefully one that had a chance to really resonate with young people who don't necessarily get a steady diet of truth in their entertainment, and hopefully could stand as something that was an honest representation of their experience.
(Shrieks, then giggles) (Langford): With the photo that's taken of Hannah, it was innocent, but an unflattering photo out of context, posted by a guy with a particular rep, or saying something, or spinning the story some kind of way can destroy someone.
And when Bryce takes the photo from Justin and sends it round the school, it's the beginning of the end for her.
It does irreparable damage to Hannah's reputation.
She can't go around and personally remedy it for everyone.
(Boe): It's definitely a generational thing because my whole middle and high school, when we got home, all we would do is hop on, either it was Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
So, that's our whole world, is our school, and then social media.
So, that's why when you're being cyberbullied, you're being attacked by so many people who are hiding behind, you know, a computer screen.
(Dr.
Hu): Adults don't realize how much cyberbullying is hurtful because it didn't exist when people my age were younger, and cyberbullying doesn't end when the school bell rings.
Once something is online, it's just there, and a picture can say a million different things.
And people come up and conjure up their own story, or what they think is right, and it affects you, it hurts you.
Suddenly you can feel so terribly alone, and because of their interaction and because they're so engaged and tethered to their devices, there actually is no safe space.
(Yorkey): The adults tend to trivialize what for teenagers and young adults is not trivial.
Teenage brains don't work the way adult brains work.
You know? Trauma and pain feel like they're gonna last forever.
And I think that we forget that sometimes.
(Teefey): Hopefully sharing these stories can can help parents pay attention to things that may be small to them, but could be rocking the world of their kid.
Pardon me but you really hurt my feelings.
(Yorkey): In high school, your reputation is everything.
And she stopped being a human being to all those guys, and became a thing.
(Dr.
Hsu): The topic of slut shaming, like what happened with Hannah, we're in a place where, on the one hand, girls feel incredible pressure to be rated on being attractive, um, to be popular, to be good-looking, to look perfect on Instagram.
And yet if it goes just a touch too far somehow, now you're a slut, nobody likes you, you're not worthy of being a real girlfriend.
(Jones): I think the hard thing about the minute that a girl in this context is labeled a slut is because it's just a snowball effect, because it gives people permission to continue to treat her as though she's a sexual object instead of a human being.
Somehow all those things get mixed up, especially for girls and women.
And for a girl who's just developing her identity, and just developing her body, and just learning about sexuality and relationships, it's a lot of hurdles to navigate.
(Hannah): I wanted you to do everything you were doing, so I don't know why my mind took me everywhere else.
Growing up and going through high school is when you're meant to be learning about who you are, and maybe having, like, your first sexual experiences, having your first boyfriend or girlfriend and trying to figure that out.
And this huge culture of slut shaming affects her, ultimately.
(Voices echoing) Thought you were easy.
(Heartbeat increasing) Thought you were easy.
Stop it.
Okay, sorry.
I'm sorry.
No, just stop, okay? (Minnette): I don't think Clay has any idea what's going on in that moment because I think at first he wonders He thinks he did something wrong.
I think it's just, like, pure confusion, like just obviously there's something going on that he had no idea about.
(Dr.
Hu): At that point, Hannah's been through so much, even being with a nice guy, like Clay, she starts to get almost Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
(McCarthy): Through the process, everyone was reflecting on their high school experiences.
Things they did right and wrong, things they regret.
There's moments of like, "That one guy, I remember I did that, I shouldn't have.
I should've spoke up.
" I hope there's discussions like that, not just between friends in high schools and colleges when this show airs, but between parents.
You have nothing more to tell me about bullying at school? No.
Or, um Hannah Baker? Look, I told you, Mom I didn't really know her.
(Yorkey): A big part of Clay's story is that he is not a kid who can communicate how he's feeling, or what's on his mind.
This is one of the most powerful moments of the show for me because it rings so true to who I was when I was a teenager, where you have so much going on inside of you and so little ability to share it with anybody.
I certainly remember experiencing things when I was younger, and being so overwhelmed because I had no idea what it was, or what I was feeling.
And it's hard to talk about when you can't put it into words correctly.
I guess, in a way, it'd be healthier to sit there with your mom and say, "All these things are going wrong, and life is just happening so fast, and I'm so young, and I can't handle it," but no one has that awareness.
Even someone as smart as Clay.
It's not because you don't love them or don't respect them.
It's more just, "What do I say? What will they say?" They won't understand.
You gotta start opening up to us, kid.
Just, you know, let us know what's going on.
It's hard to be the parent of a teenager.
The teenagers are trying to establish some independence.
Sometimes when they would like help on some level, they're also pushing it away.
And both Clay and Hannah, at times, really would like some help, but don't know how to ask for it.
(Teefey): I feel like parents being honest and not ignoring issues and not ignoring what they went through will really help kids, I think, be a little bit more comfortable.
And, I mean, I always told her: "You don't have to tell me everything, but if it's really something that's important, I'm here and there's no judgment.
" (Asher): I think that's what people really identify with because we've all made those choices not to open up, even though a person was right there asking how we were doing.
(Mr.
Porter): I was glad to see you on my calendar.
(Hannah): Why? I'm just glad that you made an appointment to come talk.
(Yorkey): The scene with Mr.
Porter in the last episode, Hannah missed the opportunity to say what had happened to her, and Mr.
Porter missed the opportunity and missed a lot of signs to see that this was someone in immediate crisis who needed more help than he gave her at that moment.
(Asher): You know, Hannah's an imperfect person.
She pushes people away, people that we know would have been there for her.
You know, she could have been more open.
But in a way, she kind of sets up Mr.
Porter to fail.
I think it's okay to recognize that.
She wasn't perfect, she didn't do everything she could.
And she should have done more.
So, what happened, Hannah? How did you get here? Just one thing on top of another.
(Mr.
Porter): If I'm gonna help you, I'm gonna need you to be a little more specific.
(Yorkey): The challenge for Hannah is that she would've had to have the strength to describe what happened to her, and the courage and determination to label it rape to get his attention.
And she was not able to do that.
And that is not her fault.
Sexual assault comes with so much shame, on top of the pain, on top of the violation, that for victims to talk about it is incredibly hard.
And takes an incredibly safe space and someone who is very skilled in making it possible for the victims to talk about it.
Mr.
Porter didn't have that skill.
Sometimes you can be trying so hard and miss it.
You can be sincere, but sincerely wrong.
Did? You don't wanna talk about this, do you? No, I do.
I think first and foremost is schools can teach more emotional education.
I think we're lacking so severely in that arena.
It's very common for young adults to not recognize their emotions, to not be able to verbalize them, talk about them.
If Hannah had been able to understand what she was feeling, and why, then it could've made all the difference.
You can sit down, you don't need to be in a hurry.
I need to get on with things, Mr.
Porter.
If things aren't gonna change, I better get on with it.
- (Phone ringing) - Hey Hey, Hannah (Yorkey): You only know what they're willing to tell you and you only know what they're able to tell you.
They may Instagram and Snapchat and, you know, Facebook their lives, but that's curated.
Even with all that, you still don't really know what's going on in their life.
(Bryce): There you are.
Hey, we're playing beer pong out back.
(Both laughing) - Dude.
- You want to go? No, no, no, dude, I'm all right.
I'm sticking around for Jessica.
(Laughing): She's so wasted.
Oh, yeah? It was an interesting discussion in the writers' room approaching the scene where Justin lets Bryce in to ultimately have his way with Jessica.
And there were people who said: I don't No one can No one would do this.
It's impossible to do this.
A lot of times guys will have this concept of the bro code, that if their friend is assaulting someone else, whether it's their girlfriend or someone they don't know, that they just are gonna kind of look the other way.
And unfortunately this is not as rare as we would like it to be.
What's mine is yours, right? (Jones): That's when it becomes dangerous, is bro code at the expense of accountability.
And instead of saying, "Yeah, I have your back in all situations, unless you do something legitimately sketchy," and then true bro code, and true friendship is, "I would never let you put yourself in that situation.
" (Dr.
Hsu): The bystander effect, when we talk about how could someone not interfere if you think something terrible is going on.
In the scene at the party, not only is Justin culpable, there's, I think, maybe some people wondering: "Why didn't Hannah do something?" You know, you put yourself in that situation.
Hannah was drunk, Hannah was hiding, not supposed to be there.
And to be honest, I think she didn't realize it was happening.
Then all of a sudden it was happening, and then it was over.
(Jones): We don't realize actually in that moment so often people are completely frozen.
You're like, "If I was in that situation, I'd have totally done something.
" And I think it's easy to talk about in theory, and the truth is, it requires such a bold, authentic confidence to stand on your own two feet, and to stand up for what you believe in, not in theory but in a moment in which we're asking people to be brave for the 15 seconds it matters most.
(Boe): When I read episode nine, I called a very close family member who is a rape survivor, and she was so grateful that we weren't shying away from the ugliness because she told me that that is the only way that people are really going to understand a rape survivor's mind and what they had to go through.
I remember the table reads for this stuff.
Just reading it on paper was devastating, and then having to bring it to life was really fucking hard to do, so I can't even imagine what a lot of these girls are going through, or anyone who is a survivor of sexual assault.
(Boe): Jessica's forever changed.
It's a permanent, permanent thing, which I hope people, young boys, especially, who will watch this, understand that it's not okay to get drunk and then just have your way with people, because you are changing that person's life and your own for the rest of your life.
A lot of people who have, at some point, committed sexual assault, or some form of it, or rape, they're acquaintances.
They're They're people that you know.
This is one of those things that needs to be talked about and addressed.
Not saying anything can also be very dangerous.
If Bryce doesn't have consequences, he's gonna keep doing what he's doing.
She wanted me.
Me.
She was practically begging me to fuck her.
If that's rape, every girl at school wants to be raped.
Someone like Bryce, we call them a predator, which he is.
But it's so important that the show really depicts that it's not so clear and so obvious.
He's a popular guy, he's an athlete, and that it's so common for a victim to feel like, "No one would ever believe me.
" Bryces exist.
They exist on every single campus, and in every facet of life, and I think there's an immense amount of misinformation for young men around what consent even is.
That's the disconnect in how we're poorly educating men and young women, and how we're failing them, because we're not educating them on what real consent actually looks like.
(Flynn): It just needs to be a part of a conversation.
Sometimes people think, "If I talk to them about sex, I'm gonna find out all the details.
" It's like, no, just talk to them about what should be done, you know? Begin it with: she needs to say yes first.
And so we have to literally give them the phrase of: "What do you say in that moment?" Which is even just pausing and saying: "Hey, I want to make sure you're cool with us having sex.
" Is this okay? Yeah.
More than okay.
That's actually incredibly sexy, and that makes any girl feel really taken care of, and I think if we can better program them with the right things to say, and teach them the impact that their actions have on people are actually very real, and have, potentially, very serious consequences, maybe we could do something about preventing it.
The reality is that someone who commits sexual assault is almost never a one-time offender and will often find victim after victim.
(Bryce): Can't believe Hannah Baker finally came to one of my parties.
(Yorkey): The scene in episode 12 of Hannah and Bryce in the hot tub was one of the two most difficult scenes to film.
We didn't look away from the sexual assaults in the show, because to do otherwise is to minimize what those characters go through and what teenage girls go through every day.
Well, uh, I better get going.
My parents are probably, like, super worried by now.
You just got here.
(Langford): One of the biggest goals was to represent everything as authentically and as truthful as possible.
And Jessica Yu, who directed, um, this episode, she really did put a lot of thought into the way it was gonna be shot.
You know, in the scene we stay on Hannah's face, and it's actually in the script where it says we stay on her face longer than is comfortable.
And I think it's important that we did that because it is uncomfortable.
I think it does a great job of showing you kind of exactly what this person might be going through.
We had counselors advise us in the writing of it, in the shooting of it.
They talked to Justin Prentice, who played Bryce, to Katherine Langford, who plays Hannah, really helping them understand what's going through the characters' minds, why they behave as they do.
I spoke with Rebecca Hedrick, um, and Rebecca Kaplan from It's On Us, and, you know, what I learned was (Stammers): I kind of had a bit of an insight into what people go through whilst an assault is happening.
Whenever someone is faced with a major trauma, they have the fight, flight or freeze response.
They will either fight their way out of it, run away from it, or freeze.
And especially if there have been accumulated trauma in the past, then one of the The more likely option would be to freeze, and that's what happened with Hannah.
She might even dissociate a little bit.
A lot of times victims of trauma talk about feeling apart from their body.
She goes blank.
You see the light go out of her eyes.
She's completely lost her sense of self at that point.
(Indistinct chattering and applause) (Jones): Very rarely do I think we show the bravery and the candor and the pain that exists on the other side of being a survivor.
And how damaging, how deeply damaging that is, both, we see with Hannah obviously, and we also see with Jessica.
When you're in that position, it is so hard to reach out because you feel you're gonna burden someone else, or you don't think people want to listen, or you don't think they care.
So many girls are afraid to come forward when something like this happens because immediately the victim-shaming, oftentimes, is actually worse than even the initial assault.
They have their entire character judged, criticized.
Well, why was she wearing this? Why did she go to that house? Why didn't she do X, Y, Z? When really that's not the point.
I think we need to start these conversations differently, and instead of asking what she did or didn't do, we need to ask what he did and why he was doing it.
It's on us to educate people on how to receive that kind of information when girls have the courage to come forward.
You okay? Fine.
Yeah? You don't look fine.
Rape should be a topic that we should all be able to talk about, and not feel ashamed.
I want survivors to know that it's not your fault, and it's okay to talk about it.
And you need to build a good support system to be able to heal.
The more often you tell your story of being assaulted, the more it loses power over you.
I hope that people watching this show will feel empowered to be able to go to someone for help.
(Jones): We see Jessica going through that, reaching out to someone that she knows loves her, that hopefully she can, you know, really get the help of adults and professionals to come in and help her with that.
I don't think any girl should go through that alone or think that she can handle that alone.
Some of you cared.
None of you cared enough.
Neither did I.
And I'm sorry.
(Yorkey): By the time we reach the last day of Hannah's life, she is completely depleted.
It's beyond simply being depressed.
She thinks her life is worth nothing.
And she thinks her life really only exists as a problem to other people.
And she has been treated time and time again as an object, so her sense of self and her sense of agency, her sense that anything she can do can make things better is gone.
(Dr.
Hsu): She stops trying, and she stops reaching out for any life lines, and she's not strong enough or healthy enough at that point to stand up and assert herself.
Sometimes I'll hear a parent say, "Well, not my kid.
He'd never do it, or she'd never do it because she's really smart.
Her grades are good.
" And it has nothing to do with that.
Young adults haven't fully formed their frontal lobe, or executive function as we call it, so everything that happens feels like this is forever.
They often feel like there's no way out, and this can lead to very impulsive acts.
(Yorkey): We had a number of people ask us along the way why we had Hannah kill herself in the way we did and why we showed it.
We worked very hard not to be gratuitous, but we did want it to be painful to watch because we wanted it to be very clear that there is nothing in any way worthwhile about suicide.
(Mrs.
Baker): Hannah.
Come on.
(Walsh): We just wanted to make that moment, particularly, as realistic as it possibly could be without ever having experienced that.
That's the moment, the sort of pinnacle of the series, where you talk about wanting to do honor to people that have actually had to go through this in their lives.
Like you want to pay tribute to them and make it real and authentic.
(Dr.
Hsu): As hard as it was to see the final decision that Hannah made when she died of suicide, I think it was important to show that it's not a pretty death, it's not an easy one, and then the pain that never ends for her parents immediately thereafter, who are left with this horrible burden.
One of the things that when I talked to parents, when I talked to Dr.
Hu, that it was important to sort of get in context with for how it completely consumes your life.
It's important for the viewers to see that there's often a lot of collateral damage when someone dies, and the person contemplating suicide might not realize how much their death will affect people that they love and that they didn't want to hurt.
(Hannah): For those of you who will now be looking for signs everywhere, what does it really look like? Yeah.
Here's the scary thing: It looks like nothing.
(Dr.
Hsu): There are statistics that say that for every suicide there's at least six people who are very intimately impacted.
(Dr.
Hu): People are at a higher risk of suicide if someone that they know has died by suicide.
And it seems counterintuitive, and yet the person who has survived somebody else's suicide often feels guilty and can blame themselves, and that seems to be a large part of what happens with Alex.
Alex Standall shot himself in the head last night.
He's in critical condition at Mercy.
(Dr.
Hedrick): Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for teenagers.
And every warning sign, every symptom of depression should be taken seriously.
A drastic change in behavior, a drop in their grades, getting in fights with their peers, or parents, or authority figures, substance abuse, these are all different signs to look out for.
(Heizer): A lot of times it feels like things you're experiencing aren't treatable, and that's why it can be overwhelming to try to explain it to someone because you just feel like there's nothing you can do about it.
But there usually is.
It's absolutely treatable.
Anxiety is, depression is, talk therapy, treatment centers, there's a million ways you can find help.
(Dr.
Hsu): I think a lot of times people feel paralyzed by: "I don't know how to talk about this.
Maybe it'll go away.
Maybe they seem okay.
I don't feel equipped to talk.
" But then nobody talks about it, and that's actually the worst thing that any of us can do.
Really, it's about just listening, saying, "I'll be there, and we'll find the help together.
" If someone watching this is feeling like their life doesn't have worth, I hope that you see around Hannah in this show all the people who care about her, and know that there are those people in your life as well.
(Dr.
Hu): It's okay to not be okay.
It's okay to not be perfect, and for everything to be exactly right every moment of the day, but that you can get past that.
It gets better.
You won't always feel this bad.
(Langford): Reach out, even if you feel like Hannah and can't talk to your parents, or don't want to tell anyone at school because you're embarrassed, call a hotline.
Talk to someone anonymously.
Just talk to someone because the minute you start talking, it gets easier.
And just know that there's life beyond what you're feeling at the moment.
I promise it will get better.
There is an entire future of incredible things waiting for you.
And if you go, you don't get to You don't get to see it.
I hope that this show really opens up a lot of conversations and helps people realize the smallest thing you do, the smallest thing you do to someone, the smallest thing you say, can change so much for better or worse.
Skye.
Hey, Skye.
What? Hey, uh how's it going? (McCarthy): It's more than a show about a young woman's suicide, or sexual abuse, sexual violence, rape, it's much more than that.
I think it's a wonderful way the show ends, with Clay just taking a minute to acknowledge a woman in his life who he hasn't connected with in a while.
And it's those small steps, which I think can make a big difference.
(Dr.
Hsu): I've seen that make a difference, and I've had people actually on their way to harm themselves kind of stall because they were thrown off because somebody was nice.
And I think that's where it starts.
It just starts with reaching out to people.
You know, saying, "Hey, what's up? You matter to me.
I'm glad you're in my world.
" It has to get better.
The way we treat each other and look out for each other.
It has to get better somehow.
(Exhales) There is absolutely nothing wrong with saying that you need help.
And if you need help at all, you can go to 13reasonswhy.
info to find an organization in your area.
You can help others by spreading it as well.