13 Reasons Why - Episode 7

I'm over halfway through and I'm very proud of myself that I'm managing it.

13 Reasons Why
Episode 7: Tape 4, Side A

What the fuck kind of episode did I just watch? I'll tell you what I just watched, I watched Hannah be petty and nasty, I watched Zach try to be nice and then dish out some truth, I watched Clay just kind of fucking give up on everything because he doesn't know what the hell to think anymore. He knows he can't trust Hannah's words, and he's just so insanely pissed at everything. Fuck. I'm so mad at this episode.

Plot: For this one, I'm just gonna quote the Netflix summary
"Another student sabotages Hannah during a class project. Clay's nightmares about Hannah spill over into the daytime."

Why is the plot bullshit? I'll tell you why. Because nobody sabotaged Hannah. Zach sat with her and tried to cheer her up after what happened with Marcus. He didn't have to, he could have just left and bitched about her but he didn't, he was nice enough to sit with her and try to stick a damn spoon to his nose. He then sits with her at lunch the next day and tells her he likes her. He leaves cute little bunnies in her compliment bag in class. He drew hella cute bunnies for this girl, that's cute as fuck and why would anyone do that just to get some ass?! He keeps the letter she writes him. How the heck is ANY of this "sabotage"???? Fuck off Hannah Baker, there was no need to be so damn rude about this.

The conversation: Here, I'm gonna give you a rundown of the conversation in which Zach tells Hannah he likes her. Word for word how it's said in the episode.

Zach: This isn't about Marcus, I never got the chance to say something. The thing is, you were the valentine I was hoping for.
Hannah: What?
Zach: I was hoping that I got your name on my y'know, valentine list thing.
Hannah: Because I'm easy?
Zach: No, seriously no, look the whole night with Marcus and everything, I couldn't believe you were on his list and not mine.
Hannah: Zach, I don't know if you're doing this on a dare or whatever -
Zach: It's not a dare, it's not, I just...I know you think every guy likes you 'cause you've got this great ass, but I like you for so much more than that
Hannah:  Oh my God you're such an idiot
Zach: What? What'd I say?
Hannah: The fact that you don't even know...
Zach: I meant it as a compliment
Hannah: Zach, walk away.

What exactly did he say? He said he thinks she's more than a great ass clearly insinuating that he thinks she's funny or smart or lovely or all of the above or more. How the hell is that misconstrued as an insult? I mean I see where her distrust comes from but fuck sake Hannah, the guy even apologised and you couldn't care less, he then spits truth at you that you bring some of your shit onto yourself and you give him a fucking tape?! God sake.

Popularity = not lonely: You said it yourself, Hannah, you don't know what somebody else's life is like so why the hell do you think that Zach doesn't know what it's like to be lonely? Who the hell are you to even be making assumptions on someone else's life and whether they're lonely or not? Maybe, just maybe, you should have talked to him about this sort of thing so that maybe you could have been friends and maybe, even more when you see that he isn't a piece of shit like the guys you seem to go for in this school.

Popular people don't always have the best life. Popular people can be depressed, they can be lonely, they can be sad, stressed, anxious etc. Just because they are popular does not mean they aren't human and immune to human emotion. It may seem as though they have their life put together but people with these issues are amazing at hiding them in order to fit in.

The lies: Hannah Baker is a liar, confirmed. She says on the tape that she wrote Zach a letter, pouring her heart out and telling him things that she never told anyone before. She goes on to say that Zach balled the letter up and dumped it on the school floor to which she then balls him out in the corridor in front of everyone. Turns out, she's a liar. Because Zach didn't ball the letter up and throw it to the ground, he kept it. He shows Clay the letter and asks him if he wants to read it. Clay declines the offer but he now knows that he can't trust everything Hannah says.

Clay: Bless this boy. Bless him. He is going through so damn much with these tapes that's he's getting hallucinations of Hannah bleeding out on the basketball court, he constantly mishears what people around him are saying, thinking they're blaming him for Hannah's death. This poor boy is losing his grip on reality. I'm glad he gives the tapes back to Tony but he still kinda just loses his shit when he kicks off about the school to the new foreign exchange students. Can this guy please get some sort of therapy? He needs it, I need it for him, we all need him to get the help he needs. To deal with Hannah's death and to come to terms with whatever feelings of guilt he has over her death and get on with his life. After watching this episode I'm so worried about the state of this boy's mental health and I can see him in a spot next to Hannah by the end of the series.

Hannah: Fuck her. I don't know why she made this tape. She's genuinely just playing the victim. At least here she is trying to seek out help by putting an anonymous note in the class discussion bag which I can support her doing. Asking for help is a scary thing, especially when it comes to your own mental health. You think that you're bothering people and that you can handle it, reaching out is the hardest thing and I'm glad she did it. Good on her. Shame she was a dickhead the rest of the episode. She thinks she doesn't have friends anymore and I swear she must have forgotten that Clay was in her life and that so far he hasn't done anything to her so far. No friends my butthole.

Failure: Like I said, Hannah reached out and asked for help, fair enough. Obviously, she didn't get any help because...she's dead. The thing is, Clay asks Mrs Bradley (Keiko Agena) whether she thought it was important to help Hannah Baker she says of course it was. Thing is, she could have helped her. She could have looked at the note and compared the handwriting, found the people with similar handwriting and called them to see her separately so it would be just the two of them and then maybe Hannah would admit it was her and that she needs help and maybe she'd still be about and we wouldn't have to suffer through this bullshit episode.

Special death: There is a scene towards the beginning where Clay's parents are talking about him dealing with Hannah's death. His father says something along the lines of "a girl died and he didn't know her" I don't know I didn't write it down. His mother then says Quote: "Hannah Baker didn't just die she slit her wrists and bled out in a bathtub"

Does that mean her death was special because she brought it on herself? Death is death regardless of how it comes to a person. It's a heartbreaking thing, especially when it comes too soon and definitely as a result of suicide. The fact that Hannah slit her wrists and bled out doesn't mean she didn't die, it doesn't mean her death was special. They're acting like it's an M&S food porn ad. It's not just a death, it's a Hannah Baker death. What the fuck?

This episode just touched all the wrong nerves and I feel like it's highlighted the worst of the series so far. It's made Hannah out to be a victim when people are being nice to her, it treats her as some sort of tragic figure with the way people talk about her death. It's putting Clay through some severe emotional pain that's affecting his daily life in the worst way. I'm vexed and I'm out to make another brew and put myself through more pain. Peace guys.

This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this episode/series. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this series then go and support its creators by watching it again on its platform.