'13 Reasons Why' Cast Talk Season 2 Finale
Warning: Contains spoilers for season 2 of 13 Reasons Why.
The second season of 13 Reasons Why wraps up on a finale that is by turns moving, troubling, and incredibly stressful. The final twenty minutes of the episode play out at Liberty High’s Spring Fling dance, and combine a cathartic moment of closure-the tape gang all coming together to help Clay mourn Hannah-with a sense of mounting dread as Tyler (Devin Druid) drives towards the school with a loaded gun, having been pushed over the edge by a horrifying sexual assault earlier in the hour.
That graphic scene, in which vengeful jock Monty (Timothy Granaderos) repeatedly smashes Tyler’s head into a sink, holds his head underwater, and then assaults him has already sparked heated debate since the season was released Friday. At a BUILD Series panel in New York today (May 22), Druid and his castmates Dylan Minnette (Clay), Christian Navarro (Tony), Alisha Boe (Jessica), and Ross Butler (Zach) discussed filming the finale, the show’s handling of controversial subjects, and the season’s themes of recovery and community. Here are eight key quotes from the panel.
1. Druid felt a weight of responsibility in filming the rarely depicted experience of male-on-male sexual assault.
“When the time came and Brian walked me through what was going to happen to Tyler, it was incredibly intimidating,” Druid said. “You’re suddenly given this responsibility to portray a horrific thing that unfortunately happens to many people around the world, a lot of them even younger than Tyler.” He cited a recent AP article which stated that between 2011 and 2015, 1700 high school sexual assaults had been recorded in America, also noting, “That’s coming from an under-reported number. It’s a heartbreaking thing to think about, and with [Tyler’s assault scene], I felt tasked with this need to represent what victims go through, to hopefully show that they’re understood and heard, and for people who don’t know what these issues are or don’t have the empathy to understand, to show them what it’s like.”
2. The school shooting storyline wasn’t decided on lightly.
“Speaking to Brian [Yorkey, 13RW’s showrunner]," said Druid, "he was really interested in the idea of exploring gun violence with Tyler in season 2, and it was kind of intimidating to take on, but also to me felt really important. It’s unfortunately so relevant in our culture, especially with young people.” Druid, who is the youngest member of the main cast at 20, added that the topic is one he has felt personally close to. “I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and I remember when I was a really young kid, being at home sick and watching the Virginia Tech tragedy [on TV], and for the first time in my life really understanding that the world was unfair…. Anything we can do to the keep the conversation going and hopefully move towards a solution, I think is important.”
3. If you’re still a little tearful after that group hug with Clay, you’re not alone.
Maybe the most affecting moment of the finale comes when Lord Huron’s "The Night We Met" (a.k.a. Clay and Hannah’s unofficial theme) starts to play at the dance, and Tony rushes to find Clay, who’s already spiraling. Tony hugs him, and the rest of the gang follow suit, all uniting for a much needed moment of support. “That moment is such a culmination of two years,” said Navarro, naming the scene as the most emotional one of the season for him. “The performance [Dylan] gave, the way we all came in to be there for Clay-it was heartbreaking.” Druid, who was not a part of the scene, admitted: “I was sitting outside in a tent watching you guys film that, and just started weeping.”
4. But shooting a fake dance is actually deeply awkward.
For starters, there’s no actual music during shooting. “You think you know how to dance, until you have to dance without music,” Navarro joked, and Minnette added: “There are 200 people in the background, and you have to be yelling as though you’re yelling over music, and all the background actors are silent, and so you’re just screaming out spoilers…. I knew they'd all signed NDAs, but it was a whole thing for me!”
5. A major theme of season 2 is community.
“A lot of these characters were enemies in season 1,” Minnette pointed out. “Clay and Justin hated each other! Justin brought up killing Clay in season 1 on multiple occasions, and Clay hated Justin with a passion, and now they’re basically brothers.” Ever since the tapes, these kids have been through a lot of trauma, and a big theme of season 2 is “finding a sense of community and building their relationships with each other.”
6. The cast are very aware of their platform and the responsibility that comes with it.
“I don’t think any of us imagined we would be on a show with this level of import, or with the impact that it’s had,” said Navarro, “and we’re still dealing with that every day. But I am political by nature, I think most of us in the cast are…. Just as season 1 sparked a conversation about bullying, suicide, sexual assault, hopefully the same conversation will be sparked this year with gun violence.”
“We all feel like we have a responsibility to use our platform to influence the next generation,” Butler added. “High school students are watching the show, and they’re going to be forming their opinions about things, and to be a part of that process is an honor.” Navarro then pointed out that this year in particular-following the #NeverAgain movement that sprung out of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida-has seen “young people starting to be heard, and starting to speak truth to power. If we can have any effect on that in any regard at all, we’ve done our jobs.”
7. Alisha Boe was grateful for the chance to explore Jessica’s recovery in season 2.
Following the revelation that she was raped by Bryce, and that her boyfriend Justin allowed it to happen, Jessica’s storyline was left unresolved at the end of season 1. Boe said that her final scene in season 1, where she decided to tell her father about the assault, "was just the beginning." “I feel like the recovery of a survivor is not covered a lot in films and TV, and for Jessica it’s tough, and it takes her a really long time. People don’t realize how permanently it affects you, how it affects your day-to-day life with anxiety, with PTSD, and you really see Jessica struggle with all of that.” The Harvey Weinstein revelations came out midway through filming, she said, and after that “every day I would wake up, and there’d be another article of a woman coming out against her attacker, and it was empowering.”
She added that filming the season had helped her to understand “the right way to be there for someone. Jessica’s dad in the show, he loves her, but he doesn’t always have the right answer, he doesn’t know exactly what to do at times. So you see him change gears, when he figures out that something doesn’t work for Jessica. He’s like, Okay, let’s do a different thing, let me not be that aggressive, I'll be here for you when you’re ready to talk. It was a huge learning experience for me personally.”
8. Despite his difficult storyline this season, Tyler’s ending is hopeful.
Clay is able to intercept Tyler outside the school and talk him down before he goes through with the shooting, a scene which sums up the season’s idea of former enemies finding common ground. “Clay was pretty cruel to Tyler in season 1, and Tyler to Clay,” Minnette said. “But then you see where they end up at the end of this season. Even though these horrible times they’ve had, and these mixed emotions about each other, they can come together and find a sense of community when they need it the most. This is such a dark show, and an honest show, that it’s nice to also have those moments of hope. There is still hope for these characters.”
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