Things are up to Jessica now, as despite her fears about Bryce, it's time to tell her story to the court. Episode three opens with Clay, riding home after his disastrous night with Skye, as someone tries to run him down. Fortunately, he sustains minor injuries, so we won't get another season of Clay with a bandage on his forehead. Jessica's testimony begins as a voiceover, as she states that while boys, with some exception, are able to forge their own persona, girls are labeled and feel fear. We see her continuing to struggle with telling the full truth, and go to Clay, visiting Skye in the hospital. Despite his pleas, Skye breaks up with Clay, saying that while she doesn't understand her own problems, she thinks they should figure out themselves apart. At the school, Courtney fears what people will say after her admittance, only to find everything is the same, with Ryan even congratulating her for coming out. Alex, meanwhile, shows Jessica the threat he found, tells her she's not alone in what she's going through, and makes a comment about her hair. Clay arrives, telling them about the car that ran him down, and the trio watches Bryce's group, trying to figure out who is threatening them and how to stop them. Jessica leaves as the two try pressuring her into telling the truth, and Alex tries to get Clay to find him a ride to court. Heading to class, Jessica finds pictures of her calling her a drunk slut, which she removes before running from the room. An anxious Marcus watches her, then asks Courtney about if she'll talk, only for Courtney to brush off his statement that there's more than one truth. Before the testimony, Olivia Baker tells her friend that she trusts Jessica and her testimony, as Jessica talks about how it just takes one friend to help you. We see this with Tyler, as the guy he met in Porter's class, Cyrus, comes with a group of people to sit with him after some others bump him and knock his stuff over. Tyler takes an immediate interest in Mackenzie, who finds his photography interesting, as Jessica says we find friends who see through labels. Things head back to the court, where Tony has given both Clay and Alex a ride, and goes in as Jessica is questioned about the "Hot or Not" list. She tells Dennis this was a typical thing for girls to experience, pulling out the photos from earlier, despite the defense attorney's objections. Olivia begs Dennis to ask Jessica about tape 9, sure that she is the girl Bryce raped, but he notes that Bryce isn't on trial and it didn't happen at the school. The court continues with the defense lawyer pointing out that, despite Jessica wanting the school to prevent things like this, she didn't report either the photos or the "Hot or Not" list. The defense lawyer's performance and arguments are one aspect I've liked about season 2 so far, because they don't make her out to be stupid or evil. Because it's her job, she obviously has to spin things in the school's favor, but in what time she has had, she has made relevant arguments to show that the blame can't be placed entirely on the school, and she works to get the full truth out. Jessica explains how she, Alex, and Hannah all used to be friends, including a night where they all kissed "as friends," which led to her dating Alex. This takes us to a scene from season 1, in which they went to see a movie, which hurt Hannah, revealing that Jessica was uncomfortable with the situation. She understood how Hannah would feel, but Alex callously brushed it off and made Hannah seem like a jealous friend. The lawyer then asks repeatedly if it was Hannah's jealousy that ended their friendship, rather than the list, in a manner similar to her questioning of Courtney. As the grilling continues, Jessica beings to flash back to her rape, leading to tears as she can't bring herself to say the true reason they didn't return to being friends. Clay and Tony leave, and Olivia tries but fails to reach out to Jessica, before Jessica tells Alex that the only thing he can do to help her is to leave. Clay tries to call Skye, but finds she has been moved and won't return his calls, and struggles with his Hannah hallucination after learning she kissed Alex and Jessica. He breaks down and explains to her that he feels helpless because of how after everything he did, his recording of Bryce wasn't enough evidence and he got of free as Jessica can't get herself to tell everyone what happened. Hannah responds that this doesn't mean he should do nothing, as now more than ever he should work to make sure Bryce doesn't get away with it. At the courthouse, Dennis tells Olivia that the testimony was strong, but she notes that the jury heard that her daughter was a jealous slut that day. Barraged by reporters, Olivia rages that they reported the day prior that Hannah was an "exhibitionist with low self-esteem." After stating that no one had Hannah's back when she had everyone else's, Olivia can't respond when the reporter asks if she had Hannah's back. Things go to Bryce, who finally admits to Zach during a poor practice that he has been called to testify. It's become harder at this point to pin down Zach, as his secret about Bryce is keeping him saying that he isn't close to Alex and he is truly friends with Bryce. We then see that Mr. Porter seems to be applying for a new job elsewhere, wanting to find somewhere to make a difference. Things head back to Jessica, who is spacing out as her parents argue about why she didn't come to them after being harassed. Uncomfortable as her parents blame her, Jessica answers the doorbells, finding Clay, who still wants her to tell the truth. Jessica insists that there's not much she can do, as the police didn't believe her before and Clay can't be a witness since he wasn't there during the rape. Clay mentions Justin as a possible witness, and notices Jessica glance at a postcard when she says she doesn't know where Justin went. We then see Tyler and Cyrus making food and talking to Cyrus' father about their experiences at school, when Mackenzie arrives, revealing herself to be Cyrus' sister. The next scene takes us to Marcus' house, where he is clearly nervous about his court time to come, despite his father's encouragement. We go to Tony in one of his parole boxing trainings, where we see some romance bud between him and his parole officer. Tony then meets with Clay, who wants to find Justin, and agrees to head to homeless areas to find him. The duo finds someone wearing Justin's jacket, and Tony beats him until he tells them where Justin is. Justin, now a drug addict, is stuck on the side of the road with nothing, and despite initial defiance, agrees to go with them when Clay says Jessica misses him. Leaving them for a while, we see Mr. Porter again, now at Bryce's house where he wants to speak to Mrs. Walker. We go back to Clay, still trying to contact Skye, leading to a terse talk with Justin. Another flashback shows how Jessica and Hannah interacted after Jessica was raped, showing her sudden anger if Hannah tries to give her advice. As the episode comes to a close, Clay's parents show him a surprise as Tyler is seen learning to make bombs from Cyrus. Jessica, meanwhile, faces her feelings alone,as Marcus is the next threatened and Justin shows his new struggle. This episode does well at talking about the expectations women and young girls face in society, but also how we can sometimes label ourselves. Throughout the episode, Jessica is told by others how she should make herself look, and her reason for looking how she wants or does is ignored. Because of her mom, she straightens it for court, and later upon seeing her, Alex simply says he doesn't like it, as though she now has to change because of Alex's opinion. Even the way she handles her rape doesn't seem to be up to her, as Alex and Clay repeatedly try to make her speak out about what she went through. It can be difficult enough for a rape victim to tell a loved one what they went through, yet Clay and Alex think having her tell a whole court is the only solution. Though we rarely see Courtney in this episode, it is easy to see how afraid she is of being labeled now that she has come out. When she goes to school, she immediately assumes people will start pointing and laughing at her, only to find that everyone acts the same as before. To me, this seems another facet of how the show tries to say that there can be both external pressures and internal thoughts can cause self-esteem problems, rather than just one. In the previous season, the writers themselves said that because of how she was feeling, Hannah didn't do enough to tell others what was wrong. Because of our own fears we occasionally let the idea of people labeling us keep us from living. With Marcus up soon for a court date, it will be interesting to see what will happen. Marcus was one of the only people to not end last season at least being much more truthful about Hannah and feel bad about what happened. Here, we see that part of why he tries to be a perfect student and class president is because of his father. Along with his father's political career, he is told of how they are at a disadvantage because they are black. Despite this, it is clear that he is struggling with the truth, due to how nervous he is. While it can be clear how some court dates will go, it will be interesting to see what Marcus will do.
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