The Bakers are finally given the chance to speak in court, as the whole town reels after Clay leaked Hannah's tapes online. The episode opens with Olivia and Andrew Baker getting emotional about Hannah as they look at baby pictures. While Olivia thinks they can use the tapes' leaking to their advantage, Andrew believes it could do more harm than good. Clay wakes up to a buzzing phone, as everyone is asking what he did, and Sheri says she's calling an emergency meeting. He goes to school with Justin, who thinks everyone must be looking at them because of him being back, only for Sheri to quickly tell him. He asks if Clay did it, but Clay, finally getting an answer from Skye, leaves. An anxious Marcus tells Courtney this could ruin his chances at Harvard, and we then see Jessica confused as everyone stares at her, until Alex tells her what happened. Bryce finds the word "Rapist" painted on his locker, and initially tells his friends there's nothing they should or could do, because someone was just messing around, until he hears the tape Clay made of him admitting what he did to Hannah. Immediately suspicious, he accuses Zach, who says the tapes were posted anonymously, and we see angry students lock Tyler in the darkroom. At court, Andrew says that even if Hannah couldn't trust her classmates, she should have been able to trust the school, as they chose it partially for its zero tolerance policy on bullying. He explains that Hannah had been bullied at another school, and they wanted to avoid a repeat incident. His words about the school needing to pay attention echo as we see Tyler still trapped in the darkroom. We then cut to Chloe, who overhears girls in the bathroom wondering if she knows what Bryce did, and if so, why she would be dating him. She goes into the stall where someone wrote that Jessica is a slut, and marks out any negative comments about rape survivors, to Jessica's surprise. Mackenzie arrives at the darkroom to free Tyler, and says that, despite what she heard about him, she doesn't want to cancel their date. Bryce, finally worried, calls his dad for help, but hangs up when he sees Justin, who says he is going down. Bryce points out that if he does, Justin goes with him, to which Justin replies that he doesn't care, but Bryce also says that he has politicians and others essentially in his pocket who will testify to what a great guy he is. After Bryce tells Justin he's nobody and nothing, he flashes back to the day after the party where Bryce raped Jessica, as he tearfully told Jessica that she must not remember that they had sex and she was into it. Tyler soon gets shaken down again as a furious Zach accuses him of taking pictures of his sister and being the one who put a rat in his locker. Tyler swears that he didn't do it and Zach leaves, promising that if Tyler comes near his sister, he will kill him. In class, Justin breaks down and meets with a drug dealer, then we cut back to court as Sonya questions Andrew about his girlfriend. She points out that he began his affair prior to Hannah's death, and asks that even if he broke it off for a time, if Hannah might have known of it and taken it hard. In a flashback, we learn that Hannah saw him with his girlfriend, Valerie, and told him to break it off and tell Olivia, otherwise she would, to which he agreed. In the present day, however, we realize he never told Olivia, and as Sonya steps down, he tries to blurt out how Hannah's problems were all school-related. At a baseball game, Bryce's father tries to calm him down by saying that they'll hear his side of the story when he testifies, and his mother notes that he doesn't want to seem like he's attacking Hannah by speaking early. Though Mr. Walker expresses complete confidence in his son, saying at this point the tape is just a story and claiming the kids are just jealous of Bryce has. Mrs. Walker seems doubtful, obviously believing her son could have done what she heard. Nervous after the pictures he found, Zach demands that they leave the game, but his mother says he needs to support Bryce. Finally standing defiant against his former friend, Zach takes his sister's hand and leaves. Marcus, meanwhile, has been blackmailed again, with a message saying it's him or Bryce. He gets up to speak, and is forced to say that he is quitting as head of his gentlemen's club, as he can't be a gentleman and support "A rapist like Bryce Walker." Principal Bolan tries to calm the situation by saying it was a prank in poor taste, and Bryce tells his parents about the blackmail and tells Chloe that everything is a lie. Tyler and Cyrus, again out shooting, talk about Marcus actually doing what they wanted and Mackenzie asking Tyler out. He tells Tyler he's okay with it and trusts him as long as he's not actually a pervert. Tyler, in a daze, watches a bird land near the cans they're shooting, and kills it with a single shot. He soon becomes fascinated with the thought of it being alive and flying one minute, then dead the next. Alex tries to call Clay about the tapes, and Bryce confronts Marcus, telling him his words were the worst mistake he could have made. Jessica, now at home, comes in as her dad is telling her mom he doesn't care what she wants, they need to come forward, and she goes up to her room to be alone. Once there, she reads the article published after the tapes were released. On the stand, Olivia says that if the school had sent out a notification after Hannah's poem was read, the parents could have talked, and Dennis takes this to mean the school was either negligent or ignorant. Sonya asks Olivia if she ever noticed signs that Hannah may have been in distress, and she remembers a time after Andrew cheated on her when Hannah came into the store for seemingly no reason with Olivia's favorite flowers. Despite this, she says she noticed nothing, and admits that while her family has a history of mental illness, Hannah never showed signs and never saw a therapist. Clay visits Skye in a mental health facility, where she says she is finally happy and has decided to make changes in her life, and that he is not at fault for what happened. After the court date, Olivia and Andrew talk about his affair, which leads into him saying they were partially at fault for Hannah's death. Olivia becomes angry, but he says that he is simply tired of fighting all the time and will be sitting out the case. Skye tells Clay her mom wants her to move in with relatives, and she has agreed, wanting a fresh start. Clay is hurt, thinking she'll forget him, but she says she'll always love him and that he is a good person who can help people, just not the way he thinks they need it. Alex, still trying to find Clay, goes to his house, where he finds Justin lying on his back, overdosing on heroin and choking on his own vomit. After finally manages to flip Justin over, causing him to throw up on the floor. While Jessica reaches out to Olivia, Justin tells Alex no one would have cared if Alex hadn't saved him, and Alex says not to joke like that. Justin apologizes and asks where Alex's scar is, and he says it's on the side of his head, which is why he grew his hair out. Justin tells about a time where people were mocking Alex's hair, and Justin responded that they were being stupid. Clay comes home, angry about Justin's condition, but Alex tells him to stop. He apologizes that his actions may have hurt Jessica, saying it may be time for her truth to come out, too, and Justin asks what gives him the right to decide. Finally calm, Clay says he is trying everything he can to make things right, but that he needs their help to do so. At a boxing session, Tony flirts with his trainer and boyfriend, Caleb, talking about how he is full of energy. When the one-eyed man comes in and shakes his hand, however, he draws back, deciding to leave when the man thinks he recognizes him. Alex and his dad have a light argument about his door and apologize for how they each acted at the party. Alex asks if he could play the game "Desert Duty" again, because when he did at the party, he remembered something. His dad says it's probably not a good idea, since it's a shooter, and Alex sadly relents, saying it was probably a stupid idea. As the episode finishes up, Jessica has a more open meeting with Olivia, while Clay has an explosive encounter with his parents about his actions. While he yells at his Hannah ghost, Justin, upset at every instance of fighting, heads out to meet with someone. Naturally this episode focused a lot on the repercussions of Clay releasing the tapes, and how everyone else feels about it. While thinking he was right in doing so, the article that comes out even says he may have done more harm than good, though now Bryce is in hot water. Although he has people in his pocket, a large force of people has begun developing against him, and it will be hard to stay free when even his own mom is against him. We saw very little of Zach this episode, though his temper exploded in a shocking way, and it was nice to see him finally stand against Bryce. The scenes with Skye were an interesting aspect, considering how much she managed to improved, deciding she wanted to take control of her life back. It was also a wakeup call for Clay, as saying that he can help people in a way other than he thinks is good to say how he needs to consider other people's feelings. This culminates in the scene with Alex and Justin, where the latter asks why Clay has the power to decide when certain truths should come out, as obviously the only person he's truly trying to help is Hannah, rather than Jessica. Olivia had a big wakeup call as well, as despite realizing earlier signs she missed from Hannah, she is finally being confronted with the fact that she wasn't dutiful enough. Jessica continues to struggle, perhaps more-so now that the tapes have been released, but also seems to be improving and becoming able to open up to people. Along the lines of Clay and Jessica, a nice theme the show brings up now and then centers around how men often dictate what women should do or want. The most obvious case is Bryce, being a repeated rapist, but different lighter forms are brought in with other characters, especially Jessica. Clay has continually tried, even since season one, to make the others come forward about what happened, and this season has focused on Jessica. In this episode, he thinks he should be able to say when she should come forward, and her dad does the same after hearing the tapes. Even with Hannah, or in this case, Ghost Hannah, Clay decided to release the tapes despite her telling him not to, saying that she doesn't get a say now that she's dead. This is likely a metaphor about Clay's own morality and how he's struggling with what to believe and do. Ever since first seeing Hannah, she has served as a sort of conscious whenever he was being harsh about something, trying to urge him in the proper direction, like when she says why Justin is shivering during his detox. Obviously he can't just get this information out of nowhere, meaning Clay already knew what was wrong with Bryce and needed a voice of reason to remind him. As the show talks about mental illness and needing to reach out for help, Clay seeing a dead person talking to him is a huge warning sign that he might need bigger help like Skye got at the mental health facility. With the tapes out now and people struggling as they decide what to do, the next testimony will likely cause more waves in the situation.
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