13 Reasons season 4 is out, lovers are rushing through the Netflix show, desperate to find out the results of their favorite characters.
As is customary with the franchise, one name dies throughout the course of these episodes, and season four was different.
In case you haven’t seen directly to the end of year four, look away now because there are major spoilers to follow…
Fans had to wait until the very end to find out who’s it was, although the very first episode opened with a funeral.
Yikes. After this scene, we are whisked six months to the past, and also the season unfolds beneath the looming shadow of the mysterious death that was impending. Obviously, we do not figure out the facts about what is happening until the finale. Therefore, in the event that you have some feelings about how things ended for a particular Liberty pupil and have finished your binge-watch, let’s get right into it.
Even though the season began with Justin fresh out of rehab and seemingly on an upswing, it became clear that he was still fighting. He disheveled, appears sickly, and appears to be using drugs again, with what he claims is influenza, and by episode 9, he is in bed. But Justin rallies enough to show up to prom and dance an extremely romantic slow number with Jess while telling her”I love you more than life.” Jess, wise as she is, finds this reddish flag and quickly responds: “Don’t enjoy anything more than life.” And Justin collapses in the middle of the dancing floor.
My first assumption was that this was an overdose, however, it ends up being something else. Since Justin struggles for his life in the ICU, a doctor informs the Jensens that he is HIV-positive–probably as a consequence of his history of IV drug use and sex work, she says because he was never diagnosed or treated, he’s developed AIDS. He has acute pneumonia and meningitis, and his symptoms are so advanced that there’s not much the doctors can do besides make him comfy. Before long, Justin’s on a ventilator and his loved ones are being told to say their goodbyes.
There’s no way that the 13 Reasons Why writers might have predicted exactly how specifically upsetting this finale is, premiering because it’s in the middle of a pandemic. But even under normal circumstances, the scenes between Justin and Jess, and Justin and Clay, would be wrenching. From the time Justin and Clay held hands, and Justin telling Jess he ruined her life and Jess telling him he taught her what love is destroyed me, I had been completely done. Goodbye, cruel world.
Lastly, Justin and the inevitable happens flatlines. Cut back to the funeral we saw. And just in case we weren’t heartbroken enough, among the finale’s large moments of closing involves Clay’s therapist suggesting that maybe Justin permitted himself to become so ill since”deep down, he didn’t believe he was worth saving or worth enjoying.” You are not currently helping, Clay’s therapist!
I’m gonna be honest about how to feel. On the one hand, this entire storyline was beautifully played by everyone involved and there were a few really touching moments of healing and bonding between our additional faves in the next half of the episode (Clay and Tony’s friendship is the only thing I’ve always loved during this entire roller coaster of a series ). And some to glamorizing suicide criticized Clay’s graduation address about the things which make life worth living is moving, not least because year 1.
On the flip side, could these kids not capture a solitary break? Did the series really need to end on such a catastrophic loss? Of all people–after the upbringing, he came from and of the hurdles he overcame like this seems to be an ending, even.