13 Reasons Why | Season 1

"Tape 1, Side A"

Clay Jensen finds a box filled with audio cassette tapes anonymously left on his front doorstep. He plays the first in his father's boombox and realizes they have been recorded by his recently deceased classmate Hannah Baker before he accidentally drops and breaks the boombox when surprised by his mother. Clay steals his friend Tony's Walkman to continue listening. Clay listens to the first tape, in which Hannah begins to relate the experiences that led to her suicide. She starts by sharing the story of her first kiss, with Justin Foley, who goes on to inadvertently spread a salacious rumor that begins the sequence of events leading to her suicide. Clay is revealed, through numerous short flashbacks, to have been in love with Hannah and to have worked with her at the local movie theater. It is revealed in this episode that Hannah has put Tony in charge of the tapes.

"Tape 1, Side B"

Hannah reminisces about her friendship with two other new students: Jessica, who moves frequently because her father is in the Air Force, and Alex, whom they met at a coffee shop. Jessica and Alex eventually begin a relationship and stop spending time with Hannah. When Alex breaks up with Jessica, she very publicly blames and slaps Hannah. In the present, Hannah's mother, Olivia, finds a note in her daughter's textbook that leads her to believe Hannah was being bullied. Clay asks Jessica about the tapes, which results in Bryce Walker's circle of peers meeting to discuss how Clay is listening to Hannah's recordings.

"Tape 2, Side A"

As Clay attempts to pursue a romantic relationship with Hannah, her relationships are threatened by a "best/worst" list made by Alex Standall, who has put a target on Hannah. In the present, Hannah's mother, Olivia Baker, seeks out the school principal about her suspicion of bullying and makes a disturbing discovery. In the midst of his investigation, Clay turns to Alex for answers, who not only feels regret for his actions on the tapes, but also warns Clay against trusting Tony, whom Clay later sees in a violent exchange with his brothers. As Justin tries to recuperate from his recent slump, Bryce strong-arms Clay and Alex into a drinking contest in an alleyway.

"Tape 2, Side B"

Hannah hears someone outside her window, and confesses to her friend, Courtney, that she has a stalker. Courtney offers to help her catch the offender in the act. While waiting for the stalker to arrive, they play an alcohol-fueled game of truth or dare that leads to the two of them kissing on Hannah's bed. The stalker, school photographer Tyler Down, takes a photo of the girls and sends it around the school. This effectively ends Courtney and Hannah's friendship as Courtney distances herself from Hannah to avoid being revealed as one of the people in the photograph. In the present, Clay goes to Hannah's house and talks to her mother, though is unable to admit how close he and Hannah were. He also confronts Tony about the incident with his brothers. Tony responds that "people have to make their own justice" and proves he has an extra set of tapes. Inspired by this, Clay takes a naked picture of Tyler and sends it around the school in revenge.

"Tape 3, Side A"

Courtney, afraid of her classmates finding out about her sexuality, spreads a rumor that the girls in the leaked photos are Hannah and Laura, an openly lesbian classmate. Courtney also adds to the rumor about Hannah and Justin, worsening Hannah's poor reputation. In the present, Clay takes Courtney to visit Hannah's grave. She leaves, not ready to face her involvement in the loss of her classmate or be more open about her sexuality. Tony arrives with Clay's bike and gives him a tape with the song he and Hannah danced to at the Winter Formal. Later, Justin, Zach and Alex force Clay into the car with them by stealing his bike and scare him into silence about the tapes by driving over the speed limit. They are pulled over by the police but face no consequences as the officer is revealed to be Alex's father. Clay denies knowing Hannah to his mother, who has been asked to represent the school in the lawsuit the Bakers are bringing.

"Tape 3, Side B"

Hannah's date on Valentine's Day with Marcus does not go as planned due to the rumors that she is promiscuous. In the present, Alex gets into a fight with Monty and they both must appear before the student honor board. The board, headed by Marcus, decides to suspend Monty from school for three days and give Alex a warning. Clay helps Sheri with an assignment, and they start kissing until Sheri reveals she is only there because she is on the tapes and wants Clay to like her despite her role in Hannah's death.

 

"Tape 4, Side A"

After Hannah refuses to go out with Zach, he gets revenge by sabotaging her emotionally during a class project. Zach removes compliments from Hannah's box, affecting her self-confidence. She attempts to write a letter to Zach explaining why she needs the compliments, but when Zach reads it, he ignores it and throws it away. In the present, Clay hears Zach's tape and keys his car in an act of revenge and is eventually caught, but things turn out to be different than they appeared: Zach was actually scared by the letter's content and kept it to himself. Clay is now having both auditory and visual hallucinations of Hannah during the day, including seeing her dead body on the floor of the basketball court during a game and hearing her tape playing over the school's intercom system. He returns the tapes to Tony, unable to continue listening, but continues to experience problems, leading him to snap in the hallways.

"Tape 4, Side B"

Hannah is touched by poetry recited by fellow student Ryan Shaver, and joins the Evergreen Poetry Club, a place where people write and perform their own poetry, and listen and critique others. Hannah presents some extremely revealing and confessional poetry at the poetry club after Ryan encourages her. Ryan betrays her by publishing the poem without her knowledge or consent in his school magazine. Almost everyone in school finds the poem hilarious, but Clay is both touched and disturbed by it, not realizing Hannah is the author. In the present day, Tony confides to Clay about the night of Hannah's death, and Clay takes back the tapes. Clay later gives the poem to Hannah's mother.

"Tape 5, Side A"

While hiding in Jessica's room during a party, Hannah witnesses Bryce Walker raping an unconscious and intoxicated Jessica. In the present, Marcus warns Clay the worst is yet to come and again attempts to scare him into silence about the tapes, this time by planting drugs in his backpack to get him suspended from school. Clay finally admits to his mother that he and Hannah were close. After getting suspicious legal advice from his mother, he goes to Justin's apartment to retrieve his bike and talk about getting justice for Jessica. Justin finally admits that what happened in the tapes is real, and claims it is better if Jessica does not know the truth.

"Tape 5, Side B"

After the party, Hannah gets a ride home from her classmate, cheerleader Sheri Holland. They have what appears to be a minor accident, knocking over a stop sign. While Hannah wants to call the police to report it, Sheri refuses to do so, because she is afraid she will get in trouble. While Hannah is on her way to find a phone to call the authorities, the downed stop sign causes a serious accident at that intersection, resulting in the death of Clay's friend Jeff Atkins, which was incorrectly considered a drunk driving incident. When Hannah tries to tell Clay about the stop sign, he pushes her away, thinking she is being unnecessarily dramatic. In the present, Jessica's behavior becomes more erratic. Clay finds out that Sheri is trying to make up for her mistake in her own way, and he tells Jeff's parents that Jeff was sober when he died.

"Tape 6, Side A"

With Tony's support, Clay finally listens to his tape and is overcome with guilt to the point of contemplating his own suicide because he feels he did not do enough to prevent Hannah's death. Tony manages to calm him down; the two climb a mountain and each have a mental breakdown at the top. Justin finds out Jessica is at Bryce's home. He confronts her there and admits that Bryce raped her on the night of the party, causing her to slap him. Olivia Baker finds a list with the names of all the people on the tapes, although she does not know what the list means.

"Tape 6, Side B"

After accidentally losing her parents' store's earnings, a depressed Hannah stumbles upon a party being thrown by Bryce. The night ends in tragedy when she ends up alone with him, and he rapes her in his hot tub. This leads Hannah to create a list of people (the one that her mother found in the previous episode) who she feels were responsible for leading her to her current circumstances, which becomes the inspiration for the creation of the tapes. In the present, everyone on Hannah's list is subpoenaed to testify in the lawsuit between the Bakers and the school. The subjects of the tapes disagree over what to do. Tyler eventually suggests they pin everything on Bryce, but Alex refuses and says they should tell the truth. Sheri turns herself in. Clay goes to Bryce's house, on the pretext of buying marijuana, to confront him about the events of the night he raped Hannah. Clay provokes Bryce to attack him and is badly beaten. However, Clay has been secretly recording their conversation and gets Bryce to admit that he raped Hannah. An unknown teenager with a gunshot wound to the head is treated by paramedics.

"Tape 7, Side A"

Hannah begins to record the tapes and then visits Mr. Porter to tell him about her rape as she secretly records the conversation, hoping he will help her. When he does not, she heads to a post office and mails the tapes to Justin Foley before going home and taking her own life by slitting her wrists. In the present, Clay gives Tony the tape of his conversation with Bryce to copy before confronting Mr. Porter about meeting with Hannah on her last day, giving him the tapes before leaving. Tony copies the tapes onto a flash drive and gives it to the Bakers. As the depositions begin, Marcus and Courtney deny their involvement in Hannah's death as much as possible while Zach and Jessica admit their mistakes. Before his deposition, Tyler hides ammunition and guns in his room, then reveals the existence of the tapes and Clay's possession of them during his interview. Alex is revealed to have been the teenager with the gunshot wound; he is in critical condition at the hospital. Jessica finally tells her father about her rape while at school Clay reaches out to Skye Miller, his former friend, to avoid repeating the same mistakes he made with Hannah.