Shuvrajit Das Biswas
’13 Reasons Why’ Season 3 Episode 8 shows the return of a character we have become familiar with over the past two seasons. Yes, Mr. Porter, Liberty High’s wonderfully inept guidance counselor returns. The man seems to have his heart in the right place and still wants to help the kids.
He is brought in by the police to give an insight into Clay’s character since they still consider him as a prime suspect in Bryce’s death. Meanwhile, Clay goes to some extraordinary lengths to clear his name. The episode shows Bryce in therapy and how he was really trying to turn things around. That being said, “In High School, Even on a Good Day, It’s Hard to Tell Who’s on Your Side” is one of the more emotional episodes of the season, focusing on the several breakthroughs the characters have.
13 Reasons Why Season 3 Episode 8 Recap:
Episode 8 of ’13 Reasons Why’ brings back Mr. Porter as the police try to establish how Clay is as a person by gathering accounts from the school students. Just as Alex and Justin are about to fight in the school halls regarding Jessica lying about Justin’s whereabouts, they see Tyler getting summoned to speak to Mr. Porter. Naturally, this spooks everyone involved since they have been keeping a close watch on Tyler ever since his averted school shooting. Soon, Zach, Alex, Justin are all called in to speak about Clay. Meanwhile, Clay makes the bad decision of going to see Mrs. Walker and snoops around till he apparently finds a letter about Mrs. Walker wanting Bryce out of her life. He takes the letter to Ani, trying to cast suspicion on Mrs. Walker to clear his name.
Ani tells Clay that she recognizes Mr. Porter. We see how Bryce was undergoing therapy. The letter was written by him from his mother’s perspective and helped him to open his floodgates. It also helped Bryce and his mother reconnect in therapy. That being said, Bryce was not cured of his darkness as Porter tells Clay later. Instead, he still fantasized about being violent with Ani, though he admitted that she made him want to be better. Porter obviously suggests that Bryce should not be dating. Porter asks him to get more help. However, to the best of Porter’s knowledge, Bryce does not follow up.
As Porter and Clay’s conversation continues, the counselor tries to prove that he is on Clay’s side and called students who he believed would help Clay’s character evaluation with the police. Once the main business is out of the way, Porter tells Clay that he feels that Tyler has gone through a lot at someone’s hands, possibly Monty’s and Clay should talk to him. It results in one of the most emotional and heartbreaking scenes in the entire season as Tyler breaks down and tells Clay about how Monty raped him with a broom. He also tells Clay that Bryce knew about it and had promised to do something to keep Monty from hurting Tyler again. However, when Clay confronts Monty, he deflects suspicion onto Justin. After snooping around Justin’s stuff, Clay finds oxycodone with Bryce’s name on the label.
13 Reasons Why Season 3 Episode 8 Review:
Episode 8 of ’13 Reasons Why’ shows the case being built up against Clay, who is carrying out his own investigations about Bryce’s killing. Most importantly, showing Bryce in therapy allows the series even more opportunities to establish that Bryce was trying to turn his life around. His actions toward Tyler shows the same. That being said, Justin is back in the limelight as the possible killer now, and Bryce’s death might be drug-related after all. We cannot wait to see where the series takes us next.
