01x90 - Special: Beyond Reasons

[bunniefuu]

(Hannah): A rumor based on a kiss

ruined a memory
I hoped would be special.

In fact, it ruined
just about everything.

Reasons Why was a
really special story to me,

especially when I read it for
the first time when I was

because people were just
really mean in middle school.

And it really did change my
perspective on how to treat people,

because you really don't know what
other people are going through.

(Luke): High school can
be a tough environment

for an individual to grow
and to come in their own.

(Langford): One of the big
differences about Reasons is that

we're treating the audience like
young adults, not as teenagers.

We're treating them as people.

(Flynn): There's nothing
about this story that's polite.

You can really tell a story
that's gonna start a conversation.

As a society we tend to shy
away from these hard topics.

Sometimes in cinema we do that, too.
This is great because it says, "No.

This is a problem and it
needs to be addressed."

(Asher): The whole issue of su1c1de is
an uncomfortable thing to talk about,

but it happens, so we
have to talk about it.

And it's dangerous not to talk about it

because there's always room for hope.

We wanted to do it in a
way where it was honest,

and we wanted to make something
that can hopefully help people,

because su1c1de should
never, ever be an option.

(Minnette): To not seek out help,
or to end it, is just tragic,

because who knows what you could have
gone on to do? Just see the future,

know that there is so
much life ahead of you.

(Walsh): These are all things
that need to be discussed,

and we need to educate
both young men and women.

(Zach): If one thing had gone
differently somewhere along the line...

maybe none of this would have happened.

(McCarthy): At the end of
the day, we tell stories.

We're storytellers, and our job,

probably more than
anything, is to entertain.

But you get a piece of material
like this that's about something,

you know, you take
that seriously, and...

and you really hope the discussion
begins and will continue.

(Yorkey): We wanted to
begin by telling the truth

about what effect
these events would have.

We felt like if we could tell a story,

not only with integrity,

but hopefully one that had a chance
to really resonate with young people

who don't necessarily get a steady
diet of truth in their entertainment,

and hopefully could stand as something

that was an honest representation
of their experience.

(Shrieks, then giggles)

(Langford): With the photo
that's taken of Hannah,

it was innocent, but an
unflattering photo out of context,

posted by a guy with a particular
rep, or saying something,

or spinning the story some
kind of way can destroy someone.

And when Bryce takes
the photo from Justin

and sends it round the school, it's
the beginning of the end for her.

It does irreparable damage
to Hannah's reputation.

She can't go around and
personally remedy it for everyone.

(Boe): It's definitely
a generational thing

because my whole middle and high school,

when we got home, all
we would do is hop on,

either it was Myspace,
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

So, that's our whole world, is
our school, and then social media.

So, that's why when
you're being cyberbullied,

you're being att*cked by so many
people who are hiding behind,

you know, a computer screen.

(Dr. Hu): Adults don't realize
how much cyberbullying is hurtful

because it didn't exist when
people my age were younger,

and cyberbullying doesn't end
when the school bell rings.

Once something is
online, it's just there,

and a picture can say a
million different things.

And people come up and
conjure up their own story,

or what they think is right,

and it affects you, it hurts you.

Suddenly you can feel so terribly
alone, and because of their interaction

and because they're so engaged
and tethered to their devices,

there actually is no safe space.

(Yorkey): The adults tend to trivialize

what for teenagers and
young adults is not trivial.

Teenage brains don't work
the way adult brains work.

You know? Trauma and pain feel
like they're gonna last forever.

And I think that we
forget that sometimes.

(Teefey): Hopefully
sharing these stories can...

can help parents pay attention to
things that may be small to them,

but could be rocking
the world of their kid.

Pardon me...

but you really hurt my feelings.

(Yorkey): In high school,
your reputation is everything.

And she stopped being a human being

to all those guys, and became a thing.

(Dr. Hsu): The topic of slut shaming,
like what happened with Hannah,

we're in a place where, on the one hand,

girls feel incredible pressure
to be rated on being attractive,

um, to be popular, to be good-looking,
to look perfect on Instagram.

And yet if it goes just
a touch too far somehow,

now you're a slut, nobody likes you,

you're not worthy of
being a real girlfriend.

(Jones): I think the hard
thing about the minute

that a girl in this
context is labeled a slut

is because it's just a snowball effect,

because it gives people
permission to continue to treat her

as though she's a sexual
object instead of a human being.

Somehow all those things get mixed
up, especially for girls and women.

And for a girl who's just
developing her identity,

and just developing her body,

and just learning about
sexuality and relationships,

it's a lot of hurdles to navigate.

(Hannah): I wanted you to
do everything you were doing,

so I don't know why my mind
took me everywhere else.

Growing up and going through high school

is when you're meant to be
learning about who you are,

and maybe having, like, your
first sexual experiences,

having your first
boyfriend or girlfriend

and trying to figure that out.

And this huge culture of slut
shaming affects her, ultimately.

(Voices echoing)

Thought you were easy.

(Heartbeat increasing)

Thought you were easy.

Stop it.

Okay, sorry. I'm sorry.

No, just stop, okay?

(Minnette): I don't think Clay
has any idea

what's going on
in that moment because...

I think at first he wonders...
He thinks he did something wrong.

I think it's just, like, pure confusion,

like just obviously there's something
going on that he had no idea about.

(Dr. Hu): At that point,
Hannah's been through so much,

even being with a nice guy, like Clay,

she starts to get almost Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder.

(McCarthy): Through the process,

everyone was reflecting on
their high school experiences.

Things they did right and
wrong, things they regret.

There's moments of like, "That
one guy, I remember I did that,

I shouldn't have. I should've spoke up."

I hope there's discussions like that,

not just between friends
in high schools and colleges

when this show airs,
but between parents.

You have nothing more to tell me...

about bullying at school?

No.

Or, um...

Hannah Baker?

Look, I told you, Mom...

I didn't really know her.

(Yorkey): A big part of Clay's
story is that he is not a kid

who can communicate how he's
feeling, or what's on his mind.

This is one of the most powerful
moments of the show for me

because it rings so true to
who I was when I was a teenager,

where you have so much
going on inside of you

and so little ability
to share it with anybody.

I certainly remember experiencing
things when I was younger,

and being so overwhelmed because
I had no idea what it was,

or what I was feeling.

And it's hard to talk about when you
can't put it into words correctly.

I guess, in a way, it'd be
healthier to sit there with your mom

and say, "All these
things are going wrong,

and life is just happening
so fast, and I'm so young,

and I can't handle it," but
no one has that awareness.

Even someone as smart as Clay.

It's not because you don't
love them or don't respect them.

It's more just, "What do I say? What
will they say?" They won't understand.

You gotta start opening up to us, kid.

Just, you know, let us
know what's going on.

It's hard to be the
parent of a teenager.

The teenagers are trying to
establish some independence.

Sometimes when they would
like help on some level,

they're also pushing it away.

And both Clay and Hannah, at times,

really would like some help,
but don't know how to ask for it.

(Teefey): I feel like parents
being honest and not ignoring issues

and not ignoring what they went through

will really help kids, I think,
be a little bit more comfortable.

And, I mean, I always told her:

"You don't have to tell me everything,

but if it's really
something that's important,

I'm here and there's no judgment."

(Asher): I think that's what
people really identify with

because we've all made
those choices not to open up,

even though a person was right
there asking how we were doing.

(Mr. Porter): I was glad
to see you on my calendar.

(Hannah): Why?

I'm just glad that you made
an appointment to come talk.

(Yorkey): The scene with Mr.
Porter in the last episode,

Hannah missed the opportunity
to say what had happened to her,

and Mr. Porter missed the
opportunity and missed a lot of signs

to see that this was
someone in immediate crisis

who needed more help than
he gave her at that moment.

(Asher): You know, Hannah's
an imperfect person.

She pushes people away, people that
we know would have been there for her.

You know, she could have been more open.

But in a way, she kind of
sets up Mr. Porter to fail.

I think it's okay to recognize that.

She wasn't perfect, she
didn't do everything she could.

And she should have done more.

So, what happened, Hannah?

How did you get here?

Just...

one thing on top of another.

(Mr. Porter): If I'm gonna help you,

I'm gonna need you to be
a little more specific.

(Yorkey): The challenge
for Hannah is that

she would've had to have the strength
to describe what happened to her,

and the courage and
determination to label it r*pe...

to get his attention.

And she was not able to do that.

And that is not her fault.

Sexual as*ault comes with so much shame,

on top of the pain, on
top of the violation,

that for victims to talk
about it is incredibly hard.

And takes an incredibly safe space
and someone who is very skilled

in making it possible for
the victims to talk about it.

Mr. Porter didn't have that skill.

Sometimes you can be
trying so hard and miss it.

You can be sincere, but sincerely wrong.

Did...?

You don't wanna talk about this, do you?

No, I do.

I think first and foremost is schools
can teach more emotional education.

I think we're lacking so
severely in that arena.

It's very common for young adults
to not recognize their emotions,

to not be able to verbalize
them, talk about them.

If Hannah had been able to
understand what she was feeling,

and why,

then it could've made
all the difference.

You can sit down, you
don't need to be in a hurry.

I need to get on with
things, Mr. Porter.

If things aren't gonna change,
I better get on with it.

- (Phone ringing)
- Hey... Hey, Hannah...

(Yorkey): You only know what
they're willing to tell you

and you only know what
they're able to tell you.

They may Instagram and Snapchat

and, you know, Facebook their lives,

but that's curated.

Even with all that,

you still don't really know
what's going on in their life.

(Bryce): There you are.

Hey, we're playing beer pong out back.

(Both laughing)

- Dude.
- You want to go?

No, no, no, dude, I'm all right.

I'm sticking around for Jessica.

(Laughing): She's so wasted.

Oh, yeah?

It was an interesting discussion in
the writers' room approaching the scene

where Justin lets Bryce in to
ultimately have his way with Jessica.

And there were people who said:

I don't... No one can...
No one would do this.

It's impossible to do this.

A lot of times guys will have
this concept of the bro code,

that if their friend is
assaulting someone else,

whether it's their girlfriend
or someone they don't know,

that they just are gonna
kind of look the other way.

And unfortunately this is not as
rare as we would like it to be.

What's mine is yours, right?

(Jones): That's when it
becomes dangerous, is bro code

at the expense of accountability.

And instead of saying, "Yeah, I
have your back in all situations,

unless you do something
legitimately sketchy,"

and then true bro code,

and true friendship is, "I would never
let you put yourself in that situation."

(Dr. Hsu): The bystander effect,

when we talk about how
could someone not interfere

if you think something
terrible is going on.

In the scene at the party,
not only is Justin culpable,

there's, I think, maybe
some people wondering:

"Why didn't Hannah do something?"

You know, you put
yourself in that situation.

Hannah was drunk, Hannah was
hiding, not supposed to be there.

And to be honest, I think she
didn't realize it was happening.

Then all of a sudden it was
happening, and then it was over.

(Jones): We don't realize
actually in that moment so often

people are completely frozen.

You're like, "If I was in that situation,

I'd have totally done something."

And I think it's easy
to talk about in theory,

and the truth is, it requires
such a bold, authentic confidence

to stand on your own two feet, and
to stand up for what you believe in,

not in theory but in a moment
in which we're asking people

to be brave for the
seconds it matters most.

(Boe): When I read episode nine,
I called a very close family member

who is a r*pe survivor,
and she was so grateful

that we weren't shying
away from the ugliness

because she told me
that that is the only way

that people are really going to
understand a r*pe survivor's mind

and what they had to go through.

I remember the table
reads for this stuff.

Just reading it on
paper was devastating,

and then having to bring it to life
was... really f*cking hard to do,

so I can't even imagine what a lot
of these girls are going through,

or anyone who is a
survivor of sexual as*ault.

(Boe): Jessica's forever changed.
It's a permanent, permanent thing,

which I hope people,

young boys, especially,
who will watch this,

understand that it's
not okay to get drunk

and then just have your way with people,

because you are changing that
person's life and your own

for the rest of your life.

A lot of people who have, at some
point, committed sexual as*ault,

or some form of it, or
r*pe, they're acquaintances.

They're... They're people that you know.

This is one of those things that
needs to be talked about and addressed.

Not saying anything can
also be very dangerous.

If Bryce doesn't have consequences,
he's gonna keep doing what he's doing.

She wanted me.

Me.

She was practically
begging me to f*ck her.

If that's r*pe, every girl
at school wants to be r*ped.

Someone like Bryce, we call
them a predator, which he is.

But it's so important that
the show really depicts

that it's not so clear and so obvious.

He's a popular guy, he's an athlete,

and that it's so common for a victim

to feel like, "No one
would ever believe me."

Bryces exist.

They exist on every single
campus, and in every facet...

of life, and I think there's an immense
amount of misinformation for young men

around what consent even is.

That's the disconnect in how
we're poorly educating men

and young women, and
how we're failing them,

because we're not educating them on
what real consent actually looks like.

(Flynn): It just needs to
be a part of a conversation.

Sometimes people think, "If
I talk to them about sex,

I'm gonna find out all the details."

It's like, no, just talk to them
about what should be done, you know?

Begin it with: she
needs to say yes first.

And so we have to literally
give them the phrase of:

"What do you say in that moment?"

Which is even just pausing and saying:

"Hey, I want to make sure
you're cool with us having sex."

Is this okay?

Yeah. More than okay.

That's actually incredibly sexy, and that
makes any girl feel really taken care of,

and I think if we can

better program them
with the right things to say,

and teach them the impact that
their actions have on people

are actually very real,

and have, potentially,
very serious consequences,

maybe we could do something
about preventing it.

The reality is that someone
who commits sexual as*ault

is almost never a one-time offender

and will often find victim after victim.

(Bryce): Can't believe Hannah Baker
finally came to one of my parties.

(Yorkey): The scene in episode
of Hannah and Bryce in the hot tub

was one of the two most
difficult scenes to film.

We didn't look away from the
sexual assaults in the show,

because to do otherwise is to minimize
what those characters go through

and what teenage girls
go through every day.

Well, uh, I better get going.

My parents are probably,
like, super worried by now.

You just got here.

(Langford): One of the biggest
goals was to represent everything

as authentically and
as truthful as possible.

And Jessica Yu, who
directed, um, this episode,

she really did put a lot of thought
into the way it was gonna be sh*t.

You know, in the scene
we stay on Hannah's face,

and it's actually in the script
where it says we stay on her face

longer than is comfortable.

And I think it's important
that we did that because...

it is uncomfortable.

I think it does a great job
of showing you kind of exactly

what this person might be going through.

We had counselors advise us in the
writing of it, in the sh**ting of it.

They talked to Justin
Prentice, who played Bryce,

to Katherine Langford, who plays Hannah,

really helping them understand what's
going through the characters' minds,

why they behave as they do.

I spoke with Rebecca Hedrick, um,

and Rebecca Kaplan from It's On Us,

and, you know, what I learned was...

(Stammers): I kind of had a bit of
an insight into what people go through

whilst an as*ault is happening.

Whenever someone is
faced with a major trauma,

they have the fight,
flight or freeze response.

They will either fight their way out
of it, run away from it, or freeze.

And especially if there have been
accumulated trauma in the past,

then one of the... The more
likely option would be to freeze,

and that's what happened with Hannah.

She might even dissociate a little bit.

A lot of times victims of trauma talk
about feeling apart from their body.

She goes blank. You see the
light go out of her eyes.

She's completely lost her
sense of self at that point.

(Indistinct chattering and applause)

(Jones): Very rarely do I think we show
the bravery and the candor and the pain

that exists on the other
side of being a survivor.

And how damaging, how deeply
damaging that is, both,

we see with Hannah obviously,
and we also see with Jessica.

When you're in that position,
it is so hard to reach out

because you feel you're
gonna burden someone else,

or you don't think people want to
listen, or you don't think they care.

So many girls are afraid to come forward

when something like this happens
because immediately the victim-shaming,

oftentimes, is actually worse
than even the initial as*ault.

They have their entire
character judged, criticized.

Well, why was she wearing this?

Why did she go to that house?

Why didn't she do X, Y, Z?

When really that's not the point.

I think we need to start these
conversations differently,

and instead of asking
what she did or didn't do,

we need to ask what he did
and why he was doing it.

It's on us to educate people on how
to receive that kind of information

when girls have the
courage to come forward.

You okay?

Fine.

Yeah?

You don't look fine.

r*pe should be a topic that we
should all be able to talk about,

and not feel ashamed.

I want survivors to know
that it's not your fault,

and it's okay to talk about it.

And you need to build
a good support system

to be able to heal.

The more often you tell your
story of being assaulted,

the more it loses power over you.

I hope that people watching this show

will feel empowered to be
able to go to someone for help.

(Jones): We see Jessica going
through that, reaching out

to someone that she knows loves her,

that hopefully she can, you know,
really get the help of adults

and professionals to come
in and help her with that.

I don't think any girl
should go through that alone

or think that she can handle that alone.

Some of you cared.

None of you cared enough.

Neither did I.

And I'm sorry.

(Yorkey): By the time we reach
the last day of Hannah's life,

she is completely depleted.

It's beyond simply being depressed.
She thinks her life is worth nothing.

And she thinks her life really only
exists as a problem to other people.

And she has been treated time
and time again as an object,

so her sense of self
and her sense of agency,

her sense that anything she can
do can make things better is gone.

(Dr. Hsu): She stops trying, and she
stops reaching out for any life lines,

and she's not strong enough
or healthy enough at that point

to stand up and assert herself.

Sometimes I'll hear a parent
say, "Well, not my kid.

He'd never do it, or she'd never
do it because she's really smart.

Her grades are good." And it
has nothing to do with that.

Young adults haven't fully
formed their frontal lobe,

or executive function as we call it,

so everything that happens
feels like this is forever.

They often feel like there's no way out,

and this can lead to
very impulsive acts.

(Yorkey): We had a number of
people ask us along the way

why we had Hannah k*ll herself in
the way we did and why we showed it.

We worked very hard
not to be gratuitous,

but we did want it to
be painful to watch...

because we wanted it to be very clear

that there is nothing...

in any way...

worthwhile about su1c1de.

(Mrs. Baker): Hannah. Come on.

(Walsh): We just wanted to
make that moment, particularly,

as realistic as it possibly could be

without ever having experienced that.

That's the moment, the sort
of pinnacle of the series,

where you talk about wanting to do honor

to people that have actually had
to go through this in their lives.

Like you want to pay tribute to
them and make it real and authentic.

(Dr. Hsu): As hard as it
was to see the final decision

that Hannah made when
she d*ed of su1c1de,

I think it was important to show
that it's not a pretty death,

it's not an easy one,

and then the pain that never ends for
her parents immediately thereafter,

who are left with this horrible burden.

One of the things that when I talked
to parents, when I talked to Dr. Hu,

that it was important to
sort of get in context with

for how it completely
consumes your life.

It's important for
the viewers to see that

there's often a lot of collateral damage

when someone dies,

and the person contemplating
su1c1de might not realize how much

their death will affect people that they
love and that they didn't want to hurt.

(Hannah): For those of you who will
now be looking for signs everywhere,

what does it really look like?

Yeah.

Here's the scary thing:

It looks like nothing.

(Dr. Hsu): There are statistics
that say that for every su1c1de

there's at least six people who
are very intimately impacted.

(Dr. Hu): People are at
a higher risk of su1c1de

if someone that they
know has d*ed by su1c1de.

And it seems counterintuitive,

and yet the person who has
survived somebody else's su1c1de

often feels guilty and
can blame themselves,

and that seems to be a large
part of what happens with Alex.

Alex Standall...

sh*t himself in the head last night.

He's in critical condition at Mercy.

(Dr. Hedrick): su1c1de is now the second
leading cause of death for teenagers.

And every warning sign, every symptom
of depression should be taken seriously.

A drastic change in behavior,
a drop in their grades,

getting in fights with their peers,
or parents, or authority figures,

substance abuse, these are all
different signs to look out for.

(Heizer): A lot of times it feels like

things you're experiencing
aren't treatable,

and that's why it can be overwhelming
to try to explain it to someone

because you just feel like there's
nothing you can do about it.

But there usually is.

It's absolutely treatable.

Anxiety is, depression is, talk therapy,

treatment centers, there's a
million ways you can find help.

(Dr. Hsu): I think a lot of
times people feel paralyzed by:

"I don't know how to talk
about this. Maybe it'll go away.

Maybe they seem okay.

I don't feel equipped to talk."
But then nobody talks about it,

and that's actually the worst
thing that any of us can do.

Really, it's about just
listening, saying, "I'll be there,

and we'll find the help together."

If someone watching this is feeling
like their life doesn't have worth,

I hope that you see
around Hannah in this show

all the people who care about her,

and know that there are those
people in your life as well.

(Dr. Hu): It's okay to not be okay.

It's okay to not be perfect,

and for everything to be exactly
right every moment of the day,

but that you can get past that.

It gets better.

You won't always feel this bad.

(Langford): Reach out,
even if you feel like Hannah

and can't talk to your parents, or
don't want to tell anyone at school

because you're
embarrassed, call a hotline.

Talk to someone anonymously.

Just talk to someone because
the minute you start talking,

it gets easier.

And just know that there's life beyond
what you're feeling at the moment.

I promise it will get better.

There is an entire future of
incredible things waiting for you.

And if you go, you don't get
to... You don't get to see it.

I hope that this show really
opens up a lot of conversations

and helps people realize
the smallest thing you do,

the smallest thing you do to
someone, the smallest thing you say,

can change so much for better or worse.

Skye.

Hey, Skye.

What?

Hey, uh... how's it going?

(McCarthy): It's more than a show
about a young woman's su1c1de,

or sexual abuse, sexual v*olence,
r*pe, it's much more than that.

I think it's a wonderful
way the show ends,

with Clay just taking a minute
to acknowledge a woman in his life

who he hasn't connected with in a while.

And it's those small steps, which
I think can make a big difference.

(Dr. Hsu): I've seen
that make a difference,

and I've had people actually
on their way to harm themselves

kind of stall because they were
thrown off because somebody was nice.

And I think that's where it starts.

It just starts with
reaching out to people.

You know, saying, "Hey, what's up?

You matter to me.

I'm glad you're in my world."

It has to get better.

The way we treat each other

and look out for each other.

It has to get better somehow.

(Exhales)

There is absolutely nothing wrong
with saying that you need help.

And if you need help at all,

you can go to reasonswhy.info

to find an organization in your area.

You can help others by
spreading it as well.