Does This One Detail From '13 Reasons Why' Finale Mean There Was A Different Ending?

4 June 2018, 14:41

By Katie Louise Smith

Does this one moment in the season finale of 13 Reasons why season two hint at a different ending?

By now, you'll have probably finished binge-watching 13 Reasons Why season two and you will also probably have a LOT of thoughts about that controversial finale episode. From Tyler's horrifying rape to that incredibly disturbing gun scene at the end of the episode, there's been a lot to discuss.

But we bet you missed this one tiny detail in the final scene of the show that hints at the possibility of a completely different - and even more tragic - ending for Clay, Tyler and the rest of Liberty High.

Many fans believe that the ending of the show was actually changed and re-edited given the current real life climate surrounding gun control and school shootings. As pointed out by various fans on Twitter and Reddit, there seems to be a piece of dialogue that can be heard in the dance scene that almost definitely isn't supposed to be there.

You might not have noticed it before, because it's so low-key, but several people have pointed out that you can hear a bunch of muffled screams before someone shouts "He's got a gun!" around the 51:36 mark. It's then followed by another muffled line of panicked dialogue.

The shouting would have been in response to Tyler, who had arrived at the school with several guns and was seconds away from committing a mass shooting. Fans think the shouting seems to suggest that Tyler originally made it into the venue with the gun. In the edit of the episode that made it onto Netflix, we see Clay walk out of the dance and talk Tyler down from doing any harm. He doesn't go through with it.

Listen to the clip below and make up your own mind:

While nothing has been said by the actors or the show-runners about the ending being re-edited, it does reaaaally sound like there may have been a different outcome for Tyler and that the ending was changed before the season dropped on Netflix.

The show and all the plot lines were, of course, written way before the Vegas, Parkland and Santa Fe shootings but given how many lives were lost, and how strong the reaction has been in regards to gun control, it's a possibility that they may have scrapped their original ending in favour of a more redemptive storyline. Or, everyone's just reading way too much into a tiny bit of muffled dialogue.

The final scene of the season (where Clay approaches an armed Tyler) has also been criticised for showing the wrong way to handle an active shooter, even if you know them personally. In Beyond The Reasons, Rebecca Hedrick, M.D., who is the Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Cedars Sinai Hospital in California says: "The safest choice would’ve been to go behind the doors and lock himself in with the rest of the kids and help everyone get to safety, to hide in closets or behind objects and make sure someone has called 911. We would never advise anyone who’s exposed to an active shooter to confront them, even if it’s a loved one. We would advise to get away."

Anyway, what do you think? Do you think that the ending was altered?