Should we be concerned after watching the 13 Reasons Why Season 4 trailer?

The 13 Reasons Why Season 4 trailer has been released, and I’m concerned.

This post contains spoilers for 13 Reasons Why Season 3 and the 13 Reasons Why Season 4 trailer

From the looks of the 13 Reasons Why Season 4 trailer, the past may be finally catching up with Clay and the Liberty High gang. The fourth season, which will be the series’s last, will hit Netflix on June 5. Unfortunately, I’m not all that excited.

In Season 3, the gang found themselves finally starting to get on with their lives following the Bakers’ lawsuit against the Liberty High School school district. However, when Bryce Walker got murdered, the individuals featured on Hannah Baker’s infamous tapes quickly became the prime suspects. While a huge emphasis was placed on loyalty in 13 Reasons Why Season 3, I wasn’t exactly prepared for how far the group would go to remain loyal to one another.

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While the show started as a realistic look at the issues teenagers face today, over one season it seemed to have forgotten its original message. While I’ve said that I was hopeful that the show could find its way back to its roots, after watching the trailer for 13 Reasons Why Season 4, I fear that the show won’t be able to find its way back and will instead conclude with a whimper.

Here’s what we’ve learned from the 13 Reasons Why Season 4 trailer

"“Do you think we’re ever going to make it out from under this?”"

That’s the question that Justin asks in the Season 4 trailer, and it seems to be the question looming over the entire season. The answer seems to lie with Winston Williams, a former Hillcrest student who had a fling with Monty and was with him the night that Bryce was murdered.

After confronting Ani at the end of Season 3, Winston has transferred to Liberty, most likely in search of evidence of Monty’s innocence. In doing so, he enlists the help of one of Monty’s friends who we see in the trailer beating up Zach.

If that’s not enough drama for one season, it seems as though Tyler’s own past decisions may also come back to bite him. In one scene of the trailer, Tony, who’s at the police station, sees drawings of Tyler’s guns, which Tony and Clay had thrown in the river on the night of the Spring Fling, hung up. With at least one investigation looming, the Liberty High gang are figuratively haunted by the ghosts of their pasts.

Of course, at the center of it all is our hero—or anti-hero at this point—Clay Jensen, who at least may finally be talking through his issues, with a therapist, played by Gary Sinise. Still, Clay seems to be causing more problems for himself than necessary. At one point, we see him running from the police, and in the very next scene looking down at his bloodied hands.

In the trailer, Ani tells Jessica that things are completely falling apart, and I’m inclined to agree. Unless the Liberty High gang truly answer for what they’ve done, the show has completely fallen apart. Of course, that’s to be expected when you’re deviating from the source material.

Although Season 2 of 13 Reasons Why was also entirely the vision of showrunner Brian Yorkey, the show had at least taken the logical next step in the series’s progression by addressing the role that Liberty High played in Hannah’s death. Once the show had closed the book on Hannah’s story,  however, it seems as though Yorkey didn’t know how to continue Clay’s story in any meaningful way. As a result, Yorkey raised the stakes even higher, but at the expense of characters he’d spent two seasons redeeming.

At this point, no matter how the series ends, I don’t believe that it’ll be satisfactory enough for me to say that Yorkey has dug himself out of the hole that he created.

What was your reaction to the 13 Reasons Why Season 4 trailer? Are you excited to see how the story concludes?

13 Reasons Why Season 4 will be available to stream on Netflix on Friday, June 5.