In the second season of 13 Reasons Why, Clay is not only dealing with Hannah’s trial, he also has visions of her. In the second episode, he screams at Hannah after Skye tries to hurt herself again. Hannah seems real to him, like she’s not dead and standing right in front of him. She nearly pushes Clay to his breaking point in the eleventh episode. When Clay goes Bryce’s house to kill him, Hannah is there reciting the words from her tape about Bryce raping her. “How do I make her stop?” Clay cries to Justin. “She won’t stop.” Justin is alarmed at how Clay’s acting, especially when Clay puts a gun to his head. One Redditor believes this is a sign that Clay is struggling with mental illness, specifically schizophrenia.
“Clay has schizophrenia,” fatethatbitch writes. “Serious schizophrenia. I’m a schizophrenic so I know for a fact what it looks like. I waited literally all of season two for someone to notice his visual and auditory hallucinations. He had a psychotic break where he nearly killed Bryce. And nobody ever noticed or tried to get him help for it. They just hugged him when he became triggered by a song, but like, what about everything else?”
PickleDickon adds, “As a schizophrenic, yeah. I’m pretty sure he does. I recognize many of his symptoms within myself. Considering he’s sixteen or seventeen which is right around the time the onset of worsening symptoms appear. He has a history of anxiety, depression, and nightmares. He has visual and auditory hallucinations. He’s virtually clueless in social interactions. He’s angry and emotionally stunted. He says he doesn’t care about anything but it’s all eating him up inside. Seems schizophrenic to me. I’m not a writer for the show, but I’m schizophrenic and yeah, he looks hella schizophrenic.”
Symptoms of schizophrenia usually start between ages 16 and 30, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, and Clay is within that age bracket. One of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia is hallucinations, and Clay’s visions of Hannah could very well be more than just a way for fans to see more of Hannah after she committed suicide.
Maybe Clay is suffering from more than just anxiety. The show could definitely explore Clay’s mental state if it’s renewed for season 3. Clay is always so worried about everyone else, but maybe we need to focus on how Clay is doing and how he’s handling everything.