In the aftermath of the assault, which leaves him bleeding, Tyler decides that his only recourse is a school shooting, and brings an assault rifle to the school dance. As I’ve pointed out many times about multiple story lines on this show, it feels like a means to an end, and the end here is gun violence.
While sexual assault on men is a topic that ought to be addressed, I don’t know that the way it’s being treated here is the best way to do it. The plain and simple is that it’s simply not necessary. This scene has sparked a lot of controversy, and with good reason. Related Storiesġ3 Reasons Why Creator Defends Controversial Rape Scene in Season-Two Finale Blaming Tyler for the premature end of the sports season, the jocks attack Tyler in the bathroom, and rape him with a mop handle. Bryce may have washed his hands of it all - he’s transferring schools, and he doesn’t want to jeopardize the terms of his probation - but Montgomery, who is like the Über-Justin in just how dependent he is on his friendship with Bryce and the structure of the team to provide him with a family, takes extreme action. The school also has a new student counselor (in the form of Parminder Nagra), and though the bridges Tyler has burned haven’t completely mended, they’re not as bad as they could be - though Cyrus doesn’t think they ought to be friends again, they have a conciliatory talk, and Mackenzie, though dating someone new, is happy enough to see him. In the time that’s passed, Tyler has completed his behavioral guidance program, and seems to be doing a lot better. The fact that it opens the episode instead of ending it should clue viewers into the fact that there’s something brewing, and what awaits is flat-out awful. Each of the female characters in the show takes a turn speaking about an incident of sexual assault or abuse, which feels especially affecting in light of how the judge gives Bryce a light sentence so as not to “do any more damage.” Justin, of course, is given twice as much time, as well as being held in juvenile detention given the fact that his mother has skipped town.īut, for all that, it’s a good moment in a show that’s had a hard time in balancing pathos with wringing emotion out of its audience, it’s immediately undermined by what comes after it. (So much for that, though in this case, the injustice of it is arguably the point.) At the hearing, Jess speaks about her rape in a sequence that turns into a broader comment on sexual violence against women. A month after the events of the previous episode, Bryce is sentenced to three months of probation. More than anything else, it’s just a strange episode, as it begins with what feels like an ending. There’s too much in this episode - particularly in the way that it’s all been framed - that’s been ripped straight from the news in a way that doesn’t quite work, at least not for my money. If “The Box of Polaroids” was perhaps too insular, “Bye” takes the opposite tack and goes way too wide.