'13 Reasons Why' Star On The Challenge of Humanizing a Rapist & the Finale Reveal

Justin Prentice talked about looking at it in a manner where it can be a struggle.

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Justin Prentice, who plays the role of Bryce Walker in 13 Reasons Why recently had an interview with The Hollywood Reporter and he talked about the big reveal of the finale of the third season along with the struggle of humanizing a rapist.

"I didn’t find out until we got the last script," he tells The Hollywood Reporter. Though he did have some ideas about the reveal, the combination of killers — as is par for the course with 13 Reasons Why — gave the new season a complicated ending. "Everyone did a wonderful job of not ruining it for me, so shout out to all of our cast and crew!"

The answer to the whodunit murder mystery that re-set the Netflix YA drama in its third year was actually a three-parter. The final episode of Brian Yorkey's high school series from Paramount Television revealed that Bryce's friend, football star Zach Dempsey (Ross Butler), beat the convicted rapist, leaving him immobilized and stranded on a boating dock. When Alex Standall (Miles Heizer) showed up to the dock with Jessica Davis (Alisha Boe) after Bryce asked Jess (whom Bryce previously sexually assaulted) to meet him there, Alex ended up throwing an irrational Bryce into the water — and both he and Jess watched Bryce drown.

After a season spent exploring Bryce's dysfunctional upbringing and attempts to better himself after the events of seasons one and two — where he was revealed to be a serial rapist, among other offenses — Prentice says he isn't sure whether or not death is a just punishment and poses that question to the 13 Reasons Why audience to debate. "It’s easier to label these people as monsters, put it in a package. It’s easier to digest if we can label it," he says of the topic of sexual assault. "But the murky, grey area is that a lot of these people are capable of human emotions."

When talking about putting the divisive response to previous seasons behind, he says of the issues around sex and sexual assault that are tackled in 13 Reasons Why: "[In] educating kids on what sex is, on what safe sex is, on what consent looks like, we get to see in the show the human side and I think it’s scary to see the human side on an issue like this. But it’s also reassuring in the sense that it shows there is a light at the end of the tunnel if we can talk about these things in the right way."

What did you think about the big reveal? Leave in your comments below.

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