We have had to say goodbye to a handful of characters along 13 Reasons Why‘s four seasons. Some hit the Freedom of the High more difficult than others, and some truths behind the death will never be shared. The fourth and final season on Netflix wraps up with another death of a Liberty high school student who leaves a mark around the world.
The show has changed a lot since the first season, after Netflix turned from Jay Asher’s novel the show is based on. When Hannah Baker gives you 13 reasons to kill herself, includes several people in your life that have affected her. Two of her 13 reasons are Justin Foley. He was the first person that got in contact with her when she came to the city, but after he took a photo up her skirt while they were hanging out and shared it with his obnoxious friends, Hannah was quickly labeled as a slut. His second Justin related the reason was that he couldn’t do enough to stop Bryce to rape Jessica at a party because I was not strong enough to stand up to Bryce.
Justin, who had a difficult upbringing and was already a troubled teen, spirals very quickly from the first season. He gets into heavy intravenous drugs, time passes without the home, disappears for a bit, and even gets into the sex work to survive. But half way through the third season, when he is well and truly a disaster, he decides to turn things around. He is trying to make things work with Jessica, and the Jensens to accept it and make him a part of the family. He also claims that he wants to clean.
That is where his story picks up in season four. He continues his redemption arc, and it does so through a rehabilitation center. It does better in school, seems to have a bit more of a positive attitude, and is still in love with Jessica. He and Clay have also become very close after living together and experiencing so much trauma together, so that when the Clay begins to struggle with her own mental health, Justin is quick to do everything possible to not derail him. That includes not sharing with him that his drug-addicted mother was found dead.
But after the death of his mother, and the constant need to keep the secret about Bryce’s death, it is all too much for Justin to handle, and he begins to use drugs again. He pushes Jessica away, steals the Jensens, and falls back into his old form. But in a burst of hope, he confesses to the Jensens, and will say again that you are there for him. Justin makes a last-minute decision to go to the prom and tell Jessica he loves her, in reality, confessing that he loves her more than life, to which she replies that he doesn’t love anything more than life. The two begin to dance, but then Justin passes.
He is taken to the hospital, where the doctor tells the Jensens that after years of intravenous drug use and intercourse, he has contracted the HIV-1 has become the AIDS. There is nothing we can do except make him comfortable for his last days.
As he is dying, he has an emotional heart-to-heart with Jessica about how much they love each other, and a large group of their friends from school come to sit in the waiting room of the ICU for the support. In the Clay of the last conversation with Justin, he tells her that he saved her life many times and he loves it. The clay has his hand as he dies of AIDS-related complications, so its the end of the death in this emotionally heart-rending spectacle.
