13 Reasons Why‘s fourth and final season on Netflix gave us a lot of answers to questions from seasons past, but also new questions. A question that I had of this season was why the students of the Liberty high keep talking about someone named Gordon Lightfoot? Who even is he? We have a little bit to figure out the whole story by the time the end credits roll, but if you missed it, here is everything you need to know.
During this season, those in the core friend group to initiate the use of a code word for the text of each one of the other because they think their parents are turning to their devices. The code word is Gordon Lightfoot. The first time that we hear that is mentioned is in episode seven, when Justin (Brandon Flynn) storms into a classroom to tell Zach (Ross Butler), “I wrote to you two times. Gordon Lightfoot. Urgent.” So now we know that the friends have decided to use Gordon Lightfoot as a code word for each of the other, it means that you need to talk or meet to discuss anything they do not want to discuss their devices.
Clay (Dylan Minnette) and Justin realize that their phones are, in fact, taken advantage of, when Clay’s parents tell the boys that they had heard that there is a Gordon Lightfoot concert coming to town soon, and you know how much the children as the of the singer. Knowing that he had not spoken aloud about Gordon Lightfoot around the Clay of their parents, the two teens get extra suspicious. The clay of the father, even breaks into a Gordon Lightfoot song, “sundown”, in the table of the dinner, leaving the children clueless as to what he’s even talking about.
The two come clean to Clay’s parents about some of their lies in an effort to make the parents to help the school still the celebration of the feast, and it is when the Clay and Justin are opening them they say they are not in reality Gordon Lightfoot fans. They say that it was Alex’s (Miles Heizer) the idea of using his name, because he is a big fan of the song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The show ends on the 10th episode with the rest of the friends in the group of bury Hannah old tapes for good. It is here where Tyler (Devin Druid) said to them, “If you ever need help, at any time, in any place, just send a group text. They Say Gordon Lightfoot.”
The real Gordon Lightfoot is a Canadian singer who has been doing the folk and country music for decades. Listen to the song that Alex is a big fan of the bottom.
