After a second season that raised such mysteries as “Why does this exist?†and “Why is it so long?†Netflix has released the final trailer for the third season of teen drama 13 Reasons Why. Lest you were worried about where the show would go from Hannah Baker’s parents’ negligence trial against the school board, the series looks as moody and broody as ever. Like Laura Palmer and Jason Blossom before him, fictional high schooler Bryce Walker (Justin Prentice) is dead. Unlike with those characters, it looks semi-doubtful that anyone at Liberty High School will miss Bryce that much. He was a convicted rapist and all-around jerk who had victimized and assaulted plenty of characters by the end of season two, so naturally the trailer establishes enough murder suspects to fill a yearbook. Could the culprit be Tyler (Brandon Flynn), who brought an assault rifle to the school dance in last season’s finale? Or could it be Jessica (Alisha Boe) taking revenge on her assaulter?
It’s probably a smart move for 13 Reasons to focus on a new propulsive mystery beyond Hannah’s suicide, and not only because of the endless controversy surrounding its graphic depiction. Even if Bryce is a “character everyone hates and no one is sad to see go,†season two was literally haunted by Hannah and her season-one plot. At least Bryce’s death offers a new way forward for the show before its fourth and final season, which Netflix announced earlier this month. The full third season drops on Netflix on August 23, and in the meantime you can watch the trailer, with all of its defined jawlines, locker-room fistfights, and Midsommar-style breathing, above.