If you haven’t yet watched Netflix's hit series, 13 Reasons Why, then we suggest you look away now… because this post comes with a MAJOR spoiler, and we're pretty sure it's gonna change the way you think about the series forever.
For those of you who've seen it, we'll just give you a recap: It focuses around a group of high school students who desperately try to work out why their classmate, Hannah Baker, killed herself.
The series has been praised by critics for the powerful way in which it addresses the ups and downs of high school: bringing things like bullying, stalking, slut-shaming and sexual assault into the spotlight, and reminding its viewers how even the tiniest comment can have a massive affect on someone.
As you'll remember, the end of the 13 Reasons Why is a bleak one. The main character, Clay Jensen, discovers that nothing could be done to stop Hannah killing herself (and thinking about it makes our hearts break all over again, tbh).
But GUESS WHAT?! It turns out everything might not be so simple, after all.
*PREPARE TO BE MINDBOGGLED *
In the very last episode of the series, the subjects of Hannah's tapes are brought in for questioning, as they're subpoenaed by the police.
At this point, we're given a glimpse into the questioning through the lense of the police's video recorder, and some eagle eyed fans have noticed that the date at the bottom left of the screen when heart-throb Zack is brought in, reads 'November 10, 2017.'
But what's the significance of that, you might ask?
Well, if you cast your minds back, there was a Halloween party in episode four of the series, which gives us a pretty good indication that Clay was listening to Hannah's tapes at the end of October.
Based on this, we know that Hannah must have committed suicide shortly before that. (So, let's say, late September to early October…)
BUT HANG ON A MINUTE… if Hannah didn’t kill herself until then, does that mean that technically in real world time, she's still alive?
We're only in July, after all… and the tape did say 2017.
Of course, this might all be a complete coincidence, but you have to wonder why the producers decided to set the whole show in the future, unless they wanted to prove that Hannah's death could still be stopped.
After all, some of the so called 'reasons' that led Hannah to kill herself actually haven't happened yet, if we're going by the timeline that they've set us in Zack's video…
Here at heat hq, we're pretty shocked at this plot twist, to be honest. And while it could all be dismissed as nothing more than a fan theory, we like to think it sends a deeper message.
Perhaps the series is trying to tell us that if we've done wrong to someone, or we can see somebody suffering, there's still time to put it right? Or – even more emosh – if you are struggling like Hannah Baker, you can always reach out to somebody, and it's never too late?
If true, it certainly turns a rather depressing ending on its head, and gives the whole story an even deeper moral than we first thought.
We know. We told you you'd never look at the series in the same way again…