'13 Reasons Why' : Who Killed Bryce Walker?

The question of how Bryce Walker died is the central mystery for the third season of 13 Reasons Why

Photo: David Moir/Netflix

WARNING: The following story contains spoilers from season 3 of 13 Reasons Why.

Well, we finally know who killed Bryce Walker.

The question of how Bryce (Justin Prentice) died is the central mystery for the third season of 13 Reasons Why, which picks up eight months after the end of season 2.

After news of Walker’s murder is made public, the students at Liberty High become suspicious of one another, as there’s more than one person who wanted the controversial football player dead.

As the mystery continues to unravel, it becomes clear that whatever happened to Bryce must have something to do with the last Homecoming game, when Liberty faced off against Hillcrest, the private school Bryce transferred to at the end of season 2.

Bryce changed schools was made after receiving a light sentence of three months probation for the rape of Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford). During the trial, evidence was uncovered to suggest that Bryce assaulted countless more women during his time at Liberty High, including Jessica Davis (Alisha Boe).

Justin Prentice.

On the night of the big game, a fight broke out between the players, with Bryce injuring his former pal Zach Dempsey (Ross Butler) before walking away.

Unbeknownst to the other characters at the time, prior to the game, Bryce had asked if Jessica would meet him by the docks so he could give her something. It turned out to be an apology tape in which he admitted to all of the rapes he had committed.

Before he got a chance to meet with Jessica, Bryce was confronted by Zach, who followed him after the big fight. The pair went on to fight again, and this time Zach broke one of his Bryce’s arms and one of his legs — which ended up playing a part in the football player’s death.

Afterward, Jessica and Alex Standall (Miles Heizer), who came along for protection, spoke with Bryce, who handed Jessica the tape he had made.

As the pair started to leave, Bryce asked Alex for help standing up, but in the process, Alex thought about all the pain Bryce caused throughout his life. He ended up pushing the already injured character into the river, drowning him.

Alex’s fellow students agreed to cover up what really happened, pinning the blame on a fellow student who was already in jail for sexually assaulting Tyler Down (Devin Druid) in season 2.

Courtesy Everett Collection

Opening up about his character’s fate, Prentice told Entertainment Weekly that while he “had an inkling that it was going to happen,” he was initially “taken aback” when he learned the news.

Still, even though he knew what was coming, he didn’t know any of the specifics until he was sent the final script.

“I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to have scenes with that in the back of my mind,” he explained. “I didn’t want it to influence how I went about the scenes. I felt it was safer to just not worry about it and keep it as a secret. And fortunately no one in our cast or crew let it slip because some people did know from the get-go. They were great in keeping it a secret from me. Thank goodness.”

Prentice said he thinks the identify of his killer makes perfect sense — not that he saw it coming.

“I could see why when I read it was Alex. I was like, ‘Yeah, I get it,’ ” he said. “I knew it wasn’t Zach, so I knew that there was more to the story than that and I always assumed that Jess might be involved. So I had parts of the puzzle sort of mapped out, but not the whole picture. So that was a fun little surprise.”

13 Reasons Why season 3 is streaming now on Netflix. The show has already been renewed for a fourth and final season.