This Theory About Monty In '13 Reasons Why' Might Be A Big Part Of Season 3
It is hard to imagine hating a character in 13 Reasons Why more than Bryce Walker, but the second season of Netflix's controversial teen drama surprised everyone by shifting the fans' vitriol over to an unexpected side character. At the end of Season 2, there is no doubt that Bryce's loyal lackey Montgomery de la Cruz is the most hated character on the series, and if the show gets a third season, then it will definitely focus heavily on hyper-aggressive bully. While we still don't know much about him, a new theory about Monty from 13 Reasons Why Season 2 points to some subtle hints in the show that may reveal what is really going on with the unhinged villain, and what the main part of his storyline in Season 3 will probably look like.
Spoiler alert: Don't continue reading if you have not finished Season 2 of 13 Reasons Why yet. By far the most unforgettable scene in the entirety of 13 Reasons Why came in the Season 2 finale, when Monty, desperate to get back in Bryce's good graces and enraged to learn that his mortal enemy Tyler is back at school, corners Tyler in the bathroom and mercilessly brutalizes and sexually assaults him. It is an incredibly graphic scene, and many viewers have been sharing that it was too difficult for them to watch.
The finale also reveals more alarming and extremely violent behaviors that Monty had been engaged in all season long, such as nearly running Clay over with his car, taunting rape victim Jessica by hanging a blow-up doll on her front porch, putting a dead rat in Zach's locker, sending the suicidal Alex a gun, and leaving multiple threatening notes to pretty much every main character. These revelations paint Monty as an unhinged psychopath, much scarier than the basic, fight-proned high school bully that we all thought he was before.
The show also dropped some hints about what may have made Monty so incredibly abusive. At the end of the season, it is revealed that Monty's dad beats him so often that Monty lives on the streets for some stretches, but some more perceptive fans also pointed out some other hints about Monty that the season seemed to be setting up. As one Reddit user shared, if you rewatch Season 2 and focus on Monty, you start to pick up on the possibility that he may be closeted, and that repression may be a big reason behind his violence and sexual assault.
Basically, the theory is that Monty's father has beaten him his whole life whenever he expressed his homosexuality. That abuse led to intense, chaotic repression, but found an acceptable form of release in his strong friendship with Bryce. Earlier in the season, we see Monty making sex jokes with and even about Bryce multiple times, and he even admits in the end that he would do anything for Bryce — this definitely seems goes beyond the scope of a normal friendship. Of course, this repression reaches a nuclear level in Monty's final scene, in which he screams homosexual slurs at Tyler (a character who has been shown to be heterosexual) before using the handle of a mop to sodomize him.
Obviously, if Monty really is closeted, that does not make the horrific things he has done to everyone OK at all, but it might at least offer up some sort of explanation as to how he became so truly evil. If this theory turns out to be true, then it will definitely be a major part of the show's next season, so we will find out soon enough.
