Jessica Davis—Justin Foley

Jessica Davis and Justin Foley’s relationship is presented through a party-night encounter whose apparent intimacy is inseparable from vulnerability, prior hurt, and Hannah Baker’s troubled recollection. Jessica arrives at the couch beside Justin, later becomes heavily intoxicated, and is kissed by him while she is unable to respond clearly. The episode ends not with a romantic resolution but with Justin recognizing her condition, tucking her in, and leaving; Hannah’s account preserves the uncertainty and distress surrounding what happened.

The Couch and the Return of the Past

At the party, Hannah enters the living room and finds Jessica and Justin occupying one side of a couch. There is room at the other end, so Hannah and Clay Jensen sit down and begin talking. Jessica and Justin do not address Hannah by name, but she recognizes them immediately. Their presence brings together two painful histories: Justin was the first boy Hannah kissed, and Jessica had slapped her at Monet’s Garden Café & Coffeehouse. Seeing them together makes the past feel inescapable, even as Hannah and Clay try to begin a conversation of their own.

Hannah later recalls the anticipation of her first kiss with Justin and remembers his lips against hers, only to turn sharply to the sense that he ruined that experience. When Clay draws close, she tells him to stop and stops pulling him toward her. The memory makes her response to Clay part of a larger relational pattern: a present moment of intimacy is interrupted by an earlier one that has not ceased to hurt. This juxtaposition does not establish what Jessica and Justin understand about Hannah’s history; it shows how their presence triggers her recollection.

Jessica’s Intoxication and Justin’s Conduct

After Clay leaves, Jessica and Justin move from the couch toward a bedroom, stumbling rather than simply walking. Hannah had thought Jessica was pretending to be drunk, perhaps bumping into her so that Hannah and Clay would leave. She realizes that the drunkenness is real. Jessica’s arm hangs over Justin’s shoulders, while her other hand reaches for the wall to steady herself. Hannah does not see them enter the bedroom: she remains on the floor, with her back against the far side of the bed, in the dark.

Justin helps Jessica when she rolls off the bed, lifting her back onto it twice. He laughs, though Hannah notes that he keeps his laughter limited. His behavior initially appears to Hannah as caretaking, and she imagines he will tuck Jessica in, close the door, and leave. Instead, he begins kissing her. The reversal matters because Jessica’s dependence on him for physical support is followed by his attempt at intimacy, while her level of intoxication makes her ability to participate uncertain.

Justin tries for a long time to get a reaction, asking whether Jessica is awake, whether she wants help getting to the bathroom, and whether she is going to vomit. She makes some grunts and groans, but Hannah describes her as not entirely unconscious. Eventually Justin recognizes that Jessica is not in a romantic mood and probably will not be for some time. He tucks her in, says he will check on her later, and leaves. The account thus distinguishes his attempted kissing from his final decision to stop and attend to her immediate condition; it does not turn that ending into a claim that the preceding situation was uncomplicated.

Hannah’s Position Outside the Room

Hannah remains on the floor, forehead pressed to her knees. She says that two things keep her there: she has drunk enough that her balance is poor, and crossing the room feels hazardous. Meanwhile, she hears and sees only fragments of what is happening. After Justin leaves, Hannah stands by bracing one hand on the bed. A strip of light under the door shows that someone’s shoes remain outside; she realizes that Clay has taken up a position there. She starts toward the light, unsure what to say, then sees another pair of shoes appear and stops.

The bedroom doorway becomes a boundary between Hannah’s inability to act and other people’s choices about Jessica’s vulnerability. When the door opens, Clay pulls it back and tells the other person, “No. Let her rest.” Hannah sees a partly open accordion-door closet in the burst of light and understands that Clay’s friend is trying to persuade him to enter. She waits in the middle of the floor, heart pounding. This moment complicates the party’s chain of observation: Hannah is a witness from an impaired, hidden position, while Clay intervenes at the door to prevent his friend from going in.

Hannah later says that she left the party and walked several blocks, unwilling either to go home or to return. Her departure follows the confusion of the bedroom scene and the discovery that Clay did not simply leave the house without further involvement. The account does not supply a complete view of every action in the room; its partial sightlines and remembered fragments are central to the way the relationship is narrated.

The Question of Consent and the Limits of the Account

In a later conversation with Mr. Porter, Hannah is asked whether anything happened with the boy that might be considered illegal. She answers, “You mean rape? No. I don’t think so.” When he asks why she does not know, the exchange makes her uncertainty explicit rather than resolving it. Mr. Porter offers two possibilities: they can confront the boy and discuss what happened at the party, or Hannah can move on. The evidence identifies this conversation as an attempt to define options, not as a conclusion about Justin’s legal responsibility or a definitive account of Jessica’s experience.

Hannah’s own later account of a separate encounter with Justin underscores how strongly their past shapes her understanding of intimacy: she says she did not tell him to get away and that he did not leave, while describing herself as turning her head, clenching her teeth, and fighting tears. She recalls him telling her to relax. That account should not be collapsed into the earlier party scene with Jessica; it instead establishes why Justin’s presence carries a painful charge for Hannah and why the couch, bedroom, and doorway return to her as more than incidental settings.

Significance of the Relationship in Hannah’s Recollection

Jessica and Justin’s connection at the party is not narrated as a settled romance. It is shown through a sequence of observable circumstances—sharing the couch, Jessica’s intoxication, Justin’s attempted kiss, his eventual recognition of her condition, and his departure—filtered through Hannah’s limited vantage point and memories. The movement from apparent caretaking to attempted intimacy and then withdrawal leaves the scene morally and emotionally unresolved, while the account preserves the concrete fact that Justin ultimately tucks Jessica in and leaves.

For Hannah, the scene concentrates overlapping histories of affection, conflict, and vulnerability. Jessica’s presence recalls the slap at Monet’s; Justin’s recalls Hannah’s first kiss and the injury she associates with it. The party therefore makes their relationship part of Hannah’s own story without making her the omniscient witness to what happened. Its significance lies in that double exposure: Jessica is physically vulnerable, Justin’s actions are seen only in fragments, and Hannah’s memories determine how the encounter is carried forward.