Tape 2: Side B – Tyler Down
Have you ever noticed how the most horrible things that go down in movies, tv shows and in music are a lot of times caused by characters named Tyler? Tyler Durden, Tyler Perry, Tyler The Creator, the popular song “Tyler” by The Toadies, and usually some rich douchebag named Tyler from a well off political family that will never go to jail for their crimes. For this occasion we will talk about the student named Tyler Down. With most people on Hannah’s tapes most of them had a personal connection to her of some kind for her to feel a horrible sense of betrayal from them. In my opinion there are two names that had no personal relationship with Hannah at all and both in my opinion did significant damage…. Tyler is one of those men.
To sum up Tyler’s tape: at this point in Hannah’s life she liked to sleep with the window open so she could star at the stars when she lies in bed. With her dad’s checking and approval to see if it was safe to have the window open at night Hannah had total privacy inside her room… that is until she heard camera clicks from outside her window. Paranoid about someone peeping in her window she told her classmate Courtney (whom which we’ll go into further detail in the next entry) who decides to help Hannah catch her stalker. Back in Hannah’s room both Hannah and Courtney created a false yet very sexual lesbian scenario that aroused the stalker’s guard to be caught in the act and flee but still concealing his identity. Once Hannah started to question everyone Hannah figured out it was Tyler that was her stalker in which from that point on made her very paranoid and made her stop having her window open losing her right to privacy.
Tyler is a special case among the other characters in the series. For one thing he was not popular or well liked among anybody. In the book he was usually by himself and his camera and in the show he was usually bullied by the jocks. Another thing was that unlike the individuals on the tapes before him what Tyler was doing was dead wrong no question about it. Tyler was a stalker and probably would have gotten away with it had Hannah not heard the clicking of his camera that original provoke her suspicions. The strangest part of it all was that there was never a reason given as why he was stalking Hannah. Now that I think about it there are other questions such as: how long was he stalking Hannah? Was he stalking others? What was he doing with the secret pictures he was taking? Would he be still stalking had he not gotten caught? Questions like this shrouds Tyler’s character in a cloud of mystery.
In the tv show they went even further with Tyler and his insane actions. First of all Tyler was shown to buy guns from back alley dealers which leads to believe that he will get to a breaking point and eventually shoot his tormentors. Also factor in that the others on Hannah’s tape did wrong but still felt like they were above Tyler and treated him like shit to the point of going to his house and thrown multiple rocks at his window. Tyler was an island among himself but made it very hard to sympathize with him. It’s one thing on being a bully or treating someone badly because in people’s eyes you can apologize and be redeemed. It’s another thing if you’re a stalker, rapist or something along those lines because those types of written off and not forgiven.
My opinion is that I kinda feel bad for Tyler and could see that the constant bullying probably led him to stalking because that is the only way he could ever get close to someone. On the other hand I don’t approve of violating another person’s personal space and he kinda getting what he deserves. In the book Hannah goes to her grave not ever knowing why Tyler did what he did. In the tv show however with all of the guns, pipe bombs, and photos of all of the names on Hannah’s tapes they are building up to a major storyline with Tyler for season 2 and I hope they have him explain his actions to all. Tyler is the wildcard in all of this because unlike the others he has absolutely nothing to lose. To quote Kai Anderson from American Horror Story – Cult: “There nothing more dangerous than a humiliated man.”
Fractured Mindframe 