At its center, 13 Reasons Why is all about Hannah, the high school student who committed suicide and sent out tapes explaining what lead her to that decision, but the rest of the characters are intriguing too. After hearing everything Hannah has to say on her cassette tapes is true, it becomes clear that no one is perfect, and everyone in her life who got a tape had a part in her decision to end her life. However, there are also a few people in both Jay Asher's original novel and the Netflix series who don’t get a tape and still feature heavily in the story. One of those people on 13 Reasons Why is Skye Miller.
Skye only appears less than a handful of times in the original 13 Reasons Why book. The first time is on a bus with Clay, where the two have a brief bout of communication, and the second is in the hallway after Clay figures out what Hannah’s tapes are all about. In the book, Skye is described as being a bit of a loner — she was a “normal” kid in middle school, but when she and her peers graduated to high school, things changed and Skye became quiet and withdrawn. It seems like she and Clay knew each other well at some point in time, but there’s no confirmation of that.
In the book, the culmination of Hannah’s tapes is that Clay reaches out to Skye in an effort to talk to her, as she may be depressed, and he wants to prevent what happened to Hannah from happening to someone else.
Because Netflix's adaptation of the book expands the story from one night to multiple weeks, we see more of Skye. She works as a barista at the coffeeshop Clay and his fellow students frequent, so the two spend more time together and we get to know more about their past.
Skye is played by Sosie Bacon, and right now, you’re probably thinking one of two things — that you love bacon and could go for some right now (which is a perfectly valid response) or you’re wondering if Sosie Bacon is related to another very famous Bacon who acts (aka Kevin). Well, she is! Sosie is the daughter of Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon and is clearly following in their very successful footsteps. She’s made appearances on The Closer, Scream, and Aquarius, and has completed a few films that are in post-production. Bacon was also named Miss Golden Globe in 2014, which means that she got to stand on stage while the winners were announced, hand out statuettes, and then usher dilly-dallying celebrities off the stage.
Though the part of Skye in 13 Reasons Why is fairly small, it is an important one, because she essentially represents why Hannah made and sent out all of those tapes. Her character deserves to be expanded, so I'm looking forward to seeing where the Netflix adaptation takes her.
