Not Dead Yet (Season 1), Episode 3: The latest episode, titled Not Out of High School Yet, takes us to Nell’s life as an obituary writer. Serano is assigned an obit – however, she has to write about the famous influencer – Piper Ashford, this time.
Piper used to bully Nell during high school, calling her Nelly Fart-Ardo, complicating things for the writer when she was young. Unfortunately, the young Tik Toker dies, and Nell has to write about her. Would Nell leave behind the past and give a comforting closure to Piper’s followers?
In the following article, I have detailed everything significant that happens in the show with an added dive into the explanation of how it ends. Spoiler Alert, please read at your discretion.
Not Dead Yet (Season 1) Episode 3, Recap:
“Not Out Of High School Yet”
Episode 3 of Not Dead Yet takes us to a regular conversation between Nell and Sam when the former gets assigned to write an obituary. As Nell learns who she will write about, she gets to see the ghost of Piper Ashford. It turns out that the two girls used to go to the same high school where Piper used to bully Nell and call her mean names.
Nell resents Piper so much that she doesn’t take much time and writes a quick obit about her and sends it for review. However, Lexi disapproves of it and calls her write-up garbage.
She soon calls in Mason, who has become Lexi’s pet and speaks her language now. Lexi assigns Nell and Mason the same assignment – writing a perfect obituary for Piper Ashford that would get printed on the newspaper’s front page.
Piper had over 4 million followers on her Instagram, which would possibly bring direct traffic to the newspaper. So Lexi ensures enough competition among the two writers to write about the deceased influencer.
In the meantime, we see Dennis struggling with his fear of basketball. When Sam comes at him about the issue, he explains to him that during high school, the only thing that made him feel like a loser was basketball. He always thought that he was terrible at it, and this also catapulted him into fear of hitting himself with it, leading to a bleeding nose. This leads him never to try his hand at the game ever. So, Sam promises she will teach him how to throw the ball like a pro and not hurt himself.
Next, we see Nell visiting Cricket at her bar and sharing her anxiety about attending Piper’s funeral, where Mason would be present as well. She tells her how the dead influencer used to tease and bully her with mean names and always got her case.
Cricket helps her understand all these are petty things in life and that she must not pay heed to her. However, Piper’s ghost keeps saying annoying things to Nell on the other side about how she is good for nothing and would fail at writing the perfect obituary.
At first, Nell tries to ignore her, but then when it becomes too much, she yells at Piper for getting on her case. Since Cricket can not see the ghosts as Nell does, naturally, she assumes that her friend yelled at her for sharing a piece of advice.
Nell gets embarrassed and leaves the restaurant, leaving her friend in shock. Later we see Nell walking to her roommate Edward, asking him to read the first draft of the obit she wrote for Piper. After reading, he gives his honest feedback calling the writeup emotionless and written by a robot.
Not Dead Yet (Season 1) Episode 3 Ending, Explained:
Does Nell forgive Piper after all this time?
The following day, Nell goes to Piper’s funeral and is amazed to see so many people have turned up. It turns out that Piper had already designed her funeral in her will, and everything was on point. The ambiance of the funeral looks as if the influencer threw a collaboration party.
While everyone is mingling, Nell feels low for losing her opportunity to be on the front page. That is when Cricket shows up to accompany her friend and boost her confidence which Nell has been lacking. Cricket tells Nell that the funeral is sad since Piper had so many followers, yet nobody stands up for her at the altar. With so many people following her on social media, Piper never really had a good friend who held her hand or gave her the love she always wanted. Nells listens carefully, looks around, and notices that Cricket’s observation is correct.
Even though Piper’s ghost denies this and gets mean toward Cricket, Nell simultaneously realizes it is about time she lets go of her ill feelings toward her bully. She walks up to the altar stage and asks for everyone’s attention. After introducing herself, she shares that it is a little odd for her as she is the one up on the altar for Piper, even though she used to get bullied by her all the time.
She adds that when they were young, Piper seemed to be confident and famous, but now that she is no more, she sees another side to her – that Piper was as insecure or vulnerable as everyone else in her surroundings. And as much as we try to curate how people see us, no one knows what is really happening inside of anyone. At this age, we can’t be reduced to a hashtag or a selfie because everyone is so complicated.
While Nell’s speech continues in the background, we see Dennis trying his luck to throw the basketball in the hoop and Sam looking at him in admiration, thinking about herself when she was young and free.
Nell’s speech discusses how some people spend their lives running from fears while others try to fit in the cool kids club. The flattering filters on social media can make people like Piper, a goddess – but we must all know that nobody is perfect. And it is essential never to give in to those negative voices in our head that keep feeding on our courage to do great things because the funny thing about this mean voice is that it only hurts us when we start to believe it for ourselves.
A kind and loving voice is more essential than the mean and unkind voice that messes with our heads. When Nell finishes the speech, Piper’s ghost gets teary-eyed to see everyone cheering for her. In the end, Lexi approves Nell’s obituary and tells Mason that now his name would be included in her book, which consists of people who have disappointed her. The episode ends with Nell saying goodbye to Piper’s ghost and celebrating another successful week with her friends at Cricket’s bar.
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