Diksha Sundriyal
The finale of Hulu’s ‘Tell Me Lies’ Season 2 brings all the storylines of this season to fruition by finally having a lot of secrets revealed at the most inopportune of times. The eighth episode of the season brings the level of toxicity in the characters and the relationships between them to an all-time high, which creates so much drama that one can’t help but wonder what the next season has in store. A few conflicts are resolved for good, but that only opens the ground for more twisted stuff to come. SPOILERS AHEAD
Lucy Is Reeled Back Into the Stephen Drama
The bane of Lucy’s existence is Stephen DeMarco, and she can never be free of his influence. This is proven in both 2008 and 2015. The last time we saw her with Max was in the swimming pool, where she’d invited Stephen to make him jealous. The trick works, but when Max finds Lucy’s messages, he is forced to consider what kind of person he is with. This reflects the events from 2008, where Leo broke up with Lucy because he saw how much she was still under Stephen’s spell. She wakes up to this reality after sleeping with him. While Stephen believes that this is them getting back together, she is horrified at having slept with him when all he’d tried to do so far was ruin her life.
With both Bree and Pippa unavailable, Lucy runs back to Leo. Her teary-eyed take-me-back apology leads Leo’s heart to warm up, and he believes Lucy when she says that she is completely over Stephen and only wants to be with Leo. Of course, she should have thought better because when she and Leo show up at a party together, Stephen is incensed, especially because he broke up with Diana just that morning because he thought he and Lucy were back together. He doesn’t miss a beat before telling Leo that he slept with Lucy that morning, and finally, Leo loses his cool and beats Stephen to a pulp. As gratifying a moment as it is, it also reflects really badly on Leo. Of course, this means that his and Lucy’s reunion is over.
Things didn’t get any better in 2015, either. When Max chides her for her actions, Lucy still finds herself running to Stephen when she asks to see her. They meet in the hotel room and have sex, which goes to show how no one is a victim in this dynamic anymore. Both Stephen and Lucy have come too far to justify their actions, and their choices so far have proven simply that they will forever be caught up in a cycle where they keep ruining the lives of the people around them.
Bree Discovers the Truth About Oliver and Marianne
In 2015, Bree is hounded by a mysterious caller but things are pretty bad in 2008 as well. In the previous episode, Bree left her earrings in Oliver’s shirt pocket, thinking that when Marianne finds them, she will know about the affair and maybe break up with Oliver. Instead, Marianne wears the earrings, believing they are for her. When Bree tells Oliver about it, he explains how he had no choice but to say that he got those earrings for Marianne. He is also not pleased with the stunt Bree pulled and decided to call it off with her.
Bree is heartbroken, but she is so into Oliver that she decides to live with whatever she can get from him. Things got bad because she wanted more, so she promised Oliver that she would never ask anything from him now. He can stay married to Marianne but must also continue to see her. This reconciliation happens at Oliver’s house when Marianne is away. Bree and Oliver have sex, but before Bree can leave, Marianne comes back. Bree is horrified and scared because she doesn’t know how Marianne will react, but the worst is yet to come.
It turns out that Marianne knew about Bree all along. Oliver reveals that theirs is an open marriage, which means that he and Marianne are free to pursue other relationships while staying married. This means that all this time, Marianne already knew Bree was sleeping with her husband. Bree is appalled at this revelation and wonders why Oliver didn’t just tell her the truth to begin with. Why did he let Bree think that they were indulging in something forbidden? This revelation also makes her realize how easily she was manipulated, and she decides that it’s best for her to stay away from the couple.
Wrigley Reels From a Tragedy
One of the most sympathetic characters this season has been Wrigley, and he becomes even more pitiable in this episode. In the last season, his brother stopped talking to him after he suspected Pippa of telling the authorities about the accident with Macy. All this season, Wrigley tried to reach out to Drew, but he kept his distance. With Wrigley breaking down in front of Pippa, she asks Diana for help, who reaches out to Drew and tells him how miserable his brother is. Finally, Drew shows up and allows Wrigley to speak his mind.
The brothers reconcile and go out for drinks. If it was only alcohol, things would have been manageable. But Wrigley throws in his prescription meds, which he takes for his knee pain, and that results in quite a potent cocktail. Through the night, the brothers lose count of the pills they take, and while Wrigley survives it, Drew does not wake up from it the next morning. Drew’s death hits everyone hard, and Lucy is so moved that she decides to tell Wrigley that it was she who wrote that letter in the last season. Stephen, however, thinks otherwise and, to stop Lucy, takes responsibility for the letter. He apologizes to Wrigley, who forgives him. Stephen’s selfless act also warms Lucy’s heart, and with Leo out of the picture, she goes back to Stephen.
Diana Makes the Smartest Decision of Her Life
While Lucy seems to be thoroughly bound to Stephen, no matter which year it is, Diana gets to her senses and makes quite a smart choice. For the past couple of episodes, she’d started to keep a distance from her father, telling Stephen that the conflict between them was too much. She expressed her desire to break out of her father’s hold and do what she wanted. It turned out that her father was reciprocating her feelings by cutting off her credit card. In the midst of all this, Stephen decides that Diana is of no use to him anymore, so he breaks up with her. When he does it, Diana takes a good look at him and sees that he is entirely devoid of emotion. Despite being together for so long, he doesn’t seem to feel anything for Diana. When he finally leaves, Diana seems more relieved than heartbroken, and there is a good reason for that.
It turns out that all the bad things that Diana said were happening with her father and her career and her being cut off from the family fortune were not real. All of this was staged to give Stephen the impression that he didn’t need Diana anymore. So, she lied about her LSAT scores, which she aced such that she’d get the college of her choice. Her credit card was not blocked by her father. It was Diana herself who had it blocked temporarily. Moreover, her relationship with her father was completely fine, and it seems that she had already talked with him about breaking up with Stephen. This means that her plan had been in motion for quite some time. She didn’t outright break up with Stephen because the last time she did it, he came crawling back to her. This time, she had to make it seem like breaking up was his idea, which was the only way she could be rid of him forever.
Stephen Finally Takes Revenge on Lucy and Evan
One of the horrible secrets to have flown in the undercurrent this season is Lucy and Evan sleeping together when Evan was still with Bree. While Evan comes clean about his cheating to Bree, he doesn’t tell her it was her best friend he cheated with. However, after seeing Stephen’s confession about the letter regarding Drew and Wrigley forgiving him, Evan thinks that he, too, should come clean, hoping that he, too, would be forgiven. Of course, he doesn’t stop to think that Stephen is not Wrigley, and he will hold on to the grudge for as long as he lives. Sure enough, Stephen is angered when Evan tells him everything, but he doesn’t break up with Lucy. He forgives Evan, or so Evan thinks. To his credit, Stephen admits that he will not tell Bree about it just yet. He always has been a sucker for timing and finds the right time on the day Evan and Bree are set to marry each other eight years later.
As Evan waits for his bride at the altar and she readies herself to walk down the aisle, Stephen sends a message to Bree. It contains the recording of Evan confessing to the one-night stand with Lucy, which Stephen had sneakily recorded and shelved to use at the right time. He also has a brief encounter with Lydia, who apologizes for treating him badly due to Lucy’s stories about him, which she now thinks are false. This scene sets the ground for Stephen and Lydia’s eventual relationship while also proving that Stephen most likely got together with Lydia to spite Lucy. It remains to be seen how Bree will react to the revelation and how Stepehn will get Lydia into his web of lies, but it does prove that Stephen hasn’t changed one bit, and there is more chaos to come in the future seasons.
Read More: Tell Me Lies: What did Lucy do to Lydia? Why is Lydia Angry with Lucy?
