Diksha Sundriyal
With the second season of Hulu’s ‘Tell Me Lies’ inching towards its finale, the drama escalates after a brief period of calm. After Lucy decided to do away with anything that could put her in contact with Stephen DeMarco, things progressed rather well for her, especially in her new relationship with Leo. Stephen, too, seemed to get busier with his own life and kept away from Lucy. However, a Halloween party washes away everything, bringing them back into each other’s orbit, with both ready to destroy the other with whatever they’ve got. By the end of the episode, significant blows are made on both ends, making things even more interesting going forward. SPOILERS AHEAD
Trouble Arrives With Halloween Celebrations
With the Halloween weekend, Lucy, Bree, and Pippa have their own plans to celebrate. Bree has planned to go away for the weekend with Oliver, who has decided to ditch his wife. For the most part, their time together goes well, but then Bree lets it slip that she has told Lucy about their relationship, and this makes Oliver a bit concerned about the secret coming out and ruining his life. Meanwhile, Lydia arrives on campus to spend Halloween with Lucy, and with her comes her brother, Chris, who almost raped Pippa the last time they went to a party.
There is a clear tension in the room with Chris around, and Lucy gets protective of Pippa, who tries to shrug it away but can’t. She has a nice interaction with Diana, who is struggling with her own things, especially after the revelation of Stephen’s connection to Macy. What makes things worse is that Stephen clears the LSATs, but she doesn’t. At the same time, Stephen’s sister Sadie also comes to Baird to spend Halloween. Despite Lucy specifically telling her to stay away from Stephen, Lydia confronts him at the party, which leads to questions from Sadie. Stephen tells his sister that Lucy has been obsessed with Stephen, which later leads Sadie to confront Lucy, who tells her what a manipulative liar her brother is.
A Rift Emerges Between Lucy and Lydia
The next day, Lydia wakes up to an email from a sorority girl at the college who claims that a week ago, she was drugged and raped by Chris at a party. When Lydia expresses shock and outrage over this, Lucy tries to explain that the claims might not be so far-fetched. At the same time, Pippa is also in the room, which makes Lucy all the more adamant about proving that Chris is not a saint and that the other girl should be heard before being entirely dismissed. This enrages Lydia even more because it looks like her best friend thinks her brother is a rapist.
Because Lucy hasn’t told her what happened with Pippa, nor can she yet because it is not her story to tell, a discord appears between her and Lydia. The latter finds it entirely unacceptable that some girl is accusing her brother of being a rapist, while Lucy knows the truth but can’t speak out about it until Pippa does it. Diana also gets the mail, and this makes her concerned about Pippa. She later visits her at her dorm, where Pippa continues to deflect the incident with Chris. So, Diana decides to give her the space, and they have a normal conversation, making Pippa feel better.
Around the same time, Stephen is angry about Lucy talking to his sister behind his back. Even though Sadie assures him that she doesn’t believe a word Lydia said. Still, Stephen is off the rails because he worries Lucy might have said something about what happened with Macy. He repeatedly calls her, but Lucy is already reeling from the fight with Lydia, so she doesn’t pick up. In the end, after his calls go unanswered, Stephen leaves her a voicemail. At the same time, Lydia, who was out to get coffee, runs into him.
He seizes the opportunity to inflict some damage and starts talking about how Lydia bad-mouthed her and said all these awful things about her when they were together. Sure enough, his words get under Lydia’s skin, and when she goes back to the room, she confronts Lucy about the things Stephen told her. Lucy tries to convince her that this is what Stephen does, twisting words to pit people against each other, but Lydia doesn’t seem too convinced. Even though she hugs Lucy, she decides not to stay for long and leaves before they can truly talk over things.
What Did Stephen’s Voicemail Say?
Whatever Stephen may be to the world, he tries not to be any of those things in front of his sister. She is one of the only people he actually cares about, and he doesn’t want her to think badly of him. This is why he loses his mind over what Lucy said to Sadie, and at the end of the day, he does the exact thing that Lucy has told Sadie about. He leaves a venomous voicemail to her, believing that it would mess with her brain. At the same time, he also riles up Lydia against Lucy and believes he has won this round. After Lucy discovers that Stephen tried to mess up her friendship with Lydia, she decides to do exactly what he does. Instead of trying to prove anything to Sadie in her own words, she sends Stephen’s voicemail to her, and it does the trick.
From the events of the last season, it is clear that all the sociopathic traits that Stephen gets are from his own mother. Sadie has also experienced the same emotional abuse, but she has not given in to it, becoming like her mother. The reason behind this is that she believes she has something better than her brothers. But then, she listens to Stephen’s voicemail, as he says all kinds of bad things to Lucy, and all she hears is her mother. She starts to wonder if her brother is also cut from the same cloth, and if Lucy was right after all. The facade of her loving and caring brother, who can do no wrong, is broken, which is exactly what Stephen is scared of, as he doesn’t want to lose his sister. Lucy’s actions will enrage him even more, but it also shows that she is not backing down from the fight now.
Read More: Tell Me Lies: Are Lucy Albright and Stephen DeMarco Based on Real People?
