Diksha Sundriyal
The penultimate episode of Hulu’s ‘Tell Me Lies’ Season 2 takes some massive leaps, setting the stage for a very interesting, though also uncomfortable, season finale. In the previous episode, a Thanksgiving dinner goes awry when Stephen succeeds in ruffling the feathers in Lucy and Leo’s relationship, with the latter deciding that he values his peace of mind more than the drama that accompanies Lucy and her connection with Stephen. At the same time, Stephen also discovers that Diana is breaking away from her father, which is not good for him, considering that he needs the connection to secure a good job following college. All these things culminate into something that we’d been anticipating all this while. SPOILERS AHEAD
Stephen and Diana’s Relationship Reaches a Standstill
Stephen’s opportunistic and selfish behavior has been on display since the beginning of the show, but it becomes even more prominent in this episode. Last season, when he was with Lucy, he broke up with her to be with Diana because the latter offered her a position at her father’s firm. This was something that Stephen couldn’t let slip, so he easily discarded Lucy. Now, the very opportunity for which he sided with Diana has been wrested away from him. The tensions between Diana and her father peak in this episode, and she decides to cut off from him for a while. For Diana, this is the chance to explore other avenues and figure out who she is and what she wants without the shadow of her father looming over her. But for Stephen, this is a huge problem because, without Diana, his entire plan after college goes down the drain.
Now that Diana has lost her purpose, she starts to irk him. He doesn’t want to take her calls, spend time with her, or sleep with her. He is irritated when she can’t pay the restaurant bill anymore because the credit card her father gave her has been blocked, and, for a change, Stephen has to pay for dinner. But that’s not even the worst thing. Following his conversation with Lucy in the last episode where she told him that she loved him despite knowing all of the bad things about him, Stephen has now grown softer towards her. He even has a dream about her where he is in the wreck of the car that killed Macy, with Lucy helping him out of it and placing Macy in the driver’s seat, saving Stephen.
Bree’s Relationship with Oliver Causes Ripples
Lucy and Bree attend Marianne’s Christmas party, which makes Lucy uncomfortable, knowing that Bree is having an affair with Marianne’s husband, Oliver. While Bree and Oliver act as if they don’t know each other, they also don’t make the effort to keep things neutral. There is flirting and touching, and when Oliver sees Bree talking to guys her own age, he gets jealous, and he and Bree have sex in a closet. The act makes Bree uncomfortable, but then Oliver tells her he loves her, and things cool down a bit. Bree leaves her earrings, the ones that Evan gave to her on her birthday but that she connects with the first time she felt there was something between her and Oliver, in his shirt pocket. Shockingly, the next day, she finds Marianne wearing those earrings. This is not a good thing because when Evan sees those earrings, he will know exactly whom Bree has been having an affair with, and he has already been too obsessed about it. Not to forget, Stephen also knows that Bree is dating an older man, and that is never a good thing.
Speaking of complicated relationships, things go further or go back to the way they were between Pippa and Wrigley. After maintaining a platonic relationship for a while, they have sex. This time, Pippa takes charge and makes sure that she feels good about it, too, rather than simply faking an orgasm. This, however, doesn’t mean that she and Wrigley are getting back together. Before they have sex, she tells him about having a crush on a girl, which comes as a surprise to him. Later, Wrigley, being Wrigley, misjudges a moment where he tells Diana that Pippa is now into girls. This leads Pippa to lash out at him. Her words hit so hard that the next day, he shows up at her doorstep, crying and apologizing and confessing that he has been having a very hard time and that he might be depressed and needs help.
Lucy Makes Some Big Mistakes
Wrigley’s mistake is still forgivable, but what Lucy does really rattles everyone and everything around her. At the beginning of the episode, she discovers that the sexual assault case against Chris has been dropped because there is no evidence to substantiate Katie’s claim. Later, at a bar, when the subject is being talked about, people start blaming Katie and calling her a liar. Lucy comes to her defense and states that Katie wasn’t lying. Because Pippa won’t come forward with her story, Lucy’s impassioned defense takes a wrong turn when she takes over Pippa’s story and claims that she (Lucy) was also sexually assaulted by Chris. It disturbs Pippa, and when the news reaches Diana, she confronts Lucy, calling her out on her lie and stating how it undoes all the true stories of girls like Katie and Pippa.
Soon, word reaches Lydia, and she tells Lucy that their friendship is over once and for all. (That solves one mystery of this season). But that’s not even the worst of it. At this point, Lucy has no one. She is in a fight with Bree about the objectionable nature of her relationship with Oliver. She has wronged Pippa, and there is no justification for what she did. She has lost Lydia for good, and Leo is not going to come anywhere near her anytime soon. Interestingly, this is exactly when Stephen finds her. He talks about how she loved him despite knowing his bad side and claims that he, too, loves her despite knowing all the bad things she has done. This is the one validation that Lucy needed, especially since her break up with Leo, and when Stephen gives it to her, she gives in immediately, and lands into the cycle that she will be caught up in even after eight years.
Read More: Tell Me Lies: What Happened to Macy? How Did She Die?
