Dhruv Trivedi
‘The Girl from Plainville’ follows the tragic story of Conrad Roy III’s suicide and the possibility of his girlfriend, Michelle, having egged him on to go through with it. The Hulu miniseries follows two distinct timelines — one looking at the development of Conrad and Michelle’s relationship from the time they first meet and the other following the aftermath of his death.
In the first few episodes, before Conrad meets Michelle, he seems to be in touch with another girl named Lily. Things seem to be quite serious because he claims to want to go to Ohio to meet her. When things don’t work out, Conrad’s attention turns to Michelle. However, it is clear that he is still upset about Lily. Considering much of the show draws from real life, here’s what we found on Lily and who Conrad’s girlfriend from Ohio (as depicted on the show) might be. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Who Was Conrad’s Girlfriend From Ohio?
On the show, Conrad is introduced to Michelle while he is visiting his great-aunt in Florida, who happens to be acquainted with Michelle’s grandmother. However, he remains preoccupied, looking expectantly at his phone and regularly sending messages, to which he doesn’t seem to be getting a reply. We get a few more details when, during a meal, Conrad is informed by his father that he cannot go to Ohio to visit his “friend,” Lily.
Conrad is disappointed, but his father is firm, saying that Lily’s father (to whom Conrad’s mother spoke on the phone) disapproved of the teenage boy coming to visit his daughter. It is also revealed that Lily and Conrad met online. And so, Conrad continues to message Lily, who we now know lives in Ohio, but doesn’t get a reply.
When he finally gets a call from Lily’s phone, it turns out to be her father, who warns the young boy to stop calling his daughter. Finally, it appears that Conrad stops being preoccupied with his friend from Ohio and turns his attention to Michelle, with whom a fateful friendship soon sparks.
From Conrad’s demeanor, it looks like Lily is the first potential girlfriend that he has, but their friendship is seemingly cut short. Subsequent messages from Lily are then ignored because Conrad seems to have eyes for Michelle by then. Though we don’t get much more information about Lily, it is clear that Conrad’s brief interaction with her online and over the phone gives him hope, which then turns to frustration when things don’t work out.
Is Lily Based on a Real Person?
It is unclear whether Lily’s character is based on a real person, but she certainly could be. If what is depicted on the show about Lily is true, Conrad met her online, and their communication could very well have been limited to the phone and email (which is also prescient of how he and Michelle largely communicated soon after). However, since Conrad was in Florida in 2012, it is unlikely that there are too many traces of his messages with Lily (or a similar real-life person on who Lily could be based).
Thus, it remains unclear whether Lily is based on a real person. Lily may be fictional since the Hulu series also claims to have dramatized parts of the story. Irrespective of whether she is inspired by a real person or not, it is what happened next, after Conrad meets Michelle in Florida, that is the focus of the show.
