2024-10-17 08:05:04
đ¨ Warning: Read on for spoilers about the ending of âTell Me Liesâ Season 2.
Have Stephen and Lucy changed by the end of Season 2 of âTell Me Liesâ? Perhaps â theyâve gotten worse.
The second season of the Hulu series, based on Carola Loveringâs novel of the same name, continues Stephen and Lucyâs toxic entanglement, starting in college in 2008 and through to their friendsâ wedding in 2015.
âI really hope (the show) has made audiences more prepared to deal with Stephens of the world,â executive producer and showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer tells TODAY.com in an interview. âHopefully watching the show will help people recognize some of those red flags.â
While the showrunner says Stephen was not mean to be âso completely sociopathic that there was no real love in him,â his behavior on the show is often alarmingly cold. In an interview with The Wrap, actor Jackson White described his character as someone who hurts the people he loves because it âfeels good.â
Stephen grapples with being a âbad personâ in Season 2, as he puts it. In Lucy, he finds someone who will not only see and accept his badness, but love him despite it â and, at certain points, match it.
âHow much has that relationship inherently altered her DNA, and how far can she ever get from from some of those impulses that have been brought out in her?â Oppenheimer asks.
The finale, which aired Oct. 16, shows Stephen falling to even lower depths. Plus, it sees the other characters in the ensemble drama also dealing with their own traumas and tragedies.
Below, weâll recap what happened and get Oppenheimerâs thoughts on that last twist.
What happens in the Ending of âTell Me Liesâ Season 2?
Weddings. Deaths. Breakups. Get-back-togethers then breakups. The finale of âTell Me Liesâ Season 2 had it all, with the strands coming to tragic and shocking crescendoes, both in college and at Bree (Catherine Missal) and Evanâs (Branden Cook) wedding.
Wrigley faces another tragedy with his brother. How does Drew die?
Wrigley (Spencer House) reconciles with his brother Drew (Benjamin Wadsworth) in the finale, at last. He had been absent this season following last seasonâs drama.
Drew, as youâll remember, was driving one of the cars during the accident that killed Macy, Lucyâs roommate. (Stephen was driving the other car, with Macy in the passenger seat). Lots ensues on this front in Season 1, but itâs worth remembering that Wrigley and Drew got into a fist fight and Wrigley fell off of a balcony, ending his football career.
Wrigley and Drew go out to celebrate the ice between them melting. In the party spirit, Wrigley gives him some of his pain meds. Drew overdoses and dies. The pills, Wrigley explains, were time-release, meaning their effect wasnât immediate â so Drew kept taking more.
âSpencer just absolutely blew me away in the last two episodes. He made me cry, which doesnât happen very often,â Oppenheimer says of Houseâs wrenching performance in the lead-up to Wrigley and Drewâs reconciliation and its tragic end.
In the aftermath, Stephen takes the fall for the anonymous letter that Lucy wrote about Drewâs role in Macyâs death, but that Pippa (Sonia Mena) had been blamed for. Wrigley forgives Stephen.
Drewâs death had been foreshadowed earlier on in the show. After she remarks on Wrigleyâs behavior in the lead-up to their wedding, Evan tells Bree, âIt was his brotherâs birthday yesterday, so maybe take it easy on him.â
In an interview with Variety, Oppenheimer shared that originally, Season 1 was going to conclude with Drewâs death, and that she wanted Wrigley to end the season âdestroyedâ to explain how his future plays out.
Bree realizes the truth about her professorâs marriage
After her breakup from Evan, Bree becomes involved with her professorâs husband, Oliver (played by Oppenheimerâs real-life husband, Tom Ellis). He makes it seem like their relationship is a secret from his wife, Marianne (Gabriella Pession).
Turns out she is completely aware and and they have an open marriage. Oliver had been manipulating Bree into thinking they had an emotional connection. Further, Marianne knows details about Oliverâs relationship with her. Bree leaves the entanglement feeling betrayed.
âHe obviously ends up being very terrible, very manipulative and a very, very much a different kind of abuser,â Oppenheimer says. âI think it was interesting to see the different types of mental and emotional abuse, and power dynamics and relationships.â
Oppenheimer says viewers were meant to change their minds about Oliver throughout the season.
âWe never wanted people to know for sure how they felt about that character. We wanted it to feel a bit like they were getting whiplash, because thatâs how Bree is experiencing it,â she says.
Bree, Pippa and Lucy take bats to his car, which is parked on campus, as revenge. No word on if anyone presses charges.
Leo, Lucy and Stephen have a love triangle
After hooking up with Stephen, Lucy immediately goes to Leo, her recent ex, and tries to win him back. Then, Stephen confronts Leo at a party and tells him what had happened between them. They get into a fist fight.
In the present day, Lucy feels yet again torn between Stephen and another man â this time, itâs Max (Edmund Donovan).
Diana frees herself from Stephen
Donât underestimate Diana (Alicia Crowder)! She escapes her love triangle with Stephen unscathed; the same canât be said for Lucy.
Diana seems to know that the only way she could get Stephen, the shark, off her scent is by becoming a failure, in his mind. He views her as an elevator to the upper class â and used her dad to hook her up with a law school internship. She lies about failing her LSAT to make him uninterested. She also makes it seem like her father cut off her credit card.
âYou know Stephen. I had to make him think it was his idea,â Diana says when her dad picks her up from campus.
By the time of the wedding, Diana is with Pippa, Wrigleyâs ex.
Stephen finds out about Lucy and Evan
Bree and Evan broke up at the start of Season 2 when he admitted that he had been unfaithful to her. What viewers know, and what Stephen later learns, is that he had hooked up with Lucy the night of the Hawaiian party.
After Lucy and Stephen get back together in the finale, Evan confesses to Stephen. Stephen seems to take the news calmly â but instead holds the information until he can get revenge.
When he returns, he records Evanâs confession.âYouâre going to tell Bree and ruin my life?â Evan asks. Stephen replies, âNot today.â He meant that literally. (More on that in a minute).
Stephen meets Lydia again
After Evanâs confession, Stephen runs into Lydia (Natalee Linez), Lucyâs childhood friend â and the woman heâs engaged to at the time of the wedding.
In the episode before, Lucy falsely says she had been sexually assaulted by Lydiaâs brother, Chris, ending their friendship. (Chris had indeed assaulted other women, but the charges had been dropped).
Lydia apologizes to Stephen for treating him badly earlier on. She was going off of Lucyâs stories. âYou canât believe a word that comes out of Lucyâs mouth. She honestly just hates men,â Lydia says.
It appears she finds Stephen at just the right (or wrong) time â heâs hungry to get back at Lucy for sleeping with Evan. What better way than to get together with her childhood best friend?
They part, but we know thereâs more to come. In the present day, Lydia tells Lucy she will ânever forgiveâ her for âany of it,â implying she means what happened with Chris.
What happens at Bree and Evanâs wedding â and what comes next?
In the present day, at Bree and Evanâs wedding, Lucy succumbs to Stephenâs allure. But then, her âon-againâ paramour doesnât show up to the wedding.
As Lucy searches for Stephen, Bree hears from him. Right before Bree is about to walk the aisle, she gets a text from Stephen with audio of Evanâs confession from college.
Wearing her wedding dress, moments from walking down the aisle, Bree hears the news that her fiancĂŠ slept with her best friends years ago.
Oppenheimer says Stephenâs âfatal flawâ is his need for revenge. âAnyone that really, truly hurts him, heâs going to find a way to hurt them more,â she says.
âHeâs been planning it from the moment Evan told him. I think he knew, âIâm going to use this information when it is the absolutely most damaging.â Heâs been in it for the long game,â Oppenheimer says.
Initially, Oppenheimer says the plan was to have Stephen confront Bree in person before the wedding and say, âI need to tell you something.â Then, the scene would cut to black. Then, Oppenheimer had a revelation.
âWhen were filming the penultimate episode, I was like, âWe have to have him actually tell her what it is.â Because, in reality, Steven is never going to be there and tell that bomb. Heâs going to drop that bomb when heâs already even miles away in a getaway car,â she says.
At the very end of the season, Lucy approaches Bree and they look at their reflections in a mirror. âYou ready?â Lucy asks.
Looking ahead, Oppenheimer thinks Bree âdeserves a little bit of vengeance.â
âWe really put her through the wringer. Sheâs the one innocent in the whole (show),â she says. âIf thereâs a Season 3, I hope Bree gets some sort of war path.â
Oppenheimer canât decide if Bree gets married â âbut if she does, I donât think itâs good.â
âI think it would be interesting to see her go through with the marriage and still get her vengeance after that. Bree is also someone whoâs probably capable the long con,â she says.