The Tell Me Lies ending concludes with Stephen (Jackson White) shocking Lucy (Grace Van Patten) at two different points in time. Based on the novel by Carola Lovering, Tell Me Lies season 1 is mostly set in 2007-2008. This is during Lucy’s freshman year at Baird College in New York while Stephen is a junior. The season is book-ended by Lucy and Stephen, who haven’t seen each other in four years, attending the wedding of their friends, Bree (Catherine Missal) and Evan (Branden Cook) in 2015.
The Tell Me Lies ending sees Lucy reeling from the fallout of the letter she anonymously wrote and sent to Baird College’s administration, asking them to investigate her roommate Macy’s (Lily McInery) car accident death. Lucy and Stephen are mired in their toxic relationship, with Lucy holding the fact that she is “protecting” Stephen because he was in the car when Macy died, while Stephen keeps the real truth to himself. Their group of friends fractures under the strain of all the lies Lucy and Stephen have been telling.
The Truth About Macy’s Death And What Stephen Did
It Explains Macy’s Death
The first 18 minutes of the Tell Me Lies ending tell the whole truth about Macy and how she died. Stephen and Macy had been hooking up since the summer but pretended not to know each other because Stephen didn’t want his ex-girlfriend Diana (Alicia Crowder) to know he was seeing other girls. Macy goes to a party alone (after Lucy refuses to go) and calls Stephen to join her.
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After getting high, Stephen decides he is fit enough to drive Macy’s car back to the dorm. They get into an argument where Macy calls out Stephen for his lies and accuses him of being a bad person. At that moment, Stephen takes his eyes off the road, Drew almost collides with them in his car, and Stephen crashes Macy’s car into a tree.
Stephen is miraculously fine but, in a despicable act of self-preservation, he places Macy’s body in the driver’s seat.
The impact kills Macy because the passenger-side safety belt isn’t working. Stephen is miraculously fine but, in a despicable act of self-preservation, he places Macy’s body in the driver’s seat and deletes himself from her Blackberry so no one can link them together. Stephen then walks home and leaves Macy to be found by the police.
No one knows that Stephen was driving Macy’s car when she died, and Stephen allows Drew to believe he is responsible instead of coming clean because he refuses to ruin his own life. It’s hard to dispute Macy’s assessment of Stephen before she died: He is a bad person who does the things a bad person would do.
All The Fallout From Lucy’s Letter About Drew Explained
Lucy’s Lie Was A Big Deal
Based on what Stephen told her, Lucy believes Drew is responsible for Macy’s death, and she sends an anonymous letter to the Dean to “protect” Stephen. Stephen tells Drew that his older brother Wrigley told his girlfriend about the accident. Stephen immediately realizes Lucy sent the letter but stands by while Wrigley’s girlfriend is accused. Wrigley fights Drew, and Wrigley accidentally falls off a balcony. Because of Lucy’s lie, Wrigley injures his knee and he won’t quarterback the football team in his senior year.
All Lucy’s letter does is jeopardize Wrigley’s future and ruin Pippa’s reputation.
Wrigley accuses Pippa of writing the letter and refuses to believe Stephen sent it. Wrigley breaks up with Pippa, and the football team blames her for the injury. Lucy lies to another freshman that she and Stephen hooked up the night Macy died, again to “protect” Stephen. Word gets to Diana, who then tells Stephen about Lucy’s lie, but he angrily finds the lie can be disproven. In the end, Drew isn’t suspected of wrongdoing by the Dean, so all Lucy’s letter does is jeopardize Wrigley’s future and ruin Pippa’s reputation.
Why Stephen Really Left Lucy For Diana
The Promising Offer For His Future Called To Him
Lucy is shocked and heartbroken when Stephen coldly leaves the end-of-semester Hawaiian party with Diana. Diana “wins” Stephen back because she knows him better than anyone. Diana is self-assured and ambitious, the opposite of Lucy, and she touches on all of Stephen’s insecurities as someone who wants to become rich and successful. Diana presents Stephen with a summer living in NYC, interning at her father’s law firm, and the promise he will get a high-paying job once he graduates so that he can escape his mother.
Diana also sums up Lucy as someone who isn’t “impressive,” isn’t driven to succeed like Stephen and is clinging to him. Lucy gives up the summer trip to India she had planned, so she can stay home and be near Stephen. Diana and Stephen also say “I love you” to each other in a way that’s different from how Lucy and Stephen say “I love you,” although it’s no less possessive. Stephen wants to be rid of Lucy, and returning to Diana is comfortable and reassuring, and will get him the career advancement he craves.
Lucy And Evan Hooked Up Behind Bree’s Back
It Changes How The Audience Views The Wedding
Evan consoles Lucy after Stephen leaves her for Diana and the next morning they wake up in bed together, even though Evan is dating Bree. Evan spends the semester disgusted with Stephen and their whole circle of friends, which boils over at Evan’s lake house birthday party in episode 7. Evan also tells Lucy earlier in Tell Me Lies season 1 that he is into her, which is a torch he holds onto despite dating Bree. So Evan sleeps with Lucy on the rebound, which is a stain on his patina of trying to be a good guy.
Knowing that Lucy and Evan slept together changes how audiences see their dynamic at Bree and Evan’s wedding in 2015. It makes sense now why Lucy oddly pulls Bree aside to remind her with a quote, saying “I’m happy for you.” Evan also has odd body language and behavior around Lucy. Lucy and Evan hooking up might not have been a one-time thing, and it may have even continued into 2015 behind Bree’s back.
Stephen’s Surprise Engagement Explained
It Sets The Stage For Season 2
Tell Me Lies season 1’s ending had a big final surprise: In 2015, Stephen is engaged to Lydia (Natalee Linez), Lucy’s best friend from home. Lucy doesn’t look surprised and is extremely uncomfortable, so it isn’t a surprise to her as much as it is for the audience. In the Tell Me Lies ending, Lucy tries to convince Stephen to accept a summer job running the front desk at Lydia’s father’s country club, but he flatly refuses because it would be “publicly humiliating” for him.
But it’s possible he takes the job anyway and meets Lydia that way. If not, how Stephen met Lydia could be a major storyline for Tell Me Lies season 2, but with seven more years of story to cover, there are plenty of ways Stephen and Lucy’s tumultuous relationship can continue before he gets engaged to Lydia.
The Real Meaning Of The Tell Me Lies Ending
Stephen Gaslit Lucy & No One Had A Happy Ending
The biggest question most people have about Tell Me Lies is whether there are any good people in this series. Stephen turned out to be a really bad person. He accidentally killed Macy and then made it look like it was Drew’s fault. Lucy was so obsessed and in love with Stephen that she kept doing one bad thing after another to help protect him, and this ruined more people’s lives. By the time it all came to an end, Stephen made Lucy look terrible and left her, showing he didn’t care about her at all.
It was a terrible moment, and while it seemed that Lucy deserved what happened, the truth is that she did everything for Stephen and he used her terribly. If anything, Lucy was addicted to Stephen, and to keep that high, she kept doing worse things to help him. All the while, he made her feel bad about herself, and she finally ended up broken and alone in the end. While the end of the season made it look like Stephen went off to have a better life, the flash forward showed it might not work out so well for him.
How The Tell Me Lies Season 1 Ending Played Into Season 2
The Second Season Tried To Repeat The Success Without Repeating The Stories
Tell Me Lies season 2 mostly stuck with the college storylines from 2008 rather than the flash forward, but there were still some moments in the second season that took place in the 2015 timeline. According to series creator Meaghan Oppenheimer, she didn’t want to repeat the first season’s focus on a murder mystery in season 2, so she instead looked for other ways to add drama and suspense into the story, which meant moving past the season 1 finale twists and turns (via Vanity Fair).
“It felt like a better show to me this season. I loved season one, but I felt like Hulu allowed me to take a lot more risks this season. There was a death in season one, the mystery of the dead body, and there’s usually a pressure to have another. I said, ‘How do I avoid that? Because I don’t want another murder.”
Lucy tries to get over Stephen by dating reformed bad boy Leo. Stephen ruins his rekindled relationship with his girlfriend, Diana. Bree falls into a relationship with her older professor, Oliver (Tom Ellis), who is married to Bree’s English teacher, Marianne (Gabriella Pession). The second season ends with another twist, in which Bree learns Evan slept with Lucy right before their wedding. Tell Me Lies season 2 mostly took the first season’s death and used it to create a series of toxic relationships, creating captivating television.
Tell Me Lies
Tell Me Lies is a drama television series created by Meaghan Oppenheimer for Hulu. Based on the novel, the series follows the relationship of two people over eight years who develop into a toxic co-dependent relationship that causes lasting effects for them and those closest to them.
- Cast
- Grace Van Patten , Jackson White , Catherine Missal , Spencer House , Sonia Mena , Branden Cook , Alicia Crowder
- Release Date
- September 7, 2022
- Seasons
- 1
- Showrunner
- Meaghan Oppenheimer