‘Tell Me Lies’ Season 2 Episode 8 Recap: You Haven’t Changed At All

Just when we thought that Tell Me Lies was a traumatic flashback to a tumultuous time in Lucy Albright’s (Grace Van Patten) life, it turns out, nothing has changed and she’s still courting chaos in 2015.

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Tell Me Lies Season 2 Episode 8 (the Season 2 Finale) begins with 2015 Lucy having sex with her 2015 boyfriend Max in the pool the night before Bree (Cat Missal) and Evan’s (Branden Cook) wedding. You’ll remember from however many episodes ago that Lucy invited Stephen (Jackson White) to be a voyeur in this whole charade when she sent him a text to meet her at the pool, only for him to see her and Max going at it while she maintained full eye contact with Stephen. As a normal person does.

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This week picks up with Max realizing he’s a pawn in Lucy’s twisted game. He sees the text exchange of Lucy telling Stephen to come to the pool and he leaves, disgusted. The next morning, the day of Bree’s wedding, Stephen texts Lucy again, this time telling her he needs to see her. She lets him into her hotel room and they get right down to business, having implusive love-hate sex. She tells him as he pushes her on the bed, “You haven’t changed.”

We then flash back to 2008 right after Lucy and Stephen had another bad-decision hookup that Lucy immediately regretted. Lucy’s regret manifests as the odd decision to head to her ex, Leo’s room to tell him how much she misses him, how he makes her a better person, and to have sex with him. I’m not here to slut shame a woman who has sex with two men in ten minutes, the thing is, she doesn’t seem like she wants to be having sex with Leo at all. But of course it’s just a pattern, isn’t it? Using Max for sex to get a rise out of Stephen, using Leo for sex to manipulate things with Stephen, it’s her kink.

After Wrigley’s breakdown last week where he seemed nearly suicidal, Diana (Alicia Crowder) and Pippa (Sonia Mena) collude to bring Wrigley’s estranged brother Drew to campus to see him. It’s clear that Drew’s absence in his life (and his involvement in everything with Macy last year) has weighed on Wrigley. Drew admits that he thought Wrigley didn’t care about him and ruined his life on campus, but Wrigley breaks down in tears telling his brother how much he missed him. Brothers gotta hug!

But bringing Drew back to campus takes a toll on Diana and Pippa’s budding friendship when Diana calls out Lucy for telling people that Chris raped her. Diana tells Pippa how wrong it was for Lucy to co-opt her assault story (and then places blame on Pippa for not just coming out publicly to tell people Chris raped her), while Pippa shades Stephen and wonders why Diana turns a blind eye to his “psychopath” behavior. Finally, some truth! But the conversation, truthful as it is, kinda wrecks their good vibes and they part, angry with each other.

Over at Oliver and Bree’s sex den, a.k.a the house he’s cat-sitting at, Oliver confronts Bree about leaving her earrings at his house for Maryanne to find. Bree admits she planted them there and explains, “I just thought that if she knew, she could make the decision for herself,” Bree says. “What decision? To leave me?” he asks. This is a man who never had an intention of leaving his wife, but Bree just can’t see that, telling him she wants more from him. “What you’re asking of me is not realistic,” he says. Even though he says he loves her, Oliver tells her he’s sorry and that he’s not leaving Maryanne. “We can’t do this anymore… This isn’t good for you.” Bree struggles with this and stays in bed at the cat-sitting house all day, even after Oliver leaves.

Having sex with Lucy has made Stephen decide to finally break up with Diana, who he has been treating like garbage for months. It seems like Pippa’s comments about Stephen being a psycho have stayed with her because as he tells Diana how much he respects and loved her, she tells him, “Stop f—ing pretending. There’s literally nothing, is there? You were so desperate to keep me when I was impressive, but as soon as I show a little weakness, you’re out,” she tells him, referring to the fact that she failed the LSAT and got cut off from her father. “I guess that’s who I am,” he agrees, and leaves.

Later, at a campus Christmas party, Stephen expects to show up and hang with Lucy, but he’s furious to see that she’s there with Leo. “I didn’t know they were back together,” Evan says, to which Stephen replies, “They’re not. I f—ed her this morning. This is such bulls—t.” Stephen charges over to the two and Lucy begs him to leave them alone. “I’m begging you. I’m here with Leo,” she pleads. But Stephen can’t help himself and he tells Leo, “I f—ed Lucy this morning. Red underwear, lacy white trim.” Leo knows Stephen’s not lying, and this is enough to trigger his uncontrollable angry Hulk. He punches Stephen and doesn’t stop until his face is bloody and beaten. It’s the moment I have always been waiting for on this show, truthfully. “What the f— is wrong with you?” Lucy yells at Leo. Stephen, whose face has been pulverized, realizes from under all that blood that he still won Lucy’s heart and Leo is dunzo, and he smugly grins despite being barely conscious.

As suspected, Bree isn’t really unable to let go of Oliver. She calls him and begs to see him one last time, and he invites her to his house, assuring her they won’t get caught because Maryanne is in class all morning. Bree insists that all she wants is to keep things casual so she can see Oliver, and they have sex in his bed. After, he takes a shower and as Bree fantasizes about being Mrs. Oliver, Maryanne walks in on her. Maryanne stays calm, says hello to Bree and telling her “I’m sorry,” and then goes into the bathroom to talk to Oliver. They couple calmly walks out of the bathroom together, and Maryanne says she’s going downstairs while Bree and Oliver talk. Bree is, rightfully, confused. Why is there no yelling? What is actually happening?

“Here’s the thing, Bree. Maryanne and I… I wasn’t entirely honest with you about our marriage. We have an open marriage,” Oliver then tells Bree.

“So did Maryanne know about us?” she asks.

“Yes,” he tells her. It’s never been something he’s hidden from her. Bree is, once again, rightfully confused. When she asks why he would lie about this, he tells her, “I guess I thought it was part of the fantasy for you.” Bree flips out and when Oliver tells her to talk down, she tells him, “You don’t get to f— me like an adult and then talk to me like a child.”

“I think this is the meanest thing anyone has ever done to me,” she adds, to which he retorts, “I really doubt that, given your history.” Dang. Not only is Oliver a liar but he fights dirty, too.

As Bree leaves their house, she passes Maryanne who stops her.”You are a very f—ed up person,” Bree tells Maryanne. “Come on, now. Did you prefer it when I was just some clueless wife having her life ruined behind her back while you f—ed her husband?” Touché, I guess.

Bree tries to hurt Maryanne by telling her that Oliver told her he loved her, but Maryanne doesn’t budge, Maryanne says that any hurt that Bree is trying to cause, she’s already felt before. And she got through it. “Oh, and Bree,” Maryanne says before Bree leaves, “I believe these are yours.” And she hands Bree her earrings. After Bree leaves, it becomes clear that Maryanne’s guard isn’t entirely up and she wipes away a tear.

If you assumed that Stephen getting his face bashed in or Bree’s affair coming to its climactic end would be the most dramatic thing to happen on this episode, you’re mistaken. Because after pounding drinks and pills at the bar, Wrigley and Drew’s brotherly reunion comes to a tragic end. The next morning, Wrigley realizes that Drew passed out. Unable to wake him, Wrigley calls an ambulance, but it’s too late.

Wrigley explains that he has been feeding Drew time-released painkillers which probably killed him. “Wrigley, it’s not your fault,” Evan consoles him.

“Who’s fault is it then?” Wrigley asks.

Lucy starts to cry and walks out of the room. When Stephen follows her, she confides, “I was awful to Drew. I made his life hell last year… None of this would have happened if I hadn’t written that f—ing letter.” So it’s Lucy’s fault! Lucy tells Stephen she needs to come clean to clear her conscience and he tries to convince her otherwise. “This is not your fault,” he insists.

Before she can admit to the group that she wrote the letter, Stephen walks out in front of everyone and says. “I wrote the letter last year,” so she won’t have to bear that burden. “I can’t let you blame yourself,” he tells Wrigley.

“Thank you for telling me,” Wrigley says in tears, hugging Stephen. It’s nice that everyone is putting their fragile friend first while also lying their asses off to each other. It’s what friends do!

“I can’t believe you did that,” Lucy tells Stephen and his bulging eyeball later. “I love you,” he tells her.

As it’s the end of the semester and things are winding down before Christmas break, Lucy goes to Maryanne’s office to drop off the manuscript she was helping to transcribe for extra credit. Without mentioning Bree’s name, Maryanne acknowledges the elephant in the room, saying that from now on, it would be best of Lucy doesn’t enroll in any more of her classes, adding, “For what it’s worth, I’m was relieved he didn’t meet you first.”

“Pervert freak,” Lucy mutters as she walks away. Literally any time anyone on this show criticizes someone else I can’t help but feel like the pot is calling the kettle, but I digress.

The “Shero Award “of the episode goes to Diana who, as it turns out, did not fail the LSAT and did not get into a fight with her father and has been planning an elaborate scheme to get Stephen to break up with her for months. Seems Diana lied about all of that so that Stephen would realize she’s not useful to him anymore, but it turns out that she (and her father) actually plotted the entire thing together so she would be rid of him. Yale Law, here she comes (without him!).

The “Things I Can’t Explain Award” goes to… it’s a tie! First we have Bree, Pippa and Lucy who, in an effort to get out their anger at Oliver, go full “Lemonade” with baseball bats on his car in broad daylight outside the school buildings. Then there’s Evan who, despite everyone being on good terms, finally, decides to tell Stephen that last year he and Lucy hooked up. This is news that Stephen doesn’t take well.

When he goes out for a smoke, he spots Lydia who’s helping Chris move out for the semester. She apologizes for being rude to Stephen when they first met, explaining that she based what she said on Lucy’s stories about Stephen, and Lucy can’t be trusted. And with that, I guess Stephen must’ve been like, I think I’ll make this woman my wife some day.

Evan is sick over how Stephen is taking the news that he slept with Lucy, and Stephen assures him they’re good. “Clean slate.” Evan just wants to make sure that Stephen won’t send this news back to Bree. In a world where information like this is currency, this is certainly a windfall for Stephen, so it seems like this will certainly come back to haunt… someone.

The episode ends in 2015 back at Bree and Evan’s wedding, after Lucy and Stephen had sex. But Stephen is M.I.A. for the ceremony. Just before Bree is set to walk down the aisle, Bree gets an audio message from Stephen and it’s… the secret recording he made of Evan admitting to sleeping with Lucy eight years earlier. “You ready?” Lucy asks Bree as they prepare for the ceremony. But I guess we won’t know if she walks down the aisle until next season.

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