Another episode, another party! In the Tell Me Lies world, it is already Valentine’s Day, and the students at Baird are revolting against the display of love with an anti-Valentine’s Day theme party. With gothic clothes and makeup on, Lucy tries to navigate the party, when Stephen arrives with his new freshman catch. Pippa and Diana face a rough patch in episode 6, all thanks to Stephen! Bree and Wrigley are finally addressing their feelings for each other, but we already know that they don’t really have a future together. The latest episode of season 3 unfolds entirely in the 2008 timeline, and maybe the 2015 timeline will be explored in the final two episodes, where things are bound to get messy.
Spoiler Alert
How did Diana intend to deal with the Stephen situation?
Diana received a call from her mother stating that an anonymous person had sent suggestive pictures of Diana to her father. He was furious, and wasn’t in the mood to talk to his daughter; even her mother expressed that she was deeply disappointed in her. While she tried to explain that she was just a freshman when the pictures were taken, her mother wasn’t interested in an explanation. Diana couldn’t believe that Stephen would stoop so low, just because she’d been rude to him. Pippa was in the room when Diana spoke to her mother, and she wondered if Diana intended on taking any steps against Stephen. But Diana made it very clear that she didn’t plan on doing anything. She stated that Stephen wanted her to react and not doing anything was the only way to punish him. Moreover, Diana aimed to live a peaceful life, and messing with Stephen meant she would constantly live in panic mode. She figured that if she didn’t react, he wouldn’t have any reason to do something worse, and she preferred things to be that way. When Pippa insisted she take action, she asked Pippa to leave, causing a temporary rift between them.
Does Alex have a traumatic past?
Bree invited Alex to the anti-Valentine’s Day party. She figured it would be depressing if Lucy went to the party alone, and she hoped Alex would provide Lucy the comfort that she needed after the whole Chris episode. Lucy wasn’t really happy about the situation; she didn’t want Stephen to see her with someone else. In the previous season, things didn’t go well when Lucy had tried to make Stephen feel jealous by showing up at parties with Leo. Lucy couldn’t afford to enrage Stephen, because she feared that he would leak her confession video. Alex noticed Lucy’s body language around Stephen, and he immediately knew that she was afraid of him, though he couldn’t figure out why. He noticed how she did whatever Stephen asked of her, even though she clearly wasn’t interested in speaking to him. Lucy felt suffocated sharing the same space with Stephen, and she wanted to leave. Lucy and Alex stepped out of the party, but instead of heading to Alex’s apartment, they went to a bar. Lucy desired to get rough with Alex, and the going-to-a-bar-for-a-drink idea didn’t sit well with her. Lucy was quite drunk, and she tried to get flirty with Max, while Alex watched from a distance. She obviously wanted him to feel envious, or just prove that she wasn’t the ‘helpless’ girl she feared Alex thought her to be. Lucy was frustrated with the shift in dynamics between her and her friends because of the one awful lie that she’d blurted out last season. In the previous episode, she’d told Chris that he’d violated Pippa, and that was enough reason for Pippa to be mad at Lucy. Bree didn’t know the truth, so she was going out of her way to ensure that Lucy was okay. And she hated the fact that Alex was trying to be a better person around her. She wanted him to treat her badly, to not consider her helpless, because she assured him she was a terrible person.
Alex was clearly having a tough time making a choice, and that was perhaps because he saw a bit of himself in Lucy. Maybe there was a point in his life when he was completely helpless and terrified like her. Alex had a tough time at a foster home, possibly because he was abused. Perhaps he indulged in rough sex where he played the dom, because it helped change the narrative, and it made him feel powerful. He repeatedly emphasized that he didn’t want to hurt Lucy. He was in tears, suggesting that he was afraid of harming her. Alex sympathized with Lucy, probably because he was familiar with the trauma (that came with being sexually assaulted). He wanted to comfort Lucy, but at the same time, he didn’t want to be a monster. He did what she asked of him, but somewhere deep down, he perhaps feels Lucy’s coping mechanism would leave a scar.
Why did Lucy end up outside Stephen’s room?
After Lucy left Alex’s apartment, she somehow found herself outside Stephen’s dorm room. Lucy attempted to unlock Stephen’s room, and when Stephen suddenly opened the door, she looked confused. Lucy had assumed she was at her dorm, only to realize that she had been mistaken. She was in a state of daze, and as she tried to rush out of the dorm, she crossed paths with Diana. Diana offered to let Lucy spend some time in her room and calm down. Although they weren’t really friends, Diana was possibly the only person who knew what Lucy was going through. They both lived with the same trauma and fear.
When Diana told Lucy about the pictures Stephen had sent to her father, she asked her if she planned on taking any action. Diana emphasized that her plan was to do nothing. Just like Lucy, Diana too lived in a constant state of panic and anxiety, making it very difficult for her to focus on her everyday life and to even get rest. She believed that if she didn’t react, then the worst would soon be over. But if she tried to do something to get back at Stephen, then he would turn her life into hell. Over the years she’d realized that she couldn’t defeat Stephen, so the only alternative she had was to co-exist. She preferred to lay low in the hope of having some peace in life. Diana advised Lucy to do the same. She figured that if Lucy didn’t give him any reason to use the tape, then he might well never use it. But it wasn’t easy for Lucy to focus on her life when she constantly kept thinking of what Stephen might do the next day. She was barely present, always anxious and terrified, and the fact that she ended up in Stephen’s room underlined that she thought of Stephen so often that even physically, her body dragged her to him. Lucy didn’t believe in Diana’s solution; she was confident that no matter what she did, Stephen wouldn’t let her be okay. It is safe to assume that unlike Diana, Lucy will not let it go. She will try to find a way to delete the video that Stephen has of her, but considering the monster that Stephen is, he probably already has a thousand copies of her confession!
Why Did Bree And Evan Have A Fight?
Wrigley had realized he was in love with Bree. Seeing her get cozy with Evan left him feeling uncomfortable. Meanwhile, at the party, Bree and Evan got into a heated argument. Bree hadn’t told him that she’d recently met her mother and that she was considering spending more time with her. She wasn’t sure if her mother would show up at her exhibition, and when she confirmed that she would, Bree felt hopeful. She thought she would discuss everything with Evan, but at the party, when he mentioned that he would likely spend summer with Bree, she blurted out that she might spend her vacation with her mother. Evan felt offended because she hadn’t mentioned her mother recently, and he wondered why she would want to reconnect with her alcoholic mother who never took care of her. For Bree, it wasn’t so black and white. Her mother was only fourteen when she had her, so she didn’t really blame her for failing to look after her. She also wanted to believe that her mother was trying her best to curb her addiction. Evan continued to express how unfair it was that she didn’t discuss the situation with him, and that he didn’t think her mother had changed so drastically all of a sudden. He was basically upset that she wouldn’t be with him in summer, and instead of supporting Bree and trying to understand what she was going through, he was being a selfish prick.
Bree clearly wasn’t looking for his opinion, and Evan figured he didn’t want to spend time with her anymore. Evan asked Wrigley to walk Bree home, and as usual, Bree started to confide in him. Wrigley advised sharing whatever she’d told him with Evan, since he was her boyfriend. I think at this point, Wrigley is the voice of the audience! The fact that he thinks that everyone around him is making terrible decisions makes him the most relatable character on the show! But then again, Wrigley too ends up making a questionable choice at the very end of episode 6. When Wrigley expressed that he shouldn’t be spending so much time with Bree, she asked him to leave, refusing to address the tension between them.
Why did Bree stop by at Oliver’s place?
Towards the end of Tell Me Lies episode 6, Bree showed up at Oliver’s apartment and demanded to see him. When Marianne told her that he wasn’t home, Bree confided in her that he was sleeping with a 17-year-old, and it was all so wrong. She wanted Marianne to know that her husband was a dangerous predator and he was hurting people in the process. Marianne knew that Bree didn’t show up at her house just because she deeply cared about Amanda; she too was hurting.
Even after finding out that her husband was with a minor, Marianne didn’t seem too keen on taking any action against him. When Bree asked her why she didn’t leave Oliver, she advised Bree to be with someone who loved her a bit more than she did, or else she feared Bree would end up just like her, doing things she’d never wanted to. Bree and Marianne connected that night, and the next morning when Bree left Marianne’s place, she contacted Wrigley. She figured he was the only person who would understand her, and she wanted to be with him because he made things better. When Wrigley arrived, she admitted that she was confused about how she felt, because she couldn’t deny being attracted to him. Well, it was confusing for Wrigley too, and of course he didn’t expect her to have it all figured out. Wrigley and Bree finally kissed, marking the beginning of their relationship. Perhaps in 2015, Bree took Marianne’s advice and married the man who loved her a bit more than she did, but was the advice the only reason she chose Evan over Wrigley? Were they both afraid of hurting their respective partners so they chose to keep it a secret, forever? What really happened between them? In the final two episodes we’ll hopefully find our answers.
