What actually happens
Lucy finds a hair tie and starts a ten-year argument
The series opens at a wedding in 2015, where Lucy is dreading seeing Stephen, and then flashes back eight years to Baird College. After a party in the first episode, her roommate Macy is killed in a car accident, which leaves her new friends (Bree, Pippa, Diana, Wrigley, Drew and Evan) shaken. Lucy falls for Stephen anyway. She finds a hair tie that belongs to another girl, and at Christmas she finds a drawing proving he once dated Macy. He gives her a made-up confession to win her back, and later she sends the dean an anonymous letter about Macy's accident, which ends with Drew and Wrigley fighting at a party. The finale shows the crash itself: on a night out, a drunk Stephen drives Macy home, she confronts him about his lying, and the car crashes. She dies at once, and he leaves her there and arranges the scene so that she looks responsible. In the present, Stephen walks out of a party holding Diana's hand, and Lucy wakes up next to Evan.
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Bree's affair turns out to have a planning committee
Season two jumps between 2008 flashbacks and the 2015 wedding weekend of Bree and Evan, with Stephen now engaged to Lydia, Lucy's former best friend. In the past, Lucy dates Leo, tells Diana that Stephen let Macy die, and Diana refuses to believe it until a fractured rib and some photos on Stephen's laptop change her mind. She deletes the photos and says nothing. Bree starts an affair with her professor, Oliver, while Evan hides from Bree that he slept with Lucy. One of Diana's sorority sisters accuses Chris of rape, and Lucy lies publicly and says he assaulted her too, which devastates Pippa. In the finale, Stephen goads Leo into a beating and refuses to fight back. Drew dies after taking too many of Wrigley's pills. Bree learns that Oliver and his partner Marianne planned the affair together, and Evan confesses to Stephen about Lucy. Stephen records it and sends the recording to Bree just before her wedding.
Stephen's Yale acceptance has a short shelf life
Season three starts the spring semester after Drew's death. Bree goes through with the wedding in 2015 while the flashbacks follow the group in 2009. Wrigley grieves, Pippa looks after him, and he and Bree grow closer. Pippa and Diana start a relationship, and Diana ends a pregnancy over Stephen's objections. Lucy offers Stephen a new secret to keep him away from Bree, and he makes her record a video saying she lied about the assault. Intimate photos of Diana are sent anonymously to her father. Bree finds out from an old photo that Evan and Lucy were together. Lucy tries to warn a Yale representative about Stephen, then sees her video playing in class, and the dean expels her. Stephen is not the one who leaked it, but Yale revokes his acceptance because of how he behaved. Bree tells Evan she knows about Lucy and forgives him.
The ending, explained
At the 2015 reception, Wrigley catches Bree smoking outside, and they argue about the six years they haven't spoken. Lucy and Bree dance happily. Then Stephen, feeling that he has lost, tells Lydia that their relationship only existed to make Lucy jealous. He takes the microphone from the emcee and reveals Evan's cheating, Bree's cheating and the truth about the leaked video. Bree and Evan both go after him, Bree tries to explain herself to Lucy, and Evan confronts Wrigley. Diana and Pippa, the only ones with nothing to confess, leave together and happily. Lucy says she hates Stephen and leaves with him anyway. At a gas station she goes in to buy two coffees, and when she comes back out he has abandoned her there, and only her purse is left. She smiles.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether Tell Me Lies has a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Tell Me Lies scary?
No. Tell Me Lies is a 1 out of 10 with low dread. It is a college drama about a manipulative relationship, and the hard parts are emotional, including a car crash and a death from taking too many pills.
How does Tell Me Lies end?
At Bree and Evan's wedding in 2015, Stephen reveals everyone's secrets on the microphone. Diana and Pippa leave happily together, and Lucy leaves with Stephen, who abandons her at a gas station while she is buying coffee. She smiles.
Does the dog die in Tell Me Lies?
No dog dies in Tell Me Lies.
Is there a post-credits scene in Tell Me Lies?
Nobody has confirmed whether Tell Me Lies has a scene after the credits.
Who is responsible for Macy's death in Tell Me Lies?
Stephen. In the season one finale he drives Macy home drunk after a night out, she confronts him about his lying, the car crashes and she dies, and he leaves her there and arranges the scene to blame her. Lucy later tells Diana, who doesn't believe her at first.
