Tell Me Lies – Season1 Episode 10 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Bedrooms of Our Friends

We finally get an episode explaining the events of the night that Macy died. Or maybe that Welcome Week for the freshers. Well, episode 10 of Tell Me Lies begins with Macy setting up her room on the first day of college. She sees Stephen standing under the door frame and the two have a quickie, just before Lucy arrives.

Before leaving, Stephen makes it clear that they are only casually hooking up and he has no interest in dating her. He gives her that drawing of the fake leaf as a gesture. Lucy arrives and we see all the events of day one happening from Macy’s point of view. One of the heartwarming things was how Bree and Macy connected. From their conversation, you just knew that Macy was one of the good ones.

Despite their supposed agreement, she gets upset when Stephen hits on Lucy in front of her. But she is enchanted with him and his charms have certainly spun a web. We see Macy going alone to that off-campus party. She gets hit on by Tim, who briefly dated Bree but successfully avoid his attention. She is alone at the party and phones Stephen to come over. But he is only interested in hooking up with her, refusing to be seen in public by going inside the party. This further upsets Macy and he decides to go back to his dorm. They take Macy’s car.

Stephen and Macy both admit that they are perhaps too drunk to handle the car but Stephen insists they go on. Macy confronts him about not being honest with her about not wanting to date her, irrespective of their agreement. Stephen takes offense and inadvertently the accident happens. He leaves her for dead and puts her in the driver’s seat to make it look like an accident. In present day, the freshmen have just finished their finals before the summer break. Lucy comes back to a pensive Stephen.

Knowing that he is in need of a job, Lucy offers to put him in contact with a friend for a front desk job. Stephen feels insulted and turns her down. Lucy, however, does not take it that well, and Stephen apologizes, like always since she has known his secret. Wrigley is recuperating but will not be able to play football again. When Stephen once again talks about Pippa in derision, Wrigley counters by saying that Stephen is “scared” of Lucy. Or that he is always “very careful around her”. This stimulates Stephen but he cannot tell Wrigley the truth.

Bree, the glue for the girls’ social group, is leaving before Pippa and Lucy. She will also be meeting Evan’s parents, a sign that they are serious about each other. Bree makes them promise that they will not fight with each other and that despite their weirdness and personal issues, they must endeavor to stay together. Pippa and Lucy have a conversation but it is not as warm as you’d think it be between close friends. Stephen and Lucy run into Diana while buying coffee but the latter tries to ground the awkwardness. She is warm and they discuss their plans for the summer. You can see Diana judging Stephen a bit by hearing their plans and is upset that he didn’t get the internship.

She spots Stephen near the notice board where their grades are published. She has scored more and confronts Stephen about his future and career. It is another part of the buildup to Stephen’s realization that Lucy is holding him back. In the next scene, they have a serious fight where they say quite disastrous things to each other but quickly make up afterward. They are just clinging and right now, the relationship is hanging by a thread. Both are afraid of losing the other for different reasons. Stephen’s is not clear yet, as there is ambiguity about whether he loves her or not. The last episode may have been a spur-of-the-moment thing as he has issues with his own mother that he feels strongly about.

Before the Hawaiian party, the last one for the season, Evan informs Stephen that he will be moving out in the next semester. He wants a change and feels that Wrigley and Stephen will make for better roommates. Stephen is obviously concerned but cannot say much to Evan that would not be the truth.

At the party, Stephen and Lucy separate, as the latter goes to Pippa and the former smokes pot with Evan. Diana soon comes into the room and one by one, all of them leave, except Diana and Stephen. She confronts him by asking what is he doing with his future. In a very delicate, poised, and convincing manner, she maneuvers him to come back with her. Her manipulation is indeed very intangible as she makes the entire conversation about Stephen’s future and that Lucy is not good for him. She lacks ambition and focus and is not “useful for his life”.

In the shock of shocks, we see Stephen and Diana descend the staircase holding hands. They both look at a crying Lucy and a surprised Evan behind her and leave the party. Stephen broke up with Lucy without even saying it to her. Diana has her revenge and how! Lucy and Evan get drunk that night and wake up in the same bed the next morning. It is another secret they have kept to themselves.

We switch to the present day where he picks up from the ending of episode one. Lucy drinks wine, alone, and sees Stephen wave at her. They embrace and exchange greetings. He now has a fiancé and waits for her to come over. In another shocker, it is not Diana or anyone else but LYDIA! Lucy’s best friend Lydia, on whom she leaned for support and emotional calm. How on earth did this happen?

The Episode Review

The season finale is perhaps the spiciest of all episodes in season 1. It is a banger ending that opens the door for a meaningful story in season 2. There is a tendency in many executives these days to drag stories that should ideally conclude with no meaning.

If it is renewed for season 2, Tell Me Lies certainly won’t be doing that. There are so many questions about how things panned out after that night Stephen broke up with Lucy telepathically. It perhaps is a tad too anticlimactic as well, given the explosive fights we have seen between the two. Another big one is why did Lucy keep quiet all this time? Maybe her love was pure and the adage that “love is blind” is true. Who knows?

For now, we are done and dusted with season 1. Immense joy at seeing all of these twists in the finale will be further extended if we get a renewal for season 2. Fingers crossed for that one!