You may recall, dear reader, that my last Tell Me Lies recap ended with a question: What fresh hell will Stephen (Jackson White) unleash now that he and Lucy (Grace Van Patten) aren’t together?
The answer arrives swiftly and horribly in Tell Me Lies Season 3 Episode 3 (“Repent”) … and I fear it is only the beginning.
Lucy tries to get her mind off the breakup with a good old-fashioned night of college partying (can I just say that these guys have so many fun theme parties to go to and I never had that in college? Or now? Does anyone want to invite me to any themed parties??), with the trio of sophomore girls introduced to Bree’s (Cat Missal) old foster brother Alex (Costa D’Angelo). Maybe the Stephen of it all has me on high alert, but Alex is not easy to pin down. He obviously cares about Bree but he’s pretty dismissive of Lucy, and describes feeling detached from college life and dating (but here’s hoping that he’s right and that no one in that room knows each other in ten years!).
Stephen, meanwhile, goes to Max’s bar (Edmund Donovan) because he… hates himself? It’s partly that and partly a way to attack Lucy without her even knowing about it. He’s threatening her space across time and admits later in the episode that he wants to hurt her. I fear this may turn into an actual friendship between him and Max though, because they had each other’s phone numbers in 2015 when Lucy invited Stephen to watch her and Max in the pool.
Again: Get these people away from each other!!
Lucy sees Alex as a chance to have casual sex instead of a relationship for once, but his persona continues to be jarring to her and to viewers. He knows what he wants and what he can offer, but delivers those promises with such clinical distance that it’s no wonder Lucy decides not to sleep with him. He’s right that she needs reassurance and he’s forthcoming about not being able to provide it, so what good will it do?
Now for the hell. Stephen calls Bree while she’s with Lucy, prompting fresh panic and the clarification that he’s doing it for the exact worst case reason. Within moments of entering his dorm room Lucy is begging and saying she loves him. We haven’t seen a lot of Lucy like this; usually when she and Stephen turn hostile there’s an element of reciprocity, but this is one-sided cruelty inflicted with the sole intent of harm, and he admits as much. You get the sense that she was always ready for him to fully embrace this side of himself and push her to act out of desperation, and even though she does it to protect Bree, the sentiments are real. She’s so frightened that she admits to lying about Chris (Jacob Rodriguez) assaulting her, which Stephen immediately sees as an opportunity.
What follows is one of the most sickening sequences in this show, and that’s saying something. Stephen has done bad things, terrible things — but watching him coach that confession out of Lucy made me feel physically ill. After torturing her psychologically, he says he won’t publish the video yet, that he’s going to keep it to basically have something on her for as long as he wants.
Elsewhere in the realm of blackmail and extortion, Bree sends a selfie with Amanda (Iris Apatow) to Oliver (Tom Ellis), basically letting him know that the two girls are in touch and she could tell Amanda everything on a whim (which Oliver should just do himself!). Evan (Branden Cook) adds a dash of quid pro quo and offers to cover Stephen’s sister’s tuition, saying nothing more than “We’re good now” to emphasize the true meaning of this gesture. It’s smart, and it’s also a shame; it suggests the only way to beat Stephen is to stoop to his level.
Along with his disgusting tape tactics, this episode marked another turning point with Stephen for me: his shifting attitude about the night with Macy (Lily McInerny) in Season 1. When he wanted to be with Lucy, he admitted to what happened with Macy, acted vulnerable. Now that they’re broken up he’s flat out denying it, gaslighting her, discrediting her to her face. They still know the worst parts of each other, but it’s no longer romantic.
Which leads us to the final sequence: the full reveal of Lucy’s recorded confession interspersed with her having sex with Alex and asking him to call her “pathetic.” Just a few scenes ago he recognized that she needs more stability than he can offer, and now — when she needs comfort more than ever — she shows up at his door seeking humiliation from any source besides Stephen. Lucy submits to the interaction fueled by self loathing for the accusation, the tape, and her entire relationship with Stephen.
Too bad it’s not over.
Tell Me Lies Truths from Season 3 Episode 3 (“Repent”)
Most jarring memory of the 2000s: Maybe Lucy’s button-down shirt in the beginning, or the peasant top when she’s talking to Stephen later.
Moment that made me yell out loud: Alex saying “You want me to fuck you?” I gasped and shouted “I don’t like him!”
Proma Khosla is a New York-based writer with over 15 years of editorial experience. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Mashable, and most recently at IndieWire, where she was a Senior TV reporter for almost four years. She is the co-director of Lion Party Films and creator of Drunk Bollywood Live, where she highlights South Asian art and performers. She is one half of the podcast PromRad with fellow Decider contributor Radhika Menon.