Stephen (Jackson White) shocked Lucy (Grace Van Patten) twice at two different points in time, as the end of Tell Me Lies showed. The first season of the series, which is adapted from Carola Lovering’s book, mainly follows events from 2007 to 2008.
This period covers Lucy’s first year in Baird College, New York, while Stephen is already in his third year. The entire season is framed by a wedding in 2015, which both Lucy and Stephen attend after staying apart for four years — the wedding is for their friends, Bree (Catherine Missal) and Evan (Branden Cook).
A wedding reunion unravels years of buried guilt (Photo: Tell Me Lies/Brook Productions)By the final scenes, Lucy is struggling emotionally after the consequences of the anonymous letter she sent to the school’s administration, asking them to investigate her roommate Macy’s (Lily McInery) death in a car accident. At the same time, she and Stephen are locked in an emotionally harmful relationship.
Lucy believes she’s protecting Stephen, since he was inside the car during Macy’s crash, while Stephen hides the full truth. Their circle of friends begins to fall apart due to all the lies they both continue to keep.
The Truth About Macy’s Death And What Stephen Did
It Explains Macy’s Death
The real story behind Macy’s accident comes to light within the first 18 minutes of Tell Me Lies’ last episode. Stephen and Macy had been secretly having a fling since summer, although they kept it hidden because Stephen didn’t want his ex, Diana (Alicia Crowder), to know.
On the day of the accident, Macy attends a party alone after Lucy declines to go with her. She calls Stephen and asks him to come over. Stephen, after getting high, convinces himself he is fine to drive Macy’s car back to school.
Along the way, they start arguing, and Macy confronts him about all his lies, accusing him of being a terrible person. During their fight, Stephen stops watching the road just as Drew almost hits them with his car. Stephen crashes Macy’s car into a tree.
Even though Stephen escapes with no injuries, what he does next is terrible — he moves Macy’s dead body into the driver’s seat. Macy dies on impact because the seatbelt on the passenger side isn’t working.
Stephen survives without a scratch, but instead of helping or calling for help, he deletes his contact from Macy’s Blackberry and makes it look like she was driving. Then he walks home and leaves her there to be discovered by the police.
Nobody found out that Stephen was the one driving when the crash happened. He allows Drew to take the blame silently because he refuses to ruin his future. When Macy said Stephen was a bad person before she died, she wasn’t wrong — his actions later only prove she was right.
All The Fallout From Lucy’s Letter About Drew Explained
Lucy’s Lie Was A Big Deal
After listening to Stephen, Lucy becomes convinced that Drew caused Macy’s death. Trying to protect Stephen, she writes and submits an anonymous letter to the Dean. When Stephen hears that the Dean received such a letter, he tells Drew that his brother, Wrigley, told his girlfriend about the incident.
Even though Stephen suspects Lucy is the one who sent the letter, he does nothing as Wrigley’s girlfriend is wrongly blamed. A fight breaks out between Wrigley and Drew, and Wrigley ends up falling from a balcony. The injury he sustained damaged his knee, meaning he can no longer play football during his final year in school.
What Lucy’s letter causes is a chain reaction that damages Wrigley’s future and spoils Pippa’s name. Wrigley strongly believes that Pippa wrote the letter and refuses to accept that Stephen had any hand in it. He ends things with Pippa and tells others she’s the reason for his injury.
Lucy also tells another freshman that she and Stephen slept together the same night Macy died, still thinking she’s protecting him. When Diana hears this, she informs Stephen, who becomes furious after realizing the lie doesn’t match the timeline.
The Dean doesn’t suspect Drew of any wrongdoing, meaning Lucy’s anonymous letter ends up achieving nothing positive — instead, it ruins lives and reputations.
Why Stephen Left Lucy For Diana
The Promising Offer For His Future Called To Him
Lucy feels deeply hurt when Stephen casually leaves a Hawaiian end-of-semester party with Diana. Stephen reconnects with Diana because she understands him better than anyone else. She’s confident, goal-driven, and nothing like Lucy — all these traits touch on Stephen’s deep fears and desire to become rich and successful.
Diana invites Stephen to spend the summer in New York, working as an intern at her father’s law firm, with promises of a future high-paying job after graduation, which would help him break away from his mother.
Diana also criticizes Lucy as someone who doesn’t have anything unique about her, who lacks the same hunger for success as Stephen, and only clings to him out of emotional dependence. Lucy even cancels her plans to travel to India that summer just to stay close to Stephen.
Unlike the way Stephen and Lucy say “I love you,” Diana and Stephen use the same words but in a different way — it still feels possessive, but Diana’s version gives Stephen comfort and reassurance. He chooses her because she aligns more with the future he desires.
Lucy And Evan Hooked Up Behind Bree’s Back
It Changes How The Audience Views The Wedding
After Stephen dumps her, Lucy finds comfort in Evan, who’s currently in a relationship with Bree. The next morning, the two wake up in bed together. Evan, throughout the semester, had grown sick of Stephen’s manipulations and the group’s constant dishonesty.
This tension comes to a head during his birthday party at his lake house in episode 7. Earlier in the season, Evan had confessed feelings for Lucy, and although he was dating Bree, he still held on to that attraction. So their one-night stand shows a side of Evan that’s not as “good guy” as it seemed.
This event makes their actions during Bree and Evan’s 2015 wedding look very different. Lucy’s strange decision to pull Bree aside and tell her “I’m happy for you” now carries deeper meaning. Even Evan’s behavior and body language around Lucy are strange.
There’s a chance their hookup wasn’t a one-time thing — it might have carried on for years behind Bree’s back.
Stephen’s Surprise Engagement Explained
Stephen’s lies leave scars no apology can fix (Photo: Tell Me Lies/Brook Productions)It Sets The Stage For Season 2
A big reveal comes at the end of season one: Stephen is engaged to Lydia (Natalee Linez), Lucy’s best friend from home. Lucy doesn’t seem surprised, but her body language shows discomfort, so it’s more of a surprise for viewers.
At one point in the story, Lucy begs Stephen to take up a summer job at Lydia’s dad’s country club as the front desk guy, but Stephen rejects it, calling the job “publicly humiliating.” There’s a chance Stephen accepted that job and met Lydia through it.
If he didn’t, how the two of them met could become one of the main plotlines in the next season. With many years of story left, there’s still plenty that can happen between Stephen and Lucy before he officially gets engaged to Lydia.
The Real Meaning Of The Tell Me Lies Ending
Stephen Gaslit Lucy & No One Had A Happy Ending
Many viewers keep asking if any of the characters in Tell Me Lies are good people. Stephen isn’t one. He caused Macy’s death and blamed someone else. Lucy, on the other hand, became so obsessed with him that she kept making terrible decisions just to shield him. And this put more lives at risk.
Stephen eventually dumped Lucy and made her look bad in the process, showing that he didn’t care about her at all. The moment felt cruel, but Lucy’s actions stemmed from her deep emotional attachment. She did it all for Stephen, even when it cost her everything.
Her feelings for him were more like an addiction, and she kept feeding it by covering for him again and again. Stephen kept chipping away at her self-worth, and by the time things reached a breaking point, Lucy was left broken and alone.
While it looked like Stephen walked away to a better life, a quick look at the flashforward hints that things might not work out well for him either.
How The Tell Me Lies Season 1 Ending Played Into Season 2
The Second Season Tried To Repeat The Success Without Repeating The Stories
Rather than jumping into the 2015 timeline, the second season of Tell Me Lies mainly continued with events from college life in 2008. Still, it sprinkled in scenes from the future. Meaghan Oppenheimer, the series creator, shared that she didn’t want to use another murder mystery like the first season.
Instead, she searched for different ways to bring suspense and tension, moving on from the twists in the season one finale (as shared in Vanity Fair). She said the second season felt more enjoyable for her to create. While she appreciated the first season, Hulu gave her more room to take creative risks this time around.
Since season one had a death and a hidden body mystery, there was an expectation to repeat that. But she chose a different path, asking herself how to maintain tension without doing another murder story. Lucy attempts to move forward by dating Leo, who once had a bad-boy reputation but now tries to do better.
Stephen destroys his second chance with Diana. Bree ends up in a relationship with Oliver (Tom Ellis), a much older professor who also happens to be married to Bree’s English teacher, making the situation more dramatic.
