Recap:
It’s August 2015 and Lucy (Grace Van Patten) and Max (Edmund Donovan) attend a joint bachelor and bachelorette party for Bree (Catherine Missal) and Evan (Branden Cook). They meet up with the happily engaged couple as well as Wrigley (Spencer House) and when Lucy sees Stephen (Jackson White) both are very friendly to each other. Stephen and Max are quite friendly to one another.
Wrigley pesters Evan over the fact that the bachelor party is not real, because they are celebrating with Bree and not alone like other ‘real’ bachelor parties do. Trying to get Stephen to back him up, Wrigley finds he has little support for his thesis.
Pippa (Sonia Mena) is texting in the background, and while drinks are being passed around, Stephen talks to Max about his new restaurant. Bree is happily intoxicated, and Lucy and Pippa watch as Wrigley gets drunker, and Stephen and Max become friendly. Lucy pesters Max about how kind he is being to Stephen. Max reminds her that even if Stephen is the same as he was in college, it shouldn’t matter now.
Pippa calls Diana (Alicia Crowder) and laments how she didn’t come to the party. Diana wants nothing to do with the people at the party, but Pippa reminds her that if she had come it would have been to support Pippa, and not the others.
Lucy heads outside and is met by Stephen. Trying to be peaceful, Stephen wonders what Lucy has been up to lately. Pippa shows up and tells Stephen to leave. Lucy wonders why Stephen is being so nice, perhaps it’s because of Lydia (Natalie Linez) and Pippa reminds her friend that Stephen doesn’t change.
Back in September 2008, we see a different side to Stephen as he takes on the role of TA in Lucy’s class. Chasing after her as she leaves, Stephen assures her that he didn’t know that she was in the class. (No one believes you Stephen!)
In Oliver’s (Tom Ellis) office, Bree and the professor are getting very close to each other. The professor's impending office hours forces the teacher to stop the make out session, and Bree and he agree to meet later. He asks her not to talk about their intimacy with anyone.
Diana goes to see Pippa and while she has good intentions, Pippa is wondering why Diana is there. Mentioning that she was in rough shape last night, Pippa wonders how funny Stephen found the story. Diana assures her that she didn’t tell Stephen. Accusing Diana of not being a good person for how she treated Lucy, Pippa’s accusations force her to leave, but not before Diana says that she is glad that Pippa is ok.
Wrigley loads up on sugar for his coffee, and Evan tells him and Stephen that Bree broke up with him because he cheated on her. While Evan is depressed, Wrigley tries to explain how great it is that Evan is finally single.
Bree tells Lucy and Pippa that she broke up with Evan. Hoping to avoid saying anything, Pippa wants to know what happened, and Bree gets mad telling her that she doesn’t want to talk about it. Chris (Jacob Rodriguez) approaches Pippa, and while her and Lucy are awkward in their responses, Bree can’t get a real answer from them about what is wrong.
Leo (Thomas Doherty) finds Lucy on a bench outside, and he begs to have a moment to speak to her. Telling her that he was sorry about his fight at the coffee shop. He admits that he has fought before, and he tells Lucy that he doesn’t want to lie to her and admits to her that he has a problem with his anger and is working on controlling his temper.
Diana wants to know how Wrigley doesn’t have any homework, and she proceeds to regret hearing his ridiculous theory on what classes to take. Pippa walks by the team table, and while one of the players makes fun of her, Pippa has had enough. Emasculating the team with her razor-sharp wit, she excoriates Wrigley for allowing the team to be so awful towards her. Her look at Diana, who is also sitting at the table, only reinforces what she said to her earlier about how Diana is not a girl who checks up on other girls when bad things happen. Wrigley is upset, but Diana defends Pippa for being right about what she said.
Arriving back at the dorm with Bree, Pippa takes a nap, and Bree waits for a message from Oliver. Wanting to share her secret, Pippa begs Bree to talk about it later.
Diana comes back to her apartment to work on her assignment only to realize most of her work, which is due tomorrow, is mostly gone. Stephen offers to write the paper for Diana, and while she believes he can’t help, the pressure she is under to meet so many commitments, she agrees to let him write it. (Now Stephen has academic leverage over you Diana.)
Wrigley finds Pippa alone in the dinning hall and sits down beside her. He apologizes for the crude comments directed at her from the team. This apology opens a dialogue between the two, but Pippa is unwilling to talk to her ex-boyfriend.
Bree meets Oliver at their favorite bar, and while the college sophomore is excited to see her older love interest, Oliver is glad she came to meet him. They both admit that they can’t stop thinking about each other, but Oliver says he has a huge desire for Bree, but he loves his wife and has no plans to leave her. Oliver won’t instigate a relationship with Bree if she is not okay with the ground rules. Oliver knows better and leaves Bree at the bar.
Pippa and Lucy go for a smoke outside, and Lucy finally asks the question that everyone wants to know. Why did Pippa dye her hair blond? She tells Lucy that she wanted a fresh start and blond was the choice. Lucy explains that Leo headbutted a guy at the coffee shop and Pippa finds this action to be insanely hot, but Lucy isn’t turned on by this violent behavior. Lucy wonders if there is something wrong with her for attracting the wrong type of guy. Lucy tries to bring up what happened with Chris, and Pippa steers the conversation elsewhere. She tells Lucy that Leo owned up to his problems, on his own, and most guys they know wouldn’t do that. They both agree that Stephen is the most dangerous guy they know.
The next day Stephen comes to Diana with her paper on the French Revolution and as he puts the paper in her beg, he finds Lucy’s ID in her bag. Questioning her why she has it, Diana invents a cover story, and Stephen isn’t buying the truth to her tale. Stephen is highly combative and awful towards Diana. Telling Diana that Lucy is messing with him, he expands his lie by saying that Lucy intentionally transferred into his class that he is a TA in. (Stephen is his own brand of psycho.)
Stephen knocks on Lucy’s door and hands her the missing ID. Demanding to know what Lucy and Diana were talking about, Stephen thinks that Lucy still cares about him. Approaching her (in a creepy manner), Stephen is unwilling to believe that Lucy doesn’t like him. Her anger and hostility for him is obvious, but she still can’t seem to quit his intoxicating and poisonous persona.
Lucy meets with Diana at her room, and they agree to talk. Insisting that Stephen is really disturbed, Lucy proceeds to tell Diana that Stephen was in the car with Macy last year when she died. She describes to Diana the whole truth about Stephen’s connection to Macy and how he fled the scene of the accident and left her to die. Diana is emotionless to the story and thinks that Lucy is crazy. For the first time, Lucy is content as she leaves because she knows the whole story with Macy is not her problem anymore. Lucy drops the class that Stephen is a TA in and doesn’t care about the incomplete in her academic record. (I’m proud of you Lucy.)
Bree meets with Oliver in the parking lot, and they drive away together. It looks like she is ready to be the mistress to the professor. Lucy goes to see Leo and says that she didn’t give him enough credit for him trying to come and explain to her about what he did. Lucy admits that she feared him and wants to hear him out about what happened in the coffee shop.
Leo describes how he gets angry sometimes, and that he finds that when he gets that angry, he stops thinking and then realizes that he has hurt someone. Leo explains that he doesn’t want this to happen anymore and that he likes Lucy a lot, and if she is willing to give him a chance, he would love to hang out with her more.
Lucy describes how she has been lying to him about her relationship with Stephen last year, and how the relationship caused her to not trust herself or anyone else. She tells Leo that she doesn’t want anyone to make her feel that way again and wonders if she keeps hanging out with Leo, will he be awful to her. Leo assures her he won’t.
Oliver brings Bree to a friend’s house that he is house sitting for, and they instantly kiss. The relationship is picking up between professor and student.
Diana arrives at Stephen’s room, and she wants him to look at her. Stating that she knows him better than anyone, it’s clear that Lucy’s story is getting to Diana. Thinking sex is the answer, Diana knows that Stephen is very dangerous and not to be trusted.
Review:
Just when I thought Lucy couldn’t change my mind, she proves herself to have the ability and the intelligence to get away from a creepy strange man in the form of Stephen. Lucy taking ownership of her life is a great step in her growth, and the fact that she is being honest with Leo is a good sign for the future.
Spencer House’s Wrigley needs more screen time, and I am pleased to see we get the human side to Wrigley as he tries to apologize to Pippa. Giving Sonia Mena the chance to give the whole team a tongue lashing of samurai proportion was brilliant.
Tell Me Lies is getting juicy, and more intrigue is bound to come. What’s going to happen to Chris? Did he rape Pippa? I can’t wait to find out.