This article contains major spoilers for One of Us Is Lying season 1, episode 8, “One of Us Is Dead”, including the One of Us Is Lying ending.
One of Us Is Lying is a classic locked-room whodunit spliced with a teen drama, and while it lacks some of the character depth that helped to make its source material memorable, it does a pretty decent job of transplanting the mystery across to eight binge-able episodes. Revolving around four high school students who find themselves murder suspects when a fifth dies in detention, everyone has secrets and motives aplenty, so let’s unpack who killed Simon Kelleher and why.
Simon is a gossipmonger, and openly runs a blog called About That which frequently disseminates closely guarded secrets about his fellow students. In the flagrantly Breakfast Club-inspired setup, Simon, along with four other students, is given detention. But Simon never leaves. Since everyone present had a reason to kill him, any one of them could have done it, and all of them are lying about one thing or another.
A lot of this comes down to the secrets that the Bayview Four are protecting. Bronwyn, the straight-A student, had cheated on a test, and also threatened Simon because of his relationship with her sister, Maeve. Star athlete Cooper was hiding the fact that he was gay. Cheerleader Maddy was hiding the fact she had cheated on her jock boyfriend Jake with his friend TJ. And bad boy Nate was dealing drugs, as well as keeping secrets about his parentage, which it’s implied Simon knew about.
Simon’s only ally, or so it seems at first, was his best friend Janae, who initially suspects the Bayview Four but begins to help them when she realizes someone else was involved. For a while, it seems like it might be the detention teacher, Mrs. Avery, whom Simon was blackmailing over coercing Addy’s friend Vanessa into an abortion, but while she was involved – she helped to get the Bayview Four into detention in the first place – she wasn’t complicit in what actually happened to Simon.
One of Us Is Lying ending
So, what did happen to Simon? Well, his intention was to almost die and then be revived by someone with a spare EpiPen. He had a severe peanut allergy and knew he could trigger it to terrify everyone present. However, he had devised this sick prank with Jake, and Jake, partly to cover up his own involvement but also to get revenge on Addy for cheating on him, removed the EpiPens from the nurse’s office. Simon had tainted his own water with peanut oil but had brought along a healthy supply of life-saving EpiPens. He didn’t intend to kill himself.
Jake, then, killed Simon and took over his blog after his death.
Eventually, the Bayview Four put the pieces together and realize Jake was Simon’s accomplice, but when they try to steal Simon’s Xbox, which Jake had taken after his death since it contained damning evidence against him, he pulls a gun on them. After a scuffle, one of the Bayview Four – though it isn’t revealed who – shot Jake, and they all covered up what happened to him.
In an obvious setup for season 2, One Of Us Is Lying ends with the Bayview Four receiving texts threatening to reveal what they did to Jake.
You can stream One of Us Is Lying season 1, episode 8, “One of Us Is Dead”, on Netflix.
