Summary
Tell Me Lies Season 3 takes the bold step of upending its present-day plot in “Fix Me Up, Girl”, but the new potential angle might be even harder to watch.
Tell Me Lies Season 3 is already darker and more thoughtful than previous seasons, but it still works in more or less the same way. It’s about awful people doing awful things to each other. And the thing about that premise is that it’s pretty adaptable. You need look no further for proof of this than Episode 4, “Fix Me Up, Girl”, which makes the bold step of bringing Stephen’s efforts to sabotage Bree and Evan’s wedding, which have formed the spine of the story for two full seasons, to something resembling a close. And yet in a span of seconds, an even worse possibility reveals itself, and Stephen, who for once seemed to have been totally outplayed, is immediately back in the game.
I hate this show, honestly, but only in the way I’m quite clearly supposed to, which means that on some level it’s truly brilliant. The implication that Wrigley, of all people, might not be quite as unproblematic as I thought is pretty difficult for me to take. The only likeable person in the entire show can’t even be trusted? What a shame.
Anyway, let’s break it all down. There is, as ever, a lot to go over.
Bree and Wrigley, Sitting In A Dorm
I expected this section to be about the lovely, platonic bond that is evolving between Bree and Wrigley, but given the ending of the episode, it can’t really be considered in that light anymore. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
In the meantime, Bree is selected for a special photography exhibit, which is good, but she also runs into Oliver in the corridor, which is very bad. Oliver whisks her into his office to berate her about the photo she sent of herself and Amanda, and while he knows Bree’s bluffing about having told the dean about him creeping on students, he nonetheless takes the opportunity to psychoanalyze and eviscerate her about being needy and insecure. Oliver was already deeply unpleasant, but between his conversation with Evan and now this, he’s beginning to emerge as a more overt villain.
Luckily, Wrigley is on hand to make Bree feel better. He turns up at the dorm looking for Pippa and helps Bree go through her photography portfolio while he waits. He lets her take a photograph of him for the exhibit submissions, and reassures her when she asks whether Evan used to complain about her being insecure and needy. He reminds her that Evan’s still obsessed with her and that even Drew — which it can’t be easy for him to talk about! — was into her. All this, and when Pippa finally arrives, she makes a lame excuse about not being able to spend the night with him because she’s really going to see Diana. Poor Wrigley! But also, maybe not?
Diana’s Predicament
On the subject of Diana, you’ll recall that the previous episode revealed she was pregnant. You’ll also recall that the Season 2 finale showed that she was much smarter than anyone — though especially Stephen — gave her credit for. These two things combine here in Tell Me Lies Season 3, Episode 4, to revealing and slightly satisfying effect.
Diana has booked an abortion, understandably, and the only person who knows about this is Molly, who is now Evan’s booty call, so pretty soon the entire college knows. Stephen is furious that he wasn’t consulted — only Wrigley has the stones to call out how ridiculous the expectation that he would be consulted is, given the context — and immediately confronts Diana in her dorm. He’s clearly seeing this as an opportunity to get back into her dad’s good graces, but Diana isn’t falling for it. She even tells him that she can’t wait to abort his baby and that it’ll be the highlight of her year. Yikes!
Pippa, having heard about the pregnancy, also later asks Diana how she’s feeling about it, and she describes the experience — not for the first time — as “disruptive”. I couldn’t think of a more dispassionate word for a pregnancy, which goes to show how much Diana really does despise Stephen. Her evolving relationship with Pippa is very genuine, though, and their slightly fumbling intimate scenes are well done and form a nice counterpoint with everything going on with Lucy.
Things Are Not Looking Good For Lucy
Lucy, slightly embarrassed about her previous demeaning liaison with Alex, nonetheless meets up with him for a drink. He reassures her in his typically weird, unbothered way, and the conversation quickly turns to Lucy’s fears that she might just be a terrible person at her core. Luckily, an opportunity to prove that she isn’t reveals itself immediately. Max is in the same bar, on a date, and after explaining how badly she treated him, Alex suggests that if she’s serious about not being the person she thinks she is, she should go and apologise to him right now.
She does. And this compels her to have even more weird sex with Alex, who I have to say I’m getting a strange vibe from. Nevertheless, this is the only thing even resembling an upside for Lucy in “Fix Me Up, Girl”. Things quickly take a turn when she’s once again summoned to the dean’s office. This time, Katie and Marianne are there, and Katie, inspired by the knowledge that Lucy was similarly assaulted, is contemplating reopening her case so that Lucy’s story can corroborate hers. Of course, Lucy can’t go along with this, since she was a) lying and b) knows Stephen has proof she was lying, but the bigger irony is Marianne’s ostensibly supportive involvement. Even Lucy is disgusted by that kind of blatant hypocrisy.
Shortly after, a Facebook group called “Chris is a rapist” springs into existence, listing Katie and Lucy as his victims. When Bree tries to comfort Lucy, she has to play along to protect Pippa, whom she was covering for in the first place, and who, understandably, would rather not revisit the issue. Later, at a loss, Lucy goes to see Diana, who advises her to say and do nothing at all in the hopes it’ll all blow over, despite Stephen having recorded Lucy’s confession. Diana’s reaction to this last bit of news is very funny, but she’s also the one person who can relate to how genuinely terrifying Stephen is.
Nobody’s Happily Married
These various events have helped convince Bree that Evan was a much nicer guy than she gave him credit for — she’s oddly unbothered about his loose lips blabbing about Diana’s pregnancy — and she turns up at his dorm for a reconciliation, which brings us to the 2015 timeline for the first time since the premiere.
During Bree and Evan’s first dance, the camera is sure to take in the various reactions: Wrigley (a little jealous, maybe), Stephen (absolutely fuming), and Lucy and Pippa (happy, but increasingly drunk). Stephen’s plan doesn’t seem to have worked. He briefly speaks to Lucy, asking if it’s difficult seeing him and Lydia together after what happened between them that morning, but Lucy laughs and says she feels validated knowing he’ll never change. He then tries to wind Bree up, but she says she’s not the kind of person to let one mistake ruin everything, since that’d be dumb. Stephen has, by all accounts, failed in his mission.
But another opportunity presents itself. Wrigley gets up to dance with Pippa, to whom he says, “I’m just pretending you’re the one I’m still in love with.” Uh-oh! He and Bree are staring at each other across their partner’s shoulders, and it’s pretty obvious that something has been going on between them. Stephen clocks it too and opens Wrigley’s phone, which he stupidly left on the table. When he sees a long list of calls and FaceTimes between Wrigley and Bree, he can’t help but smile. He has a chance to ruin everyone’s lives after all.
