TV Recap: ‘Tell Me Lies’ Season 2, Episode 5 [+ Commentary] Drama Is Brewing Over Halloweekend

It’s Halloween at Baird College and viewers were in for lots of tricks and treats in the Tell Me Lies 5th episode of season 2 called “Evil, Ornery, Scandalous, and Evil.” By the end of the episode, I was so mad, so annoyed, but touched by the events that went down. This is what this show is about. Stirring up an array of emotions that you’ll still be analyzing by the time the credits roll. As the kids would say, we’re so back! Let’s get into episode 5.

The show opens with Diana dressed as Marie Antoinette, I believe, and she’s crying in the library. We don’t know yet what has her so upset, but she wipes her tears and pushes through. She runs into Pippa, dressed as Lady Gaga, having trouble with a printer. Diana takes the time to help. Pippa tells Diana about what Wrigley said about the football team and for them to leave her alone. They laugh about being more mature than the boys they are surrounded by and from the camera angles you can tell Pippa is checking her out and really starting to see her in a new light. In Marianne’s class Bree gets a text and rushes out bumping into a classmate name Caitie. A small encounter but will be important later. Marianne pulls Lucy aside and informs her she can’t join a class for next semester because of her low GPA. Lucy is puzzled why it’s so low until Marianne talks to her about a class she dropped. It’s the class she left because of crazy ass Stephen and Lucy gives Marianne a brief rundown of what a “fucking asshole” Stephen is. Marianne, clearly a mentor figure for Lucy at this point, says she will work on helping her fix her GPA and that this Halloween she’ll be alone cause her husband, Oliver, is out of town. Lucy looks on wearily knowing Bree and Oliver are having an affair. Lucy quickly leaves because she’s expecting Lydia, who is visiting for the weekend. Lucy tells Lydia about how dropping the class because of Stephen has messed up her GPA and Lydia tries to offer some support and says she hopes they run into him this weekend so she can start some mess. Obviously, Lucy is over the situation, wants nothing to do with Stephen and is ready to move on. Good girl.

Lucy goes to Bree’s dorm room to introduce Lydia to her. Bree is packing and says it’s for a last-minute trip with her foster sister until she reveals Oliver got them a hotel room. She lied to Lucy because she didn’t want to make her uncomfortable and says she’s never been to a hotel with a guy except for Evan over the summer and that he probably only took her because he was guilty of cheating. Lucy went ahead and shut her mouth after that because she knows exactly who he is guilty of cheating with. HER. Lucy promises not the tell Pippa. This weekend is definitely popping at Baird. Stephen’s little sister Sadie is also visiting and is staying in Diana’s room. Stephen is freaking about the LSAT scores being posted until he sees he got a 174, which is really good. Diana says she did OK too, but she really didn’t and said she barely broke 150. That’s why she was crying at the start of the episode. Diana thinks her low score is because of personal stress and that she probably won’t be able to apply to law school this year and go with/live with Stephen like they planned. He’s stunned.

Oliver and Bree arrive at their hotel rendezvous and Oliver attempts to order wine for the room, but Bree wants to be shown off and go to the bar downstairs. Back on campus, Lucy, Leo, Pippa, and Lydia are dressed and pre gaming for a Halloween party. I know Lucy is Britney Spears, everyone else, I’m clueless. Leo and Lucy are being cutesy, and Lydia takes the opportunity to tell Leo Lucy shat her pants one Halloween and that she’s one of Lucy’s boyfriend’s she approves of. Someone pointed out online that Lydia is a low key hater, and I agree. Why would you try to embarrass your friend in front of her dude. Frenemy vibes. Chris joins the pregame dressed as freaking PATRICK BATEMAN and the air left the room. Pippa is uncomfortable and Lucy insists she didn’t know he was joining them. Again, Pippa is not ready to deal with what happened between her and Chris and doesn’t want to make a fuss.

At the Halloween party, Stephen, Diana, and Sadie link up with Wrigley and Evan – who is still seeing Molly. Sadie asks if Molly is his girlfriend, and Evan is confused by everyone assuming that. Yet he’s doing boyfriend things like cooking her breakfast after a hookup and having regular sex. Diana notices Chris and Pippa coming to the party together and she looks concerned. Elsewhere at the party, Pippa, Lucy, Leo, and Lydia are making drinks and Chris hands one to Pippa. She doesn’t drink it and brushes it off like she’s not in the mood to drink. We know why she didn’t take it, and I wouldn’t drink anything Chris handed me either.

Back at the hotel and down at the bar, Bree uses a fake ID to try to get a drink. It’s obviously not Bree, but the bartender still serves her after looking at the pair offended about something. Bree asks about Marianne and Oliver’s first wife. He answers questions about Marianne but doesn’t want to talk about his first wife. Bree lets it slip that she told Lucy about her affair with Oliver, and he’s pissed saying Lucy isn’t trustworthy. And isn’t. Bree and Oliver have a little spat about the risk of them being together and Bree goes on about not having no one to talk to about Oliver. Umm, Bree you’re a side chick, you tell NO ONE. The bartender makes a snide comment about taking Bree somewhere that doesn’t card next time, and he gives her a death stare before aggressively kissing Bree in front of her. I’m still not sure what that’s about. Maybe it’s some sort of indicator of how Oliver really feels about women, especially those who challenge him.

The Halloween party is still going on when Lydia spots Stephen. She goes over to call him out for treating Lucy like trash in front of Diana and Sadie. She says the way he was acting he could have at least been better looking calling him a “fucking thumb.” Lydia really was a IRL Twitter feed at that moment. Sadie questions if he was really that bad and Diana tells her Lucy stalked him after Stephen tried to end things nicely. LIES. Lydia, so proud of herself, tells Lucy what she did, but Lucy doesn’t want the drama. Lydia even goes on to blurt out about Lucy punching her ex-boyfriend in front of Leo, who if we recall, Lucy made a big deal about him physically assaulting someone. Chris shows up and Lucy is annoyed. Diana and Pippa have another moment because they both are not having a good time at the party. Sadie’s shoe of choice is causing her problems, so she asks Stephen to go get her sneakers. Stephen and Evan oblige. Pippa is bothered by Chris being around, so she asks Wrigley if he wants to leave with her.

At the dorm, Stephen and Evan talk about Sadie and how different she turned out growing up around Stephen and her dysfunctional mom. Evan misses Bree and is taking any time he can to talk about it. In Pippa’s room, Wrigley and Pippa are sharing candy and their innermost thoughts. Wrigley hasn’t talked to Drew and has no idea what to do after college. Pippa confesses about not really hating pink Starburst and only said that because Wrigley likes them, and she wanted to be low maintenance. Pippa further says she didn’t like Wrigley’s massages, she hates sports, and she faked all her orgasms with him. I will say I like that these two are becoming friends and healing from what happened last year. Wrigley asks if Pippa slept with anyone since him and honestly she can’t answer because she doesn’t know what happened with Chris. Sad. Pippa asks him to spend the night because she hasn’t been sleeping well and he agrees joking her life is a mess without him.

Back to the party and Lucy is looking for Pippa. Chris say she left and makes weird comments about her next to Lydia. Lucy is annoyed. Sadie comes up and tells Lucy that her brother is actually a good person, but Lucy has no idea who she is. When she finds out Sadie is talking about Stephen, Lucy tries to walk away, but Lydia, drunk?, is feeding into the drama. Like you’re about to start some mess then you get to go home. Shut up!

Lucy tells Sadie she was Stephen’s girlfriend for a year even though Sadie never heard of her. She goes further to say that Stephen is a liar and manipulator and that she’ll find out about him. Diana is disgusted that Lucy would tell Sadie that. Lydia is loving the mess. The next morning, Bree is happy to wake up next to Oliver. He compliments her photography, and they order room service. Oliver is comfortable in his nudity and Bree remarks that she didn’t get to properly do female upkeep. Oliver says he doesn’t mind the body hair and Bree questions if there is anything else he’d like her to do. My girl Bree is in over her head with this affair. She’s getting way too involved, and I’m going to need her to slow her roll. Also, I still find the Oliver and Bree story line boring so I’m going to need something shaken up here. A fan theory online talked about how they think Oliver does this student affair thing often and that would be interesting to watch unfold. This show is called Tell Me Lies so I think everyone has something to hide.

Lucy goes to see Pippa in the morning to grab her for breakfast and sees Wrigley coming out. Pippa tells Lucy they are just friends and Lucy seems to approve. In Lucy’s dorm, Lydia is on the phone and looking at a laptop. When Lucy and Pippa enter Lydia shows them Caitie’s Facebook page, the girl in Lucy and Bree’s writing class. Lucy says she’s “kinda weird” and that’s all Lydia needed to hear. Lydia says Caitie “hooked up” with Chris, then later sent an email saying he raped her and that she was drugged. Knowing what happened to Pippa, Lucy wants to know more details about what happened. Lydia is defending her brother and upset that Lucy isn’t. Pippa leaves to let them talk and Lydia also eventually leaves to cool off.

In Stephen’s dorm, Diana and Stephen are talking about what she will do next because her low LSAT score. Basically, she’ll have to wait a year to apply to Yale and asks if Stephen would wait for her further insinuating her dad would only help him career wise if they are a package deal. Diana gets the email about Chris’s allegations when Wrigley walks in. Stephen questions him about where he slept, and he says Pippa’s. Stephen is questioning why he would associate with a girl that ruined Drew’s life and Wrigley told him to fuck off. That’s Stephen’s problem. Not enough people in his life are telling him that. Why do they all cower to him? Sadie informs Stephen that she met Lucy and that Tell Me Lies theme music started playing so you know something juicy was about to happen. Stephen questions Sadie about the encounter and you can literally see the screws loosening in Stephen’s mind as he thinks about how to antagonize Lucy.

Stephen then blows up Lucy’s phone and she doesn’t answer. While doing that Stephen runs into Lydia and spews all this very detailed trash talk Lucy told Stephen I’m sure in confidence and then compliments her looks. Here Stephen goes with manipulation tactics. I’m just itching to know how Lydia went from calling Stephen a thumb to being his fiancé and hating Lucy. Lucy checks her phone and listens to a nasty voicemail Stephen left when Lydia returns. Lucy and Lydia get into it because of the stuff Stephen said. This is where their rift started.

This entire episode was like a game of chess. Especially between Lucy and Stephen. They were going jab for jab, and it reminded me of the essence of season 1 where it was just so much happening in every episode that left my blood boiling. Lucy did her big one by sending Sadie the vile voicemail Stephen left her. Sadie is bothered because he sounded just like their mother. We know how off her rocker that lady is from season 1. Of course, Stephen tries to explain it away, but that message was effective. Oliver drops Bree back to campus and he promises they will do it again soon. Pillow talk with Leo, Lucy talks about how she was last year and that he wouldn’t have liked her then. He jokes about her “violent past” and they share a laugh. Leo is just too perfect, so I know something he’s lying about is going to come to surface. I’m going to be sick when that happens.

Closing out the episode, Diana goes to Pippa’s dorm. Pippa is in the midst of touching up her roots and Diana offers to help. It becomes clear that Diana is checking on Pippa after the email about Chris went out, but unlike Lucy she knows how to read the room and doesn’t pressure Pippa to talk about the whole Chris situation. Diana might be on the fast track to becoming my favorite character this year with a commendable arch. I also see why Diana and Pippa became a thing and I look forward to more of their relationship unfolding.

New episodes of Tell Me Lies airs Wednesdays on Hulu.

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Photo: Hulu