SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from the first two episodes of “Tell Me Lies” Season 2, “You Got a Reaction, Didn’t You?” and “I Shall Now Perform a 180 Flip-Flop.” Both episodes are now streaming on Hulu.
“Tell Me Lies” is officially returning — and the drama from Season 1 doesn’t hold a flame to what’s to come. In the first two episodes, which feature both the 2008 storyline and the 2015 flash-forward, everyone returns to college. Stephen (Jackson White) and Diana (Alicia Crowder) are still together after her dad gave him a job for the summer, but he’s immediately up to his old ways and harassing Lucy (Grace Van Patten), even joining one of her classes as a T.A. While Lucy, who spent the summer with Lydia (Natalee Linez) and her brother Chris (Jacob Rodriguez), is telling everyone she’s put Stephen and his drama behind her, it’s still eating away at her.
She attempts to move on with Leo (Thomas Doherty), but he has some struggles of his own. Meanwhile, at college, Pippa (Sonia Mena) feels more alone than ever since the entire football team is freezing her out, blaming her for Wrigley’s (Spencer House) injury. Then, during a party, she seemingly is assaulted by Lydia’s brother, Chris. Luckily, Diana comes into the room of a party and finds her half-dressed in bed and unconscious while he’s in the bathroom; Diana and Lucy put their differences aside long enough to get Pippa safely back to campus.
Bree (Catherine Missal), on the other hand, has found herself in hot water. After learning that Evan (Branden Cook) cheated on her last year — he said it was a random girl, not revealing it was Lucy — she starts flirting with a new man: a professor at school who is 45 years old and married to Lucy’s teacher Marianne. At the end of the second episode, she breaks up with Evan and goes to see Oliver, engaging in some intense making out in his office!
Still, in the 2015 timeline, she’s set to marry Evan — so only time will tell how they find their way back to one another.
Speaking of that timeline, the flash-forward reveals what Pippa has been up to. Although she tells her friends she’s not involved in anything series, she’s actually lying; she’s in a relationship with Diana. Additionally, while at the engagement party, Lydia tells Lucy that she’ll never forgive her for what she’s done.
Variety caught up with showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer to break down the many bombshells that dropped during the first two episodes.
Let’s start with the end of episode 1: Pippa and Diana are together at the time of Evan and Bree’s wedding! When did you decide that would be the future?
We hadn’t started the writer’s room for Season 2. I got that idea because I was just thinking, Diana’s the one person we haven’t seen in 2015. Where is she? I also knew that Pippa was being secretive about her love life. I loved the idea so much, because these two people are such outsiders in different ways. I think it could be really beautiful to see these two girls find each other when they’re both kind of at rock bottom, which they are over the course of the season. And I didn’t tell Hulu until we handed in the first script. I just wanted them to be surprised.
Alicia Crowder as Diana
Disney
Of course, we start to see their friendship develop after the sexual assault in episode 2. How did you come up with what you would and wouldn’t show in that scene in the bedroom at the party?
I knew early on that I didn’t want to show a lot of the assault. In my opinion, it’s hard to do that without, in some way, exploiting the actress. It just feels icky to me. We also wanted to leave it slightly ambiguous about how far the assault had gone. I decided that I wanted Sonia to kind of decide that. I said, “Definitely something happened, some kind of physical something, and how far you think that went is what makes sense.” Only that character knows for sure. I think it was just very delicate, and because it wasn’t the central story, I felt like if we showed anything too graphic or said she was absolutely raped, it felt like it would be disrespectful to the subject matter to make it a small story. It’s a big story, but it’s just one of many stories within the show.
What kind of conversations did you guys have in the room about how Pippa would act the day after the assault?
We talked a lot about the time period. All of the female writers in the room were in college at this time. Unfortunately, we didn’t have to consult an expert, because all of us are experts in it. Anyone who has a vagina — or even doesn’t… it’s just something that happens to most women, especially at that time when the conversations around consent were completely different. So we talked a lot about our college experiences, things that had happened to our friends and to us, and what those reactions had been. One story was about a girl who had accused someone of rape, and they didn’t believe her. She ended up carrying around her mattress all semester as a fuck you, basically, refusing to be silent about it. And that’s one reaction.
Pippa is so worried about what people think of her already. It’s one of her biggest struggles. So many people are just ashamed and embarrassed. The idea that she wouldn’t want her friends to be seeing her in that way, it felt like the most authentic reaction based on what we all knew from our own experiences. Also, at that time, it wouldn’t have been considered rape by a lot of people. If you were a girl who got drunk and you didn’t remember what happened, you just had sloppy sex. So there’s a degree where she’s telling herself nothing happened because she’s not sure if something bad did happen. She knows her gut feels wrong, but she doesn’t know that she’s allowed to feel bad about it.
Unfortunately, the conversations we have now were not being had in 2008.
It’s been really interesting because our cast are about 10 years younger than all of us in the writer’s room. It’s been so clear, doing sex scenes with them, how different the conversation around consent is. I remember last year, the first sex scene we did with Jackson and Alicia, she said, “Stop.” She’s not feeling attacked or threatened, but she’s changing her mind. And Jackson was like, “If this happens in real life, I am immediately [out].” He kind of had a problem with the fact that he didn’t immediately stop and step away. And I was like, “It’s 2008, it’s just different.” It’s so great that it’s improved.
Absolutely. So Season 1 overall showed a lot of sex. How does Season 2 compare in that department?
Season 1, we were experiencing the sexual awakening of Lucy and her falling in love with the way that this guy can make her body feel, and experiencing good sex for the first time. So we had to draw the audience in, in that way, and it had to be sexier. We’re experiencing that with Lucy. I think this year, the sex scenes — some of them were more negative sex scenes and some of them were just more emotionally complicated, so it didn’t need to be sexy in that way.
Tom Ellis as Oliver
Disney
Speaking of sex, there’s a big affair this season! Tom Ellis joined this season as Oliver, the teacher who has an affair with Bree. He also happens to be your husband in real life. How did this casting happen?
It’s funny, because I did not initially have him in my head. I knew it was gonna be Marianne’s (Gabriella Pession) husband, but it was someone else who pitched Tom. At first, I was like, that’s crazy. He’s not going to want to do it. And then I couldn’t get it out of my head. I talked to the writers about it, and they liked it. So after he asked what the character was, he got excited about it!
Why do you feel like he’s the right actor to portray Oliver?
Tom is quite dreamy, some would say. He’s so likable on screen, and I think it needed to be someone that has an element of wish fulfillment about them. I wanted the audience to get caught up in the excitement and the romance of it in the beginning of the season, like Bree does — before we start to show the little moments of ugliness. Obviously, he’s a married 45-year-old. It’s bad from the start. But we needed someone who kind of makes the audience fall in love with them. He did such a great job and I was excited to see him do something very different than what he had done before because I think normally he’s much friendlier. This is a much colder, more reserved character who withholds affection as a tool of manipulation. Also, it made me feel very safe, the idea of him being there, because in casting some older actor, you never know who you’re going to get. It’s such a delicate storyline. It’s a lot to ask of Cat, and with Tom, I just knew we’re bringing a good guy in. He’s safe, he’s friendly, he is so respectful, and he already knew the cast.
New episodes of “Tell Me Lies” drop on Wednesdays on Hulu.
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