Tell Me Lies Season 2 Episode 1 Review: You Got a Reaction, Didn’t You?

Starting off exactly where season one ended, Tell Me Lies Season 2 Episode 1, “You Got a Reaction, Didn’t You?” is a drama-filled first episode to what will undoubtedly become another intense season of the hit Hulu show.

In 2015, seven years after their addictive whirlwind romance ended, Lucy and Stephen are awkwardly forced to face each other and their troubled past at their friends Bree and Evan’s engagement party.

Despite Stephen constantly breaking both her heart and trust last season, Lucy has convinced herself that she’s finally moved past everything she endured during her college years. Unfortunately, she is very quickly proven wrong when she not only finds out Stephen is happily engaged but to her childhood best friend Lydia.

It has yet to be revealed how long this chaotic pair has been engaged, but despite not having that specific detail yet, I can’t get past the fact Stephan brought Lydia to an event he knew Lucy would be at to support her friends.

This shady move on his part furthers my opinion that Stephan will continue to be a top-tier manipulator and a huge red flag to women everywhere throughout this season. From the beginning, Stephan uses his charm to twist Lucy’s opinion of him, and as we see during the episode, he enforces some extreme double standards.

The main one is that despite it being okay for him to move on to a new relationship, whether that be with Diana, Lydia, or someone else, he will do everything in his power to degrade Lucy and deter all other men from her.

I find it amusing that he’s so set on Lucy not finding someone else to be in a relationship with because, in all honesty, since Season 1, I’ve never really seen any chemistry between these two characters.

I can’t quite figure out if it’s the actors that lack connection, since the show does follow a darker and more depressing relationship, or if these characters are just delusional enough to try and make their different personalities work. But overall, Season 2 still isn’t selling me on these two having feelings for each other.

That being said, in the span of one episode, the show is able to introduce a new character, Leo (Thomas Doherty), into Lucy’s college life.

Within that time, these two characters also have off-the-chart sparks. I love how you can clearly see Lucy and Leo’s friendship bloom slowly into something more.

Leo might have been studying abroad in Paris last semester (thus why he didn’t make an appearance in season one), but this semester, he’s proving to Lucy that she can find healthy relationships or even healthy friendships at this college.

I cannot wait to see what this develops into since I’m already a big fan of this pairing, but I’m also excited to see how Stephan deals with this possible relationship.

Stray Thoughts

• I found it strange that Diana wasn’t in the 2015 part of the show, but with a plot twist ending to the first episode, it’s revealed that Diana is now in a secret relationship with Pippa.
• We see Lucy and Evan have a few moments alone, but it’s honestly unclear if either of them told Bree about the fact that they slept together or if it’s still the unresolved awkwardness between the pair.
• I can’t get past the fact that Bree doesn’t seem happy in her relationship with Evan. There are a few possible reasons, one being that she knows he cheated on her with Lucy; another could be that she doesn’t get along with his family (since she’s always quiet and sad when she gets back from trips with them); or something completely different that we’ve yet to find out.
• Tom Ellis is introduced as Oliver, who is Marianne’s husband; he and Bree seem to have a suspicious amount of chemistry for a married man and a college girl in a committed relationship. I’m intrigued to see where this spark goes.

What did you think of this episode of Tell Me Lies? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Tell Me Lies streams Tuesdays at 9/8c on Hulu.

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