Tell Me Lies Season 2 Episode 5 Review: Evil, Ornery, Scandalous, and Evil

It’s 2008, and Halloween has arrived for the students on Tell Me Lies Season 2 Episode 5, “Evil, Ornery, Scandalous, and Evil.”

As scary as the holiday can be, nothing is more terrifying than the drama that constantly finds Lucy and Pippa.

Lucy is finally taking time for herself and learning that it’s possible to enjoy life without being weighed down by toxic people. Getting ready for the big Halloween party, like typical college students, Lucy, Pippa, Leo, and Lydia (Lucy’s best friend since childhood, who came to visit for the weekend) decide to pre-game.

Even though it’s clear that Lucy and Lydia are thick as thieves, it’s difficult to fully enjoy seeing them happy and hanging out together, knowing that in the future, Lydia will ditch Lucy and become Stephen’s fiancée.

Lucy and Leo continue to be the cutest couple on the show by far.

Unfortunately, Chris (Lydia’s brother and the man that tried to rape Pippa) shows up to the pregame party uninvited. Despite the shift in the room’s mood, Pippa, being the people-pleaser she is, brushes off her nerves and assures Lucy everything is fine.

I’ve gained so much respect for Pippa these past two seasons. Despite constantly being dealt horrible cards that would make others want to drop out of school or give up on themselves, Pippa keeps rising above it all. She stays strong and is capable of speaking her mind.

That said, Chris comes off as incredibly annoying and cocky. He tries to compliment Pippa and offers her drinks, which she declines, not wanting to relive their dangerous past.

Lucy helps Pippa by claiming she’s not feeling up for drinking tonight, but, of course, this leads both Chris and Lydia to call Pippa uptight and boring. I guess being a horrible person runs in their family.

Despite all the negativity in her life, we finally see a genuine smile from Pippa when Diana checks in on her multiple times.

I’ll admit, I was usure how these two would become the cute couple they are in the future, but Diana’s constant care and support, despite Pippa not fully trusting her yet, is adorable.

Meanwhile, Lucy, despite finally being in the happy and healthy relationship she deserves with Leo, can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to Stephen and his toxicity.

To be fair to Stephen (though I am rarely on his side), this new drama starts with Lydia confronting him. The issue isn’t just the confrontation but also the fact that Lydia does it in front of his younger sister, Sadie.

Understandably, Sadie wants to stand up for her brother, who’s been the only constant and supportive person she’s had in her life. However, Lucy lashes out at Sadie, claiming she doesn’t know her brother and pities the day she realizes who he truly is — which is a bit of a harsh blow for a teenager to take.

With tensions high, everyone calls it a night before things escalate further. It is probably the first sensible idea of the entire episode.

The next morning, after Sadie explains to Stephen what happened with Lucy, he grabs his shoes and his toxic behaviour to go be a douche. As fate would have it, he runs into Lydia, who is also having a rough morning.

Expecting Stephen to be a jerk, Lydia is surprised when he “apologizes,” not for his behaviour, but for her being friends with Lucy. He twists everything Lucy tells him about her during their relationship, making it seem like Lucy belittles her to her friends.

Even though their friendship seemed unbreakable, Stephen clearly enjoys hurting people and those important to them.

In typical cat-and-mouse fashion, when Lucy finds out what Stephen did, she ups the ante by sending Sadie a voicemail Stephen left her, fully exposing their relationship and how he constantly degraded and gaslit her.

As hard as it was for Sadie, props to her for listening to the voicemail, realizing Stephen is “just like Mom,” and leaving as soon as possible.

It’s only Halloween, and this season is already so much happening. It will be exciting to see what Christmas has in store for us.

Stray thoughts:

• Oliver and Bree take a romantic weekend trip and stay in a hotel out of town. The vibe quickly sours when Oliver realizes Bree told Lucy about them. Now he’s worried about his future and decides they have to stay hidden when they’re together.
• Diana barely passed her LSATs, so she’ll have to stay in school another year and retake the exam. This totally derails Stephen’s plan to use her for her dad’s money and job if she doesn’t graduate with him.

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New episodes of Tell Me Lies stream Wednesdays on Hulu.

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