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‘Tell Me Lies’ Aftershow: Grace Van Patten, Jackson White & More Break Down First Season 3 Twists (VIDEO)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Tell Me Lies Season 3, Episodes 1-3.]

We’re back at Baird, and drama is at the top of the syllabus in Tell Me Lies Season 3. Hulu released the first three episodes on January 13, with the third a total surprise to fans.

Before Season 3 returns to all the college chaos, Tell Me Lies picks up at Bree (Cat Missal) and Evan’s (Branden Cook) wedding, right after Bree hears Stephen’s (Jackson White) message that reveals Evan and Lucy’s (Grace Van Patten) college hookup. Bree races out of the room, with Lucy following her into a private area. “I’m a terrible person,” Bree gasps. “I’m probably the worst person you know.”

That’s quite the loaded statement, considering Bree’s in the same friend group as Stephen DeMarco. Missal confirmed to Swooon in the first edition of our Tell Me Lies Aftershow that we will find out why Bree believes that by Season 3’s end.

Disney / Josh Stringer

In the college timeline, Stephen and Lucy are back together, but he still hasn’t forgotten about Evan and Lucy’s one-night stand. He confronts her about it, but Lucy initially denies the tryst. When Lucy realizes she’s been caught, she begs Stephen to forgive her. He doesn’t know if he can. (He definitely can’t.)

“He needs to collect information to weaponize. It’s part of his coping mechanism,” White said. “He doesn’t operate like normal people. I don’t think he’ll change or grow. I don’t think he’s had to. He’s one of those people who doesn’t have any consequences. I think that’s why he’s so hard to watch.”

Stephen puts Lucy through the emotional guillotine, threatening to tell Bree and ruin their friendship. “I want to hurt you, and I don’t know how else to do it,” he admits. In an effort to protect her friendship, Lucy records a video for Stephen where she confesses to lying about being sexually assaulted. Stephen keeps the video to hold yet another secret over Lucy’s head, and they split again.

This toxic cycle of psychological torture leads a fragile Lucy into the beginnings of a downward spiral through Alex (Costa D’Angelo), Bree’s foster home brother. She begs him to tell her she’s “pathetic” and “nothing” as they have sex. Her anxiety and paranoia, exacerbated by Stephen, force her into the darkest and most vulnerable state yet.

“I liked how different it was from the first two seasons, where normally Lucy’s very headstrong and stubborn and kind of justifies her actions, and I think she’s starting to face these consequences,” Van Patten told Swooon. “It’s forcing her to live with herself after what she’s done, and it totally kicks her into feeling shame and not being happy about who she is and who she’s become.”

While he has a tough exterior at first, the morsels of Alex’s past that we get in the first three episodes hint that Alex and Bree’s foster home situation wasn’t a healthy environment. As Lucy embraces her shame spiral, Alex is looking for an outlet as well.

“At first, it’s an agreement, it’s transactional,” D’Angelo says. “We’re both dealing with our trauma through the intimacy, so she’s dealing with whatever she’s dealing with, and so is Alex, and they help each other in that way. And at first, I think it’s healthy. I think it’s this consensual thing where they both kind of got an agreement, but then as it goes on, it’s not that anymore, and it becomes something completely different.”

Disney / Ian Watson

One of the only bright spots at Baird is the bonding between Wrigley (Spencer House) and Bree. After the Decades Party, Wrigley and Bree attempt to walk home together, but they end up at a bus stop. Bree is feeling the effects of MDMA, but Wrigley doesn’t think the drugs have kicked in for him yet. In truly their first one-on-one moment since the show began, Wrigley and Bree open up like they never have before.

Wrigley admits that he feels like he lost his “whole family” after his brother Drew’s death, and he’s exhausted by people trying to manage his grief. In a moment of poignant honesty, Bree tells him that the pain might never get better. He appreciates her candidness after everyone, including Pippa (Sonia Mena), has been walking on eggshells around him. Bree and Wrigley both share a mutual loneliness, which they both recognize in that moment.

They fall asleep at the bus stop together and wake up the next morning a little dazed and confused, but there’s been a shift.

“I think for Bree, at least, she’s so vulnerable in this stage. She’s been kind of wrecked by Oliver, and she feels really alone. All of her friends are in weird situations, relationships themselves, and Wrigley is just someone that… They’ve never really even talked, spoken, never even really exchanged words. I think the connection really comes as a surprise to both of them, and the drugs definitely help, but they just lean in and they get to talking. I think there’s something shared between the both of them, a kind of knowing, a kind of maybe darkness that they can’t necessarily share with anyone else, and they feel comfortable sharing that with each other.”

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Get to Know New 'Tell Me Lies' Star Costa D’Angelo

The biggest shock of Tell Me Lies Season 3 — so far — is Diana’s (Alicia Crowder) pregnancy reveal at the end of Episode 3. Yes, Diana’s pregnant with Stephen’s baby.

“I’ve been saying that the writers never cease to surprise me,” Crowder admitted. “The stuff that they come up with is just so nuts, but also so fun, and it’s just really interesting stuff that our characters get to go through. I was really surprised. I think it’s gonna be totally unexpected because Diana, I think, is so careful about everything.”

Watch the full video above for more details on the first three episodes from the cast.

What did you think of the first three episodes of Tell Me Lies Season 3? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Tell Me Lies, Season 3, Tuesdays, Hulu