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‘Tell Me Lies’: Breaking Down Stephen & Diana’s Fight and the Line That Was Nearly Cut (VIDEO)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Tell Me Lies Season 3 Episode 4, “Fix Me Up, Girl.”]

All is fair in hate for your ex and war. Episode 4 of Tell Me Lies Season 3 featured Diana (Alicia Crowder) and Stephen’s (Jackson White) most intense showdown yet, and a barbed line so razor-sharp that we’re positive it will live in Stephen’s head rent-free for the rest of his life. (Thank you for that, Diana.)

The post-college timeline took us to Bree (Cat Missal) and Evan’s (Branden Cook) reception, and a certain moment on the dance floor, one very heavy on the yearning, will have the internet reeling. As this was happening, Stephen made a shocking discovery and confirmed the identity of Bree’s mystery caller. In the latest edition of our Tell Me Lies Aftershow, the cast and showrunner/executive producer Meaghan Oppenheimer dig into Episode 4’s juiciest and most shocking moments.

Let’s start with Diana and Stephen. Courtesy of Evan, Stephen finds out that Diana is pregnant and planning to have an abortion. Stephen believes he has a right to Diana’s decision about the pregnancy. (Evan agrees with him, while liberal king Wrigley (Spencer House) thinks it’s Diana’s choice). When Stephen confronts Diana, she has no problem telling him that she’s made her decision and nothing will change her mind.

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Stephen brings up mentioning the pregnancy to her dad, believing that it’ll mend their relationship. Diana is furious that Stephen wants to use a baby to get back into her dad’s good graces. She stresses that her relationship with her dad is just fine and lobs the line of the season right at him: “And honestly, Stephen, I am so excited to abort your baby. It’s gonna be the highlight of my year. I cannot f**king wait.”

When we brought up our reaction to Diana’s delivery of that line, Oppenheimer revealed, “I’m so glad you like that line because I was asked to take it out more than once.”

Crowder admitted that this battle between Diana and Stephen “changes things” because her “biggest f**k-up of the season is coming at him like that.” She added, “She does the thing that she spends the rest of the season telling Lucy not to do. She comes at him, and I think she successfully hurts him.” The actress noted that, as soon as she does just that, she has “immediate regret” because Stephen will inevitably retaliate.

Oppenheimer pointed out that Diana had finally realized you “cannot win with someone like Stephen… Any more time is wasted time. And I think having Diana understand that and Lucy not was important.”

In the midst of her Stephen drama, Diana and Pippa (Sonia Mena) take the next step in their secret relationship. (Let’s hope Stephen doesn’t find out about those two.)

Meanwhile, after the first three episodes, fans immediately picked up on the chemistry between Bree and Wrigley. Episode 4 confirmed something’s gone down between them, as evidenced by the way they couldn’t keep their eyes off each other while dancing with other people on the dance floor.

Turns out, House has known about the possibility of Bree and Wrigley developing feelings for each other since the start of the show. “I knew it in the beginning,” he said, before pointing out that his first line in the show is, “I’m stealing your wife.”

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Oppenheimer told Swooon that this new Bree and Wrigley dynamic was “always on the table as something that could happen. There are a lot of ideas that don’t end up going, but this was something that was on the table. But it just was very clear to me after Season 2 that it made the most sense that these two people would connect because of where we leave both of them… It was also exciting because they’ve never had a scene alone together before this season.”

While we don’t know the extent of what’s happened between Bree and Wrigley, that yearning is on full display at the reception. The pining is so obvious that Stephen clocks it, then goes through Wrigley’s phone, discovering all the calls and FaceTime videos Wrigley has made to Bree.

This is also confirmation that Wrigley is Bree’s mystery caller. As for what Stephen is going to do with this newfound information, White teases, “He’s gonna weaponize it. He’s gonna hold on to it. He keeps secrets. He feeds off of secrets, and he’s going to unleash it in a bloody manner.”

Tell Me Lies, Season 3, Tuesdays, Hulu