Tell us the truth: Are you addicted to Tell Me Lies? Then you, like the Hulu drama’s many other fans, have been anxious for Season 2’s debut.
Based on Carola Lovering’s novel of the same name, Tell Me Lies follows the toxic relationship between college students Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen DeMarco (Jackson White) and how it upends the lives of their friends.
With Season 2 premiering on September 4, check out this recap of Season 1 and see what we already know about the forthcoming episodes.
When is Tell Me Lies Season 2 coming out?
The first two episodes of Season 2 will premiere September 4 on Hulu. Following the premiere week, one episode will be released weekly on Wednesdays.
What happened in Season 1?
Freshman Lucy and junior Stephen met during Welcome Week at Baird College in September 2007. He asks her out, but before they can have a proper date, Lucy’s roommate, Macy (Lily McInerny), is killed in a car accident. Meanwhile, Stephen reconnects with his ex-girlfriend Diana (Alicia Crowder). He learns Drew (Benjamin Wadsworth), the younger brother of his best friend Wrigley (Spencer House), witnessed the car crash that killed Macy. Stephen tells Lucy’s friend Pippa (Sonia Mena) that.
Disney / Josh Stringer
Meanwhile, Stephen and Lucy talk about exclusivity, but Lucy hooks up with a bartender, and Stephen talks to Diana about them getting back together. We see Stephen looking at intimate photos of Macy, and they also had an intimate relationship before her death.
As Lucy begins to suspect that Stephen is seeing other people, her friend Bree (Catherine Missal) connects with Evan (Branden Cook), Stephen’s roommate and Bree’s future fiancé.
Over Christmas break, we see Stephen and Lucy’s complicated home lives. His mother is troubled, while Lucy’s mom is stable but distant. In fact, Lucy believes her mom was cheating on her dying father. After a memorial for Macy, Lucy finds that Macy had a drawing of a flower that looked just like the one Stephen gave Lucy.
As the next semester starts, Lucy confronts Stephen about Macy. He confesses that they were friends with benefits, he was in the car when she died, and Drew witnessed the crash in another car and left. Stephen also breaks things off with Diana again, saying that he’s not over her years-old hookup with Wrigley.
At a weekend getaway at a lake house, Evan accidentally lets it slip to the friend group that Bree grew up in the foster system, but that flub doesn’t matter much — they still hook up. Meanwhile, Lucy thinks about telling Macy’s parents that Drew was the driver who caused the crash.
Pippa, despite her romantic relationship with Wrigley, ends up making out with Charlie (Zoe Renee), Lucy’s new roommate. Meanwhile, Lucy and Stephen bicker about Diana — who was at the “I love you” stage with Stephen during their relationship, as Lucy learns — and about Wrigley and Drew. Lucy eventually drops an anonymous note about the crash in the dean’s mailbox, blaming Drew for what happened to Macy.
Disney / Josh Stringer
The school launches an investigation into Macy’s death, and a paranoid Drew asks Stephen if he told anyone else about Drew’s involvement. Stephen doesn’t say he told Lucy and instead suggests Pippa was the snitch. Lucy does her fair share of lying, though, offering an alibi for Stephen by saying he was with her the night Macy died. Lucy tearfully confesses to Stephen that she wrote the letter… and he finally says he loves her.
In a season finale flashback to Macy’s death, we see that Stephen and Macy had a booty call that fateful night, and he was the one driving Macy’s car during the accident. Stephen hid his involvement by putting Macy’s body in the driver’s seat and deleting their text messages.
Despite Lucy going to great lengths to protect Stephen, he screws her over so he can get a solid summer internship. He decides to get back together with Diana and flaunt their reunion at the end-of-year party—in front of Lucy. She drowns her heartbreak in alcohol and winds up sleeping with Evan. Since Stephen still resents Wrigley for sleeping with Diana way back when, he lets Wrigley believe Pippa wrote the letter.
In the future, at Evan and Bree’s engagement party, we see that Stephen is engaged to Lydia (Natalee Linez), Lucy’s best friend from high school.
What’s in store for Season 2?
Hulu renewed Tell Me Lies for a second season in November 2022, and the new season will feature many new faces. Lucifer alum Tom Ellis, the real-life husband of showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer, plays a Baird professor named Oliver. His “tough love attitude makes him an intimidating presence that isn’t appreciated by all students” and whose “influence will have chaotic repercussions” for one of the students, per Deadline.
Disney / Josh Stringer
Gossip Girl alum Thomas Doherty will play a Baird junior named Leo, who becomes drawn to Lucy after returning from a year abroad.
Ahead of Season 2, TV Insider spoke with Oppenheimer about what lies ahead for Stephen, Lucy, and the rest of the crew. Even though he’s with Diana, Stephen is not going to let Lucy just move on.
“I think that in the beginning of the season, I think he’s planning to let it go, and then when he sees that she doesn’t care, or at least she’s pretending not to, it’s just his ego can’t handle that,” she revealed. “He doesn’t need to be with someone, but he needs to be on their mind. It’s just the classic I want what I can’t have. I think he’s also just someone who, obviously, holds a grudge. He can’t let it go.”
Lucy obviously broke girl code by hooking up with Bree’s boyfriend at the end of last semester. Will Bree learn the truth? Oppenheimer teased that there will be a “massive impact and fallout from what he [Evan] did with Lucy, and it sets her [Bree] on a path that is incredibly destructive and emotional and unexpected for Bree. It certainly is the catalyst for most of what happens to her this season, even though she’s not in control of it.”
Is there a Season 2 trailer?
Hulu released the official trailer for Tell Me Lies Season 2 on August 8 and teased the war between Lucy and Stephen once school starts again. When Stephen pushes Lucy too far, she vows to destroy his life if he’s not careful. Lucy starts to move on with Leo, but Stephen refuses to let her have peace. Watch the full trailer above.
Tell Me Lies, Season 2, September 4, Hulu