How the Tell Me Lies Season 3 Premiere Resolves Season 2’s Wedding Suspense

This article contains spoilers for “Tell Me Lies” Season 3 Episode 1, “You F***ed It, Friend.”

“Tell Me Lies,” showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer’s Hulu drama based on the novel of the same name by Carola Lovering, focuses on Impulsive but kind-hearted Lucy Albright by Grace van Patten and the man who torments her at college and beyond, Stephen DeMarco, generationally toxic boyfriend (played by Jackson White, van Patten’s real-life partner). So what about that cliffhanger from the end of season 3 that concerns Lucy, Stephen, Lucy’s best friend Bree (Cat Missal), and Bree’s future husband Evan (Branden Cook)?

What Oppenheimer does wonderfully throughout the series (including its third season, which dropped its first three episodes on January 13) is expand Lovering’s scope beyond Lucy and Stephen, letting characters like their in-universe friends Bree, Evan, Diana (Alicia Crowder), Wrigley (Spencer House), and Pippa (Sonia Mena) take center stage alongside the show’s two leads. Bree’s story is incredibly fascinating, maybe that’s why it got the cliffhanger.

At the end of season 2, Stephen, a maniacal demon determined to ruin everyone’s lives no matter the cost, sends a recording to Bree just before she and Evan get married (the series takes place across two timelines, one taking place during the gang’s tenure at fictional Baird College in the late 2000s and the other during Bree and Evan’s marriage in 2015). As Bree stands in her wedding dress with her bridesmaids Lucy and Pippa at her side, she listens as Evan confesses that one drunken night at college he cheated on Bree… with Lucy. That’s the last thing we see in Season 2, and surprisingly, Bree walks down the aisle at the end of the Season 3 premiere “You F***ed It, Friend.”

Again, given that Meaghan Oppenheimer expands the world already created by Carola Lovering, I have ample opportunity to explore Bree’s life and story, and I admit that there are times when I almost I wish the series was all about Bree. (I say “almost” because Grace van Patten and Jackson White are so excellent as Lucy and Stephen that I understand exactly why they are the center of attention.) Throughout the first two seasons, we see Bree as she tentatively enters into a relationship with Evan (alongside fleeting liaisons with other students, including Drew, Wrigley’s brother, played by Benjamin Wadsworth), but in season 2, Bree takes a huge risk. After breaking up with Evan for cheating on her, unaware that he slept with Lucy, she begins going on a date with Professor Oliver, who is married to Baird (the star of “Lucifer” and Oppenheimer’s real husband, Tom Ellis), despite the fact that it is an absolutely terrible idea.

I bring this up because every character on “Tell Me Lies” is, true to the title, a total, stinking liar, and Bree is not exempt even though she is ultimately the most “innocent” person on the show on the surface. Bree hasn’t had an easy life; we learn that before meeting Pippa and Lucy at Baird, she bounced between host families and really struggled with that experience, and seeking a relationship with a married man who is also a teacher at her school shows that she may not have the best grasp of proper relationships. Plus, Oliver and Bree’s “relationship” means that Bree is also keeping secrets, creating plenty of absolutely delicious drama for the remainder of Season 3.

It’s remarkable and frankly bold that Meaghan Oppenheimer resolved this cliffhanger in the Season 3 premiere of “Tell Me Lies,” because it sets the stage for so much that will happen throughout the third season’s eight episodes. Not only does Bree walk down that aisle and marry Evan, but she also says something weird and surprising to Lucy before her, saying she made a “mistake” – without further details – but she does direct eye contact with Stephen as she walks over to marry Evan, defiant in her decision and clear-eyed as she clearly telegraphs to Stephen that his meddling hasn’t worked for once.

Still, what does Bree’s admission to Lucy mean at the start of the premiere, and what about her relationship with Oliver? Wrigley also reveals to Evan, in the college timeline, that the “old man” Bree was briefly seeing – that’s what Evan calls him – was also married, and the fact remains that Oliver and his wife Marianne (Gabriella Pession), also a professor at Baird, are both aware of Bree and Oliver’s affair. Secrets on this show rarely stay secret, and Bree should know that after watching her friends’ secrets get aired like dirty laundry. It’s easy to assume that Evan and Lucy’s situation or Bree and Oliver’s affair will come to light and destroy everything. But for now, the cliffhanger is resolved.

Oppenheimer’s steamy series releases new episodes every Tuesday on Hulu, and between episodes, Check out these shows you should watch if you love “Tell Me Lies.”