Note: This story contains spoilers from “Tell Me Lies” Season 2 Episode 7.
After watching Jackson White’s Stephen torment Grace Van Patten’s Lucy all throughout the second season of “Tell Me Lies,” Stephen switches up his behavior at the end of Episode 7 in what White calls a “desperate” decision.
Reckoning with whether he’s a good person or not, Stephen turns his attention from Diana (Alicia Crowder) back to Lucy as he arrives at her dorm room and asks her candidly if she knew he was a bad person while they were dating — which she replies “yes” — and if, even still, she loved him then, which she also replies “yes.” He then confesses that he, too, despite knowing the worst things about Lucy, still loves her and makes a proposition for the pair to be together.
“It’s very desperate and guttural,” White told TheWrap of Stephen’s decision to go back to Lucy. “He’s a shark, and he wants to keep going, but he also is super damaged and codependent in a way, and shows it in different ways.”
White added that despite a season full of games and manipulation, he believes Stephen is being genuine “in that moment,” saying “he kind of needs someone to understand him, because no one really does, and his family doesn’t … I think he’s really trying to get her support.”
Below, White unpacks Episode 7’s biggest moments, from Stephen turning his back on Diana — again — and breaking down Wrigley’s confidence.
TheWrap: This episode starts with Stephen having a dream that Lucy saved him from the car accident. Is this a bit of a wake up call to him?
Jackson White: [There’s] probably just lots of anxiety going on. I don’t know too much about dream world there, but it’s probably what he’s been thinking about. It’s total metaphor. She’s saving him, and she’s the one that knows everything about him, and that’s what’s drawing him to her now.
We see Stephen’s relationship with Diana continue to deteriorate after she bombs the LSAT. Why is this such a turnoff and turning point for him?
He’s so career-oriented, and she represents the future to him. She’s his way into law school, and they’re going to have this life together. And when she seems to be deteriorating, to him, it starts all these things going in his mind, like, “Okay, I gotta probably adjust and find something else.” We start to see him go cold; it’s pretty intense.
At the end of Episode 7, Stephen and Diana start to hook up but he looks at her and asks if she’s scared of him. Why did he ask that in the moment?
I really liked that sequence — I thought they tracked it really nicely. It’s what he needs to know. He probably knows the answer; he really wants to know. He really feels like she doesn’t know who he really is, and maybe she doesn’t or pretends not to, and he’s having this lightning bolt moment of, “Oh, wait a minute, there’s someone who knows exactly who I am and still loved me through through all that.”
Is this the first time all season that he’s realized his feelings for Lucy, or have they been mounting throughout the season?
I think he knows somewhere. I don’t think he’s in denial. I just think it’s coming out in rage and games and all the ways he can cope. I don’t think he’s in touch, but it is definitely a big moment where he realizes that he still cares about her.
Was Stephen, at this point, scared of rejection from Lucy? Did he expect her to be receptive?
I don’t think Stephen gets scared of rejection as much as he’s just surprised by rejection. I think he just knows how to get what he wants, so he kind of expects it. And in that moment, he’s just laying it all out on the table, and she holds all the cards. The way they did that — and I know they went back and forth on how to shoot that moment — I thought it was so cool how you just see her close that door and it’s like, “That’s all I need to know.” I thought it was really cool,
Why didn’t he immediately break up with Diana before going to Lucy?
He always needs someone there, so he can’t move on until he’s secured the new thing.
Earlier in the episode, Stephen totally breaks down Wrigley’s confidence and says he ruined his brother’s life. Why did he do this?
We hurt the people closest to us. Wrigley’s someone who’s always enabled him, and he loves Wrigley, but Wrigley is someone who — kind of like Diana — has never acknowledged or spoken up about the bad sides of Stephen, [he] just kind of takes the good, and Stephen’s taking advantage of that, and he hurts him, because it feels good.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
New episodes of “Tell Me Lies” premiere Wednesdays on Hulu.
