‘Tell Me Lies’ Season 3 Episode 7 Ending Explained: Jackson White Reveals Why Stephen Gave Lucy The Tape

Tell Me Lies Season 3, Episode 7 was one of the hit drama’s most eventful, difficult to watch installments yet.

“I Will Promise Not to Sting” picked up right after Bree (Cat Missal) and Wrigley’s (Spencer House) long-awaited first kiss. But as the prophetic lyrics of The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” foretold, by the episode’s disastrous end, fans will be screaming, “It started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this?!”

Tell Me Lies Season 3, Episode 7 spoilers ahead.

After Bree and Wrigley confessed their feelings for each other, they decided to break up with Evan (Branden Cook) and Pippa (Sonia Mena) to give their relationship a real chance. Their plan took an unexpected turn when Bree’s mom Mary (Emily Meade) showed up to her big photography exhibition drunk after Evan secretly took Mary to a bar. Meanwhile, Lucy (Grace Van Patten) tried and failed to beat Stephen (Jackson White) at his own game. Or did she? After Lucy had an emotional breakdown in front of Stephen, he finally gave her the tape back. So why did we feel so unsettled when the end credits rolled?! Because Lucy had a concerning interaction with Tegan (Bianca Nugara), and Bree finally realized that Evan (Branden Cook) and Lucy hooked up the night of the Hawaiian party!

Need the Tell Me Lies Season 3, Episode 7 ending explained? Curious why Stephen gave Lucy the tape? What’s wrong with Lucy on Tell Me Lies? Or why Wrigley slept with Pippa after they broke up? Oppenheimer, White, and House broke down Episode 7’s final scenes with Decider.

Why Did Stephen Give Lucy The Tape? Tell Me Lies Creator Meaghan Oppenheimer And Jackson White Warn Fans Not To Give Stephen The Benefit Of The Doubt

Since Lucy recorded the tape in Episode 3, the potential for destruction had been heavily weighing on her, with her stress levels reaching an all-time high in Episode 6 when she unknowing made her way to Stephen’s door. In Episode 7, rather than continue to live in fear, Lucy took a page out of Diana’s playbook and attempted to beat Stephen at his own game. She told him she wanted to get back together, but because the trust was broken, a relationship could never work. By laying the foundation without seeming overeager, Lucy successfully convinced Stephen the reconciliation was his idea. All he needed was for Bree to learn that Lucy slept with Evan and they could start dating again. Once that was over and they got back together, he said he’d give Lucy the tape.

Photo: Hulu

Lucy told Stephen he could tell Bree about her one-night-stand with Evan, but only because she and Evan agreed to deny their hook-up. When Stephen caught Lucy gushing over her friendship with Bree to Bree’s mom, however, he realized she was playing him and assured her, “You’re never getting that tape. Ever.”

Later in the episode, a distraught Lucy knocked on Stephen’s door, begging to watch the tape to see how bad it was. “I GIVE UP!” she screamed before watching the recording and begging him to release it. “I can’t do this anymore. I really can’t. The waiting. The not knowing when you’re gonna do it. I need this part to be over. Please. Please. I need it to be over,” a tearful Lucy said. And just like that, Stephen gave in. He handed her the tape, said he didn’t make another copy, and told her to go. Why?!

In an act of wishful thinking, some viewers may assume Stephen saw Lucy hit rock bottom, finally comprehended the extent of his damage, and felt remorse and/or empathy. If that’s the case, Oppenheimer and White urge you to guess again! “My answer is very cynical. I think some people might want to think it’s because he loves her or has empathy. I think he’s just so disgusted by seeing her like this and seeing her grovel that it’s no longer fun,” Oppenheimer told DECIDER over Zoom. “There’s no shame anymore. She’s giving up and she’s saying, ‘Just release it,’ and it’s taken the fun away from him. I think that’s where his head is at. That’s how his psyche works.”

Photo: Hulu

“It’s a pattern with him,” White echoed. “When he wins the game he doesn’t have any fun anymore. And any time Lucy truly loses the thread, he gets bored. He surrenders. Maybe that’s his humanity, but he’s also over it. So I don’t know how unexpected that is. I think it’s more like, ‘Of course he resigns, because he already won.’”

Why Did Wrigley Choose Pippa Over Bree? Spencer House Unpacks Wrigley And Pippa’s Sad Sex Scene

While Stephen is still woefully lacking in the empathy department, Wrigley exudes empathy as he’s forced to choose between showing up for Bree and comforting Pippa. After Wrigley called things off with Pippa earlier in the episode, she and Diana (Alicia Crowder) got in a fight and Pippa felt incredibly alone. While Wrigley was at Bree’s photography exhibition worried that Bree and her mom might have a blowout, Pippa called him, said she was in a low place, and begged him to come over.

It’s clear that Wrigley wanted to stay and support Bree, but he also sensed Pippa’s pain, felt guilt over the breakup, and knew that she was there for him after the death of his brother. He couldn’t bear to lose anyone else, so he went to comfort her. Though he initially shut her sexual advances down, the two ended up having sad sex, which crusheed Bree and sent her back to Evan. So why did Wrigley give into Pippa’s desires?

Photo: Hulu

“I think there’s still a lot of him that’s very much a people pleaser. I don’t think he really is anymore, but he still has that in him a little bit, and in a moment of panic, I think he reverts back to his old ways,” House told Decider. “He also really cares about Pippa a ton. So in the heat of the moment, he was like, ‘I’m going to I’m going to do this.’ But I don’t think he was thinking that much.”

Tell Me Lies Season 3, Episode 7 Ending Explained: What’s Wrong With Lucy In Tell Me Lies?

After Lucy got the tape back, she ran into Tegan and warned her to stay away from Stephen because he’s dangerous. The only problem? “You already told me all of this yesterday,” Tegan reminded her. Lucy clearly had no memory of the prior conversation, just like she didn’t remember walking to Stephen’s room that night. So what’s wrong with Lucy?! She told Bree and Pippa that Stephen holding the tape over her made her feel like she’s been having “a never-ending psychotic break.” So the stress of the secrets, lies, and blackmail physically manifested itself.

Photo: Disney/Ian Watson

But if Lucy forgot her conversation with Tegan, is there a chance she never got the tape from Stephen? Or could he have lied about making a copy? Hulu’s official synopsis for Season 3, Episode 8, “Are You Happy Now, That I’m on My Knees?” is as follows: “A scandal erupts at Baird College. When shocking truths come to light, consequences follow for everyone.” So could Lucy and her tape be at the center of the scandal? Perhaps she’s not as safe as she thought she was…

After Lucy’s interaction with Tegan, Episode 7 ended with Bree seeing a photo of Evan and Lucy at the Hawaiian party together, putting things together, and taking Evan’s phone. So we’re also left to wonder what Bree will do next in 2009, and, of course, how things will turn out in 2015 now that Stephen knows about Bree and Wrigley…

New episodes of Tell Me Lies Season 3 premiere Tuesdays on Hulu.