Tell Me Lies Showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer Says This Season 3 Couple Was Planned All Along [Exclusive] – SlashFilm

Do not press play on any songs about yearning — like, for example, “Lua” by Bright Eyes — if you haven’t watched the season 3 finale of “Tell Me Lies,” titled “Are You Happy Now, That I’m on My Knees?” Spoilers follow!

When it comes to “Tell Me Lies,” the steamy series created by Meaghan Oppenheimer and based on Carola Lovering’s bestselling novel of the same name, even the most jaded viewer can be surprised by the way the story twists and turns … especially because Oppenheimer has done such an excellent job of expanding the show’s story past its source material. Still, even I — a longtime fan of both the book and show — was absolutely flabbergasted, in a good way, when inklings of a romance began between main characters Bree (Cat Missal) and Wrigley (Spencer House).

Bree and Wrigley have, up until season 3, been firmly attached to other people — Bree with the wealthy all-star student Evan (Branden Cook) and Wrigley with Bree’s roommate Pippa (Sonia Mena) — as they all orbit around the show’s main couple, Lucy Albright and Stephen DeMarco (Grace van Patten and Jackson White). As Oppenheimer exclusively told me, though, she was always thinking about a Bree and Wrigley romance.

“I mean, that was always something that was on the table from day one as a possibility, but everything can always change at the last minute. But what did surprise me was the way that Evan’s turn in season 3 was unexpected,” Oppenheimer noted, remarking on Evan’s surprising season 3 heel turn. (More on that shortly.) “But I think finding Bree and Wrigley together, it just made a lot of sense, especially after season 2.”

Throughout season 3, we watch as Bree and Wrigley find themselves completely drawn together … and in the season’s sixth episode, “I Don’t Cry When I’m Sad Anymore,” the two end up sharing a kiss. Even though it’s objectively “wrong” to watch them cheat on their partners, you honestly can’t help but root for these wild kids, and Meaghan Oppenheimer thinks she knows exactly why we feel this way.

“I think a lot of audience members feel like they are the two innocents of the group and really haven’t done anything intentionally harmful to anyone else, and so, it made sense that they, and I felt like they deserved to, find a pure connection in that way,” Oppenheimer explained. To be sure, Wrigley endured something truly terrible when his brother Drew (Benjamin Wadsworth) died under horrific circumstances in “Tell Me Lies” season 2, and as we’ve learned through the show, Bree had a rough upbringing in the foster care system. As Oppenheimer put it:

“But also, you’re finding Wrigley at a point where he’s now been dealt this trauma that, for the first time, he’s on the same level as Bree in a lot of ways. I think that if you’re in a group of people who haven’t experienced the same kind of trauma as each other, the other person who has seen it, you guys see each other, and so, that’s what’s happening with them at the beginning of season 3. But their chemistry was so amazing, and [Cat Missal and Spencer House] are such good friends in real life that, yeah, it was really fun.”

So, where does this unlikely couple end up in the season 3 finale?

Okay, so, here’s the deal with Bree and Wrigley throughout season 3, in brief. As Bree tries to recover from her horrible and tumultuous affair with her college professor Oliver (Tom Ellis), Wrigley ends up being a surprising source of comfort for her, and she’s able to provide him with emotional support in return after he loses his brother. As for Evan, he’s only becoming increasingly possessive of Bree, to the point where he actually interferes when Bree forms a relationship with her biological mother Mary (Emily Reade), putting Mary into situations where she’ll drink to excess so Bree won’t trust her.

In the season 3 finale, though, all hell breaks loose. Bree and Evan’s wedding does, in a legal sense, go ahead as planned (despite viewers wondering if it would at the season’s start, thanks to a bombshell courtesy of Stephen about a one-night stand between Lucy and Evan), but as the last dregs of champagne are drunk at the reception, Stephen decides to cause another problem and reveal some remaining secrets. Not only are Wrigley and Bree having an affair that actually began in earnest at her engagement party to Evan, but Bree also destroyed Lucy’s college career by releasing a damaging video of Lucy admitting that she falsely accused a fellow student of sexual assault. (That’s a whole different can of worms, honestly.)

After Stephen grabs the mic and spills all of these secrets, Evan starts screaming at Wrigley … who looks past him and smiles at Bree. Who knows what the cards hold for these two, but their connection feels real — because Oppenheimer did a masterful job creating their romance. 

“Tell Me Lies” season 3 is streaming on Hulu now.