{"id":302543,"date":"2026-02-17T13:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T13:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302543\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T13:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T13:08:10","slug":"tell-me-lies-meaghan-oppenheimer-on-why-season-3-is-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302543\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Tell Me Lies’ Meaghan Oppenheimer On Why Season 3 Is The End"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTonight\u2019s Tell Me Lies<\/a> Season 3<\/a> finale on Hulu<\/a> tonight will be the last episode ever, showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer<\/a> has announced.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Monday night, she posted on Instagram: \u201cAfter three amazing seasons of Tell Me Lies, tonight\u2019s episode will be the series finale. This was always the ending my writing team and I had in mind, and we are insanely proud of it. Your incredible response to this season inspired us to explore whether there was another organic way to continue the story, but ultimately we felt it had reached its natural conclusion. My main goal has always been to protect the quality of the show and give you the best experience I can give you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tObviously, given this shocking news, we had to ask Oppenheimer more about why the story ends here, what she\u2019s doing next, and who\u2019s really to blame for the dark and twisted shenanigans between Baird college students Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten<\/a>) and Stephen DeMarco (Jackson White<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

None of us knew for sure what was definitely going to happen, but we all went into it knowing that this could likely be the end. <\/p>\n

Meaghan Oppenheimer to Deadline.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the show, Lucy and Stephen are an on-off couple whose relationship devolves into a series of dark secrets and manipulations. Their friends, Bree (Cat Missal), Pippa (Sonia Mena), Diana (Alicia Crowder), Wrigley (Spencer House) and Evan (Branden Cook) find themselves caught in the crossfire, while dealing with their own chaotic and often messy relationships.<\/p>\n

\n\tOf the show ending this way, Van Patten told Deadline, \u201cIt was bittersweet. I think it\u2019s so beautiful and rare that we got to do this for three seasons. We got really lucky that everybody loved the show and we were able to keep going, and it was so great. We were able to have a beginning, middle and end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRead Oppenheimer\u2019s conversation below and check back here tomorrow morning for our finale post-mortem, in which Oppenheimer and cast will reveal what happens to the characters years into the future.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Meaghan<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Tell Me Lies\u2019 showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLuke Oppenheimer<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: I was shocked when I heard the news that Tell Me Lies is over. Were you always thinking about this being the last season?<\/p>\n

\n\tMEAGHAN OPPENHEIMER: Yeah. Yeah, I was. I think three seasons is the perfect amount.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: It has to be tempting to continue somehow, with the show\u2019s huge following?<\/p>\n

\n\tOPPENHEIMER: Obviously we love making the show, and I love our audience, but I had had so many conversations with our writers, and when you actually look at what could happen next, Lucy\u2019s not in school anymore. Most of the cast are graduating college in the future. They\u2019re all living in different places. They\u2019re not in the same industry. There\u2019s not a lot connecting them, so, while I think it\u2019s such a privilege to know when a show is ending and be able to write an ending and quit while you\u2019re ahead, it\u2019s hard. For me, it was just about do I think there\u2019s another season in here that\u2019s going to be as good, that\u2019s not going to feel like a completely different show? And I felt like it would have to be completely re-imagined. The framing device is over. So yeah, while it\u2019s difficult, I think the worst case scenario would be turning in something I didn\u2019t believe in. And also just knowing how much the cast loved this ending, and they were the people who\u2019d been embodying these characters for so long. That gave me a lot of peace about it.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Tell<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe \u2018Tell Me Lies\u2019 cast, L to R: Branden Cook, Cat Missal, Jackson White, Grace Van Patten, Spencer House and Sonia Mena<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney\/Ian Watson<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Had you told your cast fairly early on about your plans for this trajectory? The three seasons?<\/p>\n

\n\tOPPENHEIMER: I had talked to them. I mean, I talked to them before this season [and told them] that I had written it with a certain amount of finality in mind. None of us knew for sure what was definitely going to happen, but we all went into it knowing that this could likely be the end. And I think there\u2019d always been sort of an understanding that the wedding, that the buildup to the wedding was going to be some sort of resolution.<\/p>\n

Lucy is never deliberately cruel. She\u2019s always does things that end up being cruel and end up hurting people, but they\u2019re always coming from a place of an intention that\u2019s very different than that.<\/p>\n

Meaghan Oppenheimer<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You and I have talked about this being an emotional abuse story. We\u2019ve talked about this a lot in the past about our own experiences with narcissism, those personality disorders. And it\u2019s funny, this show is fascinating, the reactions people have to it, because there is this contingent of people \u2014 and you posted about this on Instagram \u2014 that think Lucy and Stephen are kind of the same. And I wonder if maybe they\u2019ve never met a real narcissist, so they don\u2019t see Stephen the way I do. What do you think ?<\/p>\n

\n\tOPPENHEIMER: The problem is that the word \u2018narcissist\u2019 is so overused, and just because your boyfriend cheated on you, it doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s a narcissist. That doesn\u2019t mean that it is a real, dangerous personality disorder. I don\u2019t think, unless you\u2019ve been with one or had to deal with one, then you understand how two plus two no longer equals four. Your reality gets warped, your sense of yourself gets warped, and you\u2019re just constantly trying to cling on to anything, and you\u2019re in such a state of fragmented flight or fight that your decisions don\u2019t make sense. And Lucy\u2019s in that cycle. But it\u2019s funny, because Lucy is never deliberately cruel. She always does things that end up being cruel and end up hurting people, but they\u2019re always coming from a place of an intention that\u2019s very different than that. And Stephen is just cruel.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Tell<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tL to R: Grace Van Patten, Sonia Mena and Cat Missal on the \u2018Tell Me Lies\u2019 set.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney\/Ian Watson<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: I agree. It\u2019s all about going back to the intention. Stephen\u2019s never done a kindness or a well-intentioned thing in his life.<\/p>\n

\n\tOPPENHEIMER: He\u2019s had a few moments for his sister.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m developing a new thing, and it\u2019s definitely about dark, twisted relationships, but it\u2019s a little bit more revolving around adult siblings and their lives and their kind of interconnectedness. <\/p>\n

Meaghan Oppenheimer<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Yeah. She\u2019s the only person. I remember in Season 1 we talked about how you hope that this will liberate some people because they\u2019ll recognize their own situation. So, I think it\u2019s been pretty instructive for a lot of people.<\/p>\n

\n\tOPPENHEIMER: I hope so. I mean, that was why it was really important to me to have Lucy face some really serious consequences, because I think, not even just when you\u2019re dealing with narcissists, but young women specifically, I think waste so much time on relationships that do not serve them. This maybe is me being generalized. I don\u2019t know. I just don\u2019t see it as much in young men. I don\u2019t see boys in college, just in general, throwing away opportunities because some girl won\u2019t call them back. It really does feel uneven, and I think that you can really make some permanent damage to your happiness if you give the wrong people too much energy. And so it was important to me that Lucy face consequences that actually really catch up to her and really change things.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: I don\u2019t want to reveal finale spoilers yet, but yes we see what it costs her.<\/p>\n

\n\tOPPENHEIMER: I always knew that she was going to have [consequences], because we referenced in the very first episode, [people telling her] \u201cYou\u2019re doing a lot better now.\u201d You see that she\u2019s taking pills.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Tell<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGrace Van Patten as Lucy in \u2018Tell Me Lies\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney\/Ian Watson<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Let\u2019s talk about what you\u2019re doing next. I know you were working on a show called Second Wife starring your husband Tom Ellis, who played Oliver in Tell Me Lies. In Second Wife he plays a divorced dad named Jacob and Tell Me Lies executive producer Emma Roberts\u00a0is Sasha, a young women who flees her life in New York\u00a0post-breakup\u00a0to start over in London and falls in love with him.<\/p>\n

\n\tOPPENHEIMER: Oh, it\u2019s not Second Wife. Unfortunately, that\u2019s not happening next. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m able to talk too specifically about it, but I have something that I\u2019m working on. I have my overall deal with 20th Television, so I\u2019m developing a new thing with them, and it\u2019s definitely about dark, twisted relationships, but it\u2019s a little bit more revolving around adult siblings and their lives and their kind of interconnectedness. I really want to do a family drama that feels as edgy and twisted and addictive as Tell Me Lies. I have a lot of experience with dysfunctional families. So yeah, that\u2019s the world.<\/p>\n

I always say I\u2019m a perverse Nora Ephron. That would be my dream. Nora Ephron for depressed perverts. <\/p>\n

Meaghan Oppenheimer<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Is it based on a book like Tell Me Lies? This next project?<\/p>\n

\n\tOPPENHEIMER: No. And for Second wife, it didn\u2019t end up getting green-lit for the season at Hulu, which was unfortunate, but I think actually it ended up probably being a blessing in disguise. But in the future, that might still happen. It also could be redeveloped as a feature, that\u2019s something that we\u2019ve been talking about a lot. I love it. We have a script. We have a format. I really love it. It was very, very disappointing that it didn\u2019t end up going forward. I think it was a bit darker than what people wanted in a romcom at the moment, but I think that everything changes every season. But yeah, I love that project very much.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Tell<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCat Missal as Bree with Tom Ellis as Oliver in \u2018Tell Me Lies\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney\/Ian Watson<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Obviously you\u2019ve done plenty of other work, but Tell Me Lies is such a phenomenon with the fans, that do you have a sense of wanting to make sure you don\u2019t get cornered in just the twisty drama space? You want to make a romcom or a dark comedy?<\/p>\n

\n\tOPPENHEIMER: Yes. And when I say twisty drama, I mean that anything that comes from my brain will inevitably be a little bit f\u2013ked up because that\u2019s just the way that my brain works. I mean, I don\u2019t think Tell Me Lies is that f\u2013ked up, but other people do! My barometer for what causes me anxiety, I think, is probably different than other people. But I am not interested in moralizing, I guess I would say. I\u2019m not interested in television that is trying to teach a specific lesson. I\u2019m just trying to tell stories that reflect things that I\u2019ve seen and that make me feel something. But definitely, I don\u2019t want to get pigeonholed into just doing things that feel like psychological thrillers or YA. Not that I\u2019m not open to both of those as well, but I think that when I\u2019m writing in my purest state, it lives somewhere more in the dark, funny, dramedy world, if that makes sense. I always say I\u2019m a perverse Nora Ephron. That would be my dream. Nora Ephron for depressed perverts. That would be my world.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Sign me up.<\/p>\n

\n\tOPPENHEIMER: I\u2019m not comparing myself to her. I\u2019m just saying, if I could do anything\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Season 3 finale of Tell Me Lies will drop on Tuesday at 12AM ET (9 PM PT Monday night) on Hulu and Disney+.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tonight\u2019s Tell Me Lies Season 3 finale on Hulu tonight will be the last episode ever, showrunner Meaghan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,104862,3287,61,60,104863,142824,93836,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-302543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-grace-van-patten","10":"tag-hulu","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-jackson-white","14":"tag-meaghan-oppenheimer","15":"tag-tell-me-lies","16":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}