The Tell Me Lies Season 3 finale has arrived, and with it comes the end of the entire Hulu drama. Creator Meaghan Oppenheimer confirmed just hours before the February 17 episode dropped that the season would serve as the series finale, bringing Lucy and Stephen’s toxic eight-year saga to a close. The finale, titled “Are You Happy Now, That I’m on My Knees?” delivered exactly the kind of messy, emotionally devastating ending fans expected from a show built on manipulation and betrayal.
The Shocking News: Season 3 Is the End
On February 16, 2026, Oppenheimer took to Instagram with an announcement that surprised even the most dedicated viewers. “After three amazing seasons of Tell Me Lies, tonight’s episode will be the series finale,” she wrote. “This was always the ending my writing team and I had in mind, and we are insanely proud of it.”
The creator revealed that the strong audience response to season 3 actually made her team explore whether there was another way to continue the story. “Ultimately we felt it had reached its natural conclusion,” she explained. Her main goal throughout the process was protecting the show’s quality and giving viewers the best experience possible.
Tom Ellis, who plays Oliver and is married to Oppenheimer in real life, had hinted at this outcome months earlier. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, he shared that season 3 would likely be the last, noting that Oppenheimer “has written it to be the final season.”
The Season 3 Finale Breakdown: Two Timelines Collide
The finale weaves between the 2009 spring semester at Baird College and the 2015 wedding of Bree (Catherine Missal) and Evan (Branden Cook). The episode brings every secret, every lie, and every betrayal to the surface in typical Tell Me Lies fashion.
What Happens at Bree and Evan’s Wedding in 2015
The 2015 timeline picks up with Wrigley (Spencer House) approaching Bree when she is alone. He questions why she never gave him a second chance after their past relationship. Bree reminds him that he cheated on her, but Wrigley defends himself. Despite the tension, the two eventually begin having sex before getting interrupted.
Earlier in the season, Bree and Wrigley had reconnected in a surprise romance that complicated everything. Her wedding to Evan seemed to go off without a hitch, even though she still carried feelings for Wrigley and had learned that her now-husband hooked up with Lucy back in college.
Pippa (Sonia Mena) confesses to Lucy that she slept with Wrigley. Lucy then drops her own bombshell, admitting that she slept with Evan. Pippa’s reaction is immediate and furious. She tells Lucy she wants nothing to do with her and heads straight to Wrigley’s room. There, she makes a confession of her own, telling him she is gay and should not have slept with him.
Bree finally confronts Evan about cheating on her. After he tells her the truth about hooking up with Lucy, the two somehow manage to reconcile.
The 2009 Timeline: Lucy’s Downward Spiral
The flashback to 2009 shows Lucy arriving at Stephen’s (Jackson White) Yale acceptance party with one goal in mind, warning people about his abusive nature. Stephen catches her talking to someone, and Lucy runs away. What follows is complete chaos for her.
A confession video Lucy made gets leaked across campus. Her life spirals completely out of control. When she confronts Stephen about leaking the footage, he denies it and tries to convince her that she leaked it herself. The damage is already done, Lucy gets expelled from Baird College.
Stephen later learns that Yale has rejected his application. He immediately assumes Lucy did something to ruin his chances as payback for everything he put her through.
Bree’s storyline in 2009 takes a dark turn when her mother unexpectedly shows up on campus for an intervention. Marianne (Gabriella Pession) had informed Bree’s mother about her daughter’s unhealthy fixation with Oliver and the stalking of Amanda (Iris Apatow). While Bree’s mother showed sympathy, Bree understood that Marianne was trying to make a point and prevent her from telling the truth about their affair.
The Final Scene: Stephen Pulls His Ultimate Move
The 2015 wedding timeline delivers the explosive confrontation viewers waited for. Stephen had broken up with Lydia (Natalee Linez) after admitting that he and Lucy had sex that morning. But Stephen was far from done creating chaos.
He takes the stage at the wedding reception and exposes everyone’s secrets. He reveals that Bree was the one who leaked Lucy’s tape back in college. He outs every hidden betrayal within the friend group. The room descends into complete turmoil as years of carefully guarded secrets come pouring out.
In the middle of the chaos, Stephen approaches Lucy and asks her to run away with him. Despite her clear hesitation and every reason to say no, he manages to convince her. They leave the wedding together and drive away from everything and everyone they know.
They stop at a gas station along the way. Lucy goes inside to get coffee, leaving Stephen alone in the car. When she comes back out, the car is gone. Stephen bailed on her, leaving her stranded at a gas station with no ride and no explanation. Lucy stands there in the parking lot and starts laughing.
It is the perfect ending for these two characters. Stephen, incapable of genuine connection or change, does what he always does. He leaves when things get real. Lucy, who kept going back to someone who hurt her repeatedly, finally gets abandoned in the most literal way possible. Her laughter says everything, she should have known better, and somewhere deep down, she probably did.
Why This Ending Fits the Series
Oppenheimer always had this ending in mind. Back in 2024, she explained her approach to Us Weekly, saying, “I knew where I wanted to end the season, though, in 2015. I knew where it needed to get to.” She also noted that once you understand what characters know and what they are hiding, it creates space to explore the dynamics in interesting ways.
The finale delivers on the promise of showing these characters exactly as they are. Stephen never becomes a good person. Lucy never fully escapes his pull until he makes the choice for her. Their friends carry the scars of knowing them. The 2015 wedding timeline showed that even years later, the damage from their college years remained fresh.
Fan Reactions to the Series Ending
The announcement that the finale would also serve as the series end came as a shock to many viewers. Social media lit up with reactions ranging from frustration to acceptance.
One fan vented online, “You tell me the week of the episode, nay, THE NIGHT, that it‘s the series finale?!?“ Another wrote, “Great. Another good show that‘s going to have a rushed or an unfinished ending.“
Some viewers questioned the business decision behind ending such a popular show. “Do they not like money? Cuz this is literally the most popular and talked about show right now! I’m outraged,” one person posted.
Others took a more measured approach. “All good things must come to an end, but why god why must it be this show?” one fan asked.
Oppenheimer had addressed the possibility of season 3 being the end back in January 2026. She told Us Weekly, “In terms of future seasons, it’s impossible to really know at this point. I certainly had always thought this was always more or less the ending I’d had in mind.” She added that she didn’t want to leave anything hanging and wanted to satisfy everyone.
What the Cast Brought to the Final Season
Grace Van Patten and Jackson White, who play Lucy and Stephen and are a real-life couple, delivered their most intense performances yet in season 3. White previously described Stephen as a “super villain,” a label many fans agreed with as the character’s darker turns unfolded.
The ensemble cast also included Sonia Mena, Alicia Crowder, Costa D‘Angelo, and Ellis throughout the final season. New faces joined for season 3 as well. Iris Apatow was cast in the recurring role of Amanda, described as “a bubbly but fragile college freshman at Baird College.” Costa D‘Angelo joined as a series regular playing Alex, a psychology grad student and part-time drug dealer with a complicated past involving Bree.
The season raised the stakes with Bree and Wrigley’s surprise romance, which complicated the present timeline significantly. Executive producer Tyne Rafaeli hinted before the season aired that the stakes would feel much higher, saying, “The consequences of their decisions just feel more dangerous. They’re entering into dark areas of sexual relationships and psychological relationships that I don’t think this show has seen yet.”
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Where to Watch Tell Me Lies Now
All three seasons of Tell Me Lies are currently streaming on Hulu in the United States. For viewers with the Hulu on Disney+ bundle, the series is also available within Disney+. International audiences can stream the show on Disney+.
The series finale dropped on February 17, 2026 at 12 a.m. ET. Season 3 originally premiered on January 13, 2026 with its first two episodes, followed by weekly releases.
For fans who want to experience the story in its original form, the show is based on Carola Lovering’s 2018 novel of the same name. The first season stayed relatively close to the book, but later seasons expanded beyond the source material to explore new storylines and character developments.
The series followed Lucy and Stephen’s relationship from their meeting as college freshmen through eight years of manipulation, betrayal, and toxic behavior that affected everyone around them. Season 1 premiered in September 2022, and the show quickly built a dedicated following drawn to its unflinching portrayal of destructive relationship patterns.
The finale gives viewers a definitive ending while staying true to who these characters are. Stephen leaves Lucy at a gas station. Lucy laughs. The show ends without pretending anyone got a happy ending, because in the world of Tell Me Lies, happy endings were never really on the table.
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