Last season, Lucy falsely claims she was a victim of sexual assault in order to protect what actually happened to her best friend Pippa. What was important to you in advancing that controversial storyline for the third season?
The main thing that I wanted to be very careful about was Lucy’s intention behind it all, and continuing to remind the audience that she did not do this for attention. She didn’t do it for any malicious reason. She didn’t even do it just to get Chris in trouble. She did it to protect her friend. And it was a dumb thing to do, but it came from a good place. I really wanted to be careful that we weren’t making any kind of statement that girls lie [about sexual assault] because I don’t think that girls really do usually lie about this, but this is such a unique and specific situation. And making sure that Lucy continued to reject any public sympathy or public attention, so that it never got misconstrued with her liking it or seeking it.
Lucy’s decision regarding Pippa’s assault last season upset fans and divided the writers’ room. How much of her season two journey was informed by those intense reactions?
It continued to be a divisive storyline in the room. I love our audience so much, but I do feel a bit hurt on Lucy’s behalf at how hard they are on her. They have asked for a lot of punishment for her, which I don’t think she deserves. Audiences are just harder on female characters. That has become very obvious to me while writing the show. So I was posing a question to them with this season: are you happy now? It was about getting her to a place where she was a caged animal. There can’t be too much time to think of other escape routes for her. It has to be right then and there. He’s going to call Bree right then. Otherwise, it falls apart.
The audience might think they know what they want, but it’s not always what’s best for the storytelling. But people send me all the memes, all the reaction videos, and I fucking love those. There are moments when you’re in the trenches, so stressed, and then you get the funniest TikTok video ever about a reaction. It gives you a bit of bounce in your step.
The Bree and Evan romance is beloved among Tell Me Lies fans, but this season you introduce a budding flirtation between Bree and Wrigley. When did you decide to explore their dynamic?
It was always on the table. It just became very clear by season three that these are the two purest people on the show. And I thought that those two really deserved that pure thing. Once we decided for sure that that was where the season was going to fully go, it happened so organically and their chemistry is just amazing. Also, last season, my God, we put Bree through the ringer. And we’ve always put Wrigley through the ringer, so they both needed some joy.
