Tell Me Lies to End After Season 3, Showrunner Confirms
Showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer confirmed that Tell Me Lies will conclude with the Season 3 finale on Monday, Feb. 16 (ET), bringing the story of Lucy and Stephen to the end Oppenheimer and her writers always intended. The decision closes a three-season run that built a passionate following around the show's raw depiction of a toxic, obsessive relationship.
Why the story stops here
Oppenheimer said the Season 3 finale was always conceived as the series' ending and that the creative team explored whether there was an "organic way to continue the story, " but ultimately concluded the narrative had "reached its natural conclusion. " In a post shared with fans alongside a cast photo, she wrote: "After three amazing seasons of Tell Me Lies, tonight's 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. "
She emphasized quality control as the guiding principle. "My main goal has always been to protect the quality of the show and give you the best experience I can give you, " she wrote, adding that the ability to deliver a complete arc with an intentional ending is a rare privilege. Oppenheimer said the creative team considered whether another season could match the established tone and focus, but felt any continuation would risk becoming a different kind of show rather than a true extension of what the series set out to do.
Cast, characters and the show's impact
Tell Me Lies, adapted from Carola Lovering's 2018 novel and developed for television by Oppenheimer, centers on Lucy and Stephen — an on-again, off-again relationship that evolves into manipulation, coercion and emotional wreckage. The central performances, led by Grace Van Patten as Lucy and Jackson White as Stephen DeMarco, anchored a supporting ensemble that includes Bree, Pippa, Wrigley and Evan, among others. Season 3 also introduced Costa D'Angelo as a series regular.
Cast members have called the ending bittersweet and embraced the opportunity to bring the characters to a clear conclusion. Oppenheimer noted that the actors' strong feelings about the ending informed her confidence in closing the show now. She added gratitude for the audience response this season and suggested that fan engagement even prompted the team to reevaluate whether more story remained to be told before settling on an ending.
What comes next for the creative team
While Oppenheimer described the finale as bittersweet, she also framed the series' end as a chance to move on creatively. "Thank you for loving our show. We are excited to bring you more stories in the near future, " she wrote. The stop here preserves the show's thematic integrity: Lucy's arc has a defined beginning, middle and end, and many of the secondary characters are at natural transition points — graduating, moving on from school and beginning separate adult lives — which Oppenheimer said would make further seasons feel like a reinvention rather than a continuation.
For viewers who invested in the fraught dynamic at the center of the series, the final episode promises closure that was plotted from the outset. The ending also leaves room for reflection on why the series resonated: its unflinching portrayal of emotional abuse, the moral compromises characters make, and the messy collateral damage inflicted on friends and bystanders.
As the final episode airs on Monday, Feb. 16 (ET), the show departs having completed a deliberate creative arc — a decision rooted in protecting the series' tone and delivering a satisfying conclusion to the story the writers set out to tell.
