Tell Me Lies creator Meaghan Oppenheimer reveals why the season 3 finale is also the series finale.

The popular Hulu series follows the tumultuous romantic relationship between Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen DeMarco (Jackson White) and the larger drama it causes after they meet at Baird College. Tell Me Lies season 3 continues the toxic cycle between the two characters, with Van Patten previously telling ScreenRant that “They’re addicted to one another” and White describing the relationship as “primal.”

In an interview with Deadline, Oppenheimer now explains that “three seasons is the perfect amount” and Lucy no longer being in school is a significant deterrent from continuing the story. She builds on this by acknowledging that most of the other characters are also close to graduating from college, will be in different locations, and are not working in the same industry. Without these connections, Oppenheimer felt this was a natural ending and another season did not feel justified, unless it “completely re-imagined” the show. Check out her comments below:

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’s not in school anymore. Most of the cast are graduating college in the future. They’re all living in different places. They’re not in the same industry. There’s not a lot connecting them, so, while I think it’s such a privilege to know when a show is ending and be able to write an ending and quit while you’re ahead, it’s hard. For me, it was just about do I think there’s another season in here that’s going to be as good, that’s 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’s difficult, I think the worst case scenario would be turning in something I didn’t believe in. And also just knowing how much the cast loved this ending, and they were the people who’d been embodying these characters for so long. That gave me a lot of peace about it.

When asked if she informed the Tell Me Lies cast early on about the show only being three seasons, she clarified that she told them ahead of season 3, which had been written to definitively conclude the story. She also discusses how the wedding and the buildup to it seemed like a fitting way to complete the narrative.

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’d always been sort of an understanding that the wedding, that the buildup to the wedding was going to be some sort of resolution.

While the Hulu original series is ending, Van Patten feels grateful for the experience and that the show lasted as long as it did with a full, satisfying story: “It was bittersweet. I think it’s 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.”

After debuting in 2022, Tell Me Lies season 1 went on to receive a 75% critics’ score and 69% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience reception improved greatly in season 2 with a 90% score, and the show’s viewership was high enough to warrant a season 3 renewal as well. As of this writing and ahead of the series finale’s release, Tell Me Lies is in the fifth spot on the Disney+ and Hulu global charts, only behind Love Story, The Beauty, The Artful Dodger, and Wonder Man.

In addition to Van Patten and White, the cast of characters features Catherine Missal as Bree, Sonia Menna as Pippa, Spencer House as Wrigley, Branden Cook as Evan, Alicia Crowder as Diana, and Tom Ellis as Oliver. Along with creating Tell Me Lies, Oppenheimer is the showrunner and an executive producer. American Horror Story star Emma Roberts is an executive producer for the series as well.

The Tell Me Lies season 3 finale releases on February 17 on Disney+ and Hulu at 12:00 a.m. ET.