Who is Lydia on ‘Tell Me Lies’? The Finale’s Last Twist Explained

Warning: Major Tell Me Lies finale spoilers ahead.

The Tell Me Lies Season 1 finale delivered twist after twist until the very end.

In the final moments of Episode 10, “The Bedrooms of Our Friends,” Stephen and Lucy finally connected at Bree and Evan’s engagement party after years apart, and Stephen drops a final bomb: He’s engaged. But not to Diana, like we all assumed. When his fiancé arrives to the party and shares an awkward greeting with Lucy, we learn Stephen is engaged to…Lydia!

Who is Lydia? If you’ve been paying close attention throughout the series, you may remember. But the twist is so random and unexpected that we totally understand the confusion. Here’s everything you need to know about Stephen’s new girl.

Who Is Lydia, Stephen’s Fiancé on Tell Me Lies? Showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer Unpacks The Final Twist

Lydia Montgomery, played by Natalee Linez, was Lucy’s best friend from home. I say “was,” because clearly they had a falling out and haven’t seen each other in a while. Though we don’t know what happened between Lucy, Lydia, and Stephen after Lucy’s freshman year, we do know that Lydia appeared several times throughout the series, including the pilot, where she delivered the infamous line, “Don’t worry. Some day some guy’s gonna get so far under your skin he’s gonna rot there, and I’m gonna laugh.”

Another memorable Lydia appearance occurred in Episode 5, “Merry F*cking Christmas,” when she and Lucy returned home for the holidays and reunited. In Episode 5, we learned that Lydia was famous for rolling “dainty, ladylike” joints and dating her high school boyfriend Rob. After Rob cheated on her with someone named Laura, Lydia commiserated with Lucy and the two wound up crashing Rob’s party, where Lucy punched him in the face on Lydia’s behalf. Over break, Lucy also confided in Lydia about her feelings for Stephen, so Lydia was well aware that she was super into him. What the hell, girl? What happened?!

In the finale, Lydia is referenced several times. When Lucy finishes exams, she tells Stephen that Lydia’s dad is on the board of a country club and could hook him up with a job running the front desk. Stephen snaps at her and explains a front desk job is beneath him.

Later in the episode, before returning home for the summer, Lucy calls Lydia from her dorm room and tells her she misses her. Lydia reveals she broke up with Rob and is so glad she doesn’t have to deal with his “bullshit” anymore. “I can’t believe I let him treat me like shit for so long. I feel so much better now,” she tells Lucy. Perhaps Lucy introduces Lydia and Stephen over the summer, then follows in her footsteps and breaks up with Stephen for treating her poorly? Only time (and hopefully a Season 2) will tell.

When chatting with showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer about the twisted finale, she told Decider that the Lydia twist was not in the book, but it was part of her original show pitch.

“That was actually the end of my pitch to Hulu, before they hired me. I was like, ‘And then he shows up with Lydia.'” she explained. “I was like, ‘Who’s the craziest person he could show up with?’ And I don’t think anyone will see that coming, so I’m excited about that.”

We DEFINITELY didn’t see it coming. You got that right.

Why Did Stephen and Diana Break Up? What Happened To Stephen and Lucy?

When we last saw Stephen in his college years, he left Lucy in the dust and fled the Hawaiian Party hand-in-hand with Diana. The plan was that Stephen would spend the summer in the city with Diana and work for her dad’s firm as a paralegal, so we assumed the two would date and likely get married (partially out of convenience for Stephen). But it seems they broke up somewhere along the way.

Oppenheimer says if the show gets renewed for a Season 2, she plans to answer our Stephen/Lucy/Diana/Lydia questions.

“The goal if we, knock on wood, get Season 2, would still be seeing college. I want to go through all of college. So all the unanswered questions where people are like, ‘How the heck did that come to be?’ We will dive into all of those things: How did Stephen get together with Lydia? Where did his relationship with Diana go? When was the last time Lucy and Steven actually were together? Because it wasn’t the Hawaiian party. There’s more entanglement,” she said. “That wasn’t their last breakup, I would say. So yes, I have a lot planned. I was just with some of the writers, and we were brainstorming all this crazy shit we could do.”

Season 1 of Tell Me Lies is currently streaming on Hulu.