Tell Me Lies came to an end on and it avoided the redemption mistake that Gossip Girl made with one of its main characters in the show's finale.
So, why are we comparing two shows made over 15 years apart? Well, because they both have a lot in common. Gossip Girl, based on the book series by Cecily von Ziegesar, centers around a rich friend group of high schoolers who live on the Upper East Side in New York. While attending high school, their lives and scandals are documented by an anonymous gossip blog, appropriately titled Gossip Girl.
Tell Me Lies, based on the book by Carola Lovering, on the other hand, begins at Baird College, also in New York, where 18-year-old Lucy Albright becomes entangled in messy relationship drama with college junior Stephen DeMarco. Much of the show centers on their relationship, but where the similarity comes is that both shows document the deplorable actions of those in the friend group, including lots of backstabbing, lying, and cheating.
Similarities between Gossip Girl and Tell Me Lies
Interestingly, both shows are also set in the same time period. Gossip Girl begins in 2007 when the characters are in their sophomore year, while Tell Me Lies begins in 2008 and flips back between the past and the present in 2015, at one of the characters' weddings. So, not only do both shows have a 2000s drama vibe, but they also have eerily similar dynamics between the characters in the friendship group, and the ending of Tell Me Lies shows the realistic outcome of a certain character's actions.
However, the one mistake Tell Me Lies doesn't make is that it does not justify Stephen's actions. Sure, in the end, Stephen rides off into the sunset in his G-Wagon and is a hotshot lawyer, but the show doesn't try to say he's facing no consequences because every character is bad. We know every character in Tell Me Lies has their flaws. Not sure what those flaws are? Allow me to break them down for you:
Character | Flaw | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
Lucy | Emotion Self-Destruction | Lucy constantly lets her emotions cloud her judgement, she holds onto Stephen despite warnings from friends and lets her emotions conceal the truth about Stephen, resulting in a web of lies around her circulating. |
Stephen | Manipulative Self-Preservation | Stephen is a manipulator, he rewrites events and narratives to maintain control over others to preserve his reputation and to avoid accountability. He consistently lies to create his own narrative that puts him in a better light. |
Bree | Craves Validation | Bree consistently craves validation from the wrong people, usually romantically. She gets involved in a student-teacher relationship because she craves a missing parental figure, and she desires to feel loved and chosen, resulting in her marrying the wrong man as an adult. |
Pippa | Selfish | Pippa is consistently selfish in the show. She is outspoken and goes for what she wants, even if it hurts others. She ends up lying and cheating and exhibiting behaviors of hypocrisy while she does it. Even if her friend behaves the same way, she can't forgive them. |
Diana | Avoidant/Prideful | Diana tends to be avoidant/prideful. Like Stephen, she likes to maintain control, but Diana refuses to open up and to challenge bad behaviors rather seeking justice. She lets Stephen walk free from his actions, because of a fear of retaliation. |
Wrigley | Deflective | Wrigley constantly deflects his emotions and downplays his trauma from his brother's death and masks it with humour. Rarely do we see Wrigley acknowledge and deal with his issues, although his saving grace is he doesn't do horrible things in spite of his trauma, but his deflective behaviour leads to alcoholism and unresolved emotions. |
Evan | Egotistical/Entitled | Evan is a rich and handsome guy, and because of that, he is entitled. He treats Molly awfully and he goes for Bree, knowing he has feelings for Lucy in season 1. However, he is also egotistical and cares about how things affect him, but when he sees Stephen's bad behaviour and treatment of women, he doesn't speak out. |
The flaws of these characters send us a message that everyone on the show does bad things, but not everybody is redeemed. Stephen, in particular, is never redeemed in the show's narrative; the characters all know he is an awful person. Even in one of the last scenes of the finale, Bree says to Lucy they can get through everything, but if Lucy leaves with Stephen, they're done. She warns Lucy that Stephen "doesn't care about her", recognising the person he's always been. Every other member of the friendship group knows that.
In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Oppenheimer shed light on that final scene and Lucy's thoughts. She said, "It’s that moment of self-awareness for the first time in a long time, like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I let him win again. I can't believe I have let him get away with it one last time.'"
Yes, Lucy is outraged that Stephen one-upped her, but she's also finally realising he doesn't have the capacity to change. Oppenheimer making him do that makes that crystal clear to the audience: This man has not grown up at all.
Stephen's escape from narrative justice is realistic
Still, some fans expressed their disdain at Stephen receiving no consequences for his reign of terror, but isn't that realistic? In the real world, abusers aren't always caught, nor are they found out. Stephen still harbours major secrets by the end of the show, and nobody knows he caused Macy's death, except for Diana and Lucy. Truthfully, they both know him, and by this point in their lives, they're over the mistakes they made in college. Diana moved on, attended Yale Law School, and is thriving with Pippa. Lucy, though expelled, probably didn't want to rock the boat with Stephen anymore. That, and half of her is still trauma-bonded to him.
The unresolved tension defines Stephen's characterisation, and by the end, he is a character who escapes narrative justice; it is a choice that is undoubtedly intentional. This choice is ultimately the key to Tell Me Lies' successful ending. The show avoids wrapping up big plot points to create a rushed ending, something shows like Gossip Girl desperately fail at in the name of redemption and a happy ending.
Gossip Girl's obession with redemption
Unfortunately, Gossip Girl is obsessed with redeeming even its most terrible characters, and there lies its biggest flaw. Starting, Chuck Bass is one of, if not the worst, main characters on the show. He is sexist, classist, entitled, and, not to mention, he is known to assault girls. In the pilot, Chuck Bass is portrayed as a womaniser, a sleazy, rich playboy who thinks money means he can look down on others and treat women like objects.
In the pilot, he attempts to assault Dan's freshman sister Jenny and only stops when Dan pulls him off. Later, he attempts to assault Serena when talking to her in a hotel kitchen, having no regard for women's autonomy. See, this wouldn't be a problem if Gossip Girl stuck to that characterisation of Chuck as a slimy and perveted guy.
Instead, they make him have a drawn-out on-and-off romance with Blair, trying to convince us he changes his ways for her. The show doesn't shy away from acknowledging that both Chuck and Blair love to scheme and play games with each other, but fail to acknowledge that Chuck thinks he owns her.
When Blair gets engaged in season 4, she and Chuck have an intense confrontation where he almost hits her; instead, he smashes a window by her head, declaring, "You'd never marry anyone else. You're mine," as if he's in a bad fanfiction. The way this is framed is supposed to seem romantic, like Blair is the only one he's ever loved, and nobody calls it out for what it is. And this is one of many of Chuck's worst moments.
By season 5, he is seen as a reformed bad boy, vowing to take care of another man's baby and apologising to Blair for his behaviour. The writers never call him what he is: an abuser. Sure, his opulent wealth could explain why he never faced legal consequences for these assaults, but there is no moral questioning either, which, even in a world with spoiled rich kids, seems ridiculous.
As season 6's end, Blair and Chuck are married with a son, and she rarely acknowledges what a horrible person he is. However, Chuck and Blair ending up together was deeply influenced by fan service, but the attempt to redeem Dan Humphrey is portrayed as his misguided romantic ambition to land Serena, which ultimately, he does.
Dan was Gossip Girl for shock value
Dan was revealed as Gossip Girl in season 6, much to the irritation of long-time fans of the show. Many fans pointed out how this didn't make sense, and there were rumours that he was portrayed as Gossip Girl because leaks revealed that Gossip Girl was originally Serena's younger brother, Eric van der Woodsen. This was reportedly revealed by a hacker who gained access to alleged show scripts.
Regardless of the reason, Dan's reveal as Gossip Girl felt like it was done for shock value and drama instead of a carefully constructed character arc. Essentially, Dan's reveal attempted to fool fans and reinvent the show, but it ended up acting as damage control rather than feeling like a planned story. As a result, the show romanticised his manipulation of the group, his sister, and his girlfriend.
In the season finale, Dan explains his motivations behind becoming Gossip Girl. He explains he wanted to "write himself" into the Upper East Side, and he was able to mimic the girls from Constance's language to market himself as a mystery girl/gossip blogger. However, the real inspiration behind creating the blog is Dan's muse, Serena. His confession romanticises his horrid behaviour of violating privacy and inflicting betrayal and frames it as a love letter to Serena, as if she inspired him to do all this.
Not to mention, Dan posting intimate details about his sister and reasoning with the fact that she wanted to get on there as an excuse. The writer's reason was that because the Upper East Siders were sending in tips and doing awful things, he had a right to expose their private moments. Him posting about himself was a cover, but it doesn't make it right.
Reedeming Dan was Gossip Girl's worst mistake
Where Gossip Girl made the mistake was trying to romanticise Dan's betrayal. The scheme is seen as genius and romantic, whereas if we compare it with Stephen's actions in Tell Me Lies, he ostracises himself from the group. They call him lots of things throughout, which reinforces that he is not a good person. Yes, he doesn't face real-world consequences for his actions, but he is a smart character, and he gets a job that rewards his behaviour. However, Serena, who is arguably one of the biggest victims of Dan's posts, declares he "wrote a love letter" to her and the group, which is the silliest thing I ever heard.
For Dan, there is no social fallout from his actions. The friend group forgives him relatively quickly, painting the reveal as mildly inconvenient rather than outrageous. Gossip Girl's writers try to give us the spiel of an eye for an eye when it comes to Dan versus the Upper East Side, but it doesn't work.
But the biggest injustice is Serena's lack of reaction to the reveal. The show can't decide whether Dan is an anti-hero, villain or just misunderstood, which makes her reaction confusing. She doesn't acknowledge the harm or damage he has caused her and her best friends, or even attempt revenge on him. This drastically undermines the show's themes of social power and exposure, because Serena or any one of the Non-Judging Breakfast Club could've sued Dan for defamation at the very least and ruined his chances of another publishing deal.
The decision to redeem Dan reflects the show's broader mistake of prioritising emotional closure over narrative integrity. The main reason why the show attempts to redeem Dan is to preserve the fan-favourite Dan and Serena relationship. Reframing his motivations and actions as romantic ambition tells audiences that it was all to win the heart of Serena.
Gossip Girl forgets central themes in the name of 'love' to create an endgame that shouldn't have lasted past season two. In comparison, on Tell Me Lies, Stephen is never framed as romantic or misunderstood by Lucy or the friend group. The finale maintains his nasty streak and scheming nature, making viewers uncomfortable rather than urging them to try and understand his actions. Tell Me Lies' closing with Stephen and Lucy is rooted in emotional realism, but Serena and Dan's is framed as idyllic.