Ruth Croft
Five high schoolers. A secret murderer turned into a missing person. A psychotic blackmailer who wants revenge. Texts that come as threats. And a whole lot of blood.
Major spoilers
Series two of One of Us Is Lying is finally on Netflix, and it does not disappoint. If the first series left you with so many questions, you can relax because the next one answers most of them.
One of Us is Lying is a teen mystery drama, which first premiered on Peacock in late 2021. The drama follows five teenagers who enter detention together before one of them mysteriously dies. After the teenager’s death, the rest of the first season focuses on the ensuing investigation.
It’s revealed that all four students left alive; Bronwyn Rojas, Addy Prentiss, Cooper Clay, and Nate Macauley, had motives to kill Simon Kelleher. Once his death is ruled as a murder, the four become the main suspects.
Series One
The main characters fulfil the stereotypes of every teenage classic drama. Bronwyn is the geek, Addy is the princess, Cooper is the jock, and Nate is the criminal. But who was Simon? We find out throughout the eight episodes of series one.
In truth, Simon was a bit of a nightmare to the students of Bayview High. He was the creator of About That, a gossip website, which published the secrets and lies of everyone who crossed his path.
On the night before their senior year, Simon announced that he would be revealing four secrets that week. These secrets were later revealed as Bronwyn cheating on a test, Addy betraying her boyfriend, Nate dealing drugs, and Cooper being gay.
But after drinking from a cup of water intentionally spiked with peanut oil in detention, Simon has an allergic reaction and dies. Someone murdered him, but why?
When Murder Club – as the four soon become known as – and Simon’s former best friend, Janae Matthews, begin to receive threatening messages via About That, it becomes clear that they are dealing with Simon’s killer, who wants to punish them with their secrets.
Series one ends with a spectacular reveal. Simon’s murderer was Addy’s ex-boyfriend, Jake Riordan. It turns out that he and Simon were childhood friends. Over the Summer Simon told Jake about Addy’s secret, and Jake became obsessed with revenge.
A Twisted Revenge Plot
The duo developed a plan to gather Murder Club into detention. Simon would then slip the peanut oil into his own cup and collapse. Simon believed that Jake would be right outside with an EpiPen to save him and that the two of them could blame Murder Club for his attempted murder.
But Jake betrayed him and removed all of the EpiPens from the nurse’s office, meaning that when Simon had his reaction, there was nothing anyone could do to save him.
Jake wanted to punish Addy for betraying him, and framing her and her friends for Simon’s murder was a pretty psychotic bet. However, in the finale set on Halloween night, Murder Club figure out the truth, and Addy kills Jake in self-defence.
Two weeks later, the news reports that Jake is missing, and Murder Club receive texts from an anonymous threat, Simon Says, who tells them that they know they murdered Jake.
Series Two
That brings us to series two of One of Us is Lying. Someone knows what happened to Jake on Halloween, and they’re determined to punish Murder Club.
What follows is a series of threatening text messages from Simon Says, warning Murder Club to do as their told or else. Addy receives the weapon she killed Jake with. Cooper is forced to wear Jake’s watch in public, putting himself at risk of being a suspect in Jake’s disappearance. Nate is told to steal money from his work. Janae is told to graffiti Simon’s gravestone. And Bronwyn has to miss a test that could ruin her chances of getting into Yale University.
When they are lured to the cinema one night, Simon Says plays them a video from Halloween, proving that Murder Club had killed Jake.
Murder Club discovers a way to send a message to Simon Says, claiming they know who it is. But their moment of control is destroyed when Simon Says murders their main suspect, Giselle Ward, right in front of them.
THE FINAL SHOWDOWN
The final episode reveals the truth. Simon Says is Fiona Jennings, a girl that Jake met at rehab over the Summer. Jake and Fiona had been working together from the beginning. She was also complicit in the events of the first series. When she discovered that Murder Club had killed Jake, she desired revenge.
The final showdown takes place on Janae’s yacht and sees Bronwyn’s sister, Maeve, momentarily turn on them and threaten to kill Addy. Although it’s soon revealed that she was pretending to be on Fiona’s side to persuade Fiona to delete the incriminating video of Murder Club on Halloween.
Before Addy and Maeve can escape the yacht, Fiona locks them in and sets it alight. Fortunately, it’s not long before Janae, Cooper, and Nate come to the rescue. Meanwhile, Bronwyn confronts Fiona, ending in a violent attack which leaves Bronwyn wounded, just in time for the police to arrive and arrest the villain.
But just when you think the series can’t be more dramatic, Fiona collapses in her jail cell after drinking from a poisoned cup of water. Just like Simon.
In a flash forward, we see their graduation day, however, the school is a crime scene, and a necklace Nate gave to Bronwyn is found near a pool of blood.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Series two was magnificently explosive in all the right ways and kept me staring obsessively at the screen until the credits rolled. Is that the end of Simon Says? Will Murder Club forgive Maeve for helping the enemy? What was Jake in rehab for? Who killed Fiona? And what will happen at graduation?
Until a third season is announced, we’ll just have to wait. And in the meantime, I’ll be re-watching.
Featured image courtesy of Thibault Penin via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
Ruth Croft
Ruth is a twenty-four-year-old Digital PR assistant and the Head of Entertainment for Empoword Journalism. She was a freelance journalist for a few years after graduating from university, writing a lot about pop culture, fashion, and beauty. She can be found drinking coffee, laughing at her own tweets, and watching reality TV.