One of Us is Lying – Season 2 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Simon Says Game On

Episode 1 of One of Us Is Lying Season 2 starts with a quick recap of the first season where Jake dies and Nate is arrested for the murder of Simon after the cops discover his allergy EpiPens with Nate. Bronwyn tells her family that she is in love with Nate and wants to help him because he is innocent of the crime.

After Jake’s death, the group makes up a lie stating that he had fled to Mexico. Evidence about Jake being the one to kill Simon is also revealed making the Bayview Four – Nate, Addy, Cooper and Bronwyn innocent of the claims. However, at the end of the season, the four, including Janae get a message from “Simon” asking them to do as he says or their secret will be out

Picking up from where we left off, all five involved gather on the lawn as Maeve, Bronwyn’s sister watches them from afar. They conclude that someone is aware of what they did with Jake’s body but Addy claims that they should stick to their lie about him fleeing to Mexico. They immediately get another text from Simon asking for $5,000 by 11 pm that night.

Bronwyn is adamant about looking into who the person that is messing with them is. She states that they go and see who it is and looks at Nate for support but everyone including Nate thinks they should let the past go and move on. All five part ways and Vanessa finds Maeve still looking at them from a distance. She asks Maeve to join her but the latter ignores her.

The episode then shows Vanessa going live on Instagram making it known that the Bayview four and Janae had gotten together. She insinuates that something is fishy about Jake’s disappearance. Vanessa finds Bronwyn and interrogates her about the meeting but the latter asks her to mind her own business and walks away.

After Bronwyn has left, Vanessa catches hold of Bronwyn’s ex, Evan asking him to expose Bronwyn or simply take revenge because she cheated on him. She tries to instigate him by saying talking shit about someone is so much better than being the bigger person. Evan tells her that he will think about it. Janae and Addy have a conversation and the former thinks Addy is not okay but only pretending to be fine.

Cooper is training when he has PTSD from the night of Jake’s death. His father and trainer, Kevin tells him that he now has a sponsor for his Baseball career. Cooper thinks this seems like a breath of relief for him for the first time over the last year since Simon’s death. Kevin asks Cooper to make his social media presence felt and asks for him to make the fact that he is gay his brand in order to empower more people.

Cooper unwillingly agrees and states that he won’t crack no matter what. Addy is in her room and he mother asks her about her lack of participation in school. Her mother asks if she truly believes that Jake is in Mexico but Addy denies having any knowledge about his whereabouts. Addy breaks down after his mother has left.

Nate goes back home to be greeted with alcohol and his mother, Ellen, calls for a celebration since the charges against him for Simon’s murder are being dropped. Nate is upset that his mother wanted him to accept the charges and go to jail despite being innocent. He asks her to leave just like she did years ago but Ellen says that she is here to stay this time.

Nate says that if she does not, he will leave and exit. Bronwyn is at home when she is preparing for her Yale interview with her mother when Maeve tries to distract her with updates from Nate’s exoneration. She looks at the clock and realises that she only has an hour to 11 pm and recalls the last threat from Simon. Bronwyn asks her mother to call it a night and hits bed as she sneaks out of her house from the window

She is on her call looking at something from a distance when Nate finds her. He tells her to go back home but she is adamant about not going back. They bicker about her bailing him out that night where she claims that had Bronwyn not done that, Nate would have taken the fall for Simon’s death.

A flashback shows Bronwyn from the night of Jake’s death where she plans everything about how the five would wash their hands off of Jake’s mysterious shooting. Nate wonders how Bronwyn was so composed that night and he claims that she is falling into trouble to help him. She claims that she loves him and knows that Nate loves her too. Bronwyn is sure he will take the fall for her when need be.

While they bicker and pay no attention to who is threatening them, someone checks up on the bag Bronwyn has left full of paper and the group gets a text from Simon calling it their big mistake. Addy gets a text from Cole, Jake’s brother, but she avoids him again. Her mother brings in a mail for her and she is shocked to see the contents of the box. She lies to her mother who ends up consoling her.

After her mother has left, Addy opens the box to find a note from Simon that reads, “You have one more chance, play the game or everyone will know.” The box also consists of the gun Jake was shot with. She recalls the night of Jake’s death and how she was the only one who did not want to dispose of his body.

Addy gets anxious and takes a pill. She runs into Janae at school and tells her about the gun Simon sent to her house. She had brought the gun to school and Janae is shocked about it. Janae takes the gun from Addy and tells her to make her life go back to normal. She goes to the ocean to drop off the gun. Another flashback shows how the five planned out Jake’s disappearance.

Back to the present, she keeps the gun with her and goes back to school. Nate is at school with a counsellor who tells him to work on his grades in order to be able to graduate. He gets assigned a student-tutor named Fiona Jennings and leaves the counsellor’s office after he gets an SOS text from Addy.

The group learn that Addy was threatened with a gun and Janae says that she had taken care of it. She lies that she threw it in the ocean. The five decide that they continue doing what Simon says until they learn who it is that is threatening them. Nate confronts Bronwyn for not telling the other three she went out to confront Simon last night.

They fight before Bronwyn’s Yale interview and Evan spots them together. He taunts her for cheating on him and being a suspected murderer before he leaves. During her interview, Bronwyn talks about why she wanted to go to Yale and the interviewer asks her about her trauma last year.

She is asked what her secret was that helped her keep her grades high despite the trauma. Bronwyn recalls how she stopped the other four from calling the cops after Jake was shot. Back in the present time, she declares that she does not have a secret and lashes out at the interviewer for making her trauma a big part of her character. Once alone, Bronwyn breaks down in the bathroom.

Nate is having a chat with his student tutor Fiona and the two bond when Bronwyn finds him. She asks to chat with him and blames her bad interview on him. Nate tells her that he is in the middle of a tutoring session with Fiona and Bronwyn is offended that he did not ask her to tutor him. They share a flirtatious conversation with each other but part ways immediately after.

The five get a text from Simon asking him to meet them at the abandoned cinema. Cooper sees that Kris is dating someone else and he confronts the latter about it. Kris asks him to back off but Cooper asks if the former told anyone about where he was during the night of Jake’s death. Kris asks Cooper to back off and leave him alone with a promise that his secret will be safe.

Addy is back home where she finds Keely. Keely apologises for telling Simon her secret and Addy forgives her asking her to never talk to her again. Keely asks Addy to rejoin the cheerleading team and mentions what a terrible person Jake was. Addy is triggered and lashes out at Keely. She states that one should not speak ill of those that are gone.

Keely latches on to the fact that Addy hinted at the fact that Jake was dead when in reality everyone knows him to have fled to Mexico. Addy is panicking after her slip-up but dismisses Keely. Maeve spots Bronwyn leaving that night from the window. She confronts Bronwyn for not including her in the secret despite how she helped them the last time.

Maeve asks her sister about Janae and Bronwyn mentions that maybe Janae needs space after what happened. She lies to Maeve stating that she was sneaking out to meet Nate and the younger of the two sisters does not prod her. The five arrive at the abandoned theatre and sit in the seats reserved for them. The screen starts playing a video from Simon.

The five of them are shocked and they wonder if he is still alive. Janae mentions that it could be a deep-fake. The video then plays a lip of the five of them in the forest on the night of Jake’s death. Addy calls Simon a psycho and the five immediately get a text from Simon. The text reads, “You made Jake suffer, now it’s your turn,” leading them to believe that Simon was in the same room.

All five of them look around the abandoned cinema while Janae looks under the seat. The projector room mysteriously burns down and all evidence to the video is destroyed when the theatre burns down. Cooper, Addy and Janae make it out while Nate and Bronwyn escape somehow. The two hide out in an alley and share a moment before they hear sirens and have to escape.

Cole follows Addy as she gets back home and starts discussing Jake. She gets flustered and runs inside her house when she recalls the night when she was the person to have shot Jake. The episode ends with Addy having a nightmare where Jake tells her that she will have to pay for killing him.

The Episode Review

The episode was quite intense and I love the fact that there were flashbacks with each of the five to show what happened and how they were involved in Jake’s murder. Vanessa is too annoying and I am not sure if any sane viewer can deal with her “influencer” self for the rest of the show. I wonder how Bronwyn’s stakeout panned out where she used paper instead of money to lure “Simon” in.

The stakes are too high for her to mess with him but she does not take it seriously. I’d imagine that she will not go to Yale or any reputable college by the end of the show because her actions make it seem like that. She had one job at the stakeout and she ruined that by not keeping an eye out as she bickered with Nate, way to go.

The couple – Nate and Bronwyn – are too angsty and hopefully the plot is not affected by their coupley behaviour. The entire episode foreshadowed that Addy was the one who pulled the trigger on Jake and that is why she is having the hardest time recovering. I wonder why Bronwyn was so determined to get rid of the body when it was Addy that killed Jake.

Nate would have been saved anyway. Jake’s brother Cole could be Simon and there is a probability that Vanessa or the newbie, Fiona could be involved too. One of the best lines from the episode come from Janae who jokes that Simon was going to punish them by making them watch Twilight. One Of Us Is Lying is directed at millennials – and it shows!