TV Recap: “Tell Me Lies” – Episode 7 “Castle on a Cloud” (Hulu)

It’s Evan’s (Branden Cook) birthday, and the friends are all invited to his parent’s lake house to celebrate this special occasion. While Lucy (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen (Jackson White) are excited to get away, Evan is a lonely traveler who buys his own cake and must contend with some overt racism from an unknown neighbor.

Bree, Wrigley, Pippa, and Drew (Catherine Missal, Spencer House, Sonia Mena, and Benjamin Wadsworth) join the party at the house, where the group quickly learns that there are some rules that Evan wants them to follow, but they ignore the polite requests from the host.

Lucy is uncomfortable throughout the stay as she sees Drew and wants to call the cops because she learned about his part in the accident that killed Macy. Stephen talks her out of it, because since he was in the car, Stephen believes that it could hurt him if they were to call the cops. Though Lucy’s anger is eased, her hostility towards Drew is not going away anytime soon.

Throughout the weekend, the friends bicker and fight with each other, Stephen goes behind Wrigley’s back and starts feeding lies to Drew which causes strain between the brothers. While the passive aggressive hostility continues amongst the group, Evan finally snaps.

After a few drinks, he calls out his friends for their horrible behavior and questions if any of them are really friends. Evan tells them that they treat each other terribly, and then disappears for the night.

When Bree finds Evan the next morning, they both admit their feelings for each other, and a new relationship is born.

Bill’s Perspective:

Finally! An episode that is centered on Evan allowing the nicest character in the show to have his moment in the spotlight. Branden Cook gets to have the lead, and gets to voice a lot of dislike that many viewers will no doubt have towards some of the characters and their reprehensible behavior. Cook nails the party scene when he calls out his ‘friends’ and the fact that he is honest and truthful about their terrible behavior is a breath of fresh air, which this show needed.

Not only do we get to have Branden Cook’s Evan front and center, but Catherine Missal gets to have a supporting role in the main thrust of this week’s story. Bree is without a doubt the best girl of the group, and the one person who seems to be the most genuine person. She doesn’t manipulate people or try to hurt others, and she doesn’t play up her past to get what she wants. She works hard, does her best, and is a good friend to people who are not good friends to her.

Having Bree and Evan finally get together is just the tonic this show needed. I am rooting hard for these two and want to see them happy.

Lucy’s pettiness and obsession with Drew is concerning. Now she is playing up Macy’s death and how it has affected her? Is this for real? Is Lucy really broken up about Macy’s death or is she projecting those feelings because she is hopelessly tied up with Stephen and knows that he is wrong for her. The further we go into the show, it looks like Lucy is falling further down the Stephen rabbit hole and not climbing out.

I do not like Stephen. He is manipulative, vile, crude, and deceptive. I wouldn’t trust a single word out of his mouth, and the fact that Lucy has gone back to him makes me wonder what is wrong with her. I find there is little redeemable qualities to him, and I want karma to assert its consequences.  

Bill_Gowsell
Bill Gowsell
Bill Gowsell has loved all things Disney since his first family trip to Walt Disney World in 1984. Since he began writing for Laughing Place in 2014, Bill has specialized in covering the Rick Riordan literary universe, a retrospective of the Touchstone Pictures movie library, and a variety of other Disney related topics. When he is not spending time with his family, Bill can be found at the bottom of a lake . . . scuba diving