The finale of “Tell Me Lies” Season 3 aired in February, and conversations have been stirring, especially over Lucy Albright, the complex main character of the show.
This season continued Albright’s toxic relationship with Stephen De Marco as their lies and manipulative behaviors reach a breaking point. Season 3 reveals major secrets, including Albright’s damaging tape where she lies about being sexually assaulted by her best friend’s brother, Chris. Ultimately, it ends in a disaster, as all of the friendships fall apart and Albright is expelled from Baird College.
Watching Albright’s decisions this season truly hurt my soul. From getting back with De Marco, to the taped confession that led to the downfall of her life, it was definitely hard to watch. But what surprised me the most was going on TikTok to only receive copious amounts of hateful content towards Albright.
The outrage is not about Albright anymore, it is about how society constantly judges women in abusive relationships.
Let us get this straight: Albright has terrible decision-making skills, but it is nowhere near the atrocities De Marco did to everyone on the show. Even the costars themselves, Grace Van Patten and Jackson White, said “it’s a two way street,” when being asked who the bigger villain on the show was.
This infuriates me.
Albright was a girl who felt nothing before meeting De Marco, a sociopathic and manipulative narcissist who tried to take everything from her. From her dissociations, to her forgetting simple interactions with peers in Season 3, some viewers argue that she described all the symptoms of persistent depressive disorder and anxiety.
And do not get me wrong, Albright is not the easiest character to love. But maybe that is the point. If viewers fail to empathize with a fictional character trapped in emotional abuse, how do they fail to extend this empathy in real life?
So, let us look at the facts.
Research shows that long-term effects of emotional abuse include anxiety, depression, destructive behavior and loneliness.
Spectators often shame female victims for staying with their perpetrator, or blame them for what happened in the relationship, but the truth is, they rarely ever blink an eye to the abusive man who caused the problems in the first place.
This parallels strongly in real life. For instance, Amber Heard was dragged by the internet in 2022 when she went up against her ex-husband Johnny Depp in court for defamation. Social media manipulated and mocked Heard’s testimony, and she was punished for speaking her truth. The backlash on Heard was simply not the same for Depp, even though he was no angel. It is ridiculous to blindly believe Depp without even considering the power imbalance and 22-year age gap in their relationship. That speaks for itself.
This is one of the many appalling examples of female victims being questioned and attacked for their experiences, and the hate on Albright represents the same pattern. “Tell Me Lies” is not just a fictional show, it is the sad reality for many young women. If people continue to bash female victims, then we are subconsciously contributing and encouraging the continuation of abuse amongst women.