#stephen demarco

[likeafantasy]

[mightierthanthecanon]

I bet he liked you.

He did, yeah.

[clubartaesthetic]

Very controversial

[fearoftouch-com]

stephen is the evilest man i’ve ever seen in the entire world. a menace don’t even compare to what he is.

[fuckdemarco]

How'd the rest of your night go? TELL ME LIES 2.06: Do Your Dirty Words Come Out To Play?

[cup-of-teas]

Tell Me Lies theory #1

based off the newest eps of it I’ve developed a v tinfoil hat theory.

Stephen and Lucy never separated. At least they’ve seen each other in the past 4 years.

Hear me out-

Stephen is dating Lucy’s ex-best friend (Lydia). Not because he likes her, but to flaunt her around because it gets under Lucy’s skin. Lydia hates Lucy because (I presume) Lucy helped ruin Lydia’s brother’s life. So Stephen is showing not only can he have someone that Lucy can’t, but he is even putting on the act for everyone that he’s a changed man because of her.

Which we see he hasn’t changed at all. Everything he’s doing is deliberate. The buzz cut hair to bring Lucy “back in time”. The wedding toast to goad Lucy into breaking. Bringing Lydia around to show Lucy everything she can’t have. That she wasn’t good enough to change for. And then he’s happy when he thinks she broke with the “meet me at the pool” text

In exact comparison, Lucy picked a man that she knew would get under Stephen’s skin. Stephen has already shown jealousy and anger about Max. Lucy has already been with Max early on. And when she tells Stephen, he eventually breaks when she says they cuddled. As we’ve seen before, Stephen cannot handle his partner’s previous hookups (mainly if he’s confronted with them). When Diana told him about Wrigley is the main example, but we see the same jealousy come out with Max and Lucy.

Lucy (in my opinion) quickly gives into Stephen’s game. She sent the pool text to get a one up on him for the toast. She gets annoyed when Max is nice to him since she doesn’t want Max to be seen as a non-threat.

My theory is that there’s NO WAY they’ve gone 4 years without seeing each other. They’ve literally built their current lives around this game of power play. I think they never lost contact and every step they’ve been taking is a move against one another.

I think they’re either together still and pretending w everyone else. Or they’re at least occasionally meeting up and having an affair. They seem to keep going back to one another because of the “no one else will accept me” mentality. Max and Lydia don’t seem to be any different with how they act. Lucy and Stephen have clearly not opened up to them, they still only know each other.

If I want to get crazier with this theory, I believe Diana and Pippa may know. And they have their own plot to expose the two of them. Their cryptic wording with “they were both here” and whatnot, it seemed like they judged them together and equally.

[iconsrequestsworld]

fav or reblog if you save 🔐

[sunlightandprayers]

i actually want to strangle lucy and stephen with my bare hands

[magggg202]

I always love a bad boy in a movie or book, but the HATE I have for Stephen DeMarco is real!!! LEO AND Max did not deserve any of this!! WHY LUCY?! WHY!!

[davistilinski]

it's been a long fucking time since i've hated a character the way i hate stephen, i hope someone runs him over with a fucking car and kicks him in the fucking balls.

[horizon-verizon]

I've got some things to say abt the latest episode of Tell Me Lies, as well as some fans of the show.

Firstly, I just want to say that Stephen IS Shakespeare's Iago.

1) I really hope Bree finds out Lucy was the girl Evan cheated on her with in the future storyline, bc this group of friends needs to just never be together anymore.

2) Oliver was always an opp, from day one, no matter how hot his actor is (and trust I have been both side eyeing and involuntarily gushing at their scenes for a while). "Boys" are the worst at any age; he's a prime example of that but Bree doesn't know that yet. 45x19 is never the move, esp when the older's married.

The reason why Bree keeps telling people abt Oliver is bc she doesn't want to feel guilty or under a moral pressure abt it when she's in the affair to feel like she is desirable/worthy of attention when her friends barely do anything to really know/care for her & she felt her relationship w/Evan didn't have enough reciprocated emotional investment. Which is ironic bc Oliver is certainly not giving that despite how she feels he sorta "picks" her over Marianne by choosing to spend time w/her, validating her feelings abt Evan/her friends. Despite him saying he won't leave his marriage for her.

He's playing a push-pull game to keep her wanting more: the ring, "why wouldn't we?", etc. HE travels to some NE "village" for Thanksgiving with rich white folks and she lives in the dorms. He is still using her, this is and never will be an "equal" relationship.

3) idgaf abt the possibility that Diana is trying to swerve Steven by lashing at Lucy, it will always be an amoral, unnecessary, unethical move when Steven PUBLICLY & VISIBLY in front of both their friends was & HAS BEEN trying to rile Lucy/Leo up.

4) Diana thus 100% deserved that slap, esp when Lucy was the one who put her onto to the Steven-Macy and *she* didn't believe Lucy at first. Lucy is the one who's enabled Diana--IF she is trying to get away from Steven now--to plan in the 1st place, & she goes & does this?

Nah, let's hold Diana accountable for her actions as you (a lot of people) have been holding Lucy accountable for hers! She was a coward bc even if she is doing this to get away from Steven and she is as smart as people say she is, if she is actually pretty good at social manipulation, it's still amoral to tell the victim he was the real problem and invited abuse (a girl younger than Diana [20-22] herself, who also took Steven back when he cheated on her and put her down for months and is currently still doing so), is not the NECESSARY move when we see the same dude publicly try to harass Leo and Lucy in front of the friends who will not check Steven.

5) This is also the same reason why I am annoyed & disappointed w/Pippa even though he was the only one to at least say something abt & TO Steven in the situation. How are you going to stand there, witness Steven try to get Leo to go wild on him not once but TWICE, hear Lucy tell you abt Steven getting to her, hear him say she "embarrassed" herself at that lunch table (Steven had been trying to break them up for ages!), see Lucy stay away from Steve the best she could until not only he but his sister criticize her for being "psycho" (against Steven, not her behavior towards others, Sadie thought Lucy was being "crazy" on Steven),...see Diana wrongly assign all the fault on Lucy...then say you can't "believe" Lucy slapped her?

Not only do we know & you saw Steven be emotionally abusive to Diana (& I am sure she wouldn't say the same if Diana slapped another girl saying that), you slapped Steven yourself?!!! Under the guise of a game, but everyone understood what you did! Leo fist-pumped you for it?! All bc you have a crush on Diana, you're willing to ignore how Diana is literally victim-blaming while she herself "makes it easy" for Steven to hurt her time and time again.

6) And I'm red in rage over the Lucy getting blamed and this idea of victimhood or victimlessness bc it's all abt the principle of the thing: yes there are many women who will sacrifice their dignity for male validation (like Diana, not just Steven but her dad), & Lucy was one of them when she had been dating Steven...but this is the point of the show! MANY women are like Lucy and Diana and Pippa. MOST women have at one point in their prepubescence to dating lives have sold other women/girls out, blamed other girls, to believed or vilified women trying to defend themselves in a sea of men-protectors, etc. bc out world has made it very clear that, for a time, these actions will at least move negative male predation away from them or get them social "favors" for it, or some sort of validation the same society denies young girls and women. Gain back what is lost.

It's still women's jobs to reflect and stop that behavior in ourselves as we grow. At least Future!pool-Lucy is not throwing another girl under the bus as she tries to get back at Steven for his wedding speech, even as she is choosing to react to more of his bullshit at the age of 25-27! We hold Future!Lucy accountable for not taking the opp to protect her own peace...but not Diana when she's actively making Lucy out to be the bad guy in a situation where she definitely wasn't?! Making her out to be the "crazy" ex and weaponizing her slapping her against her for her own needs?

This goes to show that our society/the internet still will approve male violence in any form--even encourage it, with Leo vs Steven (this instance is kinda valid, but you should know what I'm getting at)--before they ever let a woman REFLEXIVELY lose some bit of restraint and react/defend herself.

Past!Lucy was not even horrible to Diana nor Steven before epi 6; she was trying to stay away & live her life w/Leo & the others. Yeah, she's emotionally immature before and after Steven, but:

a) she is actually "worse" AFTER Steven and if he didn't exist or had approached her with all his damn negging, she likely could have done better for herself as she grew in this college environment when, once more, bc Steven was so horrible to her she developed a hyperawareness towards possible psychological threats from intimate partners or other kinds...esp with how her mother tried to make her to be the wrong party, talking abt "your dad would be so upset with you" when she slept with his best friend as he died and way before that! Lucy was kinds set up for more ish bc her mother created the expectations for that.

b) Past! & Future!Steven goes/went out of his way, unprovoked, to make her feel she was always the one doing wrong when he creates most of all his own issues: Macy, inviting the freshmen girls he hunted for in the first place, cheating on Diana, telling his gfs their hormones & periods make them insufferable, manipulating Wrigley AND his brother Iago-style , etc.

Steven is out here literally trying to ruin people's day bc he has never had one himself. How is Lucy mean to be so perfectly composed 100% of the time?!!! No, things will always give, plus she is 19/was 18.

7) Which is why I don't fuck w/Max even though Leo also cites how Lucy uses people's worst things against them (which, again, is her doing reactive mistreatment bc she, form Steven, now reflexively anticipates people using/lying/manipulating her).

Leo at least HAS to stay away from toxicity bc of his own anger issues & abusive past form his dad & his reliance on the only thing that made him relatively safe...ironically, very similar to Lucy. I wish he had clocked both this AND how Lucy is more reacting in the face of having not much support form the peanut gallery, but I get it, it simply isn't their time. I loved them together, and despite him not telling Lucy about his ex cheating w/Steven when he knows she is so triggered and afraid of any scenario like manipulation, saying that its "unimportant" I also think there is a chance that they could have tackled it with how good they were communicating otherwise. How good he was at that aside form this thing.

Max, however, has no background to be telling Lucy to "forget" Steven kiking up with him in the 4th or 5th episode, I forget. Esp when she herself asked him why he is doing said kiking knowing what she told him abt Steven...talking abt "people changed". Also we have seen no real consideration of what I have described all along: that Steven is the issue, and that maybe instead of "forgiving" him and giving him a pass, just suggest she stay away from him and not engage with Steven yourself for her to be able to actually "forget" him, as YOU say!

No, we don't dismiss our partner's upset bc we're upset they haven't "forgiven & forgot"; that in itself is not very "mature".

And no, I don't think that her FUTURE/present!pool-move licenses Past!Steven, present/future!Max, whoever, to give her past-self flack.

Yes, at the older age you must realize that sometimes you've got to be the one to make an end of things or have built up some thicker skin to generate some peace as you're not even in the same spaces anymore like you were in college when the guy truly was making life hell enough for you to drop a class.

Yes, the pool scene shows she has little progress than she should. That in no way negates how Steven hasn't either, he's just now even better at hiding his crazy...I mean that damn speech?

Yes, we the audience know that Steven is slighting both Lucy & Diana with his whole "find the right one to do the work for"; but people like Max don't.

Steven also says he was the idiot (notice how he makes it abt him), there is enough for some inattentive, inexperienced, distracted, or ignorant people to take it as if he's being self-effacing...but no, he *ended* his speech w/that dig. This and the sales comment abt her "as long as you're happy" (when we already heard him say to Diana that he basically thinks working in sales is "beneath" him). HE hasn't changed, not one bit. He will always try to get his lick in, as present/future!Pippa says he will and has not ever "changed".

Again, I can't exactly "hate" Lucy for the pool scene even as I am exasperated with her for it. I hate discrepancies like these where one ends up "hating" the wrong person the most, makes me misanthropic (not just misandirist).

Last Notes...

So, real life-wise, yeah, Future!Lucy, stop, just remove yourself from those group of so-called "friends" AND Max and get some therapy. Otherwise, you're just choosing to be toxic. Yes, the letter about Drew was much, but that is more misguided defending a dead girl who shouldn't have died. The way she went about it was concerning, but not unfoundly malicious. Yeah, her telling Steven abt Lydia's personal shit was terrible of her and maybe it's bc she had many experiences from Lydia actually doing as she did with that stupid poop comment to embarrass her. That was shitty, but I am also not going to remove the described possibility abt Lydia when we know Lydia is perhaps the biggest pick-me to ever pick me in this entire cast and is def jealous of Lucy. I think it's important to note that Lucy one time punched Lydia's ex when he basically cheated on her publicly or something along those lines. And, as Lucy says, she was trying to take care of Steven the way she thought she was (as some people will say Diana might be trying to while getting back at Lucy).

Perhaps Lucy and Steven are a pair who drag everyone around them, with Lucy sending that letter (Wrigley's accident, Drew's mental dive) and also having slept w/Evan & that also having lead to Bree getting w/Oliver but Bree wasn't forced to sleep w/Oliver even as she searches for validation form him she's missing from Evan and her friends. And Wrigley having allowed his mates to harass Pippa, having joined other boys/men in inviting only freshmen girls who he later says are a "curse", when he's the one who suggested this stupid ass game for this group of people (we don't nearly give enough flack for tis when this basically set up the entire evening along w/Steven's bullshit, but apparently we will give Lucy flack for the pool scene above all else)...Evan not only cheating but making Bree feel she's crazy for questioning his overcompensation, then getting mad when she wouldn't give him the time of day when she's really just distracted, then him stringing along the girl I don't remember the name of. All of these people are quite capable of creating their own drama without Lucy, esp with how they refuse to let Steven go or pay attention and hold him accountable, go ALL the way with him.

I think that a present popular audience feeling that Lucy is somehow "close" to Steven's level and type of toxicity are themselves serving to protect mal predation and bad acting. Something these "friends" are doing, ironically.

So I will always have the most smoke for Stephen & the other men THE MOST. As I also ream Lydia Pippa, Bree, Diana....not just Lucy, as it appears people have and continue to do. Stephen is the un"fix"able provoker.

I love this damn show so much. i wouldn't be friends or even acquaintances with any of them, yes inclu Lucy & Wrigley.

[likeafantasy]

[mightierthanthecanon]

[oh-my-damn]

stephen saying he is nothing like his mom when his sister finds out what a manipulator he is, is just PEAK

watching his scenes during christmas with his mom, i was yelling the entire time "YOU HATE HER BUT YOU DONT REALIZE YOURE EXACTLY LIKE HER" and honestly it is just PEAK toxicity, especially when you have parents who are not aware of what theyre like

a vicious cycle

its just narcissism breeds narcissism, manipulators breed manipulators, and none of them realize its happening to them, because they kept telling themselves their entire lives that they dont want to end up like their parents despite being exactly like them

i see so much of it in myself, too. its honestly fascinating. its always "i inherited my worst traits from *insert the parent that damaged you the most*" and while we're aware of that, we're still not aware of how to break the cycle, how to break out of this thought process that we inherited

honestly i hate pretty much every single character on this show but i dont hate them because they're not deep or developed enough as characters, i hate them because THEY ARE. theyre TOO deep, TOO developed, TOO REAL.

they all possess a different type or level of mental instability that they each dont realize, and usually its a result of trauma, and its just very nice to see it so well depicted on screen. usually these topics are brushed over, and if theyre not, theyre WILDLY exaggerated, but thats not how these issues truly manifest in real life.

usually its nonexistent in the beginning, then its subtle. then it becomes glaringly obvious to anyone but you. and not until the last sliver of connection is cut do you realize what exactly was happening

this show is honestly so good because these people are so terrible, theyre actual real life representations of the type of people we see every day (or even are) without any of the glitter tossed on top and i love that

[tealeavesand-roses]

Status: Read Rating: 3/5 🌟🌟🌟

Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering. I watched the Hulu show Tell Me Lies trailer two years ago and decided at that moment to keep the show at bay because I wasn't interested in watching something of that caliber. Last week, I found myself browsing endlessly through multiple streaming services, and because the second season of Tell Me Lies just dropped (the advertising for the show has been pretty aggressive), it popped up at the top of my Hulu profile. I decided to throw it on. I binged through the first two episodes and had this visceral reaction to Stephen. His behavior made me feel this constant pit in my stomach because it was reminiscent of someone I had a situationship with a decade ago (click "keep reading" if you want the tea lmao).

Moving on, after binging through the first two episodes, I decided to pause watching the show and quickly read the book. I finished the book within 3 days and was stunned at how even more diabolical Stephen comes across in the book, likely because of how much access we have to Stephens's pov, inner monologue, etc. So far, I'm finding the changes from the book to the show interesting (e.g., morphing Jackie and Pippa into one person and having Macy be Lucy's roommate instead of a childhood acquaintance). I wonder if they'll still have the character Gabe (Macy's older brother) because I feel like this slight change shifts the trajectory of certain plotlines. Overall, the book was fine; the characters aren't necessarily likable, but the content is relatable in the worst ways lol. Hence why, I have a lot of feelings. I think the author did a pretty incredible job of displaying a sociopath with narcissistic attributes. As the reader, you're almost being manipulated by Stephen's plotting and reasoning for his actions, yet simultaneously, you're disgusted with him. Lastly, I wish he had gone to prison for what he did to Macy; I'm pretty upset about that.

*Flashback* I remember once thinking that this person and I had such an amazing evening together, and months later, I saw on his ex's Instagram that he had been with her earlier that evening (the picture was her on his lap, and they were making out). I once saw screenshots of texts that he had sent to a girl, which basically were the same lines he had said to me, down to a t. I had a dream one night that he did something, and the following day, I found out that he had hooked up with my old coworker. I could go on and on, but regardless, I remember feeling like he was calculated and intentional, and I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that someone could be so cruel and manipulative. There were probably so many other girls I'll never know about, and that's fine. I'm just glad the situationship only lasted 4 months.

[fuckdemarco]

precious asshole 💘