If I had a magic lamp and was granted three wishes, I would give Lucy Albright free therapy for life, a brand new best friend, and a plane ticket to another country (India, perhaps?) so she could finally escape the horrifying web of toxicity that was her college friend group.
Spoilers upcoming!!
Sure, we all have those people we meet at Uni and get along with, party with, maybe find our wires crossed with them from time to time. Even then, untangling is usually painless and doesn't scar us in the long run. We go our separate ways, and on the odd time we see them out and about, we exchange our pleasantries and be on our way.
But once in a while, there's that black hole of a person that you just can't seem to get rid of. Maybe it's their charm that pulls you in at first, maybe their style, their love of niche alt bands or their travels to foreign countries - or, maybe, the interesting thing about them is that they're interested in you. Nothing wrong with a good first impression! The problem is, sometimes, it doesn't stay that way.
Imagine you're at a party. A guy comes up to you: tall, dark and okay-looking, shaved head, stinks of Marlboros, tattoos on his hands, and the kind of eyes that seem to look straight through you. Just the kind of guy you'd like to start up a little college fling with, right? Well, resist as she might, our protagonist Lucy Albright eventually gives in to the pursuits of our (main) antagonist Stephen DeMarco, and things are just downhill from there. By “downhill” I mean the equivalent of falling from the peak of Mt. Everest all the way to base camp.
Lucy's journey throughout the show's three season run was like watching a poor withered flower desperately attempt to grow between the cracks of pavement, only to be continuously stomped on again and again. By the time we reach the finale, we can't be sure how exactly she's changed in the six years after the tragic events that led to her expulsion from Baird University. However, there are major hints that she hasn't changed a bit (i.e. sleeping with Stephen the morning of the wedding, even though he's engaged to Lydia, Lucy's ex best friend. Iykyk).
It isn't until we reach the episode's climax in the aftermath of Stephen's airing of everyone's dirty laundry (not too mad about it though #Brigley) that we finally see Lucy faced with the opportunity of 'redemption'.
That guy you met in freshman year is here, leaning over the empty passenger seat in his probably very expensive car, looking at you with those same dark eyes and practically begging you to leave with him, start a new life, forget all those horrible people that pretended to be your friends. Lucy takes the bait. Why shouldn't she? (rhetorically, of course). Between everything she's been through and everyone she's left behind, what's left that Stephen could possible take away? She gets in the car.
At this point in the episode, I didn't know how to feel. On one hand, I've been Lucy. I'm sure a lot of us have. You keep going, hoping that this time will be different, that you're the exception, that this person has finally woken up and seen the light and you can really have that happy ending you've been imagining all this time. And as a viewer, even though I know deep down Stephen would be just as horrible to her as he always had been, part of me so badly wants him to change for her.
Of course not. Not even close. Spoiler Alert: he leaves her abandoned at a gas station in the middle of fuckin' nowhere. My girlfriends and I were howling at this. How did showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer perfectly capture that sinking feeling of disappointment mixed with absolute embarrassment. Lucy knew the whole damn time he hadn't changed. We all did. We watched him dump his fiancée while sucking down a beer at someone else's wedding reception without so much as looking at her.
He was running out of ways to sever Lucy from the last thing that seemed to be keeping her sane - her and Bree's friendship. And the moment that was squashed, he had nothing left over her. So he ditched her. And Lucy?
Lucy's laughing. I thought it was such a beautiful scene. My friends and I were half-laughing, half-tearing up alongside her. It's the kind of laughter you can only make when you've finally made it to the end. When you've gone over the same problem enough times that you finally start to see the pattern. It's a laugh borne of a higher level of self-awareness, of finally being able to hold up a mirror to your actions and see what they look like to the outside world. And who hasn't been there before?
Oppenheimer, in my opinion, perfectly captured a terrible cycle of abuse and attachment, a cycle which I think a lot of people believe can only be broken by one's own actions. E.g. cut off with them, tell them how badly they've hurt you, do a post-mortem during which you go over every terrible moment of the relationship to shock yourself back to reality. But Oppenheimer shows what I think can be a lot more realistic for some people, and that is: letting it go.
It occurs to you at the silliest of times, in the worst ways, and it's often embarrassing and humbling, but also incredibly freeing. It's not always about not getting in the car in the first place, but rather, how do you react when you do get in the car and then he leaves you on the side of the road some hundreds of kilometres later? Lucy hadn't seen the guy in six years. She had to test it out, for the sake of her own sanity. She might have been wondering for the majority of those six years - will he ever change? Could he? And now she has her answer.
Of course I would have loved to see Stephen get what's been coming to him from the past three seasons. Of course I would have loved to see Lucy get her revenge in some way. But, just like in real life, sometimes you don't get that. A lot of people don't. It's like that idiom. “The best revenge is to none. Heal, move on, and don't become like those who hurt you.”
A lot of viewers posted Tiktoks and reels about how Lucy finally took Diana's advice and “let [Stephen] think he won”. I think it's much more simple - and realistic - than that. Lucy just finally figured it out. Her laugh isn't one of disbelief, but exactly the opposite. She knew exactly what he was going to do, and now she has her confirmation. He hasn't changed. But she still could.
Honestly, I could write a million articles about this show, and maybe someday I'll take a shot at another. I could write a thousand words on the wardrobe and soundtrack alone. I just felt spiritually connected to that curtain drop and I had to let you know.
TLDR:
Lucy finally breaks the cycle, and honestly, sometimes all you can do is laugh to keep from crying (or chasing Stephen down with a knife).
Thank you for reading!
All photo creds to Crave.
xxx
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