Showrunner Erica Saleh breaks down the explosive final episode revelations and what it may mean for season 3.
Spoiler alert! Do not proceed if you have not watched season 2 of Peacock's One of Us Is Lying.
And Murder Club thought they were finally turning over a new (murder-less) leaf on One of Us Is Lying.
As the explosive season 2 finale revealed, there's always trouble lurking around the corner at Bayview. After Addy, Nate, Bronwyn and Cooper discovered that it was Fiona, a.k.a Nate's tutor for a hot minute, who was behind the menacing Simon Says texts they'd been receiving all season, forcing them to do abhorrent acts in exchange for their secret -- that they killed Jake -- not getting out, Murder Club came up with a plan to finally gain the upper hand and bring some justice.
Their plan, in a nutshell, involved getting Fiona's fingerprints onto the gun (the same one Addy used to pull the trigger) and framing her for Jake's murder, after it was uncovered that Jake was the one who disclosed her secret -- that she stabbed a teacher at her previous school -- to Simon. After a dramatic showdown on a yacht that almost ended in tragedy, Murder Club accomplished their goal, planting Fiona's prints on the gun and sending her behind bars.
But Bayview being Bayview, things didn't end there. Jake's brother, Cole, paid a visit to Fiona in jail, asking her why Jake killed Simon in the first place. When she alluded to the reason potentially having to do with Jake being sent to rehab, a secret that was uncovered late in the season, Cole seemed surprised that she was aware of his brother's stint. Soon after his visit, Fiona, back at her prison cell, received her lunch for the day and took a drink out of the paper cup -- which, it turns out, was laced with poison.
Meanwhile, as a promise toward their future, Nate gives Bronwyn a necklace with the word "stay" engraved on it, serving as a reminder that he's not going anywhere. Except, as the finale fast-forwarded to graduation day, not all is well on the murder-y front as a violent crime scene with a huge pool of blood at Bayview comes into plain view -- and Bronwyn's necklace is at the center of it. So, whose blood is that? Is Bronwyn in danger? Who poisoned Fiona? Does it have anything to do with Jake's secret stint in rehab?
Showrunner and executive producer Erica Saleh broke down the major revelations from the season 2 finale, how they will play into a potential third season and the key questions viewers should be asking after that action-packed final episode.
ET: Let's break down some of the big reveals from the season. In the finale, it's revealed that Fiona the one behind the threatening text messages from Simon Says. Why did it make sense for her to be the ultimate perpetrator?
Erica Saleh: We really wanted it to be someone who we could tie in with Jake and sort of color in a little more of the story of why Jake killed Simon. And we wanted it to be someone that we had met before. Even though we only meet Fiona very briefly in season 1 in the pilot, we do tell people in the pilot, "This is someone violent." We don't get the whole story, but we drop that hint at the beginning of season 1 and hopefully, that'll be a fun, satisfying thing for people to realize once they see who it is.
It was important to us to make it someone who we had gotten to know a little bit and overlooked. The one thing that this show has made clear is that everyone in the show and in this school has secrets. Fiona seemed really innocent all season and no one's looking for her secrets, but of course, she has secrets. It was exciting to use her to fill in some things we didn't know about Jake, and to hint that Jake had another really big secret -- that if we're lucky enough to have a season 3 -- we'll be able to start to uncover a little bit more about what Fiona knew about Jake and what other kind of secrets lie beneath the surface in Bayview.
The cast shared that they were privy to who Simon Says was while filming the season. Why did you feel it was important to disclose this morsel of information to them? How did this help shape the season?
I think it really helps them in their performances and their characters to know where the season is going. And I absolutely trust them all. They're such great actors. I knew no one was going to tip their hand in the performances, but [viewers] may start to see some of the things that we were layering in -- some of the little hints. When people go back and watch, they might realize, "Oh, that's what she was doing." It's just really important to trust your actors and let them know the story that they're being asked to tell for the full season. I think it adds depth to the performances.
Just when they thought they were in the clear, with Fiona in jail and graduation approaching, the final scene hints that they're about to face a whole new set of challenges with a very bloody crime scene at Bayview High. And Bronwyn's "Stay" necklace found at the scene, the trophy as a potential murder weapon...
It does not look good for graduation. Always in the writers' room, we've really talked about wanting to, in a potential season 3, get these kids to graduation. That's such a pinnacle of high school and it's all about growing up. It's this threshold and I think that symbolizes so much. So that being something that we flash-forward to and know is going to be their transition into adulthood, it's looking really dangerous. It felt like an exciting kind of tease and thematically really fitting, that this show has been about these kids learning to grow up and having to deal with more and more adult problems. The end of high school is a juggernaut for everyone, so it felt like a good place to tee up the mystery for season 3.
Because we see Nate gifting Bronwyn that same "Stay" necklace and promising that he's not going anywhere, someone may jump to the conclusion that Bronwyn's fate is whose we should be most worried about. What do you want fans to be thinking about as they digest that final scene?
The goal is for people to be worried about Bronwyn, to be really worried about what happened at graduation. But I think this show, we've definitely, I think, taught our audience to realize or to think that nothing is exactly what it seems. So I think the question on everyone's mind will be, "How did that necklace get there? Was Bronwyn wearing it? And whose blood is that we're seeing?"
We set up a really big mystery at the end of season 1 that really let people know what questions to be asking going into season 2. And at the end of season 2, there are maybe even more questions. What happened at graduation? But also what secret does Fiona know about Jake and what might Cole have done to protect that secret? How is high school going to end for these kids?
Is Fiona still going to be a player in season 3? She's locked up but someone poisons her with the cup of water she drinks out of...
I'm trying to think what I can say without being too much of a spoiler, but the fact that Murder Club has framed Fiona and put her in jail, that last shot of Fiona, we know that she is in some kind of trouble. I think that those actions will not be without consequences. We'll definitely feel the reverberations of what they did this season to Fiona and what they've learned about Fiona in season 3.
What was a relationship you were most excited to dig into this year? And who surprised you the most in the romance department?
I really love all our romances, so it's hard to speak to one. But I do think in season 1, we saw so much wanting each other from Nate and Bronwyn [and them] never really getting to be together. So getting them to the point where they are actually together and being honest with each other and being emotional with each other and seeing what a real relationship feels like was really fun. And really, an emotional one to write. It was also really fun to challenge that and have Nate flirting with Fiona. When they stepped on set together we were like, "Oh, there's a lot of chemistry here." That was a really fun one to do as well.
Was there an episode or a storyline this year that you're proudest of?
There are so many things I love, but I think I really love in episode 5 that we get to see this other side of our characters and we get to see who they would be if their lives weren't dominated by being murder suspects, seeing who they are when they get to take a minute and just be fun, carefree teenagers. I'm really excited for people to see episode 6.
The Vanessa episode.
Yeah, it's so fun to change perspective. We've spent, by that point, a season and a half always being in the heads of Murder Club, and they're our heroes. It's so fun to step outside and see them from this outside perspective and see how they look to the rest of the world. Seeing them through Vanessa's eyes is so funny and gives us a bigger appreciation for Vanessa who people have a tendency to write off. But she's a lot smarter than we think she is. In season 1, we teach the audience and learn through Murder Club that no one is just the stereotype they seem to be. So getting to continue that with some surprising characters in season 2 was really fun.
One of Us Is Lying is now streaming on Peacock.
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