Jackson White Calls Stephen a 'Puppet Master' as He Breaks Down 'Juicy'Tell Me LiesSeason 2 Finale: 'What's Wrong with Him?' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jackson White as Stephen in ‘Tell Me Lies’ season 2.Photo:Disney/Josh Stringer

Disney/Josh Stringer

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the season 2 finale ofTell Me Lies.

Jackson Whitehas a lot of questions.

The season 2 finale ofTell Me Liesdelivered a handful of bombshells on Oct. 16, and White, who plays the frustratingly toxic Stephen DeMarco, tells PEOPLE that he likes the story’s “messiness.” But even still, he wonders of his character, “What’s his deal?”

“I don’t know what he wants,” White, 28, admits. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. I don’t know why he won’t shut up — I don’t know why. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”

As White points out, it’s not just Stephen that’s confusing — it’s the whole gaggle of “ugly characters, and I like that.”

“I think this show is really special in that it is just not afraid to show all those parts and all the unconsciousness and all the messiness. It’s really fun to play.”

Jackson White as Stephen, Grace Van Patten as Lucy in ‘Tell Me Lies’.Disney/Josh Stringer

The season 2 finale saw jaw-dropping reveals left and right, but where Stephen is concerned, the episode finally addressed the letter Lucy (Grace Van Patten) wrote exposing Drew’s role in Macey’s death and gave a long-awaited update on Evan (Branden Cook) and Lucy’s clandestine hookup from season 1.

“I thought it was really juicy, and it’s very on brand of him,” White says of Stephen taking the fall for Lucy and claiming he penned the letter to the administration about Wrigley’s brother, Drew (Benjamin Wadsworth).

As for the truly show-stopping end to the episode, which saw Stephen send Bree (Cat Missal) a voice memo of Evan admitting that he cheated on Bree with Lucy moments before she was due to walk down the aisle, White calls it a “crazy” reveal.

“He would’ve had to hold onto that [recording] for seven, eight years,” he says. “He was cooking on that bad boy.”

Alicia Crowder as Diana, Jackson White as Stephen in ‘Tell Me Lies’ season 2.Disney/Josh Stringer

The finale also saw things between Stephen and Leo (Thomas Doherty) come to a head. Hours after sleeping with Stephen, Lucy cries on Leo’s doorstep and the pair rekindle their relationship — only for Stephen to reveal his hookup with Lucy to Leo that night. Naturally, chaos ensued, and then, Leo brutally beat Stephen to a pulp as Lucy looked on in horror.

White says it was “cool” to film. “I like doing stunt stuff. In two years of the show, it was the only stunt that I ever got to do, so it was really fun.”

He jokes that his part in the choreographed sequence was “definitely more artistic” than Doherty’s, who had to throw the punches.

“Mine was more of a dance. Mine was like, I had to go down and go, ‘Ow!’ and land in the right place for the camera. So mine was a ballet of sorts,” he says with a laugh. “I was the muse. I was painting the story while [Doherty] smashed the canvas.”

Jackson White.Dennis Leupold

Dennis Leupold

Season 2 ended without really addressing where Stephen and Lucy stand — both in the 2008 college timeline and in 2015 — but White says he’s rooting for them to be together.

“I just love Grace,” he says, referring to the fact thathe’s dating Van Patten, 27, in real life, before doubling down.

“I also think there’s something satisfying about seeing two really destructive people just find comfort in each other. It’s like, it’s very Bonnie and Clyde… I don’t know, there’s something satisfying about it.”

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The season 2 finale ofTell Me Liesis now streaming on Hulu.

source: people.com