Well, if you thought the second season of One of Us is Lying was going to tie into the second novel in the series adapted from Karen McManus, One of Us is Next…think again. In fairness, I think it was the right move.
For those of you unfamiliar, the second novel almost completely shucks the Bayview Four out of the second story. They pop up here and there, but the central narrative focuses on Maeve, Bronwyn’s younger sister, her friend Knox, and her new friend, Phoebe. The three get caught up in a copycat game of Simon Says, although this time it’s truth or dare. The truth would follow similar to Simon Says, but the dares end up turning deadly. The trio work together to find the culprit behind the game, and similar to the original novel, the twists at the end are so, so satisfying. All that being said, it would be kind of stupid for a TV show to dump their main characters. Even as an anthology, following the second novel wouldn’t really work.
That means we get our Bayview Four…well, now Five, in a somewhat decent space after getting rid of Jake’s body. In flashbacks we see again how they all congregated in the woods right after Addy shot him in self-defense. Bronwyn went into her type-A mode at the perfect opportunity and it appeared all i’s were dotted and t’s were crossed. Wrong. Not too long after the events of Halloween night, Simon Says is back, but only the Bayview Five are playing. They each get sent increasingly awful tasks, which they basically have to complete while they try and figure out who’s behind it, or a video of them standing over Jake’s body in the woods goes to the police. That’s not great for staying out of jail.
Should they have just gone to the police to begin with? Absolutely, yes. But I guess regardless how smart some of these kids are, common sense just isn’t there for them yet. Meave, now dating Janelle, helpfully inserts herself, but none of them want her getting tangled in their mess. While I appreciate Meave’s expertise and help out of some sticky situations, I found her pretty unlikeable. Especially compared to the books. Oh, well. Can’t win everything. And not only do they have Simon Says at their throat, but they also have Addy’s ex best friend, Vanessa, breathing down their necks. She’s somehow managing to wage a campaign against “murder club” and finding some pretty decent evidence.
This season definitely kept me on my toes, and given that this was essentially a whole new story, I had no clue how it was all going to turn out! There are just a handful of new characters thrown into the mix, and though it could have been annoying that they play such important parts, they were introduced quite seamlessly. As most dramatic teen couples, Nate and Bronwyn need to learn how to communicate, and Cooper is just kind of there for me this season, but what I most enjoyed seeing this season was Addy and Janelle’s friendship continue to grow tighter. Janelle also helped add some more representation into the show, and I hope people out there felt seen.
Overall though, I know I’ll always be rooting for the Bayview Five! There were definitely some juicy cliffhangers in the final episode, so I can only pray to the executives at Peacock to not cancel this show! Go watch!