‘One of Us is Lying’ Struggles to Find its Footing in Season Two

This review contains spoilers for Season Two of “One of Us Is Lying.”

Simon says you should never try and cover up a murder. The main characters in “One of Us is Lying” — also known collectively as “murder club” — learn this lesson all too well in Season Two of the Peacock show.

Starting right where Season One’s cliffhanger left off, murder club deals with the aftermath of murdering Jake, the antagonist from the previous season. Audiences see them attempt to cover up the murder through a series of quick decisions: dump the body, return the gun, and get rid of the car. They even make up the rumor that Jake (Barrett Carnahan) fled to Mexico after he got caught for Simon’s (Mark McKenna) murder. But unbeknownst to the group, someone was watching as they hatched their plan — and they planned to make murder club pay for it.

Meet Simon Says, the main anonymous antagonist of Season Two, who has video proof of the club’s involvement in Jake’s murder. Throughout the entire season we see Simon Says blackmailing the crew, making them commit several heinous (and often illegal) acts. From making Cooper (Chibuikem Uche) wear Jake’s engraved watch to forcing Janae (Jess McLeod) to vandalize Simon’s grave, Simon Says makes the crew look more and more suspicious as the season goes along. This unfortunately doesn’t go unnoticed as Vanessa (Sara Thompson), a wannabe social media influencer, immediately points fingers at the crew. Not believing that Jake killed Simon or that he would flee, she starts a #justiceforjake campaign, determined to find out what happened to him and how the crew was involved. Vanessa isn’t the only one desperate to find Jake, as his older brother Cole (Joe Witkowski) comes back into town, questioning what the crew knows about Jake’s disappearance.

Although the show gears up to deliver a classic whodunnit mystery formula, it struggles to find its footing at the start of the season, adding in several useless plots that don’t add anything to the story. Perhaps the biggest error is the love triangle between Bronwyn (Marianly Tejada), Nate (Cooper van Grootel), and newly-introduced character Fiona (Doralynn Mui). Even when Nate and Fiona’s brief romance is revealed to Nate’s girlfriend Bronwyn, she’s barely fazed and immediately forgives him for it. This entire arc adds little to the season; rather, it detracts from the show’s character building, cheapening the relationship between Nate and Bronwyn.

Fortunately, the slow pacing of the season allows for some heartwarming character moments, as we get to see Janae grapple with their gender identity, for example. In an honest conversation with Addy (Annalisa Cochrane), Janae opens up about how sometimes she feels like a girl and other times a boy. This conversation is not only handled very well, but also very relatable. Janae’s conversation with Maeve (Melissa Collazo) later in the season is truly one of the season’s best, as they come to terms with possibly being gender fluid. A true standout moment is when Maeve says Janae is very handsome, and they break out into a smile.

Unfortunately, the wonderful character moments come to an abrupt pause as episode six takes the season’s pacing from inconsistent to bizarre. Renaming the title screen, “All of Them Are Lying,” the entire episode is randomly from Vanessa’s perspective. Not only is the shift in perspective abrupt, but it also proves to be very boring as the entire episode follows Vanessa catching up on information the audience has known from the beginning of the season. This obvious attempt at a character revamp ultimately doesn't work: The whole episode feels like a bathroom break, and its unnecessary change in structure causes the show to lose any grip it previously had on its audience.

Fortunately, the last two episodes pick up pace quickly as the mystery of Simon Says comes to a head. The crew, with the unlikely help of Vanessa, figure out the mysterious figure’s true identity. This revelation pays off. The reveal and aftermath of Simon Says lets the show bask in what it does best, pulling back the curtain and letting us see all the moving parts. However, the finale also leaves the audience with many lingering questions, as another character mysteriously dies in prison in a way that clearly mirrors Simon’s death in season one. The season ends with yet another cliffhanger, though it's unsure how it connects to the rest of the story. Ultimately, though the season may have fumbled more times than it scored, it still succeeds in leaving the audience wanting more, wondering what mayhem the murder club will get themselves into next.