Peacock’s TV series, One Of Us Is Lying has dropped in Netflix for international audience. The mystery-filled teenage series explores a murder case of a student, Simon Kelleher when he was in detention with 4 other students.
The TV series’ plot diverts quite a bit from the original novel by Karen M. McManus. However, in this article, we are only exploring the characters’ actions that did not quite make sense in the TV series. Please also take note of the potential spoilers down below.
1. Conflicting legal advice
When Bronwyn’s parents learned of their daughter’s potential involvement in a murder case, they hired a lawyer, Robyn to advise on the issue. In Episode 3, Bronwyn Rojas came clean to her parents about stealing the exam papers after About That leaked her story. In response, her parents told her that Robyn had advised that Bronwyn continue to deny the claims of the app as they can’t “let it look like (she) had a motive”. However, in episode 5, when the video of Bronwyn pushing Simon leaked and Bronwyn claimed it was a due to a school project, the advised changed. Robyn told her that “this is not the time to be lying to the police”. So why was it okay to lie to the police a few days ago?
2. They have a group chat. Why do they have to meet?
One recurring theme throughout the series is that the four of them cannot be seen meeting in person and therefore, have to snoop around. This is because Addy Prentiss eavesdropped a police conversation and found out that the police are working on a theory that all four of them collaborated in Simon’s murder. If the police were seriously investigating this theory, the four of them would’ve been tailed and the police would have found out about their meetings. But most importantly, why are they meeting face to face when they have a group chat?
The Bayview Four had some very ridiculous reasons for meeting in person despite so scared of being seen by the police. For instance, in episode 5, Bronwyn called a meeting just to inform the rest that the police have Simon’s hard drive. The meeting then became an argument about Nate’s supposedly dead mother. Assuming the four of them meeting up is the ultimate sin in the police’s eyes, a text message asking everyone to meet is just as incriminating as one informing the group about the hard drive. After all, the police did inform Bronwyn they have the hard drive. It wasn’t supposed to be a secret.
3. There's no need to burn the EpiPen
During the school homecoming, the murderer led Janae and Maeve and eventually the Bayview Four aka. Murder Club to Addy’s locker. Inside the locker lies Simon’s EpiPen, one that they suspect should’ve been in his bag during the day of his murder. The rest of them immediately believed that Addy did not commit the crime and that the evidence is one that is planted to incriminate her.
Then, somehow, the Bayview Four decided to burn the EpiPen as they fear the police will arrest Addy for possessing the EpiPen. However, the writers did not take note that the police has already searched Addy’s locker and raided her house prior. The EpiPen could be used as evidence in case there were fingerprints on them. In fact, Addy surrendering the evidence could arguably be a move to display her innocence and her cooperation with the police.
If the Bayview Four are just a group of scared, easily-panicked teenagers, the scene could at least make a little sense as this might just be a hasty, irrational decision. However, this was not the case. These four teenagers broke into offices and homes and have placed themselves in far more dangerous situations before. Bronwyn, who is supposed to be the smart one, calmly let her friends know that they had to get rid of the evidence, as if it was an “intelligent” move. Admittedly, the act of burning the EpiPen with a Bunsen burner at school makes for a really cool scene. It just isn’t a reasoned one.
4. Police raided their houses because they met up
After the photo of our four main characters were posted on About That, the police suddenly took a drastic action and raided all their houses that night with a search warrant. Bronwyn’s father, Javier Rojas even asked the police a reasonable question- on what grounds are the warrants issued? The police replied that it was based on the photo that Bronwyn and three other murder suspects were seen conspiring together. “Conspiring together? And you could see that from the picture?”, Javier asked. And the police replied that the judge could. (facepalm)
It makes you wonder if the police/judge can really make their own conclusions from a photo without fully understanding the context and issue a warrant. If the four teenagers were really prime murder suspects, the police should’ve placed more emphasis on their whereabouts, which brings us to the next point.
5. Murder suspects, but no one follows them
In episode 4, after the police referred to the four of them as murder suspects and raided their homes, no one watched them to ensure the four of them did not conduct any suspicious activity. The same night, Bronwyn and Nate rode off to a cliff by the sea and threw Simon’s laptop away. I was expecting someone from the police force to be tailing them as there would be more scrutiny on their movements. However, nothing of that sort happened and instead, we were fed with Bronwyn and Nate’s romance development.
Sometimes, with fictional work, there will be parts that do not seem sensible or rational. Writers do it to progress with the overall plot. However, there can sometimes be too much of such instances which can affect the enjoyability of the whole series. One Of Us Is Lying is a well-paced thriller with great character development. I just wished there would have been more explanations for the jarringly obvious plot holes.
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