The moment fans heard Cat Missal sing “Mr. Brightside” in the Tell Me Lies Season 2 finale, the internet broke. Now, with the series wrapping up its dramatic run on Hulu in February 2026, that cover has taken on even more emotional weight — and Missal’s role as Bree has grown into one of the most complex arcs in the show’s history.
If you haven’t watched the Tell Me Lies series finale yet, now is the time. Stream all three seasons on Hulu while the buzz is still electric.
The Song That Started It All
When Tell Me Lies Season 2 ended on October 15, 2024, viewers weren’t just stunned by the cliffhanger — they were undone by the music. Cat Missal, who plays Bree on the Hulu drama, delivered a raw and emotionally shattering cover of The Killers’ classic anthem “Mr. Brightside” during the final scene of the season. The cover was produced by the show’s composer Jay Wadley and released the following day through Hollywood Records. The original track was written by Brandon Flowers and Dave Keuning, and Missal’s interpretation stripped it down to something far more intimate and devastating.
TikTok exploded almost immediately. One video reaction alone pulled in nearly 100,000 likes. Fans couldn’t stop talking about how Bree performing “Mr. Brightside” at her own wedding — while chaos unfolded around her — was one of the most symbolically rich moments in the entire series. Many pointed out that the show had used the song in both the Season 1 and Season 2 finales, creating a deliberate and haunting throughline. As one fan summed it up perfectly on TikTok: “I will never listen to Mr. Brightside the same again.”
Who Is Cat Missal?
Catherine Missal, known professionally as Cat Missal, plays Bree — Lucy’s best friend at Baird College — throughout all three seasons of Tell Me Lies. What began as a supporting role in Season 1 evolved into one of the show’s most emotionally demanding and narratively complex storylines by the time Season 3 arrived.
Missal is not just an actress. Her actual singing voice is what fans heard in that Season 2 performance, which made the moment feel all the more personal and electric. The actress has spoken about leaning into Bree’s vulnerability, her complicated upbringing as a foster kid, and the emotional armor the character wears at nearly all times. Season 2 introduced her affair with predatory professor Oliver, played by Tom Ellis, while Season 3 deepened that fallout considerably.
In interviews ahead of the series finale, Missal described approaching every scene one at a time — a technique she said helped her navigate Bree’s constantly shifting moral position and the show’s dual timelines set in 2008 and 2015.
Season 3 and the Final Chapter
Tell Me Lies Season 3 premiered on January 13, 2026, on Hulu and concluded with its series finale on February 17, 2026. Creator Meaghan Oppenheimer announced just days before the finale that the show would be ending with the Season 3 closer — a decision she described as the natural conclusion to a story she always envisioned spanning three seasons.
The third season gave Cat Missal more screen time than ever before. Bree navigated a messy love triangle involving her boyfriend Evan and Wrigley, her boyfriend’s best friend. A secret affair between Bree and Wrigley that had started at her own engagement party was slowly revealed over the course of the season. Meanwhile, Bree continued to reckon with the emotional damage left behind by her relationship with Oliver, going so far as to confront him at his home — only to break down with Oliver’s wife, Marianne, instead.
The season also introduced new characters, including Alex, a psychology graduate student played by Costa D’Angelo, who brought further complications into Bree’s orbit. Season 3 expanded the show’s emotional scope considerably, folding in new perspectives on trauma, betrayal, and the long-reaching consequences of decisions made in early adulthood.
The Series Finale Shocked Everyone
The Tell Me Lies series finale delivered exactly what fans both feared and hoped for: total chaos. In the 2008 college timeline, Lucy was expelled from Baird College after a taped confession that Stephen had initially coerced from her was leaked online. The identity of who leaked the tape turned out to be Bree herself — a twist that recontextualized nearly every one of Bree’s interactions with Lucy in the 2015 wedding timeline.
Bree released the tape after discovering that Lucy had been the person Evan cheated on her with during their freshman year. The revelation hit harder because of how much the audience had invested in the Lucy-Bree friendship over the course of three seasons. Missal spoke candidly in post-finale interviews about hoping fans weren’t too hard on Bree, noting that the character’s decision came from a place of complete emotional devastation rather than cruelty.
In the 2015 timeline, Stephen delivered a confrontational speech at Bree and Evan’s wedding reception that exposed secrets involving nearly every major character in the friend group. Wrigley, meanwhile, revealed to Yale that Stephen had used blackmail, ultimately getting Stephen’s acceptance to Yale Law School rescinded. The series ended without a clean resolution for most of the characters — which felt appropriate for a show that always insisted on portraying the messy, uncomfortable truth about how people treat each other.
“Mr. Brightside” as the Show’s Emotional Spine
Looking back at the full arc of Tell Me Lies, the use of “Mr. Brightside” feels like more than a musical choice. It became the show’s emotional spine. The song appeared in the Season 1 finale as part of the show’s atmosphere, returned in Season 2 with Cat Missal performing it live in-character, and its emotional imprint lingered throughout Season 3 in the way fans and critics talked about the series.
The Killers’ original track has always been about jealousy, longing, and watching something fall apart while being powerless to stop it. That thematic resonance aligned perfectly with what Tell Me Lies was doing across all three seasons — particularly with Bree’s story. She spent the series watching her own life unravel while singing through the pain of it, which is about as on-the-nose as storytelling gets, and yet it worked completely.
The cover that Missal recorded and released through Hollywood Records continues to stream across all major digital platforms and has remained a reference point for fans discussing the show’s most memorable moments.
Why This Cover — and This Show — Still Matters
Tell Me Lies was never an easy watch. It explored toxic relationships, manipulation, sexual predation, betrayal among close friends, and the way lies compound over years until they become impossible to untangle. But it also gave viewers something rarer: female characters who were flawed, frightened, ambitious, and deeply human all at once.
Cat Missal’s Bree stood at the center of that tension in Seasons 2 and 3. She was the character the audience most wanted to root for, which made her eventual choices hit that much harder. And it was her voice — literally, in the form of that “Mr. Brightside” cover — that audiences heard echoing after the credits rolled.
The Tell Me Lies series finale aired on February 17, 2026. All three seasons are available to stream on Hulu.
What did you think of the Tell Me Lies series finale and Cat Missal’s journey as Bree? Drop your reaction in the comments — this ending is too big not to talk about.
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