One of the newest shows that you can stream on Netflix is One Of Us Is Lying, which is a teen drama thriller that talks about the lives of four students who were caught up in a murder investigation of a student named Simon. Now, throughout the entire season, the four of them tried to solve the murder of Simon, as the police saw them as the prime suspects. But the ending proved that none of them did the act. So, who killed Simon, and why did he do it?
Simon was the one who killed himself, but he never intended to do so. One of the four students was supposed to run to the nurse’s office to save him from his peanut allergy. However, Jake, Addy’s boyfriend, took all of the EpiPens in the nurse’s office so that Simon would end up dying.
Even though Simon was the one who killed himself by putting peanut oil in his cup, it was ultimately Jake’s doing that ended up killing Simon in the end, as they had planned his allergy attacks as a prank. However, Jake was a psycho that wanted to make Addy’s life miserable. And that’s why he changed the plan and allowed Simon to die.
Who Killed Simon In One Of Us Is Lying Season 1 End?
One Of Us Is Lying is the latest teen drama thriller to hit the Netflix library, as we get to see four high school teenagers getting entangled with an intricate web of lies and deceit that got a student killed and several other people in trouble.
The series is actually an adaptation of Karen M. McManus’ book of the same title, as most of what was in the book were merely adapted to its live-action counterpart. Of course, there were also changes that were introduced, but we’ll talk about the major change later on.
Going back, One Of Us Is Lying explores the lives of four students (called the Bayview Four), namely Addy, Bronwyn, Cooper, and Nate, who were all caught up in a murder investigation following the death of their fellow student named Simon.
The story revolves around a gossip app called About That, run by Simon, who was seemingly impervious to the law and to disciplinary actions regarding the app because he was the mayor’s son. This app revealed the secrets of some of the students in the school while keeping the identities of the students as blind items.
So, in episode 1, Simon and the other four students were sent to detention for unique reasons. But when the teacher overseeing their detention got distracted by students who threw eggs on the window, the Bayview Four saw Simon suffering from a peanut-allergic reaction from the water he was drinking. He asked for an EpiPen, but none of them could find one in his bag or in the nurse’s office.
The allergic reaction led to Simon’s eventual death, as the Bayview Four became the prime suspects of the murder case. What made them the more obvious suspects was the fact that the most recent posts on About That were seemingly about them.
Addy cheated on her boyfriend, Jake, throughout the summer. Bronwyn, the leading valedictorian candidate, cheated on her chemistry test. Cooper, who didn’t want his sexuality to become public because it would ruin his baseball career, is a closet homosexual. Finally, Nate, who was one strike away from prison, sold drugs to a student that nearly died due to overdose.
So, throughout the episode, the four of them tried to look for clues that would allow them to solve who actually killed Simon while blaming each other along the way. Nevertheless, none of them killed Simon, as they discovered that Simon’s death was more elaborate than it looked.
The truth was that Simon was collaborating with Jake to pull off a “prank” on the four of them. Both of them used to be best friends but drifted away from one another during their high school years. Nevertheless, it was shown during the latter portions of the series that they worked together on that elaborate plan.
How Did Jake Kill Simon In One Of Us Is Lying?
So, the plan was for Simon to actually put the peanut oil in his water so that he would suffer from the aforementioned allergic reaction. If you look at that fact, it would appear that Simon actually killed himself because he was the one who dropped the peanut oil into his water and eventually died because of it.
However, the original plan was for one of the Bayview Four to save him using an EpiPen in the nurse’s office. Then again, Jake changed the plan by taking away all of the EpiPens so that Simon would end up dying.
As such, Simon killed himself but not intentionally. It was Jake’s doing that got Simon killed, even though he didn’t deal the proverbial killing blow himself. So, by taking away the EpiPens in the nurse’s office, he was responsible for Simon’s death, despite the fact that Simon was the one who caused the allergic reaction.
Is It The Same Killer As In One Of Us Is Lying Book?
While much of the circumstances surrounding Simon’s death in the book were similar to what happened in the series, there is a slight change in how he died. In the series, Jake was the one who took the EpiPens from the nurse’s office.
However, in the book, Simon actually intended to die then and there. He purposely made the “accident” into suicide by taking away all of the ways for the Bayview Four to help him once he went into anaphylactic shock due to his peanut allergy.
As such, Simon’s suicide allows the readers to see what a tragic character he really is. He always felt like an outcast in the books, and his suicide was an elaborate way for him to kill himself while putting some of the students in trouble. Meanwhile, in the show, Simon was just a jerk that ended up dying because he trusted the wrong person.
Why Did Jake Kill Simon?
Before we get to the point where we talk about why Jake wanted to kill Simon, it is important to go into the reason why they wanted to pull off an elaborate plan that led to Simon’s death. And everything goes back to Addy.
During one of Jake’s pool parties over the summer, he saw Simon talking to Addie, who he was seemingly blackmailing because he knew the truth about her affair with TJ. Jake confronted Simon about it and used violence to force him into telling the truth about Addy.
Jake, being the psychopath that he was, didn’t confront Addy about the cheating issue. Instead, he wanted her to suffer for what she did. It is worthy to note that Jake was the victim of his father’s cheating issues in the past, as he was traumatized by it. He hated infidelity more than anything, and that was what led to him taking his revenge on Addy’s infidelity to an entirely different level.
He used his past friendship with Simon to find a way to make Addy suffer through an elaborate plan that included him planting peanut oil into his water so that he would go into anaphylactic shock. But the plan was supposed to be a mere prank that should’ve still ended with Simon surviving and with Addy getting framed for attempting to murder him.
Jake killing Simon wasn’t supposed to be in the plan. However, he discovered that, through their Xbox chats, Simon was actually recording all of their conversations in case Jake was planning to double-cross him. Jake didn’t want the plan to be traced back to him, and that was why he changed it.
This led to Jake taking away all of the EpiPens in the nurse’s office so that Simon would end up dying due to his peanut allergy. And during Simon’s wake at his home, he was able to recover the Xbox that contained all of their recorded conversations.
So, in a sense, Jake killing Simon allowed him to handle two birds with one stone. He was able to erase any evidence that could be traced back to him. At the same time, he also made Addy’s life a living hell because she became a social outcast due to the incident. But his biggest mistake was not erasing the call history he had with Simon in his own Xbox, and that was how Addy was able to discover that they were actually communicating with one another.
