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what happens in the lying game

Here’s a clear, spoiler-filled rundown of what happens in The Lying Game as a story world, covering both the book concept and the TV series so you’re not missing either angle.

What Happens in The Lying Game?

At its core, The Lying Game is about identical twins separated at birth , a deadly mystery surrounding one twin’s death/disappearance, and a cruel game of lies and pranks that spirals into murder and betrayal.

The Basic Premise

  • Emma Paxton (or Emma Becker in the show) grows up in foster care and discovers she has an identical twin, Sutton Mercer, who lives a rich, picture-perfect life.
  • Emma contacts Sutton and goes to meet her, but Sutton never shows up; instead, Emma is pressured to take Sutton’s place and pretend to be her.
  • Sutton is actually dead in the book series (her ghost narrates parts), while in the TV show Sutton is alive but missing, scheming, and often off-screen.
  • Emma steps into Sutton’s life to survive and to figure out who killed Sutton (books) or who’s behind all the lies and secrets (show).

What Is “The Lying Game” Inside the Story?

  • “The Lying Game” is the name of an elaborate pranking and deception game Sutton and her friends invented.
  • Rules give points for:
    • Fooling someone completely
    • Creating an especially creative lie
    • Embarrassing someone “snooty”
    • Adding elaborate detail to keep the lie going
  • One key rule: lie to everyone else, but not to each other – a rule they gradually break as stakes get higher.
  • In the books, the game turns dangerous , including a prank where Sutton is almost strangled by her own friends; that night becomes central to the mystery of her death.

Main Book Plot: Emma, Sutton, and the Murder Mystery

This summary focuses on the Sara Shepard book series angle.

Setup

  1. Emma sees a video online of a girl who looks exactly like her, getting choked as part of a prank; that girl is Sutton.
  1. Emma tracks down Sutton’s social media, messages her, and gets invited to come meet her in Arizona.
  1. When Emma arrives, Sutton is missing, and everyone assumes Emma is Sutton returning from a trip.
  1. Emma receives threatening messages implying Sutton is dead and that Emma must keep pretending to be Sutton or she’ll be next.

Living as Sutton

  • Emma has to:
    • Navigate Sutton’s wealthy family and tight-knit friend group.
    • Learn the rules of The Lying Game to avoid being exposed.
    • Untangle Sutton’s cruel past pranks, enemies, and exes.
  • Emma’s only real ally is Ethan , an outsider who knows Sutton wasn’t as perfect as everyone thought; he helps Emma investigate.

The Murder Angle

  • Emma discovers:
    • Sutton’s friends once played a prank that went too far and nearly killed her.
* Ethan claims he saved Sutton that night, so Emma suspects Sutton died afterwards and that anyone in her circle could be the killer.
  • Emma decides to keep pretending to be Sutton until she uncovers who killed her twin.

(Individual books add layers: more suspects, twisted motives, hints about their birth mother, and escalating threats – but the core is Emma-as-Sutton hunting Sutton’s killer while surrounded by liars.)

TV Series Plot: Long-Lost Twins and Layered Secrets

The ABC Family TV series The Lying Game keeps the twin premise but changes key details and makes Sutton alive and actively manipulative.

Series Setup

  • Emma Becker, a kind but tough foster kid in Nevada, sees a video of a girl who looks exactly like her and eventually discovers Sutton Mercer, her long-lost twin in Arizona.
  • They secretly switch places: Emma pretends to be Sutton in Phoenix while Sutton goes off to investigate their past and find their birth mother.
  • Sutton disappears, leaving Emma stuck in Sutton’s glamorous but toxic life, full of secrets.

Secrets in the Mercer Family

  • Sutton was adopted by wealthy parents Ted and Kristin and has a sister, Laurel.
  • The family is hiding things about:
    • Sutton’s adoption
    • Affairs and past relationships
    • A mysterious woman connected to the twins’ origins, often referred to as Annie/Rebecca.

The Lying Game Crew

  • Sutton’s inner circle (friends involved in “The Lying Game”) are used to:
    • Pranking others harshly.
    • Keeping secrets to protect themselves.
    • Turning on anyone who threatens the group.
  • Emma slowly realizes how much damage Sutton’s lies and pranks have done , and she starts pushing back ethically, which creates suspicion.

Season 1: Twists and Finale Feel

  • Season 1 builds around:
    • Emma juggling romance (notably with Ethan) while pretending to be Sutton.
    • Sutton’s hidden movements and schemes behind the scenes.
    • The question of who their real mother is and what powerful people are covering up.
  • The season edges toward a climax involving:
    • A wedding (Rebecca and Alec) where buried secrets threaten to blow up.
    • Evidence about Derek’s death and who might have been involved.
    • Confrontations between Emma and Rebecca over manipulated photos and alibis.

The show ends on cliffhangers and unresolved arcs, especially around the full truth of the twins’ origins and the extent of the adult conspiracies.

Ruth Ware’s The Lying Game : A Different Story With the Same Name

There is also a separate psychological thriller novel by Ruth Ware titled The Lying Game , unrelated to the twin saga, but it still centers on a dangerous lying game from the past.

Core Setup

  • Four boarding-school friends – Isa, Kate, Thea, and Fatima – once played “The Lying Game,” scoring points for convincing lies and messing with people.
  • Years later, they reunite after Kate sends a cryptic text; human remains linked to her father Ambrose’s disappearance have been found near their old school.

What Really Happened

  • At first the women wonder if Kate killed her father , because of unresolved tension and suspicious clues.
  • They learn:
    • Ambrose did not just disappear; he was killed.
    • A local woman, Mary Wren, has been blackmailing Kate for years over what she knows.
  • In a devastating sequence:
    • Kate admits she killed her father, believing he would send Luc (her lover) away, but this “truth” is later exposed as incomplete.
* A fire at Tide Mill (the old tide house) kills both Kate and Luc.

* Isa realizes Luc was actually the one who killed Ambrose and sent incriminating drawings to the school, trying to protect his and Kate’s relationship.
  • Mary turns out to be the blackmailer , not the murderer.
  • The surviving friends agree to maintain a lie to protect Kate’s memory , echoing how the old Lying Game has warped their moral compass.

Why It’s a “Lying Game”: Themes Across Versions

Across all these versions (Shepard’s YA series, the TV show, and Ware’s novel), the common thread is:

  • A game of lies that seems like fun but slowly corrodes trust and safety.
  • Secrets from adolescence that follow people into adulthood with deadly consequences.
  • The line between “harmless prank” and psychological or physical harm getting crossed.

An example: in both the YA world and Ware’s novel, a prank-oriented “game” escalates until someone ends up dead, and the survivors have to decide whether they’ll tell the truth or keep lying to protect themselves.

Quick FAQ Style Recap

Is Sutton dead?

  • In the books : Yes, Sutton is dead; Emma pretends to be her to find the killer.
  • In the TV show : Sutton is alive, missing at times, and often manipulative; Emma takes her place while she’s gone.

What is the Lying Game in-universe?

  • A scoring-based prank and lie game that encourages elaborate deceptions and cruelty, and eventually ties into death, blackmail, and long-buried secrets.

Is Ruth Ware’s book the same story?

  • No. It’s a separate adult psychological thriller with a group of women revisiting a teenage lying game that connects to a decades-old death.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.