In the show Tell Me Lies , Evan gets Bree’s mom (Mary) drunk as part of a jealous, manipulative attempt to keep control over Bree and their relationship. He’s terrified that Bree is pulling away from him, so instead of dealing with that honestly, he engineers a situation that destabilizes her emotionally.

What actually happens

  • Evan is worried Bree is “drifting away,” so he goes to Oliver for advice on how to get her to “need” him more.
  • Oliver—who has a long history of manipulating Bree—tells Evan that Bree is scared and craves stability , and implies Evan should remind her she depends on him.
  • Evan offers, very “helpfully,” to pick up Bree’s mom Mary from the train and bring her to Bree’s photo exhibition.
  • Knowing Mary has a history of alcohol misuse, he suggests they stop at a bar first and encourages her to drink.
  • By the time Mary arrives at the exhibit, she’s intoxicated and chaotic, which turns what should have been a big night for Bree into a disaster.
  • When Bree asks what happened, Evan lies and says her mom got off the train already drunk, hiding his role in setting it all up.

Why he does it (in‑universe motives)

Commentary and cast interviews frame Evan’s decision as a calculated “power play” rooted in insecurity, not a random bad choice.

  1. Control and dependency
    • Evan wants Bree to feel like she needs him, emotionally and practically.
 * By sabotaging her fragile relationship with her mom, he keeps himself positioned as the only “stable” person in her life—even though he’s the one creating the chaos.
  1. Testing Mary’s sobriety
    • Recaps note that Evan is clearly “testing” whether Mary is still an alcoholic by inviting her to drink and seeing if she spirals.
 * That test is cruel because it weaponizes her past addiction struggles to serve Evan’s own agenda.
  1. Jealousy and fear of losing Bree
    • He’s anxious about Bree’s independence and the possibility she might choose a healthier life or different partner (including the emotional weight of Wrigley in her life).
 * Stirring up family drama lets him reinsert himself as the person who “helps” Bree cope with the fallout—drama he secretly caused.

How the show and creators frame it

  • Recaps and reviews call this a “new low” for Evan and describe the behavior as “genuinely unforgivable.”
  • Cat Missal (who plays Bree) and show creatives have said that what he does to Bree and Mary is meant to justify the audience feeling less guilty about later betrayals involving Bree and Wrigley—Evan “deserves this at this point.”
  • One article describes the night as tense “all thanks to Evan, who got her mom drunk in a strange power play,” emphasizing it’s about control rather than concern.

Emotional impact on Bree

  • Bree has never fully known her mom and is trying to rebuild that relationship, so she’s hopeful and vulnerable going into the exhibit night.
  • She sees her mom arrive drunk and believes it’s just another instance of her mother failing her, not realizing Evan orchestrated it.
  • The stunt deepens the rift between Bree and Mary and adds to the long‑term emotional damage Bree carries into future years of the story.

Where this leads in the plot

  • Episode 7 ends with Bree discovering a photo of Evan and Lucy together from the Hawaiian party, connecting that he cheated on her back in college.
  • That revelation, on top of Evan’s betrayal with her mom, sets up their marriage as something increasingly fraught and shows how far Evan has fallen morally by this point in the series.

Bottom line: Evan got Bree’s mom drunk not out of carelessness, but as a manipulative move driven by insecurity and a need for control, even if it meant sacrificing Bree’s big night and her fragile reconciliation with her mother.

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