I thought by the end that Lily was revealed as a high functioning sociopath (ASPD) all along, having learned how to mimic at an early age much like Amanda. But unlike Amanda, never revealed herself to be so. Amanda seemed to pick up on this, commenting on Lily’s lack of empathy and use of ‘the technique’ when Lily maintains her tears are authentic, even though they were generated after the step-fathers unexpectedly spot on ASPD-supported analysis of her. I say unexpected because I wasn’t expecting it XD I thought it odd for him to say it but then the pieces started to fall into place. Lily pursues the friendship, perhaps seeing the opportunity to manipulate a publicly troubled person into committing the crime (she certainly knew about the animal abuse allegations). After Lily commits the murder and begins to frame Amanda, we can see her emotions and this seems as though it would contradict the actions of someone with ASPD but in fact new research shows sociopaths as being capable of feeling regret, just incapable of using that potential regret to influence decisions. After Amanda fell unconscious, Lily was quick to act and quick to frame before taking a moment to regret, perhaps realizing that she is losing someone so similar to herself. This of course does not alter her decision to follow through with the framing or to continue on with her life after the fact, seemingly guilt-free. We are left to realize our initial interpretations of the characters were in fact incorrect from the start (if you interpreted them how I did, that is). Amanda with her multiple diagnoses and her dead-pan behaviour and her supposed cruelty to animals, we likely see her as a sociopath (or at least what most viewers would be familiar with from a ‘Hollywood’ education in psychology). Lily, by contrast, is normal. She is surprised and confused by Amanda’s lack of feelings, she tries to make up for saying or doing hurtful things, she is uncomfortable by Amanda’s talk of murder. But then we get to know Lily and things are slowly revealed, but perhaps not at a clear enough pace to make us overthrow our decisions about Amanda and put Lily in the more ‘troubled mind’ seat. She is quick to lie in multiple scenarios (including the plagiarism), has suicidal tendencies (pool), irritated by small things (pencil sharpener, the rowing machine), manipulates (is saying Amanda does not have a life worth living not just planting the seed to make Amanda decide for herself?), and slowly shows less and less ‘normal’ traits we can identify with. But there is little of Amanda tainting her mind or coercing her. Amanda only makes it easier for Lily to do what she has been determined to do all along. And when Lily unsympathetically threw away Amanda’s letter (whether she did or not) finally shows that Lily is the one truly incapable of feeling, not Amanda. Amanda, who went to great lengths to put her horse out of its apparent misery, who pulled Lily from the pool, who continually helped her friend pursue a dark goal because it was important to her, but who wouldn’t kill the stepfather when she saw no reason to, who would then drink the drug and accept the blame, who smiles and imagines a simpler life as a horse.

So basically I don’t think Lily was turned, but rather revealed, challenging preconceived notions (or rather, intentionally valid notions) along the way.

Regardless of the true meaning, it was a fun watch! Though I could have done without the vivid description of the horse execution

WHAT?

I believe the director has stated that the girls couldn’t complete the murder individually. You can sense their personality traits starting to combine to the point where their shared consciousness becomes capable of carrying it out. Amanda is a pragmatic sociopath who wants to be good but lacks the emotional toolkit to acheive this, at least without outside help. Lily is a solipsitic narcissist who either lacks empathy or chooses to ruthlesssly suppress it. It’s the perfect storm of dark triad personality traits all mixed together into a dealy cocktail.

Just regarding Anon Yelchin’s character, I’d say one of his thematic functions is to represent class divide, because the way the girls are able to hold power over him with zero social consequences is rather telling. Yelchin was so good, able to make Tim both pathetic and sympathetic, often in the same scene. He will be missed.

Anyway, thanks for the analysis!

whooooops.