Did Lisbeth fake Grace’s death? The Body star reveals truth behind her Anya obsession

*Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Body*

The Body on Netflix leaves us with more questions than answers, and that’s very true of Lisbeth Anderson. She spends most of the series manipulating Anya, but was this her plan all along? And does she have feelings for Anya or is there more to it?

Well, unlike the ambiguous ending, actress Geena Meszaros has revealed what was really going on in Lisbeth’s head. And there’s a lot more to her behaviour than you might think.

But first, let’s rewind to the Halloween party where everything went spectacularly wrong. The Lions dance team decide to initiate newcomer Grace Franklin (Sofia Wylie) by staging a mock satanic sacrifice and taking ecstasy. You know, standard Catholic schoolgirl activities.

But things take a horrifying turn when Grace starts burning up and collapses. Anya Butler (Kristina Bogic) and Lisbeth find her and panic. When Grace appears to die during the journey to hospital, they decide to take her home instead of getting medical help.

By the following morning, Grace is alive but unconscious. And with nobody knowing exactly what happened to her, the entire town soon becomes obsessed with the possibility that something supernatural is going on.

Meanwhile, Lisbeth uses the secret to worm her way into Anya’s life. She pushes Elise (Sara Boustany) out of the picture and establishes herself as one of the most influential members of the Lions.

Here’s the thing: it’s clear Lisbeth has had one of the most messed up upbringings imaginable. But she does do terrible things, sparking a debate over whether she’s a victim or a villain. 

And for those in the latter camp, they’re questioning whether Grace’s momentary death even happened in the first place…

Did Lisbeth actually fake Grace’s death in The Body?

As suspicious as Lisbeth’s behaviour is, there’s no confirmation that she faked Grace’s death or deliberately caused her collapse. And comments from the cast and crew seem to support this belief. 

What we do know is that Grace took ecstasy at the Halloween party, became seriously ill and appeared to stop breathing. Anya and Lisbeth then made the disastrous decision to take her home rather than seek medical attention.

Where Lisbeth’s morals become questionable is after this incident. Rather than simply keeping her head down and hoping nobody finds out, Lisbeth realises that Anya’s guilt gives her a huge deal of power. And she wastes absolutely no time using it.

She initially wants a place on the Lions dance team, but her demands become increasingly outrageous. By the finale, she’s blackmailing Anya for $100 a week and somewhere for herself and her brother Leo (Jackson Kelly) to live.

She’s also been exploiting the town’s growing religious hysteria. When the girls start reporting visions of Grace, Lisbeth encourages the idea that something divine is happening.

In the finale, Anya finally confesses everything. But Lisbeth gathers the Lions and tells them a very different version of events. She claims Grace was dead and that she personally brought her back to life after hearing God speak to her.

It’s for this reason Lisbeth’s been branded a villain by so many viewers, with some suspecting that she may have faked Grace’s death to get leverage over Anya. 

However, the cast and crew’s more sympathetic take on her character seems to suggest she may have been telling the truth at first, only to exploit it later. 

Speaking to Netflix’s Tudum, Meszaros explained, “Everyone keeps saying she’s a mastermind, or she’s manipulative, and she has this big plan, but she really doesn’t.

“She just sees an opportunity, runs with it, and knows how to look out for herself, because she’s had to do that forever. I think she just acts fast and maybe doesn’t think everything through, which is so fun to play.”

The actress made a similar point in an interview with Elite Daily, explaining that she approached Lisbeth as someone driven by survival rather than pure malice. “I tried to make her more of an opportunist than a manipulator,” she said.

What’s more, The Body creator Quinn Shephard and co-showrunner Gina Gammell both told Deadline that they’re Lisbeth defenders. 

Gammell explained, “We’ve talked a lot about how there is an interpretation of the character that’s really manipulative or almost teetering on sociopathic, and I think we never ever saw the character that way.

“I think that Lisbeth is someone who is deep in survival and has been for a lot of her life. You can feel her heart. People are like perpetually baffled by her, she’s a little bit unreadable, but I think that there is a sweetness to her and the way that she is with her brother, there is a mischievousness and her humor is so intelligent. 

“It’s a character we’re just scraping the surface of in regards to where she can go. [She’s] desperate to find purpose and place in the world.”

Despite the sympathy, there are many things that are difficult to justify. One of Lisbeth’s nastiest moments involves Maddie (Shirley Chen), who is struggling with an eating disorder. Lisbeth exploits and encourages this in an attempt to take her spot on the dance team. 

Speaking to Netflix about this, Meszaros said, “There are a lot of moments where I had to really dig deep for Lisbeth to understand why she was being so awful.

“People like Maddie, who are so devout and naive that they don’t question their faith the way that Lisbeth has been forced to question hers, could trigger Lisbeth. I feel like Lisbeth might even see an old version of herself that she’s angry at in Maddie. I really just tried to play it from that place of empathy and understanding.”

Was Lisbeth in love with Anya?

This is another question that arises in the Netflix series. Clearly, Lisbeth is obsessed with Anya and seeks out her friendship, but are her feelings romantic? The short answer, according to Meszaros, is no. 

It’s easy to understand why people might think this. Throughout The Body, she seems determined to become the most important person in Anya’s life. She uses their shared secret to gain her trust, repeatedly driving a wedge between Anya and Elise. 

But Meszaros has revealed that she actually approached Lisbeth’s sexuality very differently. “I was thinking she’s asexual throughout filming,” she told Elite Daily.

This doesn’t definitely mean it’s canon, but it does suggest her fixation on Anya wasn’t necessarily intended to be romantic. Instead, the actress believes it stems from Lisbeth’s desperate need to belong after losing the religious community she grew up in.

As we discover throughout The Body, Lisbeth and Leo were raised in an extreme religious group led by their father, who died during a dangerous ritual. Their upbringing has left both siblings struggling with their relationship with religion, although they’ve responded to it in very different ways.

For Lisbeth, joining the Lions offers the sense of belonging that she’s lost. “After losing her stable religious background, Lisbeth is craving community,” Meszaros continued. “Anya is at the center of that – the saint of the dance team. But I do think their friendship becomes genuine, even if it didn’t start that way.”

Given Anya confesses and Grace wakes up at the end of The Body, it will be interesting to see where their friendship goes if Netflix renews the show for season 2. It’s still early days yet, but the cast and crew are certainly keen to return if it does. 

For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page.

Featured image credit: Netflix