We Were Liars Ending Explained: Based on E. Lockhart’s hit young adult novel, concludes with a shocking twist that turns everything we think we know about the Sinclair family and their sun-soaked summers on Beechwood Island on its head. The series was developed by showrunner Julie Plec and Carina Adly Mackenzie, and stars Emily Alyn Lind, Esther McGregor, Shubham Maheshwari, Caitlin FitzGerald, Joseph Zada, Mamie Gummer, Candice King, Rahul Kohli and David Morse.
At the heart of such family among Cadence Sinclair, heiress to the Sinclair fortune, mansions and manors. Throughout the early chapters, readers are enticed into her fairy-tale world: of blue skies, family dinners, beach bonfires and a summer romance with Gat, the outsider who’s not quite Sinclair blond-and-blue-blooded stock. But behind this gilded facade, a poisonous brew of jealousy, racism, emotional repression and greed — all of which will ultimately come tumbling down in disaster.
The We Were Liars series swings between two summers — “Summer Sixteen,” the summer everything fell apart, and “Summer Seventeen,” when Cadence is back in her family’s summer social circle at Beechwood after an unspecified accident, which left her with partial amnesia and debilitating migraines. Her family walks around it, not speaking the truth to her. No one discusses the something that occurred to Cady the night she departed from the island; no one speaks of the summer’s fatal events, at least not her cousins — Johnny, Mirren — and Gat, who is conveniently absent now.
But Cadence does not let go. As her memories come back to her in fragmented spates, the perfect image of the Sinclairs starts to fall apart. Something happened in Beechwood. Something so terrible that her mind had wiped it out entirely.
We Were Liars Ending Explained
What Really Happened at Beechwood?
The terrible truth Cadence eventually remembers is that sometime over summer sixteen, Cadence, Gat, Johnny, and Mirren had plotted to torch the big Sinclair house, simply to protest their family’s greed, racism, and ambition.
It was not a crazy prank; it was a purposeful act of defiance. They believed that burning down the house would make the family change. The plan was a complete failure, however. The fire was too quick. The doors were closed. In the midst of the chaos, only Cadence was left. Johnny, Mirren, and Gat died in the fire.
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The shock was so intense it broke Cadence’s mind. She had forgotten the fire and her mind invented a reality where she still had her cousins and Gat. During the summer of seventeen, she wasn’t even with them — they were illusions, the result of her paralyzing guilt and sorrow. This is the tragic solution to the show’s central mystery. Beechwood was not just the setting for family drama — it was the site of a devastating loss.
Did Cadence Learn the Truth at Last?
Yes. And that truth has the potential to destroy her. And when Cadence returns with a memory of it all, she is undone — not necessarily by the losses themselves, but by the blame they place upon her. She blames herself for going back into the burning house to retrieve her grandmother’s necklace, which slowed her down. She believes maybe Gat would not have died, if she had not. It’s a grief made big by this moment, but there’s also an acuity of clarity.
This final stand for truth is the moment of redemption for Cadence. For while the remainder of the Sinclairs call for silence and for denial and for drama, Cadence calls for truth. She doesn’t need the money. She doesn’t need the house. She doesn’t even need the Sinclair name and legacy. She need freedom — from the trauma, from the lies, from a family more concerned with image than with healing.
What Happen in the We Were Liars Ending?
Cadence chooses freedom. In a world where her mother and aunts are still bound by Harris’ expectations, she will not take the inheritance and the estate and everything that comes with being a Sinclair. She does not hunger for power or material possessions — she hungers for peace. She hungers for truth.
This decision sets her apart. Unlike her mother Penny, who shut her mouth, kept her head down and played fair, Cadence is a rebel. Her decision marks the end of an era — where image became more important than reality, and silence covered over pain.
The adults are also affected by the fire. Carrie becomes increasingly addicted since she becomes increasingly hurt by Johnny’s violent history. Remorseful that she had never appreciated Mirren’s skill, Bess has her daughter’s paintings exhibited in an art gallery. Penny recognizes a strength in Cadence she had never had, and maybe, she’s jealous of it.
Even Harris seems to show a slight alteration by inviting Ed for a family photo — an unthinkable gesture in previous seasons. But ultimately, the scene is framed to make us question whether he has really changed or just satisfied appearances. The final scenes of Prime Video’s We Were Liars are serious. Cadence departs from Beechwood — no Sinclair puppet, but a girl forged by fire and loss. Her delusions end. She says goodbye to the only individuals who ever truly saw her. And at the same time that she’s alone, she’s free too.
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