So, you finished We Were Liars and now you’re in your feelings wondering what just happened. It’s okay, we’re here to help. Let us explain that We Were Liars ending.
Based on the novel by E. Lockhart, We Were Liars follows Cadence Sinclair (Emily Alyn Lind), of the wealthy and prominent Sinclair family, the summer after a mysterious accident left her with selective amnesia. Cadence, or Cady, has to try and piece together what happened last year, amid romance, class struggles, secrets, and lies. And it was adapted for the show by CW royalty Julie Plec and Carina Adly MacKenzie, so you knew from the jump that it was gonna be good.
The finale episode, written by Lockhart herself, diverged from the book ending, but with good reason. “I wrote the finale, and that was a great chance to basically write a different version of the story that I had already written,” Lockhart told TVLine in an interview. The new ending also sets the series up for a season two, should they get renewed.
So, without further ado, We Were Liars ending, explained ahead. Spoilers, obviously.
What happened during Summer Fifteen?
The Liars decided to burn down Clairmont to try and keep the family from squabbling over their fortunes and breaking apart, thinking it the symbol of Old World money. However, they planned their fire poorly, and Mirren, Johnny, and Gat died as a result. Cadence escaped the fire but hurt her head and lost her memory of the incident. Her present day interactions with the Liars have all been hallucinations of their ghosts.
Was Cadence lying about her memory loss?
No. However, she was raised by the Sinclairs not to face ugly truths, as was hinted throughout the series. The family isn’t honest about their feelings, their failures, or their prejudices. Her amnesia is a manifestation of that (as a literary device; in real life, your family’s trauma doesn’t affect your brain damage…probably).
What will happen to Cady, Carrie, Ed, and the rest?
By the end, most fates are sealed. The other three liars are, sadly, deceased, and much of the older generation has wasted away due to age or dementia. But not everyone on the island is dead or despondent. Here’s the state of the living characters at the end of the show…
What happened with Cady and her mom Penny?
Cady rejects her entire Sinclair family at the end of the series, refusing to participate in a puff piece about the family and tossing the heirloom pearls into the sea. She’s certainly taking a stand against Harris, but what about Penny? Is Cady going to tell her mother the truth about how the other Liars died? The show ends on an ambiguous note. We only know that the other Sinclair sisters, Carrie and Bess, want to know why Penny was the only one who didn’t lose a child to the fire.
How did Carrie and Ed’s relationship fare?
Carrie and Ed aren’t doing as well as one might hope at the end of the series. We see Carrie relapse with some pills and hide it from Ed. Then, she sees Johnny’s ghost. She says, “I thought you left.” He replies, “I don’t think I can.”
What happened to Aunt Bess?
Bess hints that something equally sinister happened when she, Carrie, and Penny were teenagers, but doesn’t go into details. She wonders if Mirren and Johnny’s deaths were some kind of divine punishment, but that’s about as much as she’s been able to deal with since the loss of her daughter.