Spoiler Alert: Spoilers Ahead for We Were LiarsBookTok is gradually making its way onto our screens, and Prime Video’sWe Were Liarsis next up on the roster. The teen drama series is based on the novel of the same name by E. Lockhart and revolves around a wealthy teen girl, Cadence Sinclair (Emily Alyn Lind), and her wealthy family, the Sinclairs, who spend their summers on their private island, Beechwood.
After suffering a traumatic brain injury, Cadence, or simply Cady, returns to Beechwood to recover while also trying to piece together what happened the day of the accident, as she can’t remember anything, uncovering a devastating family secret. Cady, along with her cousins Mirren (Esther McGregor) and Johnny (Joseph Zada), and her best friend Gat (Shubham Maheshwari), are known as the “Liars,” a name they chose for their tight-knit group that describes their mischievous antics and shared secrets.
There’s a big twist at the end of the eight-episode psychological thriller adaptation:Summer 17, which refers to Cady’s age, was a figment of her imagination in response to her traumatic brain injury. While she was regaining her memory of what happened during Summer 16, Cady realized that Clairmont, her grandfather’s mansion, had been rebuilt after she and the other Liars burned it down.
All the time she spent with her relatives and best friend was essentially a lie made up in her mind, and whether they were simply hallucinations or ghosts is left to interpretation at the end of the season. The reveal sends shivers down the spine as you are put in Cady’s shoes, and you also start to question everything that happened throughout the season. With a twist like this, a second season should be inevitable as viewers crave more.
What Really Happened on the Night of Cadence’s Accident?
We Were Liars
The entirety of the season, Cadence attempts to piece together what occurred the night she sustained the brain injury that left her with holes in her memory. She knows that her family is keeping something from her, and this suspicion is only confirmed by her mother, Penny Sinclair Eastman (Caitlin Fitzgerald), preventing the rest of the family from revealing the truth of the events that played out to avoid Cadence suffering an “episode.”
In Episode 8, titled “My Friends Are Lying in the Sun,” the truth is revealed, and Cadence comes to the shocking realization that Mirren, Johnny, and Gat died that tragic night and that she’s been seeing their ghosts throughout the season. Cadence remembers that she and the Liars were responsible for burning Clairmont down after they were left alone on Beechwood Island. It was an act of rebellion against the family’s privilege and the fact that they saw the house as ametaphor for the family’s dysfunction.
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Each cousin was assigned a floor of the house to set on fire, and once they finished, they would meet at the dock where Gat would be waiting and ready with the family’s boat.There was an unforeseen component to their plan, which was the miscalculation of how quickly the fire would spread. With the fire and smoke spreading quickly, Johnny and Mirren were trapped on the higher floors, and Gat ran inside to save Cadence after she didn’t make it to the boat by midnight, the time they agreed to meet at the dock.
After returning to the house to retrieve her grandmother’s black pearls, Cadence made it out in time and ran to the dock only to find thatthe other Liars weren’t there. By the time she realized that something was wrong,the gas main exploded, killing her cousins and best friend as well as flying debris, knocking her out, and the force of the explosion threw her into the water, resulting in amnesia-causing traumatic brain injury.
How ‘We Were Liars’ Differs From the Book
There are subtle differences between thePrime Video psychological thrillerand the 2014 novel by E. Lockhart, but they somehow manage to enhance the story even more.In the book, Cady doesn’t go back into the house to save her grandmother’s pearls; instead, she goes in to save the family dogs and check on Mirren, Johnny, and Gat, which leads to another difference. In the TV series, Gat is tasked with waiting by the docks and having the family boat ready by the time the Liars meet at the designated time.In the novel, however, Gat is right alongside the Liars, setting the house on fire, and ultimately getting trapped in the house and perishing in the fire. These changes aren’t drastic, but they do have an emotional undertone that significantly impacts Cady, specifically with her guilt over Gat’s death.
Another detail the showrunners, Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries) and Carina Adly Mackenzie (Roswell, New Mexico), included was Carrie Sinclair’s (Mamie Gummer) vision of Johnny at the end of the season. While this doesn’t occur in the books, fans are already speculating that this cliffhanger is setting up the story for a potential second season.
There were several points throughout the season that hinted at Carrie becoming a more central character, as she’s been involved insome of the saddest moments, like breaking off her relationship with Ed (Rahul Kohli) when he attempts to propose to her, and then envisioning her dead son. There’s more of her character left to explore, and if the finale is any indication, she may be the primary focus inWe Were LiarsSeason 2.
Where Could the Story Go From Here in Season 2 of ‘We Were Liars ‘?
Prime Video hasn’t officially renewedWe Were Liarsfor a second season, but there were several questions left unanswered in Season 1 that set up the storyline for Season 2. First, Season 2 could dive deeper into Rosemary Sinclair, who’s mentioned early on in the season, and explain what happened to her that led to her death at 11 years old. Second, Bess Sinclair (Candice King) shares an intriguing moment with Carrie, where she questions whether Mirren’s death was karma for something the Sinclair sisters did when she was 16 years old.
Both Rosemary and the undisclosed event are explored in the second novel,Family of Liars, which serves as the prequel forWe Were Liars. The third possible storyline involves Carrie and Johnny becoming this haunting figure for her, and Plec has hinted that Season 2 will focus on Carrie and her journey from the prequel book.StreamWe Were LiarsonPrime Video.
