Spoilers ahead for the Prime Video series and the original novel.
Prime Video’s We Were Liars, adapted from E. Lockhart’s bestselling book, is built like a mystery unfolding inside Cadence’s head. She returns to her wealthy family’s private island with fragmented memories, lingering physical symptoms, and a constant sense that everyone is talking around the one thing that actually matters. The finale reveals that the “mystery” isn’t a secret someone successfully kept from her—it’s a reality her mind couldn’t fully face.
What really happened to Cadence last summer
Cadence’s memory loss traces back to the night of the blaze. The ending confirms that Cadence and the group she calls the Liars set out to destroy her grandfather’s mansion, Clairmont.
Their intention is portrayed as desperate and symbolic: they want to stop the Sinclair family’s endless, inheritance-driven fighting and force a clean break from the unhealthy system that keeps repeating itself. But the plan spirals out of control. Cadence survives, and the others—Mirren, Johnny, and Gat—do not.
That is the core truth the story has been circling: the people Cadence has been spending time with on the island in the present aren’t alive. Her “missing summer” isn’t missing because someone erased it for her; it’s missing because remembering it means accepting both the loss and her connection to what triggered it.
Why Cadence couldn’t remember
The show frames Cadence’s amnesia as the result of shock, physical and psychological. Every time she gets close to the truth, her body reacts: pain, confusion, shutdown.
The point isn’t that she’s weak or irrational; it’s that her brain has built a protective wall around the worst moment of her life. The closer she gets, the more unstable her experience becomes, because the truth isn’t just information. It’s grief, guilt, and consequences.
Were the Liars “real” in the present timeline
For most of the season, Cadence interacts with Mirren, Johnny, and Gat as if they’re present, tangible, and living their usual summer routines. The finale clarifies that these scenes aren’t standard present-day events. They’re tied to Cadence’s grief and to how the island functions as a memory-space for her—where denial can feel as solid as reality until it breaks.
Depending on how you read the series, the show also hints at something beyond purely psychological interpretation. It suggests that Cadence isn’t the only one who experiences a “presence,” which nudges the ending toward a more supernatural, haunting tone rather than leaving everything as internal projection.
What Cadence decides at the end
Once Cadence remembers, the final question becomes moral, not factual: will she participate in the Sinclair family’s habit of burying the truth to preserve the image, or will she break the pattern?
The ending positions her choice as a refusal to keep carrying the family’s lie. She’s not just solving a mystery—she’s deciding whether to keep being shaped by the dynasty’s rules or step outside them, even if that costs comfort, approval, and the illusion of a perfect legacy.
What the ending sets up next
The finale also widens the story beyond Cadence’s personal revelation by gesturing toward deeper Sinclair history and unresolved family dynamics. The closing note feels designed to keep the world open for more storytelling—less about “what happened” and more about what this family has been hiding for years, and what happens when someone finally stops protecting the myth.
