Adapted from E. Lockhart’s bestselling YA novel of the same name, We Were Liars (2025) is a twisted psychological drama that unfolds like a haunting memory. Developed by Julie Plec and Carina Adly MacKenzie, the 8-episode limited series follows Cadence Sinclair Eastman, the heiress to the privileged Sinclair family, as she tries to piece together the events of a summer that ended in tragedy. Set against the backdrop of the family’s private island off the coast of Massachusetts, the show slowly peels back the layers of a carefully constructed world of wealth, loyalty, and denial to reveal a gut-wrenching truth.
The following article contains spoilers. Please proceed with caution.
We Were Liars (Season 1, 2025) Episode-by-Episode Recap:
Cadence “Cady” Sinclair (Mamie Northwood) returns to Beechwood Island two years after a mysterious accident left her with migraines, memory loss, and an overwhelming sense that something terrible happened. Her mother, Penny, avoids the topic. Her grandfather, Harris Sinclair (played by Bill Nighy), the patriarch of the family, insists on tradition: everyone must pretend everything is perfect. Cady reunites with the “Liars”—her cousins Johnny and Mirren, and Gat, the boy she once loved.
Despite her fractured memory, Cady starts enjoying the summer again. But everything feels off. Her relationships with the other Liars are strained. Her questions about the past are met with silence or deflection. Cady begins experiencing vivid hallucinations—seeing things that aren’t there, hearing whispers in the walls. Her doctor had warned that pushing for memories might trigger trauma.
As Cady spends more time with Gat, flashbacks begin to surface. She remembers their secret romance, the way he challenged the family’s racism and classism, and how much her mother disapproved. Episode 3 gives us glimpses of Summer Fifteen—when everything changed. Mirren and Johnny seem distracted, fearful even, whenever Cady brings up the past.
Later, Cady starts reading her old journals and looking through old photos. Something isn’t adding up. Where are the photos of the Liars from Summer Fifteen? Why does everyone dodge her questions? Why is the Liars’ favorite hangout—Clairmont, the main house—completely rebuilt? The pieces don’t fit together. So she begins to think she’s seeing ghosts. Johnny in the window, Mirren in the kitchen. But they disappear. When she confronts her mother, Penny insists the doctor advised against upsetting her brain with details.
Then, a major reveal happens: Harris rewrote his will after Summer Fifteen. Each of his daughters is trying to gain favor to secure their inheritance, a tension that leads back to the Liars’ desire to break free from this generational curse.
A flashback-heavy episode 6 finally explains Summer Fifteen from Cady’s viewpoint—filled with arguments, rebellion, and a growing rift between the adults and the Liars. The four teens hatched a plan to change everything: burn Clairmont, the family’s central mansion, to the ground as a symbolic gesture against the family’s obsession with property and power. But something went horribly wrong.
In episode 7 of We Were Liars, Cady remembers everything.
She remembers that she was the one who suggested using gasoline. She went upstairs before lighting the match. She believed the others followed. But they didn’t. Johnny, Mirren, and Gat were trapped inside.
They died.
This entire summer, she’s been hallucinating them. The beach picnics, the swimming, the secrets—none of it was real. Her guilt had constructed an elaborate version of reality to protect her from the truth.
The finale of We Were Liars is a quiet, devastating reckoning. Cady confesses to her mother, who already knew the truth but chose silence. Harris is broken by the loss of his grandchildren, but still clings to his estate and image. The family continues to fracture. Cady visits the ruins of Clairmont, now a shell of a mansion and of a past that can never be recovered. In a haunting final scene, she imagines the Liars one last time—happy, free, and untethered. Then she lets them go.
We Were Liars (Season 1, 2025) Ending Explained:
Why Didn’t Anyone Tell Cady the Truth?
The biggest question viewers are left with is: Why did the family, especially Penny, let Cady live in a fantasy for two years?
The show paints a chilling picture of generational dysfunction. The Sinclair family motto is “Never complain. Never explain.” It’s a house rule that translates into emotional repression, denial, and avoidance. Penny likely believed that protecting her daughter from trauma meant silence. Perhaps she hoped Cady would never remember. Or maybe she thought Cady remembering on her own terms would be less damaging.
But that silence allowed Cady to build up illusions and create ghosts that haunted her. The very act of withholding the truth became its own kind of violence.
Was Gat Real or a Figment of Guilt?
Gat’s presence in the present timeline—along with Johnny and Mirren—is revealed to be entirely imagined. However, unlike many ghost stories, We Were Liars doesn’t frame them as supernatural. These are memory-ghosts, constructs of Cady’s guilt and love. Gat, in particular, was someone Cady deeply loved, but their relationship was tangled in the family’s classism and racism. Her guilt is not just about his death but about not fighting harder for their love.
How Does the Series Handle Mental Health?
The series delicately balances Cady’s psychological trauma with narrative ambiguity. The hallucinations are presented in a way that’s almost comforting at first—her mind’s defense mechanism. But as the truth comes into focus, the show does not demonize her mental state. It’s portrayed with empathy: this is what a brain in shock, grief, and guilt does to survive.
What Does the Ending Say About Grief and Privilege?
One of the most powerful aspects of We Were Liars is its examination of inherited privilege and the rot at its center. The Sinclair family owns a private island and lives in generational wealth, but emotional suppression and moral decay run deep. The Liars tried to break that system, but their rebellion came at an unthinkable cost.
The ending of We Were Liars suggests that real change doesn’t come from one dramatic gesture—it comes from truth, accountability, and mourning. Cady walking away from the ghosts isn’t about forgetting them. It’s about acknowledging their loss and choosing to live with the pain, not around it.
What Happens to Cady After?
In the final scenes, Cady is no longer hallucinating. The silence is real now. The weight of memory is heavier than ever, but it’s hers again. We don’t get a neat resolution. She doesn’t magically heal. There’s no funeral montage or dramatic closure. The series ends where many stories begin: with a young girl, finally alone, finally seeing the truth.
And that’s the genius of We Were Liars. It doesn’t promise catharsis. It offers reflection.
As for my final thoughts? We Were Liars is more about emotional whiplash. What starts as a dreamy teen summer tale turns into a puzzle and ultimately a quiet tragedy. With nuanced performances and a slow-burn structure, the show earns its gut punch. The twist may feels like its wants to shock but it also says something important about memory, family, and the price of silence.
Whether you’ve read the novel or not, the series manages to expand the narrative in thoughtful ways—fleshing out secondary characters, giving Cady’s psychological journey more depth, and making the Liars’ absence all the more haunting.
The final takeaway? Grief doesn’t disappear. Love doesn’t die. And lies, no matter how noble, eventually unravel.
