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We Were Liars season 1 premiered on Amazon Prime Video on June 18, 2025, adapting E. Lockhart’s best-selling novel into a haunting psychological thriller. The eight-episode series reveals the truth about Cadence Sinclair's scary accident and the dark secrets her family keeps.
She sees ghosts the whole time she is back on the island, so her cousins and boyfriend are never alive. Even though Cadence lives, her actions and the terrible events of Summer 2016 have left her with scars that can't be healed.
The show is based on Cadence's memory loss after an unknown accident at her family's Beechwood Island home. She comes back in the summer of 17 to figure out what happened in the past.
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Throughout the episodes, she finds out that her cousins Johnny and Mirren, as well as her boyfriend Gat, all died in a house fire that she started with them to try to fix their broken family. Laura and Elias are two minor characters who get caught up in family drama and end up choosing each other in the middle of all the chaos.
As Cadence talks about her guilt and trauma, the emotional weight builds up to a moment that represents letting go. She breaks away from her controlling Sinclair family history by throwing their valuable black pearl necklace into the water and going her own way.
Disclaimer: The following article contains spoilers from We Were Liars season 1. Readers' discretion is advised.
We Were Liars season 1 ending: Cadence’s reckless solution to Sinclair dysfunction
Cadence loses it in We Were Liars season 1 when she sees her grandfather Harris's control over the Sinclair family cause them to fall apart. Cadence is sick of the fighting, manipulation, and power plays, so she tells her best friends—Mirren, Johnny, and Gat—about a big plan she wants to carry out.
Her idea is that the only way to heal the family is to destroy Clairmont, the ancestral home where all the bad things happen. She thinks that taking away the sign of power and inheritance will help the family get back to being close.
The Liars work together to make homemade gasoline bombs by filling wine bottles with gasoline and getting ready to set fire to the house room by room. They're going to meet at midnight on the dock and sail off into the night.
Johnny will begin in the attic, Mirren in the room her mother used to have when she was a child, and Cadence in the living room. However, the execution is a mess. As each person lights their own space on fire, the fire spreads faster than expected.
When Cadence leaves the house, she turns around because she remembers that there are dogs inside. She loses valuable time by running away, and when she comes back, the house explodes behind her. She didn't know that Gat had gone back in to find her. The plan, meant to unite the family, leads instead to death, trauma, and irreversible guilt.
Cadence’s brain hides the truth in We Were Liars season 1
After the terrible fire, Cadence is found unconscious, hurt, and having trouble remembering things. Her family doesn't tell her much, and no one talks about the Liars.
As We Were Liars season 1 goes on; it becomes clear that Cadence's mind has made up a false reality to keep her from facing the painful truth. She thinks Johnny, Mirren, and Gat are still alive and at Beechwood Island with her for Summer 17.
Cadence can be seen laughing, arguing, and getting close to the Liars during the first season of We Were Liars. People don't realize she's been by herself the whole time until the last episode. There were never any Liars there; these interactions were either hallucinations or spiritual projections. Her brain pushed back on the traumatic events so much that it made up comforting stories to help her deal.
Every time she got close to the truth, she got crippling migraines or passed out from confusion. This was her body's way of dealing with her mental pain.
When she finds the pearl necklace, it brings back a lot of memories. She remembers Gat running into the fire to save her, how long it took her to get the necklace, and the explosion.
This breaking down of the mental wall is a turning point. Things she thought were true start to fall apart, and the ghosts of the Liars get ready to say goodbye. It's not just about events; the revelation is also about dealing with guilt, grief, and the mind's desperate need to avoid pain that is too much to bear.
The last goodbye: Closure between the Living and the Dead
Once Cadence's memory is fully restored, the first season of We Were Liars goes from a mystery to a reconciliation. Johnny, Mirren, and Gat, the Liars, tell the truth about how they died and what happened before it. There are then a lot of sad goodbyes, which finally let Cadence start to heal.
Each character says personal things about their life and fears. Johnny, who used to be the comic relief, says he was scared during the fire and feels bad that he never talked to his mum about how she wasn't feeling emotionally.
Mirren talks about how she struggled with feeling invisible and having to be perfect, even though her family often forgot about her. Cadence's boyfriend, Gat, talks about his broken heart and how they will have to break up. The way they talk to each other is open, honest, and heartbreaking.
A family scarred: Aftermath of the Tragedy
On the surface, the Sinclair family doesn't seem to have changed since the fire. But on the inside, they are broken. The first season of We Were Liars shows how Penny, Carrie, and Bess's grief, regret, and unresolved guilt slowly break them down.
Each of them loses something important: Carrie misses Johnny, Bess misses Mirren, and Penny, who is still alive, has to deal with the trauma of seeing her daughter's emotions fall apart.
The sisters, fighting favoritism for a long time because of Harris, started to soften. Now, their fights over money and attention don't seem to be about anything. In the last episodes, Bess admits that she hurt Mirren and makes plans to show off her daughter's art to the public.
As her addiction gets worse, Carrie feels bad about making Johnny take on adult responsibilities. Cadence used to be a pawn in Penny's family games, but she now sees how bad things have gotten too late.
This pain from generation to generation shows that the Sinclair problems started long before the Liars. Their kids paid the ultimate price for hurts that weren't healed, favoritism, and lying.
Breaking free: Cadence rejects the Sinclair legacy
The fight between Cadence and her grandfather, Harris, is one of the most important events in the first season of We Were Liars. Harris tries to keep control of the Sinclair image after the fire.
He tells Cadence that she can become the family's new public face, forcing her to lie to a TIME magazine reporter about what happened. He tells her what she did to start the fire and makes it sound like he'll tell everyone if she doesn't give in.
At first, Cadence is torn, but she thinks about accepting out of fear and duty. She chooses truth and freedom, though, which is a strong act of resistance. She shocks everyone on the day of the interview. She stays out of the story and wears the necklace Gat gave her. His name is tattooed on her hand. She then goes to the dock, gets on a boat, and throws the necklace into the water.
Cadence is no longer acting. She doesn't want to lie, put up with Sinclair's actions, or give in to Harris's pressure. The necklace, which stands for guilt and inheritance, falls into the water, taking the family's tight grip on her with it.
When Cadence leaves the island, she takes only her truth with her. She chooses a life of honesty over privilege and lies.
A ghost’s return or a mother’s hallucination?
Just as people are starting to get closure, season 1 of We Were Liars has a shocking turn. In the last scene, Johnny's mom, Carrie, gets ready to leave Beechwood Island. She sneakily takes a pill from a hidden stash, which shows that her problem with drug abuse hasn't been solved. She hears a voice that scares her as she turns to leave. Johnny is sitting next to her.
She says,
"I thought you left."
Johnny replies,
"I don't think I can."
There are shockwaves from this moment. If Johny is still alive, or Carrie, like Cadence, is haunted by her past. This isn't clear from the show.
We Were Liars season 1 is available to stream on Prime Video.
