We Were Liars, the series adaptation of the E. Lockhart novel of the same name on Prime Video, follows a privileged teen’s unraveling memories after a traumatic summer on her family’s private island. The series shifts between two timelines as its lead character, Cadence, searches for the truth about a fire, fractured relationships, and the fate of those closest to her.

Here’s a breakdown of the show’s biggest twist and what it means.

What’s the plot of ‘We Were Liars’?

The series follows Cadence Sinclair Eastman (Emily Alyn Lind) and her time spent on her family’s private island. Every summer, Cadence reunites with her cousins, Johnny (Joseph Zada) and Mirren (Esther McGregor), and Gat (Shubham Maheshwari), a close family friend, forming a tight-knit crew known as the Liars. They grow up together and come to the Sinclair family island, Beechwood Island, each summer. Cadence and Gat eventually have a romance. The Sinclair cousins’ grandfather, Harris Sinclair (David Morse), is seen as strict and overbearing, and while he cares for his family, he wants them to do only what he wants. He often appears to manipulate his daughters—middle sister and Cadence’s mother Penny (Caitlin FitzGerald), eldest sister and Johnny’s mother Carrie (Mamie Gummer) and youngest sister Mirren’s mother Bess (Candice King)—as they all strive to be the primary heiress.

Ed and Gat’s part in the ‘We Were Liars’ plot dives into race and privilege

Carrie’s long-term boyfriend, Ed (Rahul Kohli), visits the island as well, and that’s how Gat became friends with the Sinclair cousins. However, it is strongly insinuated that Harris doesn’t want Carrie and Ed to get married and have children because Ed is Indian, and Gat often feels uneasy and uncomfortable about Harris’ comments and actions. Soon, the cousins realize how problematic their grandfather is as they reckon with their own privilege.

What are the two timelines in the series?

The show is primarily set in two timelines: Summer ’16 and Summer ’17. Things turn when viewers learn that in Summer ’17, a mysterious accident from the previous summer leaves Cadence with memory loss, and she is found at the water. The next summer, things are super weird for her, and she wonders why the Liars, especially Gat, never visited her or checked on her when she was recovering. Cadence also believes there is something they aren’t telling her about what happened. She is on a mission to learn the truth about what happened, and the twist leaves her (and viewers) gagged.

What happens at the end of ‘We Were Liars’ and what’s the twist?

Slowly but surely, Cadence begins to put together what happened. When she arrived back on the island and realized that there is a New Clairmont, it wasn’t just because her grandfather wanted to build a new one. It’s because the old one was burned down. As her memories flood back, she realizes that she and the other Liars burned it down.

As we learn about the night of the fire, as they are all drinking, the Liars discuss how their grandfather will never change and will be stuck being racist/microaggressive. This will also cause them and their mothers to be burdened with his ways and the family legacy, and therefore, remain unhappy. Cady, although she doesn’t tell the other Liars, learns in Harris’ will that Beechwood Island is left to her.

She then tells the rest of the Liars that in order to truly change their family, they have to get rid of the root of the cause and burn the mansion. However, in the fire, it moves too quickly for the Liars, and Mirren and Johnny get stuck in the house, and Gat, who was set to be stationed outside, goes in to save them. Only Cadence makes it out, and the gas explosion blasts her into the water, which is why she was found there.

So this whole time, when Cadence returned for the next summer, the Liars were not actually there with her. It appears that they were just manifestations of her grief, trauma and guilt as she began to remember things and come to terms with what actually happened.

Are the ghosts real in ‘We Were Liars’?

It is left undetermined if the ghosts in We Were Liars are actually real or if they are in Cadence’s head. But as star Emily Alyn Lind said in the cast interview with Blavity’s Shadow and Act, the ghosts are a part of many would-be metaphors in the show.

Lind explained, “There’s a lot of metaphors in our show, right? And when you say grief, and we talk about ghosts…we talk about how some people have asked, ‘So are these ghosts actually ghosts? Or are they figments of her imagination?’ And I always say, ‘What’s a ghost to you? Is it the ghost of your past? Is it the skeletons in your closet…is it the people that stay around in your mind that you can’t let go?’ So, is that grief, or can it also be acceptance? And so there’s also this underlying [abuse of] substances. She’s mixing, she’s endangering her own life. There’s so many things that if you were to take away the Liars from, which is crazy and I would love an edit of this, but if you were to take away the Liars from Summer ’17, you would see a girl that’s pretty much going through a full mental crisis.”

She continued, “You see the family around her. And though they might be a little nicer now, they haven’t changed much. They’ve kept on keeping on. And I think that it just shows a lot about what it’s like to grow up in a family that is…so obsessed…and privileged and just obsessed with the idea [of], We don’t go to therapy, we don’t talk about our feelings. We are shoulders up, chin up, shoulders back.’ And I think that Cadence’s journey in this series is a lot of just realizing what she’s been born into and kind of being terrified by that at the end of it.”

The meaning of Cadence’s final scene in ‘We Were Liars’ and what could happen next

Lind told us that in the final scene, Cadence is “regretting, mourning and missing the loves of her [life] and knowing that she even had a part of it was a part of it. And a big part of it is enough, I think, punishment for her.”

She said, “Even though it was kind of hard to justify even smiling ever in that last episode, there is something beautiful about just taking one step forward. So it’s like, it’s always the first step. It’s admitting you have a problem, right? That’s the first step. And so who knows what’s going to happen in regard to Cadence. I don’t think it’s very wrapped up in a tight bow because she’s decided to leave. But if you remember, the last episode that comes right after a very big threat from her grandfather, saying, ‘If you do so, I will expose you.’ A lot of us leave our families behind, but we carry the baggage with us. You know what I mean? And so we’ll see what happens there.”

We Were Liars Season 1 is now streaming on Prime Video.