‘We Were Liars’ TV Series Summary, Cast & Plot Twist Explained

We Were Liars—an Amazon TV series based on the bestselling YA novel by E. Lockhart—took the internet by storm (or sea?) in the summer of 2025. But what is We Were Liars about, what happens in season 1 of the show, and how can you explain that CRAZY twist ending that no one saw coming?? Well, we’re here to answer all of those questions and more with this complete guide to the We Were Liars TV show—whether you’ve already binged all 8 episodes or are still trying to decide if it’s worth the watch.

Warning: there are spoilers ahead in the synopsis and ending explained sections!

We Were Liars TV Show Summary

We Were Liars, an Amazon series, follows teen Cadence of the wealthy Sinclair family. “Cady” has amnesia following a mysterious accident last summer on her family’s island. Cady spends the summer trying to piece together what happened, as well as the secrets being kept from her by her best friend, cousins, and family.

Section 1 of 8:

What is We Were Liars about?

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We Were Liars is about a mysterious accident affecting the wealthy Sinclair family. The main protagonist of the TV show’s first season is Cadence Sinclair Eastman, a teenage member of the infamous Sinclair family—which, while fictional, parallels the real-life Kennedy clan. Cadence is in her “sixteenth” summer on her family’s island, where she slowly puts together the pieces of a mysterious accident that happened the previous summer and left her with amnesia. Through flashbacks and present-day scenes, Cadence (and the audience) discover the events leading up to and following the accident—all while revealing the dysfunction within the Sinclair family, the close bonds between the teen cousins (aka, “The Liars”), and the romantic relationship brewing between Cadence and her best childhood friend.^{[1]
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- We’ll cover a complete synopsis of the show—with spoilers!—later.
- We’ll also explain the ending of the show (with spoilers, of course)!

Section 2 of 8:

We Were Liars Cast

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The show’s cast includes Emily Alyn Lind, Joseph Zada, and Shubham Maheshwari. The protagonist of the show is Cadence Sinclair Eastman, who’s played by Emily Alyn Lind. Lind is an American actress who, besides We Were Liars, is best known for roles as the younger Amanda Clarke in Revenge (2011-2015) and as Ariel in Code Black (2015-2018). Lind also comes from a notable entertainment family; her mother is American actress Barbara Alyn Woods, and her father is film producer John Lind. The rest of the We Were Liars ensemble cast includes:^{[2]
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- Esther McGregor as Mirren Sinclair Sheffield
  - Who is Mirren? One of the Sinclair cousins, and the daughter of Bess.
  - Where have you seen McGregor? Babygirl (2024), The Palisades (2022).
- Joseph Zada as Johnny Sinclair Dennis
  - Who is Johnny? One of the Sinclair cousins, and the son of Carrie.
  - Where have you seen Zada? The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (2026).
- Shubham Maheshwari as Gat Patil
  - Who is Gat? Cadence’s best friend and love interest (also Ed’s nephew).
  - Where have you seen Maheshwari? Haven Dust (2021).
- Caitlin FitzGerald as Penny Sinclair
  - Who is Penny? Cadence’s mother, and the middle daughter of the Sinclair patriarch.
  - Where have you seen FitzGerald? Masters Of Sex (2013), Sweet Bitter (2018).
- Mamie Gummer as Carrie Sinclair
  - Who is Carrie? Johnny’s mom and the eldest daughter of the Sinclair patriarch.
  - Where have you seen Gummer? The Good Wife (2009), The Lifeguard (2013).
- Candice King as Bess Sinclair
  - Who is Bess? Mirren’s mother, and the youngest daughter of the Sinclair patriarch.
  - Where have you seen King? The Vampire Diaries (2009), The Originals (2013).
- David Morse as Harris Sinclair
  - Who is Harris? The Sinclair patriarch and grandfather of the central cousins.
  - Where have you seen Morse? The Green Mile (1999), Disturbia (2007).
- Wendy Crewson as Tipper Sinclair
  - Who is Tipper? The wife of Harris and mother of Penny, Bess, and Carrie.
  - Where have you seen Crewson? The Santa Clause (1994), Mercy (2000).
- Rahul Kohli as Ed Patil
  - Who is Ed? Gat’s uncle and Carrie’s long-term romantic partner.
  - Where have you seen Kohli? The Haunting Of Bly Manor (2020).
- Dempsey Bryk as Ebon
  - Who is Ebon? The water taxi driver for the island, and Mirren’s love interest.
  - Where have you seen Bryk? The Fight Machine (2022), The Birch (2019).
- Tim Rozon as Salty Dan
  - Who is Salty Dan? A local harbor service employee and Bess’s affair partner.
  - Where have you seen Rozon? Schitt’s Creek (2015), Wynonna Earp (2016).

Section 3 of 8:

Where to Watch We Were Liars

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In the United States and abroad, you can watchWe Were Liars on Amazon Prime Video. You must have a Prime Video subscription or a Prime membership to watch the series (which was produced by Amazon’s own production company). If available, you can sign up for a 30-day free trial for Amazon Prime to watch We Were Liars.^{[3]
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Section 4 of 8:

We Were Liars Synopsis

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1
We Were Liars follows Cadence Sinclair as she tries to remember a mysterious accident. Cadence “Cady” Sinclair-Eastman is a teenage member of the wealthy and famous Sinclair family. Each summer, the family vacations on their private Massachusetts island, where Cadence enjoys time with her cousins, Johnny and Mirren, and her childhood best friend, Gat. Together, the four teenagers are known as “The Liars.” The series begins in the Liars’ “Summer 16” on the island, but this summer is different—Cadence is suffering amnesia after an accident the previous summer (“Summer 15”), where she ended up unclothed and washed up on the beach alone. Nobody will explain to Cadence what happened, including her mother, aunts, grandfather, and the Liars.^{[4]
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- In Summer 16 on the island, Cadence reconnects with her cousins but still feels distant from them. None of them visited her during her time in the hospital or in recovery, and they refuse to tell her about what happened in Summer 15.
- Our synopsis continues throughout this section—this is your official SPOILER WARNING.
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In Summer 15’s pre-accident flashbacks, dysfunction runs rampant on the island. There are clashes between the Liars and Harris, the family patriarch, over questions of class, status, race, and how far the eldest Sinclair will go to maintain the family's feigned image of excellence and perfection. The three Sinclair sisters—aka, the mothers of the Liars, minus Gat—constantly compete for the approval of their father and their place in the will. Their behavior is frustrating to the Liars, who see their parents as caving into greed-fueled competition and toxicity.^{[5]
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- Some of this is spurred on by the romantic trysts, connections, and fall-outs happening on the island. Cadence and Gat, who’s from New York and decidedly lower-class when compared to the Sinclairs, begin a tender romantic relationship. Mirren secretly falls for the island’s water taxi driver. Bess, one of the sisters, carries on an affair with a harbor worker.
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Finally, Summer 16’s Cadence begins to remember what happened in Summer 15. There had been increasingly tense family spats over inheritance, which ended with Harris insisting that all three of his daughters leave the island to cool off. The Liars, left alone on the island, are so fed up with the fighting and greed that they get drunk and decide to set fire to their family mansion. Their rationale is that, if no one can inherit the home, the tensions in the family should ease. However, things didn’t go according to plan—Cadence threw a lit match on the floor while her cousins were still upstairs, then ran off to rescue a family heirloom. When Cadence didn’t come out right away, Gat (who was the getaway boat driver) ran into the house to find her.^{[6]
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- Ultimately, Gat, Johnny, and Mirren died in the fire. So did the two family dogs, whom the Liars forgot to let out before enacting their arson plan.
- Cadence was the only survivor of the accident. But, she was blown into the water when the house exploded, leaving her on the beach with a head injury and amnesia.
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Cadence realizes that she’d been hallucinating the Liars for all of Summer 16. She also learns that she had been told what happened, but she’d spiraled into emotional turmoil and forgotten all over again. Eventually, the doctors advised her family to let her remember on her own. At the end of the series, Harris offers Cadence the role of heir to the Sinclair fortune and legacy—as long as she doesn’t disrupt the family’s image. In an act of defiance, Cadence runs away from her family’s photo session, boards a boat, and sails away from the island.^{[7]
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- Some theories claim that the other Liars are ghosts that are haunting Cady, rather than hallucinations.

Section 5 of 8:

We Were Liars Ending

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We Were Liars ending reveals that (SPOILER!) Gat, Mirren, and Johnny died in a fire they set. The show ends with the shocking—and devastating—twist that Gat, Mirren, and Johnny perished in a house fire that they (and Cadence) purposefully set during the previous summer. Cadence was the only survivor of the fire. Cadence realizes that all of her recent interactions with her cousins, Mirren and Johnny, and her friend and love interest, Gat, have been hallucinations. The three of them have actually been dead for a whole year, and her amnesia and trauma have prevented her from remembering what happened.^{[8]
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- But why did “the liars” start the house fire? “The Liars,” aka Gat, Cadence, Johnny, and Mirren, started the fire because they’d reached a breaking point in their resentment toward their wealthy, materialistic, and selfish family members. They decided to burn down the island’s largest mansion in order to destroy their family’s greed and dysfunction.
- What went wrong, and why did everyone but Cadence die? The Liars formulate a plan to have the three cousins set fires in different parts of the house, then flee to the water, where Gat will be waiting with a getaway boat. However, Mirren and Johnny get trapped on the upper floors of the mansion. Cadence stops to retrieve a family heirloom, which delays her exit from the house.
  - This prompts Gat to grow worried and run inside to save her, only for Cadence to run out in the same moment and see that Gat’s not there. A moment later, the house explodes—throwing Cadence into the ocean and effectively sealing the fate of the other three liars.
- What does Cadence do after she finds out about the accident? After Cadence realizes what happened the previous summer, she confronts her grandfather for trying to sweep the truth under the rug. He threatens to expose the truth of what she did if she tries to escape the island, and offers her the Sinclair fortune and legacy if she stays.
  - In a dramatic scene at the end of the Season 1 finale, Cadence runs away from her family, boards a boat, and sails away from the island—signifying her rejection of her family's toxic behavior and legacy.

Section 6 of 8:

Where was We Were Liars filmed?

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We Were Liars was filmed in Nova Scotia, Canada. Filming took place in various locations in Nova Scotia, including Lunenburg, Chester, Halifax, and Dartmouth. The production team used visual effects to turn the Canadian coastline into Beechwood Island, a fictional private island off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Some of the more specific filming locations inWe Were Liars include:^{[9]
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- Lunenburg: A colorful town and UNESCO World Heritage Site used for the series’ Martha’s Vineyard scenes.
- The South Shore Fish Shack: A fish and chips restaurant that was made into the Scoope Shoppe ice cream bar for the series.
- Indian Harbour: The location of a waterfront vacation rental house that became Cuddledown, Aunt Bess’s on-island home, in the series.
- Cyrus Beach: The real name of Tiny Beach, which is near Cuddledown in the series.
- Ovens Natural Park: The location of the cliff-diving scene in Season 1, Episode 5.
- Blue Rocks Road: A street that’s home to a 20-acre estate near Lunenburg—this estate doubles as Clairmont in the show.

Section 7 of 8:

We Were Liars Release Dates

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Season 1 of the We Were Liars TV show was released on June 18th, 2025. All eight episodes of the series simultaneously premiered on Amazon Prime Video, as the show was created via Prime’s in-house production company. No further seasons have been formally announced, as of August 2025, but keep reading to learn everything we know about a potential Season 2.^{[10]
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- The book that the We Were Liars series was based on—which is also called We Were Liars—was released on May 13th, 2015. The novel was written by E. Lockhart.

Section 8 of 8:

We Were Liars Season 2 Rumors

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Season 2 of We Were Liars is in development, but the show hasn’t been officially renewed. As of August 2025, the second season of We Were Liars has yet to be confirmed. However, Vernon Sanders, the head of TV at Amazon MGM Studios, has stated that a We Were Liars season 2 writers' room is already in progress.^{[11]
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Research source} This shouldn’t come as a shock, given that the first season was massively popular and a major talking point on social media after its release. Also, the series is adapted from a book series that has multiple installments.
- E. Lockhart, the author of We Were Liars, wrote a prequel called Family of Liars. This novel winds back in time to tell the story of the three Sinclair sisters when they were teenagers on the island. The mystery in this novel is hinted at throughout Season 1 of the TV show, which provides a glimpse into what Season 2 could be about.^{[12]
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  - There’s also another novel, We Fell Apart: A We Were Liars Novel, that’s expected for release in November 2025. The plot of this novel, and whether or not it connects to the Sinclair family, is not entirely clear.
- Emly Alyn Lind, who plays the show’s protagonist, has teased that there’s more to explore with her character—be warned, her quote contains vague spoilers. “There are things that [Harris] can use over me for the rest of my life,” said Lind. “People died. That's a lot of baggage that she's leaving with. She's not leaving with her hands clean. Her hands have never been dirtier. None of her family knows.”^{[13]
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- Ultimately, while we don’t have confirmation (yet!) of We Were Liars Season 2, it seems likely that there will be another season coming in the next couple of years!