The We Were Liars Clues That Could Have Revealed the Ending

Many of us join the We Were Liars journey without knowing anything about E. Lockhart’s novel, which makes the final plot twist all the more surprising. Those of us who don’t know what to expect finish the series in uncontrollable sobbing.

When the truth comes out, and Johnny, Mirren, and Gat tell Cadence that they are dead, viewers’ breath is caught in their throats. Is it possible that these people we have come to care for are dead?

Just like Cadence, we spend the entire series trying to figure out exactly what happened. We try to see clues where she might not and understand the underlying message of everything that is being said. Nevertheless, the secret doesn’t come out until it’s explicitly shown to us as the fire takes over the house and three-quarters of the liars.

Once the show is over and viewers sit with the truth long enough, we begin to look back on the pieces of the puzzle and realize that maybe if we had paid closer attention, some of them would have been easy to piece together.

The more obvious clue comes to us through the physical appearance of the liars. While Cadence has obviously changed, dying her hair in an act of rebellion, the rest of them remain the same.

At first, we believe Mirren has changed because we see her with a haircut, and Gat is seen wearing an earring we’ve never seen before. However, as the show progresses, we discover that those are all changes that are visible on the last night of their lives.

Therefore, these small physical details are a clue whispering to viewers the truth.

Other smaller clues that don’t truly make sense until their death is revealed come from the actions of other family members.

The first one that feels like nothing is when Carrie finds Cadence with Johnny’s phone and has a breakdown. We can see Johnny calling out her name, but Carrie just continues crying.

The first thought is that she is crying because of what Johnny did and isn’t answering him because the pain is back. However, when the truth is revealed, we know Carrie already knew what Johnny had done, and she is instead crying over the son she lost and his phone being all she has left.

That narrative also changes when the series ends and viewers realize Carrie can also see Johnny’s ghost.

The other instance is when one of Mirren’s sisters asks Cadence to tell her a ghost story. When Cadence tells her to ask Mirren, her cousin makes a sarcastic remark about how funny that is.

Because we can see Mirren between them, and she seems to be part of the conversation, it just seems the sisters are ignoring each other. However, later, we can tell that the request for a ghost story was yet another clue.

Cadence’s interactions with Gat are probably the most telling ones. Nevertheless, during a first watch, they just feel like normal moments these two characters would have after a traumatic event that cannot be revealed to Cadence in order to keep her safe.

While everyone else continues to say they cannot talk about that night because the moms have forbidden it, Gat goes as far as to say, “That night f*cked me up, too.” At first, we believe it is because whatever happened to Cadence affected him as well.

But when the truth is revealed, we understand in those words his ghost is also trying to come to terms with his own death and what happened afterward.

Nevertheless, up until that point, those words don’t feel like a clue. Not even Cadence’s hallucinations during her date with Gat give away the true meaning of that moment.

However, if one pays attention to the way in which Cadence talks about this incident with her grandfather, the clue is very obvious.

When she accompanies Harris to his own doctor appointment, she waits outside the office and mentions that her mother doesn’t want her to be alone after the last episode. To viewers, Cadence’s last episode happened with Gat. In reality, she was alone in town when she discovered what happened to everyone and had another “episode.”

In hindsight, the clues are obvious. Every word spoken by the liars and every step they took was a piece of the puzzle that revealed their death.

However, this reveal is handled with such care that viewers don’t expect that to be what happened the night of Cadence’s accident. On the contrary, we suspect everyone to be involved.

That makes the reveal much more shocking, but it also pushes viewers to think back on the series to try and pinpoint the little moments in which the truth was right in front of our eyes.

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We Were Liars is available to stream on Prime Video.

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