We Were Liars: Part 5: The Truth Summary & Analysis

The true story of the Sinclair family never made it to the newspapers, but Harris Sinclair knows it. The truth is that on a July evening two summers earlier, Gatwick Matthew Patil, Mirren Sinclair Sheffield, and Jonathan Sinclair Dennis died in a fire in Clairmont, caused by an upturned gas can in the mudroom. The house burned to the ground before fire fighters could arrive. Cadence Sinclair Eastman was on the island but did not notice the fire until it was too late. She entered the house and sustained burns on her hands and feet while attempting to rescue the people and animals trapped inside. She was later found on the beach, curled into a ball and unable to recall anything from that night.

Harris Sinclair declined formal investigation of the fire, and the family held funerals for Gat, Mirren, and Johnny in their hometowns. Cady did not attend, as she was still suffering from a head injury. The following summer, the Sinclair family returned to the island to mourn: they fell apart, drank too much, and finally decided to build a new house on the site of the old one. Cady had no memory of the fire, and believed that she had hit her head while swimming. She suffers from migraines, which the doctors thought were due to subconscious guilt and grief over the deaths of her closest friends and family.

The doctors suggested that Cady should recover the memories on her own, rather than hearing from her family, and that she should not go back to Beechwood immediately, until she had time to heal—both physically and mentally. She also displayed a strange need to give away all of her possessions, possibly as a form of penance for her crime; this, however, was considered a healthy part of the grieving process. Finally, after another year, Cady was deemed fit to return to the island, and was adamant that she wanted to spend the summer there. The doctors and her family thought that this would help her finish healing.

On the night of the fire, as they walked into the house, the Liars reminded each other: don’t get your feet or your clothes wet, soak everything with the gas, and keep the can away from the kindling, because you’ll need to grab it on your way out. Watch the fire catch, and then run out via the kitchen stairwell and the mudroom door. They were planning to meet up again at Cuddledown to wash their clothes and call the fire departments. But that is the last time that Cady would see Gat, Mirren, and Johnny, as they went to their respective floors. They are all a bit drunk on the wine they had stolen and were probably not thinking as clearly as they should have been. Cady looked at the objects around her, all of which reminded her of why she needed to burn down the house, and she punched a portrait of Penny, Carrie, and Bess as children.

As Cady began to pour the gas throughout the first floor, she realized that she should have started in the room farthest from the mudroom, since that was their exit. She decided that she would use the back door near Harris’s study, which led to the staff building next door. She started her fire and watched it burn, and then suddenly heard a scream from above her—Johnny was on the second floor above the study, and it burned too fast. Cady panicked, tried to open the back door, but found it bolted shut and stuck. She ran back through the kitchen, which wasn’t burning yet, and skidded on the floor that was slick with gasoline. She saw that her jeans were on fire and knew that she had to get out immediately. She yelled to anyone who could hear her that they should get out too, and then found herself rolling in the grass to stop her jeans from burning.

Outside of Clairmont, Cady called for the Liars, but they were nowhere to be found. She told herself that they must have gotten out, and ran towards the boathouse to find them. When she found no one there, she ran to Cuddledown, expecting to find them there. They weren’t there either, and Cady ran back to Clairmont, which was burning from top to bottom. She went in through the mudroom door and went into the basement to find Gat, but there was a wall of flames and she couldn’t get down there. She went to save Johnny and Mirren, but the stairwell caved in as she was going towards it, and she knew she could not save anyone.

The memories are flooding back to Cady as she sits on the steps of Windemere where Gat left her, and she feels a cold fog enter her body. She thinks about all the things she did wrong when lighting the fire, like not setting a time for all of them to light their fires. She should have insisted that they stay together, and she never should have gone to the boathouse and Cuddledown, as that lost her time when she should have been getting the others out of Clairmont. She thinks about the life she wants for herself and the other Liars: a life in which they are free to love each other without prejudice. But now, Cady realizes, they will never have futures at all, because she has killed them. She feels frozen, even though she thinks she deserves to burn.

Cady thinks about how she shouldn’t have pressed them all to take matters into their own hands; soon enough they would have been old enough to drive and go off to college, and the island and its controversy would be a far-off memory. Cady wishes that she could have been the voice of reason, but she knows that she can’t take any of it back. She climbs into bed and shivers under the covers, as pieces of her body seem to break off onto her pillow. She cries, finally: for her aunts who have lost their children, for the younger kids who have lost their siblings, for Harris who has lost his house and grandchildren, and for the dogs, who were innocent victims. She begins to miss all the things she gave away.

Cady realizes that her aunts now hug one another not out of freedom and love, as the Liars had once hoped, but out of shared suffering. She thinks about how she let down her family, especially the people she loves, but most of all she let down Gat, who could have grown up to fight evil in the world. She mourns the version of Gat who she never got to know—the one off of Beechwood Island—and now she will never know. She then thinks about how it must have felt for them in the last moments of their lives, and how much it must have hurt as their bodies burned and shriveled. They have been on Beechwood Island with her this summer to say goodbye, to give her this last summer together, and to let her know that they love her. She needed them, and they were there.

Penny knocks on Cady’s door, asks if she has a migraine, and tells her that she loves her. Cady realizes that when she says that, she means that she loves Cady despite what she has done, and in spite of her grief. She tells Cady that Bess made a blueberry pie and Cady can eat it for breakfast if she wants. Cady opens the door for her mother and says no, she cannot come out now, and Penny notices that she has been crying. Cady apologizes for not being able to come out, and Penny tells her that she never has to say she is sorry again.

Cady goes to Cuddledown to see the Liars, and when Johnny appears, he can tell that she remembers everything. She tells him that she doesn’t know if they would still be around, now that she knows. Johnny tells her that he can’t stay much longer, and neither can Mirren or Gat. Cady asks him where they will go, and Johnny describes it as a rest, or like nothingness. He tells her that he is very tired and just wants to lie down and be done—he has been waiting for two years to rest, and is ready. He also tells Cady that it is not her fault, that they all chose to set the fire together, that she can be sad and sorry, but she should not think it is all her fault.

Cady talks to Mirren, who tells her that she wants to accept her fate, but is still full of jealousy and anger at Cady and the rest of the family. She tells Cady that she has to go, and Cady wants to beg her to stay, but she doesn’t. She also wants to “bleed across the great room floor” or “melt into a puddle of grief,” but she only cries and hugs Mirren one last time. She then sees Gat, who runs to her and swoops her up into the air, swinging her around like they are a happy couple on the beach. They hold each other as Mirren and Johnny walk out into the ocean, and when he finally has to leave as well, he kisses her. Then they dive into the water and are gone, leaving Cady alone on the beach.

Cady sleeps for days, waking a few times to find that it is light, and then dark, outside her window. She looks at herself in the mirror when she finally gets up, and notices her rusty brown hair with blonde roots, and doesn’t recognize the person she sees. She goes to New Clairmont to find her aunts making sandwiches for a picnic. Ed is there, and he waves to Cady as he helps put together picnic supplies. Bonnie asks her if she is feeling better, and Liberty tells her that they are going tubing in the morning, and Cady is invited. Everyone knows Cady has remembered everything, though she hasn’t mentioned it yet. Penny can tell.

Harris takes Cady to Edgartown, where he buys her a book of fairy tales at the bookstore. Cady mentions that Ed has returned, and tells Harris that she knows he doesn’t like him, but he is there with Carrie. Harris acknowledges this and tells her to stop bothering him about it so they can go get fudge. When she is back on Beechwood Island, Cady goes to Cuddledown and cleans up the mess she made; when she finishes, she begins to draw a simple picture of the Liars and puts it on the fridge next to the old drawings they drew when they are younger.

Cady tells herself another fairy tale: once there was a king with three beautiful daughters. They grew up and had children, but something terrible happened. All the children died in a fire, except for one, and she was left alone. No, that’s not correct—the children died except for three girls and two boys. There are Cady, Liberty, Bonnie, Taft, and Will. The three princesses raged and cried, drank and shopped, and cleaned obsessively. They also forgave each other. The fathers were angry too, but they were all far away. The children are grieving were, and had nightmares and migraines. But the tragedy did not mean the end of this family.

The story of the fire became mysterious and glamorous to outsiders, and the surviving family also became glamorous—but they know that tragedy is not glamorous, it is ugly and confusing. Cady is nearly eighteen, and committed a foolish crime. That is the main thing to know about Cady, and will be for a long time. But she knows that there will be more to her identity in the future.