We Were Liars: Did the Liars actually burn down Clairmont? Details explained

Amazon Prime Video adapted author E. Lockhart's novel We Were Liars into a psychological thriller series, which debuted on the platform on June 18, 2025.

While the book was already hailed as a gripping mystery, viewers were left shocked after the twist ending, which finally revealed what happened in the fire in the Summer 16.

While Cadence (Cady) struggled to remember what happened on that fateful night with her and the other Liars, Johnny, Mirren, and Gat, the penultimate episode finally triggered her memory, and she remembered that the Liars had actually set Clairmont, the main house on Beechwood Island, on fire.

Since the Liars were all fed up with their families' deception and trickery, they decided to end it all and set fire to the house in We Were Liars.

More on this in our story.

**Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for We Were Liars. Reader discretion is advised.**

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We Were Liars: All the liars (except Cady) perished in the Clairmont fire

While Cady struggled with her memory throughout We Were Liars, triggering a mental episode any time she tried to remember anything, the penultimate episode finally shed some light on the Summer 16.

Cady remembers the fateful night when the Liars decided to burn down Clairmont, which was symbolic of the Sinclair legacy.

While the teens were relentless in their pursuit and wanted to set their family's legacy ablaze, their arson plan was clearly faulty, and it quickly went haywire because the Liars were also drunk the night they set fire to Clairmont.

They had planned to line the wooden floors of the house with gasoline and throw Molotov cocktails on the marble tabletops that would set the house on fire. However, their plan had numerous loopholes, which ultimately led to tragedy for the Liars.

In We Were Liars, the first mistake the Liars made was forgetting about the two dogs sleeping in the basement. They were also drugged because of the fireworks on the Sinclair estate. The moment Cady heard their cries, she rushed to rescue them, but instead suffered a head injury, which led to her amnesia. Since it was too late to rescue them, she returned outside, bleeding and burning.

Next, they forgot about the main gas line and did not plan for an alternative safe exit, as the fire was spreading rapidly. While the fire blazed on, both Johnny and Mirren were distracted by things in the house, further sealing their fates.

While Gat was waiting for the other Liars on the boat, he also joined Johnny and Mirren in the house when nobody showed up. Soon, the smoke was too thick for anybody to see anything, and once it hit the main gas line, the house exploded, and Cady (who was outside) was catapulted into the ocean, triggering her memory loss.

In We Were Liars, Cady's efforts to remember the Summer of '16 end with the realisation that she was the only one who made it out of that fire alive. Johnny, Mirren, Gat, and the dogs all perished in the fire.

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We Were Liars: Were the dead Liars Cady's hallucination?

We Were Liars ends with a shocking revelation that the Liars (except Cady) were all dead for the 17 timeline, but they were not Cady's hallucination.

As Johnny reveals, they are ghosts of the dead Liars, haunting Cady because she has not yet made peace with their deaths and the incident in the Summer 16.

Since greed took over her in the final moments of the fire, and she also ran upstairs for her grandmother's necklace, Gat couldn't see her when he entered the house. She believed that she could have somehow helped and saved him, but Spirit-Gat absolved her of that guilt and reaffirmed to her that his fate was set in stone.

Cady talked to each spirit-Liar for one final time, until the three of them held hands, jumped from the dock, and vanished into thin air in the We Were Liars finale.

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