The Toughest, Most Gut-Wrenching Scene in ‘We Were Liars’ Isn’t Its Tragic Ending
Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for the We Were Liars finale.
By now, you’ve likely finished binging We Were Liars on Prime Video and are still upset by that soul-crushing finale. The teen drama series, based on E. Lockhart‘s best-selling novel, takes a dramatic turn in its final episode, with the revelation that Cady (Emily Alyn Lind) is the only Liar to survive the fire that destroyed the Sinclair estate. When the protagonist regains her memory, she recalls that Johnny (Joseph Zada), Mirren (Esther McGreggor), and Gat (Shubham Maheshwari) didn’t make it out of the house in time to celebrate it turning to ashes. After all, the whole reason why the fire started was because the group decided to burn the mansion to the ground in the hopes that, by doing so, they could change their family’s dynamic forever — and that the sense of entitlement, the petty fights over who will get access to Harris’ (David Morse) inheritance, and the blatant prejudice against Gat and his uncle Ed (Rahul Kohli) would finally end.
Yet, their plan to take down the empire doesn’t work out the way they intended it to, with Johnny, Mirren, and Gat dying young, without the opportunity to follow their dreams, fall in love, or reconcile with family members. The latter particularly rings true to Mirren and Bess (Candice King), who end in terrible terms before the series’ tragic resolution. Although the finale does hint that there would be space for their strained bond to be repaired, Mirren’s death prevents them from making amends, and that is why their last scene together is even more devastating than the house fire itself.
Mirren and Bess Have a Fractured Relationship in ‘We Were Liars’
From their very first interaction onscreen, Bess is calling out Mirren for not wearing the shirt she had previously selected for the family portrait. The reason her daughter isn’t wearing the shirt is because she accidentally stained it with paint. Mirren is so afraid of her mother throwing a fit that she swaps shirts with Cady instead. This is enough of an indicator of the pressures that Bess puts on her children to maintain the flawless family image associated with the Sinclairs. At a given moment in the series, she even refers to herself as “the perfect one,” which only goes to show how much she values upholding her pristine status.
It doesn’t take long for viewers to see past the façade. Bess cheats on her husband with Salty Dan, one of the harbor service employees, proving that her marriage isn’t as picture-perfect as she lets on. When Mirren walks in on her mother and her lover having sex, it is right then and there that their relationship becomes even more fractured. Despite finding out that her father has been stealing from her mother’s trust fund and is just as much in the wrong as Bess, Mirren is unable to shake away her mother’s betrayal, and that severs their connection.
‘We Were Liars’ Final Mother-Daughter Scene Is Even More Devastating in Hindsight
Mirren and Bess’s last scene together takes place at Mirren’s painting studio, where they fight about the affair. After being so quick to judge Carrie (Mamie Gummer) and Penny (Caitlin FitzGerald) for their mistakes, Bess reaches a breaking point where she blames her daughter for gossiping about her and for being ungrateful for all the sacrifices that she’s made. With their finances on the line, Bess’s failed marriage would negatively impact her chances of getting a cut of her father’s inheritance while also shattering the picture-perfect image she’s held onto for so long. As she and Mirren fight, Bess punches through a painting that means a lot to her daughter, and this moment is a physical symbol of their falling out.
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When they saw Cadence and Gat in the hammock, EPs Julie Plec and Carina Adly MacKenzie knew they were on the right track with ‘We Were Liars.’
According to Candice King in her Collider Ladies Night interview, this gut-wrenching exchange between the characters was just as painful to shoot as it was for viewers to witness. She even went on to describe it as “a marathon,” with her and Esther McGregor having to do several takes in order to achieve the level of intensity that the scene demanded. The end product displays the level of dedication of both actresses and allows for Bess and Mirren’s fight sequence to hit all of its emotional beats.
‘We Were Liars’ Tragic Ending Prevents Mirren and Bess From Reconciling
The last scene between We Were Liars‘ characters has an added layer of depth due to a crucial detail in the finale. While the Liars are preparing to burn the house, Mirren stumbles upon the painting her mother destroyed during their argument and notices that Bess has been attempting to repair it. There is an art restoration guide on the desk next to the painting, which indicates that Bess understood the damage she had caused and wanted to somehow find a way to patch things up with her daughter. The slight glimpse we have of her effort to fix the painting is enough to show that if Mirren hadn’t died in the fire, there might’ve been hope for the two to reconcile.
Looking back, their fight scene marks a point of no return for the mother-daughter duo, and it’s devastating to know that there was room for them to make amends if Mirren hadn’t perished in the fire. As Cady says goodbye to her cousin’s ghost later on in the finale, Mirren even goes on to say that no one really saw her while she was alive, implying that not even her mother had a full grasp of who she was. Mirren doesn’t live to see Bess display her artwork at a gallery in her honor, with the painting that was once destroyed taking center stage. Although it takes her daughter’s death for Bess to value her and her artistry, knowing that the youngest Sinclair sister cared for Mirren is enough to make the series’ ending even more devastating in hindsight.
