By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell
The liars are drunk, sitting around the fire, and discussing the pros and cons of burning Clairmont down. So far, Cadence (Emily Alyn Lind), Mirren (Esther McGregor) and Johnny (Joseph Zada) only see the pros. Their mothers have been horrible to each other over inheriting the place for years, and it’s being held together by sexism and racism. Maybe if it were gone, they could just be a family again. Johnny waits for Gat (Shubham Maheshwari) to be the voice of reason, but as the only non-Sinclair on the island, he doesn’t feel he should be weighing in on what happens to their family home. Plus, he doesn’t think he’ll be invited back next summer even without the scholarship. But Cadence says that’s why they have to do something.
Still, Mirren worries that this plan is a one-way ticket to a boarding school somewhere cold. But Cadence comes up with a cover story where, out of guilt for swiping the best bottle of whisky and flooding the kitchen, they made s’mores and went to Cuddledown for the night. She says they could say the fire was an accident, and even though the story is far-fetched, the moms and Harris (David Morse) will have to let it go because they don’t want any bad press.
Johnny points out that they don’t know how to do arson, but Cadence doesn’t think it’ll be that complicated. There’s fuel in the boathouse, she says, and if they divide and conquer, they can get it done. Cadence will take the downstairs, Mirren takes the East Wing, where her mom’s old room is. They’re going to work from top to bottom, and Gat, who needs plausible deniability, is going to be their getaway driver. We see a montage of pouring the fuel throughout the house, and Gat thinks that in addition to shielding Gat from the worst of the potential consequences, Harris will be so grateful to Gat for saving the Sinclair heirs that he’ll be welcome back next summer, Ed (Rahul Kohli) too.
Gat agrees and the liars plan to leave and set the fire at 12:00, and they need to let it burn just enough to be beyond repair when the fire department arrives. We cut away and see Clairmont burning and the liars celebrating its demise outside.
During Summer 17, Cadence is looking at New Clairmont and talking to Mirren and Johnny. She’s happy because she says the fire must’ve worked because the moms haven’t been fighting, and Gat was invited back. Mirren tries to explain something, but Johnny says she remembers the fire, so they should leave it there. But Cadence says that still doesn’t explain how she ended up in the water.
Mirren and Cadence go to get Gat and tell him that Cadence is starting to remember. After getting some flashes of washing up on the beach, Cadence finds them and thinks she knows what happened. She wondered if they tried driving the boat into town to celebrate, Cadence fell overboard, and due to the fire and their drunken state, they got spooked and left her. The liars tell her that that isn’t what happened and reiterate that they don’t know how she ended up in the water. Johnny reminds Cadence that they can’t tell her because every time someone does, she has a migraine and forgets. They’d like to help her; they don’t want to hurt her. Cadence decides they should play Scrabble because when they’re just hanging out, her memories come back naturally.
Gat goes first and chooses the word cheers, which reminds her of making Molotov cocktails in the kitchen. Johnny takes the next turn, and Cadence remembers that Johnny’s job was to take the attic. He says there were a lot of memories up there, and we see him looking at pictures of the liars when they were little. Mirren tells Cadence she was excited to burn her mother’s childhood bedroom because of how appalled she was by her behavior. Cadence remembers the adrenaline and the smell of gasoline, and the other liars look increasingly upset. But, the night of the fire, Cadence says she felt powerful because she tried talking to her mother and Harris (David Morse), but they brushed her off. From where Cadence stood, she fell for someone Harris Sinclair deemed unworthy of their family, so now she needed to cleanse them of his hate. She believed that the fire would give them all a fresh start.
They lit the fire, and Cadence remembers running outside, but she goes back inside because she hears the dogs barking. In their excitement, the liars forgot the liars in the laundry room. Cadence goes back inside to save them, but she can’t open the door. Trying leaves her hands bleeding, and in Summer 17 Cadence is horrified and cries. The house is burning around her and her dress catches fire, and she runs out of the house and off the cliff. In the water, she screams and, in the present, Cadence sobs as Johnny, Mirren, and Gat hold her.
Cadence goes to talk to Harris, who remembers Eleanor and Franklin. She apologizes, and he observes that she has her memories back. He says faulty wiring is to blame, and she was brave, but Harris admits he misses them at the most inconvenient times. Cadence says she thinks it’d be a good idea for the liars to have dinner with him at New Clairmont. Harris doesn’t answer about the dinner plans and instead notes that she’ll be 18 in three days and offers her Tipper’s pearls. At first, Cadence doesn’t want them, but Harris insists. When Cadence touches the pearls, she starts remembering more, like the fact that Harris found her when she washed up on the beach.
On the beach, Cadence shares that Harris gave her the family “noose of love” and starts remembering more. Johnny tries convincing her to let it go because the memories aren’t exactly happy, but she can’t. Cadence asks again why they didn’t visit or call after the accident, and she starts having a panic attack before she says she’s strong enough to know her own story. Reluctantly they agree and tell Cadence that they were really bad at arson. The plan was to light their matches at midnight, but they all got distracted by something. For Mirren, it was finding the painting that Bess wrecked and was trying to repair. She’s touched, but then sets the bed on fire.
For Johnny, it’s photos of Harris and trophies that he wrecks because it makes him angry. He didn’t have time to light the match and leave, but the smoke rose fast. Gat got worried when the fire started, but the liars were M.I.A. So he went back inside looking for them. Mirren throws her painting out of the window, and they can barely see through the smoke, but she calls out for Johnny. Gat calls out for Cadence, and Johnny calls out for Mirren and Cadence. The long and short of it was that they all made mistakes, and they paid for it. Gat adds that they didn’t even think about the gas line
These comments bring it all back for Cadence, and she remembers her horror when she realized her cousins and Gat were still inside and the explosion that pushed her into the water. With that, Cadence remembers Harris’s statement to the press that Johnny, Mirren, and Gat perished in a fire due to a faulty gas line. Remembering that the other liars died causes Cadence to break down. Johnny, Mirren, and Gat disappear, and Penny (Caitlin FitzGerald) finds Cadence sobbing on the beach.
In her room, Cadence opens the birthday gift from Gat she didn’t get a chance to open last year. It includes a letter from Gat telling her he loves her and that she should wear the beads close to her heart like he did all summer. She cries thinking of Gat, and Penny comes in to check on her. Penny asks how she’s doing and Cadence admits she’s not great emotionally. Not only that, she admits that she’s become dependent on the pain pills and needs help to stop taking them. Penny thanks her for being honest and promises she’ll get all the help she needs in Vermont. Cadence wonders when her mother stopped being ant-therapy, but Penny explains she knows fresh air and exercise can’t fix losing the loves of your life. She knows that from experience. Penny admits that she was unfaithful too for a long time and apologizes for not being honest and letting Cadence blame her. She was afraid that given the option Cadence would choose Sam over her. Penny explains that being a Sinclair is hard, but not being a Sinclair is harder, still the choice is Cadence’s to make. On the beach Carrie is walking and talking to someone about how Harris is slipping.
Cadence goes to Cuddledown and tearfully cleans up. While she’s cleaning, she’s surprised to find Johnny cleaning as well. She wonders where he was and Johnny explains that when they’re not with Cadence, it’s kind of like they’re sleeping. Cadence was afraid they’d never see each other again, but Johnny says dead or not, he’d never miss saying goodbye to her. He apologizes for encouraging her not to remember and admits he was afraid that if Cadence remembered everything he’d be headed somewhere that isn’t a soft nothing. He doesn’t want to burn again and Johnny thinks there has to be a consequence for having the opportunities he had and squandering it. Cadence tells him that if there is hell, for her part in the fire she’ll be there too. Johnny tells her that she feels so bad about what happened that she’ll spend her whole life doing things to make up for it. So, the powers that be will have to make her, her own personal heaven. But, Cadence tells her, her idea of heaven has to include him and they hug.
Cadence goes to talk to the littles and asks if they’re okay. Liberty tells her it’s too quiet on Beechwood without Johnny, Mirren, and Gat. The trio decides to go swimming and when they’re gone Cadence sees Mirren and they share a tearful goodbye. Mirren wishes she’d been kinder to William (Brady Droulis), Liberty (Manaia Wall), and Bonnie (Emerson MacNeil) because she only ever played with them under duress. Cadence says she should leave the regret to her. But, Mirren shares that her whole life she wanted to be the best at something, but now she fears that no one ever really saw her. Cadence promises her that she sees her and she’ll keep seeing her for the rest of her life. She lets Cadence hold her and promises her that Gat will come to see her.
In the meantime Cadence tries to give the Black pearls back to Harris. But, Harris says she deserves them as the heir and the first Sinclair grandchild. Cadence tells him she doesn’t want that title anymore. He asks if she’ll be an entitled child with a crush who got angry with her family and committed arson, animal cruelty, and involuntary manslaughter. Or, since she loves stories like Tipper, she’d rather be known as a brave girl who risked her life trying to save her cousins and friend in a fire that started by accident. That’s the story that he’s been selling the moms, the littles, and the general population all year. Harris suggests she tell when the reporter comes Saturday she comes for his retirement story for Time Magazine. Harris wants to put an end to the murmurings about a Sinclair family curse and he wants to be her introduction to the public as the new face of the family. He doesn’t accept the black pearls.
It’s the anniversary of Johnny, Mirren, and Gat’s death and Bess (Candice King) and Carrie (Mamie Gummer) talk on the beach. Bess tells Carrie she convinced the gallery to display Mirren’s artwork in an exhibit. They were very eager and Carrie says she’d love that. Bess says she hopes Mirren is seen as more than a tragedy. We see Mirren linger at the gallery and be pleasantly surprised when Ebon (Dempsey Bryk) stops by. Bess says it’s too late to do things for Mirren and that she always tried to be her mother. She admits that she spent so much time adjusting her daughters that she forgot to love them. Carrie tries to reassure Bess, but Bess wonders if losing them was punishment. Carrie’s confused, but Bess worries that God or the universe is punishing them for what they did during Summer 16 when Bess was 16. But then she wonders, if they were all truly being punished, then Penny wouldn’t have been spared.
Cadence walks on the docks as the rest of the family is getting ready for the photoshoot. She runs remembering the game of tag she played with Gat and runs into Gat. Cadence asks if he’s real, but Gat isn’t sure. The Sinclair sisters discuss Brody’s (Dylan Bruce) attendance and Harris is making him and Bess stay together as a condition of Harris bailing him out financially. It’s about optics and Bess is trapped. Carrie is a little less trapped as Ed makes an appearance and Harris uses his actual name. He offers to let Ed be in the photo, but Ed declines. Penny resolves that Cadence gets to choose if she’s in the picture.
Near the water, Gat and Cadence talk. Gat apologizes and explains he just wanted one last summer with her. Cadence says she has something to apologize for too and admits she stayed inside for longer than she should’ve looking for the pearls. She’s afraid that, that’s why he went after her. But, Gat doesn’t blame her, he said he didn’t follow the plan. Gat admits he burned Clairmont down in his head a million times. Cadence tells him that Harris knows the truth and she doesn’t want to lie, but she’s afraid of what Ed, her mom, Gat’s mom, and her aunts would think of her if they knew the truth. Gat says it might be okay to just let them pretend and Cadence can decide the rest of her story.
But for a moment Gat imagines a different world, where Cadence and Gat left Beechwood and grew up. He tells her about the future they could’ve had in a too small apartment, where they were both in school, got tattoos and eventually got married. In a better world they agree they could’ve had a nice life together and they kiss and hold each other.
Cadence joins the family wearing Gat’s necklace and hugs Ed. Harris tries to get her to participate in the interview, but Cadence declines. She drives off in the boat and calls herself Cadence Eastman who used to be a Sinclair. She tosses the black pearls into the ocean and says she’ll always be a liar, because liars are forever.
We see Carrie packing up the house to leave and taking pills, but she turns around and says she thought “he’d” left. The camera pans up and we see Johnny who tells her he doesn’t think he can leave.