We Were Liars Author Explains What That Chilling Finale Ending Means For Potential Season 2

If you just finished bingeing the eight-episode first season of We Were Liars, you could probably use a big hug right now. Well, a hug... and some answers.

While the Prime Video adaptation largely follows the blueprint of E. Lockhart's 2014 novel, it ends on a note that even book readers may not necessarily anticipate. As in the original text, we learn that Cadence convinced the Liars to help her set fire to Clairmont, the main house on the Sinclair family's private island of Beechwood. Unfortunately, we also learn that Cadence was the only survivor of the blaze; Mirren, Johnny and Gat all perished in the blaze, and Cadence has been hallucinating their collective existence ever since.

As she does in the book, Cadence processes this information — which her grandfather attempts to use against her, agreeing to stay silent if she takes her place as his new heir — and decides to abandon the Sinclair ways once and for all, dropping her grandmother's prized pearl necklace in the murky depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

But wait, there's... more? Following Cadence's final act of defiance, we then see Carrie (Mamie Gummer) back at Red Gate, one of the other houses on the island. After popping a pill, she's surprised to see Johnny (Joseph Zada) appear to her in ghost form. "I thought you left," she tells him, to which he ominously replies, "I don't think I can."

So, what's the deal with this unsettling, not-from-the-book ending? As it turns out, it is from one of Lockhart's books — just not the first one.

"That final scene with Carrie and Johnny is very close to the opening of my second book in the We Were Liars universe, which is called Family of Liars," Lockhart tells TVLine. "Really, it's a tip forward into Season 2 — should we get a Season 2 — but it's also a tip forward to the book that comes after We Were Liars. We all hope for a Season 2, and I know the showrunners have all kinds of plans."

Indeed they do. According to showrunner Julie Plec, the first season "involves a lot of elements that we borrowed from the prequel, Family of Liars, that we now get to take into future seasons because we've done all the foundational work with the adult characters."

If you're unfamiliar with Family of Liars, which hit shelves in 2022, the follow-up book serves as a prequel to We Were Liars, taking readers back to Beechwood in the late 1980s. It's largely told from Carrie's perspective, as she tells Johnny's ghost about the worst things she did when she was younger.

"I wrote the finale, and that was a great chance to basically write a different version of the story that I had already written," Lockhart says of Episode 8. "I wrote a television version, and even though the same basic thing happens, it's paced differently. The action is built out, the drama is heightened, the reveals are done in a different way — and there are some additional reveals that aren't in the book."

Did you enjoy your summer with the Sinclairs? Grade the finale and the season in our polls below, then drop a comment with your thoughts on Prime Video's adaptation of We Were Liars.