We Were Liars

by

E. Lockhart

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on We Were Liars makes teaching easy.

We Were Liars: Part 3: Summer Seventeen Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
As Cady arrives on Beechwood, she sees that Clairmont, the main house on the island, has been completely rebuilt. In the place of the old Victorian with a turret and wrap-around porch, there is a cold, modern building made of glass and iron with a Japanese garden on the side. Harris spent two summers building the house, which they call “New Clairmont.” Cady is struck by a deep sense of sadness for the old house and the old maple tree with the swing they all had used for years.
It is fitting that the first thing Cady sees as she nears the island is the new version of Clairmont, since it was her fault that Harris had to rebuild the house in the first place. Of course, Cady is still unaware that the original Clairmont burned down, and sees the construction of New Clairmont as an example of strange behavior on her grandfather’s part. 
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Penny sees that Cady is upset, and commands her to be normal and not to cause a scene for the rest of the family. Cady looks toward the shore from the boat and sees her friends, Mirren, Johnny, and Gat, waiting for her, welcoming her home. When Penny and Cady finally get into Windemere, their house on the island, Harris and Bess are waiting for them. Harris welcomes Cady back to the island, but he calls her Mirren. Cady’s younger cousins ask about her hair, which she dyed black during the school year, and one of them tells Cady she looks like a vampire. Everyone reminds the girl that she needs to be nice to Cady, but Cady responds that it’s okay, because she doesn’t care what anyone thinks anymore.
For Cady, the other Liars still exist on the island despite the fact that they are dead in real life. She needs them to exist in order to come to terms with the loss, and her family will allow her to believe that they still exist as well, because they are invested in letting Cady heal slowly. Her first interactions with the rest of the family are strange—Harris is showing his age by forgetting names, and while the adults want to treat Cady with kid gloves, her younger cousins are less gentle with her. This changed family dynamic shows just how much everyone’s lives have changed in the aftermath of the fire.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Once the rest of the family leaves, Cady goes out to find the Liars, and they greet her lovingly. Cady is happy to see Gat, but feels upset at the same time, because while Cady has been spending the past two years alone and in pain, she knows that Gat has been in New York City, dating beautiful and sophisticated girls. The Liars comment on her hair, and on how much taller she is now; they ask her about where she plans on going to college, and she has to tell them that she didn’t graduate. Mirren tells Cady about her new boyfriend, Drake Loggerhead, who will also be at Pomona in the fall. They have had sex already, and Mirren and Cady make plans to talk about the details when the boys aren’t around. The Liars tell Cady that they will not be having their meals at New Clairmont this summer with the rest of the family.
Cady continues her relationship with the Liars exactly where she left off two summers earlier—she is still in love with Gat and feels possessive and jealous around him, and she and Mirren immediately dive in to typical teenage girl subjects like boyfriends and college plans. But Cady still feels isolated, as she believes that she was the only one affected by the accident and imagines that they are moving ahead with their lives without her. And because they only exist in Cady’s imagination, they will not be part of family events and will only be with her when she is alone.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
Quotes
They go out to the beach, and Mirren and Johnny go into the water, leaving Cady and Gat alone to talk. They flirt casually for a while, and then finally Gat tells her that he worried he might never see her again. Cady asks him why he never writes back to her, but he doesn’t answer her, just noting that he is glad she is back on the island. Cady is upset with him and thinks he’s a jerk for deserting her, but she is still in love with him. So when he asks to hold hands, she wavers for a moment but then agrees, and they lie on the beach holding hands.
After two years of not seeing Gat, Cady finally has time alone with him and can ask him all of the things she has been wondering about. But Gat does not have any answers for her, and she is not yet ready to dig deeper. This entire process is Cady’s gradual way of coming to terms with what happened, but it is also her only chance to connect to the friends she lost; therefore, she is content to just spend time holding hands with Gat at this point. 
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
Get the entire We Were Liars LitChart as a printable PDF.
We Were Liars PDF
Later, Cady stands in her room, looking around at her belongings and trying to spark some memories from two summers earlier. She looks at the patchwork quilt, the artwork on the walls, and the books she used to read, and then begins to pull the books off the shelves to get rid of them. Her mother comes in and asks her not to give away her books, commenting that they have so many good memories attached to them. Penny reminds her of how she read The Lives of Christopher Chant to Cady and Gat when they are eight years old, and that she might want to hold on to that one. Annoyed, Cady reminds her mother that when her father left, Penny got rid of all of his things, leaving no trace of him in the house at all.
Cady is on a quest to recover the memories she lost—or suppressed—after the accident. Yet she is also compelled to give away many of the items that spark memories for her. Her relationship with memory at this point is complex: on one hand, she believes that she wants to remember the past, but she is also pushing away many of those memories by giving away the items that spark them. When Penny questions this tendency, Cady reminds her that this is the way her family deals with loss.
Themes
Wealth and Greed Theme Icon
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
They are about to argue but are interrupted by the three golden retrievers bounding up the stairs. Penny, who is dressed and wearing fresh makeup for dinner, informs Cady that she has the right to give away all of her books, and she can do what she wants with her time on the island, but that she is expected—no excuses—for dinner at Clairmont with a smile on her face for her grandfather, Harris. Cady ignores her mother and decides to write down all her memories from summer fifteen, and then makes a special list for her memories of the accident. She then tacks up the lists, along with another list of questions she hopes to answer.
While Penny is trying to be respectful of Cady’s healing process, she is still loyal to the Sinclair family value of masking pain in front of others. Cady believes that she does not have to go to dinner at Clairmont because the other Liars do not attend—again, she is not consciously aware of the fact that they are dead, and that she is only interacting with them via her imagination. She continues her quest to recover those experiences and commit them to memory. 
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
There is a witch behind Cady, and suddenly she swings an ivory statue of a goose right at Cady’s forehead, smashing her skull. The witch keeps attacking her until Cady decides to take some pain pills and turn off the light. Penny calls from the hallway, reminding Cady that it is time to go to Clairmont for family dinner, but Cady refuses. Penny lists all the reasons why Cady should go with her to dinner, but Cady can only sink deeper into the migraine. Finally, Penny leaves Cady alone in the dark.
Cady describes her migraines using images of witches, monsters, and other villains, often in ways that make it difficult to distinguish reality from fantasy. It is also interesting to note that her migraines are more frequent when she is working to recover lost memories—this suggests that in addition to being hard work, this process of remembering is emotionally painful for Cady.  
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Lies and Invention Theme Icon
Quotes
Cady wakes in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep, so she slips outside. Her aunt Carrie is wandering along the path between the houses, only wearing her nightgown and shearling boots. Carrie says that she has trouble sleeping when Ed isn’t there and asks if Cady has seen Johnny recently. She then tells Cady that her younger son, Will, has been having nightmares and wakes up screaming on a regular basis. He thinks the houses are all haunted.
Cady is so deeply immersed in her own painful journey that she does not recognize the signs of grief all around her: Will’s nightmares and Carrie’s insomnia are likely directly connected to Johnny’s death. It is also clear from Cady’s conversation with her aunt that Carrie knows Cady believes that Johnny is alive and on the island with them.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
In the morning, Cady goes to Clairmont and has breakfast with her mother and grandfather. She asks where Fatima and Prince Phillip—two of the golden retrievers—have gone, and Harris tells her that they died a while back. Sad, Cady asks if the dogs suffered, and he tells her that they did not, not for long. He then tells Cady that he doesn’t like her new hair color, and that he prefers her as a blond Sinclair girl. Harris tells Penny that she should make Mirren change her hair back to the way it is, again confusing Cady for her cousin.
This conversation introduces some sad irony into the story, as Cady asks about the dogs without realizing that she was responsible for the fire that led to their deaths. In addition, Harris refers to Cady as Mirren again—only this time, it is unclear whether this confusion is due to the onset of dementia or to grief over the loss of two of his beloved grandchildren.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Cady is spending the morning with Mirren, and finally decides to ask her why she never wrote back to her when Cady was in Europe the previous summer. Mirren responds that she hates email, and then attempts to change the subject. Cady asks her if she received the Barbie doll she mailed to her, and Mirren says no. Mirren asks Cady about her migraines, saying that the aunts have been talking about them, and Cady asks Mirren not to feel sorry for her. Mirren tells Cady that Johnny and Gat are staying at Cuddledown, another house on the island, and asks Cady to come so that they can all stay together. Cady responds that her mom will not let her.
Cady’s conversations with Mirren, Gat, and Johnny are complex: on one hand, she is creating entire scenarios in her mind, inventing both sides of her dialogues with them and truly believing that they are alive and with her. On the other hand, this is a process of recovering repressed memories for Cady, which means that subconsciously, she does know what happened and that Johnny, Mirren, and Gat have been dead for two years.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Throughout her conversation with Mirren, Cady wants to tell her that she has no memories of the accident and beg her to explain what happened. She also wants to tell Mirren that she’s upset about the emails and the Barbie, though she assumes the lost Barbie isn’t Mirren’s fault. But Mirren offers her the handfuls of purple rocks she has collected along the shore, reminding Cady of how much she loved those purple rocks when she is little. Cady doesn’t want to take anything she doesn’t need, but finally she accepts the rocks, and Mirren gives them to her and yells, “I love my cousin Cadence Sinclair Eastman!”
Cady’s imagined interactions with Gat, Mirren, and Johnny mean that there was no one to receive the Barbie that Cady mailed to Mirren’s house during the school year, and no one to reply to the emails she sent, either. Cady’s attempts to control the world around her—and hold onto her deceased cousins and friend—is finite, and soon she will have to come to terms with the fact that she is alone, as the sole survivor of the fire. 
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Johnny interrupts their conversation and asks Cady about the laundry basket of belongings at her feet. She tells him that she is giving away her possessions and reminds him that she sent him a scarf over the winter. She goes on to talk about her disdain for materialism and her new enthusiasm for charity. Johnny seems confused, asking Cady why she doesn’t want to own things. He says that he wants things all the time, like a car, video games, watches, real art for his walls, and wooly clothing. Mirren chimes in that she would want to keep sentimental items, and Johnny calls her a “mushball.”
In addition to the sense of rebellion against the family’s excessive wealth, Cady’s obsession with giving away her belongings offers her a connection to the people she has lost. It brings her closer to Gat, whose rants against materialism she has internalized out of love for him; it also makes her feel connected to Tipper through her perceived sense of charity, which was a salient aspect of her grandmother’s personality.
Themes
Wealth and Greed Theme Icon
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Later that day, Gat finds Cady and brings her to the beach. He pulls her to him and hugs her, telling her that everyone else has had the chance to hug her but him. He then asks if she remembers the last time they are on the beach alone, which she doesn’t. She is frustrated by her faulty memory and the fact that she is still in love with him and wants to forgive him for his silence. But she is not ready to forgive him, because she doesn’t know what he did to her the night of the accident. So Cady tells him that the memory must have slipped her mind, and that it must not have been that important to him in the long run, either. Gat asks if she is angry, and she says yes, of course she is angry at being deserted.
Of all the loss Cady has had to deal with, her relationship with Gat may be the most difficult for her. His death leaves so many questions unanswered for her, and here she also notes that she is angry at him for deserting her – for dying—when their relationship was just beginning to take shape. At the same time, Cady wonders what Gat did to her on the night of the accident, as she still believes she is the only victim of the events of that evening, and that the other Liars escaped unharmed. 
Themes
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
Gat asks Cady if they can start over, and that his actions are “suboptimal.” Cady is bothered by his use of the word “suboptimal,” and tells him that the words he should use are “thoughtless and confusing and manipulative.” He begs her to let him start over, and they agree to do just that, right after lunch. Cady has lunch at Clairmont and gets a tour of the renovated house. She thinks the house feels too “sharp” and empty—it is missing the floor-to-ceiling books, family photographs, and paintings of the golden retrievers. At least the younger cousins’ rooms are personalized now, with toys and magazines strewn all over the floor, and Bonnie’s books on ghosts, angels, and psychics piled in a corner. When Cady mentions all the missing items, Harris tells her that their old life is gone, and he has started over.
Cady invents her interactions with the other Liars down to the smallest details—such as the argument over the use of the word “suboptimal,” in this case—as a way of continuing her life with them, because she is not ready to let them go quite yet. In contrast, during her lunch at Clairmont, she is faced with the aftermath of the fire in the form of a stark and unwelcoming house. It is interesting to note that Harris is viewing his life in a before versus after dichotomy, just as Cady has done. And, like her, he is living in a world with few material comforts—he and Cady both seem to want to rid themselves of anything that reminds them of life before the fire.
Themes
Wealth and Greed Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
Harris asks Cady where “the young man” is, and she thinks he is referring to Johnny, but he means Gat. He looks faint and clutches a nearby desk, and Cady asks him if he is okay. He says that he is okay, and that he had a book he promised to give to Gat. Cady reminds him that there are no books in the house anymore, and he yells at her. Carrie comes in to help, and Cady asks her about the previous night when they saw each other on the path. She asks if Carrie found Johnny, and Carrie responds that she has no idea what Cady is talking about.
This interaction between Cady and Harris is strange and uncomfortable, mainly because Harris has information that Cady does not—knowledge of the fire and the deaths of Mirren, Gat, and Johnny—but his memory is often faulty due to the onset of dementia. Thus, they are both momentarily under the impression that Gat still exists and are both living only partially in the present.
Themes
Bigotry and Exclusion Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
The younger cousins ask Cady if she will take them tubing, but Penny tells Cady that she is not allowed to drive the boat. After lunch, Cady goes into the living room with the younger boys, Will and Taft, and tries to ask them about the previous summer. When she asks if they went boating with Johnny and Gat, they stop jumping and simply say no. She continues to ask questions, when Will responds that they are not supposed to talk to her about the accident because it will make her headaches worse. Cady tells them that she just wants to know about the previous summer, when she was in Europe, but the boys tell her they don’t want to talk to her anymore and leave to play Angry Birds.
Cady’s quest to learn more about the events leading up to the accident, and to find out more about the summer she was away, is not going well and she does not understand why. As she is missing a key piece of information—she asks Will and Taft to talk about their dead family members—she is unaware that her attempts at conversation are distressing to the young boys. They have been advised not to tell Cady anything, but beyond that, they have no interest in discussing such a painful subject, anyway.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Cady goes over to Cuddledown and helps the Liars rearrange the furniture. She asks if Bess will be upset that they are redecorating, and Mirren tells Cady that Bess hates the house—she wishes that Harris would remodel it and feels like the least loved daughter because her house has been ignored. When Cady asks if Bess actually asked Harris to remodel the house, Johnny gives her an odd look and asks how she doesn’t remember. Mirren scolds Johnny and reminds him that they are supposed to go easy on Cady for forgetting things. Mirren comments that Johnny is being “feeble.” Cady says that he has just had a “suboptimal” moment; at the word “suboptimal,” Gat touches Cady’s shoulder, and she knows that they have started over.
This reference to Bess’s feelings about Cuddledown, and her jealousy of her sisters for having nicer summer homes, is one of the first signs that Cady is beginning to remember the drama that led them to burn down Clairmont. It is important to keep in mind that Cady is not conversing with Mirren, Johnny, and Gat, but rather with versions of them she has created in her head—therefore, when Johnny reminds her of a forgotten memory, it is really that Cady is recovering those memories on her own. 
Themes
Wealth and Greed Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
The Liars play tennis, and on the way back Gat asks Cady how her trip to Europe is. Cady informs them that she spent most of her time vomiting in the bathrooms of tourist sites. Mirren asks how Cady can ask them not to feel sorry for her and then tell a story like that. Gat and Johnny also tell her that they are jealous, because they have never been to Rome; Cady responds that they will go at some point, either in college or afterwards. When Cady is back at the house, her mother asks her if she is playing tennis, and praises her for getting back into an activity she used to love. Penny offers to play with her any time, but Cady is not interested.
Despite some minor recovered memories, Cady is still mainly in the dark about what has happened to her and the other Liars, and this is very clear in their conversation about her trip to Europe. She continues to see herself as the main victim—or possibly the only one—and feels jealous of the Liars. She tells them that they will get to see Rome and other foreign lands when they are older, suggesting that she ironically feels they have opportunities for the future that are unavailable to her now.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Cady suddenly has a recovered memory of a dinner on the Clairmont lawn. She and Gat are sitting next to each other, and Harris began to talk about renovating his house in Boston, and his daughters began arguing about it. They know that Bess wants the Boston house—it is worth $4 million, and the girls grew up in it. Harris asks Bess what she wants him to do with the house, and if she would help him remodel it. Penny, who is drunk at that point, accuses Harris of cutting the other sisters out, and Harris accuses them all of acting crazy. Now, two years later, Cady looks at her mother and aunts as they sit together happily, and she wonders what has changed.
This is Cady’s first real memory of the events leading up to the fire at Clairmont, and begins to give her some context and perspective on what happened. Penny, Bess, and Carrie are all vying for their father’s possessions and are using them to measure Harris’s love for them. For his part, Harris—like the king of Cady’s fairy tales—is a flawed human being and guilty of using his money to increase his power over his daughters, even if it tears them apart. 
Themes
Wealth and Greed Theme Icon
Quotes
At midnight that night, Cady and the Liars are playing Scrabble and talking about their younger cousins. Cady announces that Taft has a motto, just like their grandfather does, and they all talk about Harris’s various mottos: “don’t take no for an answer,” “no one likes a waffler,” and “never take a seat in the back of the room.” Taft’s motto is “drugs are not your friend,” likely from his drug education class at school. Mirren comments that Bonnie and Liberty are kleptomaniacs now, and that they seem beyond help. The Liars then discuss possible mottos of their own, like “be a little kinder than you have to,” or “never eat anything bigger than your ass.”
In this story, many of the characters choose a motto as a way of establishing and defining themselves as individuals. Cady will have a number of epiphanies about what Harris’s mottoes say about him later on in the narrative; in this moment, however, the Liars grasp on to their own mottoes in an attempt at self-definition. Meanwhile, the reference to the twins’ kleptomania shows yet another manifestation of the Sinclair family’s obsession with wealth and possessions.
Themes
Wealth and Greed Theme Icon
Gat claims not to have a motto, then decides that his would be “do not accept an evil you can change,” but Mirren does not like that one because she believes in accepting the world as it is. She and Gat have a sharp discussion about this, until Johnny breaks the ice by announcing that his motto is “never eat yellow snow.” Cady says that her motto is “always do what you are afraid to do,” and she writes it on the backs of her hands. Mirren disagrees with this motto as well, as she notes that it is dangerous, and someone could die for it.
Each of their mottoes helps to define one aspect of the Liars: Mirren’s main concern is keeping others pacified, and Gat is focused on changing the world, while Johnny refuses to take the idea seriously. Cady’s motto reveals the complexity of her situation—she needs to be brave to face the memories she has suppressed. She knows that there is something in her past that scares her, though she doesn’t yet recognize it. 
Themes
Wealth and Greed Theme Icon
Cady follows Gat out of the room and kisses him, and he kisses her back, only to pull away and tell her that they should not be doing it. He tells Cady that he is a mess, and then claims that she doesn’t know him at all, because she has never met his mom or been to his apartment in New York City. He is a different person on Beechwood, where he is the only non-white person, with the exception of Ginny and Pablo. Cady asks who Ginny and Pablo are, and Gat points out that this is precisely the problem—Ginny and Pablo work on the island but are invisible to Cady. She feels ashamed by this, but tells Gat that she wants to see the world through his eyes, but he claims that she wouldn’t understand it anyway.
This conversation between Cady and Gat is a continuation of the tensions that were building when he was alive—Cady has long been concerned about the fact that she only knows Gat in the context of Beechwood, and that he has a separate life in New York City that she doesn’t know about and is not a part of. She is struggling with her sense of privilege and her sheltered upbringing, especially now that she has internalized so many of Gat’s ideas about the need to fight inequality.
Themes
Bigotry and Exclusion Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
Quotes
Gat continues, telling Cady that to Harris, Gat is like Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights: he is the “gypsy boy” in the novel who is taken in by the wealthy Earnshaw family. Heathcliff falls in love with Catherine, the daughter, and although she loves him as well, she and the rest of her family can’t help but see him as beneath them because of his background. Despite his efforts to turn himself into a gentleman, he is always an animal in their eyes; in the end, he becomes what they expect of him. Cady responds that she thinks the novel is a romance, but then realizes that Gat’s point is that Harris sees him as a “brute.” After a moment of silence, he says that it turns out that Harris is right all along.
While Cady has been unaware of this tension, Gat reveals to her his frustrations over his relationship with Harris, and hence with the rest of the Sinclair clan. Just as Heathcliff is a “gypsy boy”—a derogatory term that points to his lower-class upbringing—Gat is seen as inferior to the wealthy and glamorous Sinclair family. It seems that no one is good enough for the women of the Sinclair family in the eyes of Harris—he is exclusionary and competitive with all of the men who attempt to enter the family. 
Themes
Wealth and Greed Theme Icon
Bigotry and Exclusion Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
Cady begins another fairy tale: once there was a king with three beautiful daughters, and when the first granddaughter was born, she was so tiny that her mother kept her in her pocket, and the rest of the family promptly forgot about her. One day, when the tiny princess was older, she wandered into the palace library and met a mouse who loved reading as much as she did. They fell in love, but when the tiny princess introduced the mouse to her family, they could not accept him, because he was an animal trying to pass himself off as a person. The tiny princess left the palace with the mouse and they traveled all over the world and lived happily ever after.
Cady’s fairy tales now include the granddaughter of the king—this is Cady’s way of thinking about her place in the family. Here, Cady represents herself as the king’s exceptionally tiny granddaughter, suggesting again that she is jealous of the advantages her cousins have that she does not, due to her migraines and memory loss. The mouse is Gat, of course, and he is rejected by the family for being different and inferior. But Cady ends the story by having the two of them escape the palace and the family in favor of their love. Even after so much time as passed, it is clear that Cady is still using her romantic (now imaginary) relationship with Gat as an escape from her family life.
Themes
Bigotry and Exclusion Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
Cady has learned a lot about her family: Harris keeps confusing her with Mirren, the younger cousins are kleptomaniacs, the aunts argue over the house in Boston, Will regularly has nightmares, and Gat is like Heathcliff. She is crushed by her migraines and spends two days in bed. When Cady finally feels better, Harris takes her to Edgartown, a small village on Martha’s Vineyard, where they see Harris’s lawyer, who greets Cady warmly and tells her that he has heard a lot about her. Harris says that Cady has a good head on her shoulders, which sounds canned to Cady and bothers her. It also bothers her that she currently does not have a good head on her shoulders, and Harris is pointedly ignoring that.
The infallible and glamorous image of the Sinclair family that Harris is attempting to promote to outsiders is very different from what Cady sees from within. Harris talks to his lawyer about Cady, and she realizes that his words do not match her perception of herself at all, and she is frustrated by this misrepresentation. In addition, she has realized that the family is plagued with troubles and is far from perfect, despite what others might assume about them from a distance.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Lies and Invention Theme Icon
Cady has a recovered memory from summer fifteen—she asks about a goose statue in Clairmont, and Harris tells her about how he and Tipper went to China and brought back many beautiful things, including an ivory statue in Cuddledown. Cady mentions the fact that the ivory trade is illegal, and Harris brushes it off and notes that it is still available for sale for the right price. Suddenly, Cady is struck by her grandfather’s privileged attitude, and his motto “don’t take no for an answer” takes on a different meaning. She begins to tell him about something Gat read about the ivory trade, and Harris snaps at her that he doesn’t care what Gat has read, calling him “that boy.” Cady suggests that he sell the statues, and he chastises her, telling her that she cannot tell him what to do with his own money or possessions.
Cady’s conversation with Harris during summer fifteen is another pivotal moment in her understanding of the events leading up to the Clairmont fire. She has a tangible example of her grandfather’s bigotry and disregard for others in pursuit of his own wants or needs, and this feeds into her growing distain for the Sinclair family wealth and the greed that accompanies it. In addition, the fact that Cady references Gat’s ideas when disagreeing with Harris angers him even further because he considers Gat to be beneath him, and again he refuses to even use his name.
Themes
Wealth and Greed Theme Icon
Bigotry and Exclusion Theme Icon
Quotes
Later, Cady and Gat have another conversation about starting over—Gat feels bad about lecturing her, but Cady notes that they cannot start over every day. Gat tells her just to be normal and act like friends, just for a few days until things feel right again. Cady doesn’t want to act normal—she wants to find out what happened to her. But she has been raised to pretend that things are okay when they are not. She agrees and hands him the fudge she bought with Harris.
Although Penny often reminds Cady to put away her feelings and “act normal,” Cady is surprised to hear that from Gat, as well. Once again, since this is a conversation she is creating in her mind, this is Cady’s manifestation of her concerns about her lack of freedom and self-determination. 
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
The following day, Cady and Mirren take a boat to Edgartown without the boys. Mirren talks about her boyfriend, Drake Loggerhead, and what it’s like to have “sexual intercourse,” as she calls it. She says that it feels like roses and fireworks and rollercoasters. She also talks about going to Pomona College in the fall, and how she wants to ride horses this summer. Cady can only think about the fact that she must go back to high school for another year. Then she recalls the time they all went to Edgartown two years earlier, and how Gat bought her a book she wanted to read and inscribed it for her.
Cady imagines her cousin Mirren, who has generally been very careful and risk-averse, taking big steps toward adulthood and freedom. In addition, when Cady later comes to the realization that the other Liars are dead, she will grieve the futures they have lost—not in vague, general terms, but rather in vivid detail, based on imagined conversations like this one. For the moment, though, she can only feel envy.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Quotes
Cady tells Mirren about her memory, and how she remembers arguing with Harris about ivory statues, and how the aunts are fighting over the estate. She then asks Mirren why Gat disappeared after the accident, whether he went back to Raquel, and whether they fought, but Mirren just insists that she doesn’t know. Cady asks Mirren why Gat seemed to be angry at her, but Mirren only says that Gat has good reason to be mad but won’t say any more. When Cady sees her mother, Penny knows that she has taken the boat out without permission and lectures her about being reckless. Cady apologizes and then runs back to Windemere to write down everything she remembered on the chart above her bed.
Still deeply concerned about her relationship with Gat and the questions that his death will leave unanswered, Cady begs Mirren for information about his mental state. This is information that she will never learn, because she wasn’t able to talk to Gat about Raquel and his feelings for her before he died in the fire. As Cady returns to the island, her mother realizes that she has been out on the boat alone, despite the fact that Cady believes that she spent the entire time with Mirren.
Themes
Wealth and Greed Theme Icon
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
The Liars discover that they can climb onto the roof of Cuddledown and get a view of nearly the entire island. Cady tells the others that when she dies, she wants her ashes scattered in the water on the small beach. Johnny and Mirren like the idea, but Gat says that he doesn’t want to have his ashes there at all. Cady then asks if the other Liars have ever planned out their own funerals, like in Tom Sawyer, when everyone thinks that Tom, Huck, and Joe Harper are dead, and the boys attend their own funerals. She jokes that she wants to be remembered for winning a Nobel Prize and the Olympics—in handball, though she has never actually played the sport. Mirren notes that she would rather plan her wedding to Drake Loggerhead.
This conversation between Cady and the other Liars about death, ashes, and funerals is a moment of sad irony—Cady brings up the topic in a lighthearted manner, without knowing that Johnny, Mirren, and Gat already have their ashes buried in the Beechwood soil. Gat’s comment—that he would not like to have his ashes spread across the island—is a small but poignant reminder that he never got to return home to his family at the end of summer fifteen. Again, Cady is getting closer to recognizing what really happened to her friends. 
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Mirren insists that it is too morbid to plan a funeral, so the Liars decide to plan Cady’s Olympic medal party, including a gold dress for Cady, champagne flutes with gold balls inside, and gold handball goggles. Gat is excited about the prospect of a crew of female handball players celebrating along with Cady, and also notes that the party will have to be revamped if she only wins a silver medal. Cady feels that life is at its most beautiful on that day, and tells herself that no matter what happens in the future, in that one moment on the roof of Cuddledown, they are young forever.
A pattern is slowly developing in the conversations between Cady and the other Liars—they will discuss topics that refer to the events of summer fifteen for a while, and then will move on to lighter topics, go for a swim, or play a game. This reflects Cady’s internal process of engaging with these difficult memories: she comes close to understanding what happened that summer, and then needs to step back to relieve some of the emotional pressure of those memories.  
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
This feeling of beauty and youth does not last, and the following days are not as good—the Liars do not want to go anywhere, and Mirren feels sick. Johnny creates a game in which he throws used tea bags into a mug of orange juice to see which one creates the biggest splash. Gat is reading through a list of the hundred greatest novels ever written, and Cady is starting to feel upset because he hasn’t touched or kisses her since they agreed to act normal around each other. She is aching for him, but when she indulges in her feelings for Gat, her migraines come back to her like a “gnarled crone” scratching at her brain.
Like many people who have experienced the death of a loved one, Cady wants to recapture the feelings she had when the Liars were alive, and re-live a perfect moment with them. The day on the Cuddledown roof is her opportunity to do that. But the malaise that sets in afterwards is a sign that she is getting closer to remembering what happened and coming to terms with the fact that they are gone and will never be in her life again. 
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
One afternoon, Cady finds Johnny alone, building something out of Legos. The two of them have lunch together, and Cady asks Johnny why he never contacted her after her accident. She worries that it is because she is asking about Gat too much, but Johnny admits that he disappeared because he is a jerk and doesn’t think through his decisions. She asks why Gat disappeared, and Johnny says that that is a completely different question. Cady tells Johnny about how Gat has been acting towards her, and Johnny explains that Gat is a jerk for cheating on Raquel with Cady, and that he hated himself for it. But when he abandoned Cady, he hated himself even more.
Like her conversation with Mirren, Cady’s chat with Johnny is about dealing with the loneliness of loss. She wants to understand why he never contacted her—that is, why he will never be around for her to communicate with again. She also asks about Gat, once again returning to the fact that she will never be able to understand or resolve some of the more complex aspects of their relationship. She can only imagine how Gat might have felt about it.
Themes
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
Cady finally finds herself alone with Gat one evening at Cuddledown and decides that this is the time for them to talk about their relationship. Gat tells Cady that she is beautiful and asks if she has a boyfriend in Vermont. Cady replies that her boyfriend’s name is Percocet, the name of a painkiller that she takes for her migraines. Gat he tells Cady that she keeps asking everyone not to feel sorry for her, but then she says things that make it clear that she does, in fact, want people to feel sorry for her. Yet Cady has no idea how lucky she is: Harris sent her to Europe for eight weeks. Cady is surprised because she doesn’t realize that it is Harris who paid for the trip, but knows that it is the truth, that her father never would have been able to afford such an expense.
Cady’s conversation with Gat helps her get closer to the truth about the accident—she realizes that Harris was involved in keeping her away from Beechwood for the summer following the accident, which is important. She originally believed it was only because her father wanted to spend more time with her. But she is beginning to understand that her whole family was involved in the process of helping her heal by keeping her away from the island, which could have potentially brought back painful and overwhelming memories for her.
Themes
Wealth and Greed Theme Icon
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Cady wonders why Harris would fund such a trip, and why he wouldn’t send Penny along as well. She tells Gat that she knows she is privileged and lucky, and that she shouldn’t be ungrateful, but she also knows that it is awful to suffer from migraines like hers and that she sometimes wishes she was dead, just to make the pain stop. Gat responds harshly that she does not wish she were dead, and that she shouldn’t ever say that. Cady admits that she knows that one day, her migraines will go away, and she just has to wait for that to happen. Gat puts his arms around her and suddenly Cady feels that everything is the way it should be.
Thanks to her conversations with Gat over the past few years—and especially during summer fifteen, before his death—Cady is more aware of her own privilege and the number of opportunities she has that others (like Gat) do not. But then, when Cady makes a comment about wishing she were dead, Gat is outraged because she does not yet realize that her life itself is a privilege that Gat, Johnny, and Mirren do not have either.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Mirren is getting sick all the time and refuses to do anything but listen to the same song over and over, singing along. Cady tells her that she has to stop singing that song, and Mirren turns serious and tells Cady that she and Gat shouldn’t be together. She asks Cady to leave Gat alone, because she will only make things harder for him and hurt him in the end. Cady responds that it is Gat who will probably hurt her, and she is willing to accept that pain rather than lose Gat altogether. Mirren admits that she lied about having a boyfriend—she envied the connection that Gat and Cady had, and wanted it so much that she ended up making up a lie about Drake Loggerhead.
Mirren’s warning to Cady that she should leave Gat alone is important, because Cady is slowly beginning to realize that she will need to say goodbye to Gat and leave their relationship behind. Yet all of this is happening on a subconscious level, as she still consciously believes that Gat is alive and that they can continue their relationship. She also realizes that Mirren does not have the perfect life she once thought, and instead has lied to Cady about it, further piercing the veneer of perfection that Cady’s family and friends so desperately try to maintain.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
At that moment, Penny calls for Cady to come and help make lunch, and Cady tells Mirren that she has to go. Penny hands Cady a tomato to slice and asks why she is always spending time down at the beach. She says that Cady should spend more time with the younger cousins and with Harris, because he won’t be around forever. She also scolds her for having a sunburn.
Cady’s imagined conversations with Mirren are interrupted by Penny, who brings her back to real life. From Penny’s perspective, Cady may have lost the Liars in the fire, but she still has the rest of her family around her, and she will need to re-connect to them if she is to fully heal. 
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
It is Cady’s third week on Beechwood Island, she is still getting migraines, and her supply of medicine is getting low. She wonders if her mother or cousins are taking her pills and considers the possibility that she is taking more than she realizes. After a few days alone in her room, Cady comes to see the Liars and asks what they have been doing while she was resting. They tell her that they went to the Nantucket donut shop for glazed twist, Boston crème, and jelly donuts. Cady accepts their answer, but knows that they are lying to her, because she knows that this particular donut shop only sells cake donuts.
This reference to Cady’s use of medication to combat her migraines is an important note in this story: she is self-medicating and possibly abusing the medicine, and this may be the reason she is able to immerse herself so deeply in a fantasy world. This may also make her slightly paranoid around them as well—like when she catches them in a lie about where they have been while she was resting.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
One evening while Cady is resting in her room, she wakes to find Gat standing over her bed, looking at the notes she has been keeping to help jog her memory. She reminds him that no one wants to talk to her about what happened the summer of the accident, but Gat tells her that he is ready to talk. He apologizes for being cruel to her, because he had a girlfriend at home but is also in love with Cady. He tells her that he feels guilty because he wants things he cannot have, but Cady still does not understand what he means. She tells him that she believes someone did something to her that is too awful to remember, but Gat only kisses her and tells her he loves her.
Finally, Cady has gotten Gat to agree to talk to her about summer fifteen and all of the things she does not yet remember. But first, before he can lead her towards the truth of what happened that night, Gat needs to reassure Cady that he loves her and that he is sorry for trying to pursue a relationship with both Cady and Raquel, his girlfriend from home. These are things Cady needs to hear before exposing herself to the painful memories of the fire, since she will need her full emotional capacity to cope with the trauma.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
Quotes
The following day, the Liars decide to take the kayaks out to a secluded spot on the far side of the island. At first, Mirren doesn’t want Cady to go because she worries that she will hit her head again, but Gat says that Cady should come, and that ends the argument. When they get to the secluded spot, Gat and Johnny climb up the rocks to a cliff and decide to jump the twenty-five feet into the water. Cady wants to join them, but everyone advises against it. Cady gets angry and wants to know why they can jump into the water and she cannot—she decides that she must do it in order to prove herself strong and brave. She jumps, plunges into the icy water, and swims back to shore. She is fine, and feels more alive than ever.
As she nears the moment when her memories will finally resurface, Cady must remind herself that she is brave, and that she is capable of doing things that scare her. The metaphor is strong here: Cady must jump in and submerge herself, only to come back up and find that she has survived. Likewise, she must re-live her memories of the fire, feel the pain and guilt of losing the three people closest to her heart, and only then will she resurface as a survivor and find a way to heal the wounds.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Cady thinks about a book she gives to Gat, called Charmed Life, in which there are parallel universes with different events happening to the same people simultaneously. She wonders if this is possible in real life: if there is a parallel universe in which Cady dies jumping off the cliff, and her family is currently attending her funeral. And another in which Johnny hurts himself and has to be airlifted to the hospital to care for his injuries. And finally, another, in which Cady doesn’t go with the Liars to the secluded cove at all, and they grow apart and are no longer close friends.
The fantasy of experiencing parallel universes is completely understandable when someone has experienced a tragic accident that changed their life. Cady wonders how life would have been different if she—or the other Liars—had made different decisions and their summer had taken a different path. Of course, Cady is already experiencing her own parallel universe, in which the Liars survived and are on Beechwood with her.  
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Cady has another recovered memory, in which her aunt Carrie is crying, and wearing Johnny’s blue windbreaker. Cady can’t figure out why Carrie is so upset, or why she is wearing Johnny’s jacket; she ends up talking to Mirren about the memory and then asking her, again, what happened during summer fifteen. Mirren reminds Cady that the doctors have advised against talking about what happened until Cady recovers her memories on her own, but Cady is impatient to find out as much as she can. She suddenly asks Mirren why she never leaves Cuddledown, wondering if she has become agoraphobic. Mirren responds that she just doesn’t feel well, but when Cady suggests that Bess take her to the doctor, Mirren refuses.
After weeks of attempting to bring back her memories, Cady is finally picturing moments from the night of the fire, though she is still unable to connect them or understand their context. This snippet of memory must be from the night of the fire or perhaps days afterwards, as her aunt Carrie is grieving for her dead son and desperately clinging to his possessions. At the same time, Cady begins to wonder why she is the only person who interacts with the Liars—she has not seen them with anyone else for the entire summer, and finally begins to question why.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Cady wakes to find a tire swing hanging from the tree in front of Windemere, just like the one that used to hang in front of Clairmont, that Tipper would swing Cady on when she is younger. She recalls squeezing into the tire swing with Johnny, Gat, and Mirren during summer fifteen, and how they hardly fit. They yelled for a push and finally convinced Taft and Will to push them once, and their combined weight made them swing around and around until they are dizzy. Cady looks inside of the new tire swing and finds an envelope addressed to her from Gat. Inside, she finds a dozen dried roses.
The appearance of the tire swing is the catalyst that will bring Cady’s memory flooding back—while it has nothing to do with the fire itself, this swing is a tangible item that connects Cady to summer fifteen. In addition, the dried roses from Gat that she finds in the tire swing will also bring her back to that summer and will help her come to terms with all of the unresolved issues in her relationship with Gat.
Themes
Death, Loss, and Memory Theme Icon
Romantic Love vs. Family Theme Icon
Cady tells another fairy tale: there once was a king with three beautiful daughters, and they began to have children of their own. One of the daughters gave birth to twins—one human and one mooseling, which brought the daughter shame. As the children grew up, so did the mooseling, and he became smarter than his human brother and cousins, but the king and queen still felt disgusted by him. When he was old enough, his mother packed him a bag and sent him away from the castle, and he was happy to escape. Cady ends the story by noting that maybe, just maybe, the mooseling will return to burn the castle to the ground.
As the final fairy tale of this section of the novel, this story brings together Cady’s feelings about her grandfather, her family’s money and glamour, and the bigotry that seemed to be keeping her and Gat apart. As in the previous story, the young princess falls in love with an animal who is eventually sent away from the castle. But this time, Cady incorporates her memory of summer fifteen by suggesting that the banished animal will start a fire.
Themes
Bigotry and Exclusion Theme Icon
Lies and Invention Theme Icon
Quotes