Prime Video’s We Were Liars introduced us to many fascinating characters who had their own unique issues to deal with. Throughout the 8 episodes, we got an opportunity to know who these people really were, what they wanted from life, and what were the conflicts that they faced on an everyday basis. So here’s a list of all the important characters from the series who were a part of the Sinclair family ecosystem and who played a role in how things unfolded.
Spoiler Alert
Cadence Sinclair Eastman
Cadence was the daughter of Penny Sinclair and the eldest grandchild of Harris and Tipper Sinclair. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that, apart from being an extremely sensitive person, she was academically quite gifted as well. Harris saw her as an heir to his empire, but her progressive ideas became a hassle for the family. Cadence fell in love with Gat, who was always seen as an outsider, even after he spent many summers at Beechwood together with the Sinclairs. With time, Cadence realized that the Sinclairs were so privileged that they didn’t know how the real world functioned. She grew to dislike them and their capitalistic sentiments. She realized that the curse of being born in a cage was that she always felt that flying free was a disease. But then one day she decided to break the shackles that held her back and do something audacious. That plan of hers, though, didn’t turn out well; but it gave her the courage to break free and live life on her own terms.
Penny Sinclair
Penny believed in the Sinclair way, i.e., she refrained from showing her emotions even when she was breaking apart from within. I don’t think Penny was always so materialistically driven, and there was a time when she fell in love with a man whom her father did not consider the right fit for her. But with time, being in Harris Sinclair’s good books, proving herself to be the worthiest among her sisters, became Penny’s sole life purpose. There were times when Cadence doubted if her mother was even human. Even after Tipper’s demise, Penny didn’t show an ounce of emotion, and she made sure that she was a good host. She bottled up all her emotions and then broke down when nobody was around to see her. Penny, since her childhood, was taught that being vulnerable, being emotional, was a weakness, and so she became the person that she did without thinking much about the repercussions it could have on her and her daughter.
Carrie Sinclair
Carrie had a hard time overcoming her addiction, only to relapse again at the end of We Were Liars. Carrie was a good mother, and she tried being there unconditionally for her son, Johnny. The problem with Carrie and her sisters was that they were all dependent upon their father financially, and so it gave the patriarch a sort of control over them. Carrie was in love with Ed, but she didn’t dare to marry him, as her old man had threatened to remove her name from his will if she did. Carrie didn’t know how to take a stand for herself and her love, and it became one of the prime reasons why she felt extremely turbulent and lonely from within.
Bess Sinclair
Bess had always been the spoiled one, since she was the youngest, and she didn’t realize that her habit of always finding some fault in her daughter, Mirren, made the latter hate her. Bess probably did it unknowingly, but that made Mirren feel that she was not enough. No matter what Mirren did, Bess always seemed to be unhappy with her. Bess was possibly the most immature of the lot, and she had the habit of being extremely obstinate and having things her way. I believe after her daughter’s untimely demise, Bess realized where she had gone wrong, and what she could have done differently in life, but I would say she was still the same person.
Ed Patil
Ed was Carrie’s partner and also Gat Patel’s uncle. Ed was a simple man who wanted a simple life. He tried to blend in with the Sinclairs and be a part of all their summer traditions, but he couldn’t feel like he was one of them. The biggest reason behind it was that Harris Sinclair was a racist man who just didn’t approve of his daughter dating a brown man. Carrie knew she needed her father’s money, and so she was never able to side with Ed and tell him that she would stand alongside him no matter what. The best part about Ed was that he got along with Carrie’s boys, Johnny and Will, and he was always there for them whenever they needed him. Ed was distraught after Carrie decided not to get married to him, but he still chose to stay with her till the very end.
Gat Patil
Gat was the only outsider who was allowed to be on Beechwood Island with the Sinclairs. He got very close to the cousins (Cadence, Mirren, and Johnny) and became a part of the group that the other Sinclairs referred to as the liars. Gat was an extremely intuitive, sensitive, and intelligent guy. He made sure that he never intruded in the family matters or upset any Sinclairs during his stay at Beechwood. Gat developed feelings for Cadence, but he always feared that if he told her about it and got to know that she didn’t feel the same about him, things would get awkward between them. But then one fine day, during a dreamy summer on Beechwood, things changed between them. Gat and Cadence expressed their feelings for each other, and it felt like their story would be no less than a fairy tale. Though life didn’t turn out the way the couple would have wanted, they made some really good memories and got to know what love really looked like.
Mirren Sinclair Sheffield
Mirren was Bess’ eldest daughter, and all her life she felt that, from her sister, Cadence, to her mother, Bess, nobody understood her. Mirren wanted to paint, but she just didn’t feel comfortable displaying her art to the world. Miren was one of those who put on a mask because she felt that she was weird and that people would judge her if she showed who she really was. Things changed for her when Evan, the boat guy, met her. He saw her for who she was, and quite weirdly, she felt attracted to him, though she was always relieved that he was nothing like the type of guy she liked. Mirren got to know about a side of herself that she didn’t know existed. After Mirren lost her life in that accident, her mother decided to contact an art gallery and ask them to display her paintings. Unfortunately, Mirren could never witness the kind of appreciation her work got, but she did leave an indelible mark on the life of those who loved her and who knew her well.
Johnny Sinclair Dennis
Johnny was a fun-loving person, and nobody could ever imagine that he had a violent side to him. Johnny got in trouble when he assaulted one of his fellow students so badly that the school authorities decided to take strict actions against him. Though Carrie made sure that the matter was suppressed and nobody gotta know what had happened, it wrecked Johnny from within. Johnny felt guilty for what he had done, but I believe that what made him feel even worse was that he had become a liability to his mother. He knew that it was because of him that she was almost on the verge of going bankrupt. He also blamed himself for Carrie not being able to be with Ed, though Carrie time and again told him that it was not his fault. At the end, I think those who loved Johnny would remember him as somebody who was the life of the party, who knew how to seize every moment and be there for his loved ones.
Harris Sinclair
I believe an entire article could be written about Harris, because he was such a very complex man. Harris was the head of the Sinclair family, who did not think himself to be any less than royalty. Also, I feel like you can’t put Harris in a particular bracket; he was racist, but still he had certain traits that separated him from what you’d call a White supremacist. He was a stubborn man who liked things a certain way, but still he didn’t lose his temper with his grandkids when they broke one such custom, which he held very dear. I believe that Harris was a true-blue capitalist before anything else. He had his shortcomings; he was a bit racist, and he was rigid in his own way, but it couldn’t be denied that he knew how to run an empire. I would say the man was a ruthless pragmatist who knew what he wanted from life. Also, another strength of the old man was that he had seen so much in his life that he was not so easily bogged down by his circumstances.
Tipper Sinclair
Tipper Sinclair was Harris’ wife, and she was probably the only person who knew how to have her way with him without hurting his ego or angering him. Tipper’s demise kickstarted a cutthroat competition between her daughters, and things got quite ugly. I felt that Tipper was the silent pivot that held things together in the family. Nobody understood how important a role she played until she passed away. There were times when Tipper helped her daughters financially without telling her husband about it. What this meant was that many issues of the family were solved without any hassle, as Tipper knew how to deal with them. Tipper was aware of her own reality, and she had made peace with it.
Ebon and Salty Dan
Ebon and Salty Dan, who were the boatmen, played a crucial role in the lives of Merrin and her mother, Bess, respectively. Merrin, for the longest time, felt that Ebon was a stalker who was just not worthy of her friendship. But then she realized that he was the only person who noticed her, and in a way that made her feel special. Bess, on the other hand, had an affair with Salty Dan, and she was made to feel extremely apologetic by her sisters for crossing boundaries. But then there came a point where Bess no longer cared and so she went ahead and got intimate with the boatman quite a few times.
Franklin and Eleanor (the golden retrievers)
The two golden retrievers, who were named after the 32nd president of the United States of America, Franklin Roosevelt, and his wife, Eleanor, were very dear to Harris Sinclair. Harris took great care of them and he was heartbroken when he found that they had perished in the fire. Cadence would have never hurt the dogs had she known that they were still inside the house when she was setting the place on fire. She even went back to save them, but by then the entire place had started falling apart and Cadence had to escape to save her own life.
