I think the ending of Prime Video’s We Were Liars was all about finding what was real and what was not. [Spoiler Alert] So Cadence “Cady” was the first Sinclair in the show who had been hallucinating about her dead mates, Gat, Johnny, and Mirren. Though later, we found out that she wasn’t the only one most affected by tragic deaths in the family, and Johnny’s mother, Carrie, too had been having visions of her dead son, mostly because she had been hogging too many pills. But this third hallucination, centered solely around Mirren, was quite unexpected.
In We Were Liars’ finale, while sitting near the beach, Bess told her eldest sister, Carrie, that the Sound’s Edge Gallery had agreed to display Mirren’s painting in order to honor the dead artist. It was something Mirren wanted to do before she passed away, and it seemed like Bess completed her daughter’s unfinished business in a way. This was the same painting, her masterpiece, that Mirren had shown to her young lover, Ebon, when she took her to the lighthouse. Later, Mirren found this piece of art in her mother’s room, which convinced her that her mother, Bess, wasn’t totally ignorant of her daughter’s talent and really wanted her to go to art school so she could become a great painter someday. The thing is, when Mirren saw the painting lying there, her opinion about her mother changed completely, and even though she wanted to make amends for her mistake, it was too late. The fire started blazing, and the smoke filled the room. Mirren had the time to escape, but she first wanted to save the painting so one of her most prized possessions wouldn’t turn to ashes. It was the same mistake that Cady committed as she went back to the house to retrieve her granny’s black pearl necklace, which implied that it was in Sinclair’s blood to give more weightage to the materialistic belongings instead of things that really mattered. So, Mirren used all her time to save the painting and threw it out of the house into the bushes, and in the process, lost her own life.
Now in the finale, when Ebon passed by the gallery, it seemed like Ebon saw Mirren standing near her painting, and he smiled at her. Though I don’t think Ebon smiled at Mirren’s ghost. Instead, the sight of Mirren’s painting soothed his grieving heart as it reminded him of all the fond memories he had created with her. And the reason why this scene was a bit confusing was because we still don’t know if this particular incident actually took place or if it was Bess imagining things like her sisters, Cady and Carrie. So we entered Sound’s Edge Gallery from Bess’ point of view, who hoped her daughter’s soul would find some peace in the afterlife when she found out that she was seen as more than just a tragedy. And that was when Ebon arrived outside the gallery and looked at Mirren’s painting from the window. The thing is, Bess had seen Mirren kissing Ebon outside the lighthouse, so she knew what her daughter’s lover looked like. And based on this fact, it’s quite safe to assume that the whole scene was nothing but a figment of Bess’ imagination, who wanted to do things for her daughter, but she was already dead. So she just created some memories out of thin air to make herself believe that she did something really great for her daughter. But the truth is, even this act of honoring Mirren after her death was based upon a lie because Harris never told the world what actually transpired on that fateful day. He never told the public that it was his own grandchildren who lit the fire in the family beach house and burned it to the ground.
If you will read the description beside the painting, it says, “The piece salvaged from the blaze still bears telltale singe marks.” However, if you remember that scene in the lighthouse, then you know it wasn’t the fire that created those “singe marks,” but it was Mirren herself who tampered with all her paintings after Ebon told her that she was very technically skilled, but her paintings lacked imagination. Art isn’t supposed to look beautiful. It’s supposed to look messy… messy like the real people are. It’s supposed to make one feel something that was missing in Mirren’s work. It’s also quite ironic that while trying to destroy the paintings of her friends on the beach, she smudged everyone on the canvas, except for Cady, as if she already knew that 3 of them would eventually perish and only Cady would survive the fire. In a way, such a coincidence did give a new meaning to Mirren’s masterpiece, but once again it wasn’t the reason why Ebon looked at it and smiled. He smiled because looking at that painting made him feel something. It made him “feel” Mirren’s presence, and even though ghosts aren’t real, and Ebon didn’t actually see Mirren standing inside the gallery, he did acknowledge her last work, his last memory with her. They say art’s an extension of an artist, and it reminds people of their presence long after they are gone, and I am not sure if anyone else would ever appreciate Mirren’s work, but I think she will find some peace in the afterlife, convinced that there’s at least one person who “sees” her the way she wanted the world to see her.
