The Sinclair family was the talk of the town back in 2014. Novels about the elite and their unfortunate misfortune always end up being somewhat intriguing. We Were Liars is now gracing our small screens, hoping to become the next big thing. The show, which primarily tells the story of Cadence Sinclair, the eldest grandchild of the family, is a mystery thriller uncovering the happenings of the previous summer, when Cady was found alone on the beach, nearly dead. The traumatic events of that summer leave Cady without the memory of what happened back then, and she has to slowly piece everything back together, but her family is decidedly not helping her because she gets triggered every time she remembers anything. The show follows her journey, trying to put things together a year after things went down, and the resulting revelation is shocking, to say the least.
The Sinclairs are said to be a very reputable family; they seem like modern aristocrats, and Cadence learns from her best friend, Gat, an Indian boy, that she needs to change her ways, be nicer to people, and realize that her family’s foundation is built on lies and the shoulders of other people. In the show, the Sinclairs are powerful and also a “perfectly” white family who have an entire island to themselves. With great power comes great responsibility, and for the Sinclairs, the family dynamic revolves around power play. Harris Sinclair, the patriarch of the family, runs a tight ship, and everything is competition. At first, it’s a little bit difficult to pay attention to who’s who. So, to make things easy and to understand what mistake each has made, let’s break down the Sinclair family tree.
Spoiler Alert
Harris Sinclair
The patriarch of the family, Harris Sinclair, happens to be one of 3 brothers. It can be assumed that he inherited the estate through a similar competition that his father must’ve set up. In this case, it looked like it was all or nothing, and Penny even worries later in the show that if none of them are on their best behavior, the estate could be lost to one of the other brothers forever. Harris is, in appearance, a pragmatic man, but he’s bogged down by his own upbringing. Cadence is the only child who challenges him, because everyone else is too afraid of losing all that they’ve got. He’s genuinely racist and doesn’t appreciate Ed or Gat, the two men of color who have come too close to his family.
Tipper Taft
Harris is married to Tipper, a woman who seems on the surface soft but is actually supremely intelligent. What she knows to do is make decisions for the family but make Harris feel like they’re his. She’s the one who is good at keeping secrets, and it’s possible that the family’s inherited this trait of lying to keep themselves safe from her. Everything is a facade with Tipper, and she never shows her true feelings. Tipper also seems to come from a very opulent family because she knows exactly how to spend her money and save it. She’s very fond of her kids, but Harris’ needs always come first. This is probably because of her fear of ruining the family reputation.
Carrie Sinclair
The eldest of the sisters, Carrie is divorced and in love with the Indian man Ed Patil. Carrie and Ed have been together for 10 years when we first meet them, but they’re still not married. Carrie is the sister who has a drug problem. She’s got two sons from her previous husband, both blonde and blue-eyed, of course. It does seem like Carrie might be the least competitive of the sisters, but I think she’s just a bit tired. She wants the material things despite her hippie personality.
Penny Sinclair
Penny is Cadence’s mother, and she seems like the most ambitious of the sisters. Her personality is honestly quite scary because she can hide almost anything she’s feeling. This family doesn’t even know how to grieve. Anyway, Penny is also single because she’s going through a messy divorce, but she’s keeping a secret, because of which she’s losing a lot of money. Her mom decides to help her but makes sure she knows she’s doing her best to keep the family together without messing things up for her dad. But because of Penny’s messy divorce, she’s desperate for Cadence to be the favorite grandchild.
Bess Sinclair
Bess is the youngest of the sisters. She has three sons and is happily married, but her husband, Brody, ends up cheating his clients and basically loses a ton of the family money. Bess thinks she’s the perfect child because she’s still married, and she thinks she’s going to raise her three daughters to be perfect, but boy, does she mess up. The more you try to be perfect, the more it doesn’t work for you. Bess is also quite horrible to Mirren on multiple occasions.
Rosemary Sinclair
We don’t get to see much about the fourth sister in We Were Liars season 1, but she does get mentioned. Rosemary died when she was 10, and it seems like she was the youngest of the lot.
Cadence Sinclair
Cadence is the eldest grandchild of the family. She’s rebellious. She loves fairy tales and essentially believes every summer is one and that her entire life should feel like it. She’s 16 when the incident takes place and is in love with Gat, Ed’s nephew. Cadence is Penny’s daughter, and she is very hurt by the fact that her dad left. She wants to change as a Sinclair, and hopes to make a difference in the world.
Johnny Sinclair
Johnny is number 2, and the oldest grandson. Johnny seems to be a decent guy, but he’s done something bad that his mother has had to cover up. Johnny is gay, and I can’t imagine this is something his granddad would accept, especially seeing as he’s the oldest grandson and has to carry the legacy forward. Johnny is Carrie’s son, and he really likes Ed.
Mirren Sinclair
Mirren is Bess’ eldest daughter. She seems to be the most naive of the lot, and she’s an artist. She hopes to see her artwork exhibited in galleries someday. Her relationship with her mom isn’t the best, and right from the start, Bess is complaining about Mirren’s bony shoulders and the way she behaves. Of course, she’s nowhere close to perfect in Bess’ eyes.
Will Sinclair
Will is Johnny’s younger brother, and we don’t really get to see much about him because this season is mainly focused on the elder siblings. Will cares a lot about Ed, though.
Liberty and Bonnie Sinclair
Liberty and Bonnie are twins, and Bess’ youngest. Mirren doesn’t spend much time with her sisters, and she often tries to distance herself from them. If we don’t know much about Will, we know even less about the twins, but maybe if there’s a second season, we’ll see more about them.
Franklin and Eleanor
I can’t go without mentioning the two beautiful golden retrievers, also part of the Sinclair family. Probably Harris’s favorites, eh?
