Is Johnny Still Alive in We Were Liars, Explained

At the end of ‘We Were Liars,‘ adapted from E. Lockhart’s eponymous novel, we learn that the Liars are all dead except Cadence. As such, their presence in Summer 17 is revealed to be a hallucination inside Cadence’s tortured mind. However, the show’s final scene flips the entire narrative on its head. After the protagonist leaves Beechwood, having reconciled with her past, Johnny is revealed to be an entity that seemingly exists outside her mind as he meets his mother and exchanges dialogue. Carrie expresses disbelief at his arrival, while the young Sinclair explains his inability to escape. This twist raises a new wave of questions about the nature of his existence, whether it is real, fictional, or something else entirely. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Johnny is Most Likely a Ghost

Johnny is likely not alive at the end of the first season, having perished in the fire along with Mirren and Gat. The person we see in the final scene is possibly a ghost that is only visible to Carrie. In the prequel novel to ‘We Were Liars,’ titled ‘Family of Liars,’ Johnny is described as a ghost who reappears every night following his death, asking his mother to narrate stories from her youth. Since the show teases this dynamic through its final scene, it might be the route they take moving forward, exploring a supernatural dimension to the story. This has been hinted at further by the showrunners Julie Plec and Carina Adly Mackenzie, who have revealed that the next season seeks to dig deeper into the lives of the Sinclair mothers.

Johnny’s ghost may continue to linger because he yearns for family. Throughout the narrative, he displays great sensitivity towards his mother, feeling responsible for her suffering. His wish to listen to her past can possibly be a way to alleviate her mood by reminding her of her earlier self and strengthening her bond with her sisters. Disillusionment from the past is an important step towards self-growth in ‘We Were Liars,’ and Johnny might be attempting to trigger some changes in Carrie. Whether his ghost can exist outside Beechwood remains to be seen, as his mother and little brother intend to move off the island and live with Ed.

Johnny Might Have Faked His Death

There is also a case to be made for Johnny being alive. As no scene explicitly shows the Liars’ death, it can be speculated that he survived and somehow escaped the island. A probable explanation for the decision to lie about his death would be to avoid being blackmailed by Blake, who has an incriminating video of his altercation with the opposing tennis team. While Carrie has paid off everyone involved in the fray, the video continues to haunt the mother-and-son duo even in Summer 17. With this method, he gets to spend a life of leisure in Beechwood, with all possible negative publicity being replaced by the narrative of his tragic passing. While it is an interesting line of thought, it seems far-fetched, as faking Johnny’s death comes at the cost of manipulating Cadence, which is something he would never agree to.

Thus, another likely explanation is that Johnny is Carrie’s hallucination. As he appears in the final scene right after she pops a few pills while hiding from the rest of the family, it is safe to assume that she has gone back to her addictive state as a way of coping with her unbearable losses. This would put her situation very close to that of Cadence, who spends a significant period therapeutically imagining the Liars. The two characters have close parallels, being the eldest child of their generation, who eventually fall in love with an Indian person, earning the disapproval of the Sinclair patriarch, Harris. Thus, it is possible for both of them to manifest their deepest yearning following a drug bender.