Summary
Cadence goes to Cuddledown after lunch. The Liars are listening to music. In conversation it comes up that Cadence doesn’t remember half of summer fifteen. They say she’s supposed to rest and remember it in her own time. She feels that she and Gat have started over amicably. Later, Cadence remembers an argument the adults had at the dinner table. Grandfather spoke of remodeling the Boston house with Bess’s house, and threatened to sell it. Cadence’s mother drunkenly and resentfully accused her father of cutting the others out by asking for Bess’s help.
Cadence plays Scrabble with the Liars and mentions Taft’s motto: drugs are not your friend. Afterward, Cadence follows Gat upstairs and kisses him. After a moment, Gat pulls away and says he shouldn’t. He explains that she only knows the version of Gat who comes to the island: she knows nothing of his life in New York, and has never met his mother. Gat says that the only people on the island who aren’t rich and white are him and Ginny and Paulo.
Cadence asks who they are. Gat frustratedly says the housekeeper and gardener, whose names she doesn’t know after they’ve been working here for years. She doesn’t see the whole picture. Gat says that, to Cadence’s grandfather, he is like Heathcliff, the gypsy boy in Wuthering Heights who is taken in by the rich family and proves evil in the end. Gat says that the terrifying thing is, Cadence's grandfather is right. He goes into his room before Cadence can ask what he means.
Cadence stays in bed for two days with a splitting headache. One morning, her grandfather asks her to accompany him on a boat ride to Edgartown. She is pleased to see him act his old self, throwing money around and treating her to espresso and croissants. The tone of the conversation turns when they address Tipper’s death. On the ride back, Cadence asks if he misses her. He says the best part of him died with her, and that’s all there is to say about it. Back on the island, the Liars are suntanning with baby oil. Cadence and Gat address what happened in the hall. Now Cadence asks to start again. She says it could be the summer of second chances. Gat says sure, but after twice it gets ridiculous.
Cadence and Mirren take the motorboat out without asking, even though Cadence isn’t supposed to drive on her medication. Cadence asks Mirren about what happened between her and Gat. Mirren says she doesn’t know, but does say Gat has good reasons to be mad. Mirren says Cadence can’t fix what she did. Suddenly Mirren starts choking and spluttering. She tells Cadence she “did too much” and needs to get back to Cuddledown. Cadence’s mother lectures her about taking the boat. Cadence goes to her room and writes everything about what Mirren said on graph paper. She adds it to the other sheets of memory fragments she’s been collecting above her bed.
Time passes on the island. Gat tries to read through a list of the hundred greatest novels of all time. Cadence notices he avoids being alone with her since they agreed to be normal. One day, Cadence asks Johnny about Gat’s behavior. Reluctant to talk, Johnny says Gat hated himself for being bad to Raquel by getting together with Cadence. Johnny guesses he also hated himself for not being there for Cadence after her accident. Johnny recommends she forget about Gat and find herself a nice Vermont guy with muscles.
One night, Cadence and Gat are alone on the roof of Cuddledown. Cadence is relieved that they can finally talk. Gat says she looks beautiful. She says all girls look good in the moonlight. They discuss her headaches, with Gat saying she should be grateful for everything she has. She says she knows, but the pain is impossible to understand unless you have it: it makes her wish she were dead. He holds her and kisses her neck. Cadence realizes she loves him and always has. They stay on the roof for a very long time.
Mirren gets ill more and more often. But she comes down to the beach with Cadence one day. Mirren tells Cadence she should leave Gat alone because it’s going to end badly and she’ll hurt him. Mirren then admits she doesn’t have the boyfriend she’s been talking about: she made him up when she saw how Gat was looking at Cadence. She was envious, and wanted to pretend someone was as enamored with her. Cadence’s mother calls her in to help slice tomatoes for lunch and she leaves Mirren at the shore.
By week three, Cadence’s Percocet is running low. She wonders if her mother has been sneaking them. She is scared to say she needs more. One night she eats dinner at New Clairmont but then goes to Windemere when she gets a migraine. Gat comes to her room while she is in bed, even though he never comes to Windemere. He looks at the graph paper on the wall. She says she’s trying to remember what no one wants to talk about. He apologizes: he says he fell hard for her, and should have broken it off with Raquel, but his phone didn’t work on the island and she kept sending him packages all summer. He says it wasn’t right to her, or to Cadence. She falls asleep holding him. She wakes, and he is gone.
Analysis
After several confusing interactions with family members, Cadence brings the issue of her trauma-induced amnesia to the Liars. However, they insist that she be patient in her recovery and trust that the memories will return to her in time. Cadence seems content with the answer, and doesn’t pursue it. She is simply happy to have mended her relationship with Gat.
But as the Liars suggested, the first of what will be a series of unpleasant memories of summer fifteen returns to Cadence. During one of their group dinners, a conflict emerged over Bess’s role in helping Harris remodel his house in Boston following Tipper’s death. The issue brought out the sense of competition between Penny, Carrie, and Bess, all of whom worry about inheriting less than their fair share of Harris’s estate. The excessive amount of alcohol they are consuming makes the conflict messier.
The theme of privilege comes up again when Cadence and Gat kiss again for the first time since summer fifteen. In an instance of situational irony, Cadence is disappointed when Gat unexpectedly pulls away and says they shouldn’t kiss. By way of explanation, he cites the differences in their racial and socio-economic positions, evidently frustrated by Cadence’s inability or unwillingness to confront her own privilege. As a working-class person of Indian descent in the white and wealthy setting of Beechwood, Gat feels more affinity with the staff than he does with the Sinclairs. In a cryptic line, Gat suggests Harris is right about him being evil—a reference to his complicity in the burning of Clairmont.
Lockhart builds on the complementary themes of grief and emotional repression with Cadence’s attempt to open up to her grandfather while they spend time alone together. Although he acknowledges that he laments Tipper’s passing, going as far as to say that the best part of him died with her, Harris cuts off the possibility of genuine emotional vulnerability by ending the conversation there. Once again, Cadence looks for solace from the authority figures in her life, but is taught to deny herself any cathartic release of sorrow.
The air of mournfulness doesn’t dissipate. While spending time with Mirren alone, Cadence doesn’t know what to make of the reaction she has to straying too far from Cuddledown. With hindsight knowledge of the story, it seems the supernatural rules that govern the Liars’ continued presence on the island require them to stay close to the area where they spent the most time while living. Cadence’s one-on-one time with Johnny also ends in disappointment, as Johnny cryptically suggests that Gat and Cadence’s relationship is doomed. Meanwhile, Lockhart builds on the motif of Cadence trying to piece together her missing memories by writing on pieces of graph paper that she pins above her bed. If successful, regaining her memory will mean losing the Liars again.
