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Summary: Chapter 73
Cadence returns home and demands to know from Penny why the rest of the family hasn’t spoken in front of her about the fire. Penny responds that in the past, Cadence was upset by what Penny said about the fire.
Summary: Chapter 74
Going up to her room, Cadence finds Mirren waiting. Mirren admits, apologetically, that she never read Cadence’s many emails. They read the emails together on Cadence’s laptop.
Summary: Chapter 75
When Mirren leaves, Cadence suddenly thinks of Granddad’s two dogs. He had a habit of locking them in an upstairs bedroom, and she realizes they were trapped there as the house burned. She is responsible for their deaths.
Summary: Chapter 76
When Mirren leaves, Cadence starts typing everything she remembers. This leads her to remembering what happened to Granddad’s two dogs. Sobbing as she runs across the island, she encounters Gat.
Summary: Chapter 77
Cadence and Gat embrace. When Cadence explains that she’s crying because she killed the dogs, Gat asks if that’s everything. Cadence asks what more there might be, but Gat sorrowfully refuses to elaborate. He leaves to go back to Cuddledown.
Summary: Chapter 78
Cadence remembers her hospitalization. Penny and Granddad were at her bedside. Her burned hands and feet were heavily bandaged.
Summary: Chapter 79
Cadence struggles to relate another story, which eventually comes out as a tale about two boys and a girl whose lives were ruined when a witch, in the form of another girl, persuaded them to burn down their parents’ castle.
Analysis
Cadence’s half-memory of the fire fuels her confrontation with her mother, in which she continues her self-righteous notion of herself as a heroine, taking a stand against the petty and evil Sinclairs. Earlier, Penny’s treatment of Cadence might have seemed harsh or overly protective, but in this moment, Penny becomes sympathetic in her tenderness toward a fragile and somewhat immature daughter. For example, Cadence doesn’t much care about the condition she and the Liars are leaving Cuddledown in, although it’s sure to be upsetting to Bess. And she needs Mirren to repent of never having read the emails Cadence sent, as though that were an important oversight in the context of everything the Sinclair family has endured.
Cadence’s fantasy is finally shattered when she begins piecing together the facts with suppositions and educated guesses. At long last, she realizes how terrible the accident truly was, and that she wasn’t the victim she has believed herself to be. Instead, it was the golden retrievers who burned along with the Clairmont. The dogs are the epitome of innocent victims, and the memory of their nightmarish deaths nearly breaks Cadence again. It certainly destroys the image she had of herself as a heroic visionary. In her pain, she retreats to the company of the Liars once again. Instead of comforting Cadence, they demonstrate remorse and try to atone for what they have done, a stage that Cadence hasn’t reached.
Cadence has some trouble relating the fairytale in Chapter 79, and makes several false starts before she discovers how to begin. She knows she wants three of something, but she can’t quite determine whether they are bears, billy goats, soldiers, pigs or brothers, so she finally settles upon children. This uncertainty demonstrates Cadence’s inability to define the Liars and herself. And the focus on three highlights Gat’s continued exclusion, even at this late date. He is still considered an outsider, even by the person who claims to adore him. Cadence’s earlier language regarding the Liars cues the reader as to the identity of these babies, and the surprising introduction of Cadence as the witch. This is the first indication of some self-awareness on Cadence’s part, but it traffics in self-pity. In no way is the real Cadence denied any of the gifts bestowed upon her cousins, and she is far better established in this world than Gat. So again, Cadence’s fairytales reveal only partial truth.
