Here’s a chill question to drop into your group chat: Is it weird to think your cousin is hot and then fall in love with them? Don’t worry, I’m not asking for myself, it’s a fictional quandary presented to me by Amazon Studios’ newest bingeable teen soap, We Were Liars. To put your mind further at ease, the two cousins in question are not related by blood, but STILL, their familial ties had my brain doing mental gymnastics like my name was Simone Biles.
In case you’re not yet knee deep in another dose of seaside rich people problems, the story of the Liars goes like this. Cadence is the heir to her grandfather’s legacy, to the disdain of her dysfunctional aunts and hyperawareness of her helicopter mom, when a mysterious accident happens at the end of summer that leaves her with amnesia about who hurt her. And NO, they will not simply tell her what happened because the doctor’s orders are to torture this girl! It could be the money-hungry adults around her or her besties/cousins/”liars” she grew up with, like brothers and sisters. Hence, the cousin conundrum I can’t wrap my head around! Today’s hyperfixation remains Cadence and Gat’s relationship in We Were Liars.
Gat is either Cadence’s cousin by marriage or simply Cadence’s aunt’s nephew, meaning a total non-relative, depending on who you ask. Want to know more? Of course you do! Follow closely: Cadence’s mom is Penny Sinclair, one of three Sinclair sisters. Penny’s sister (AKA Cadence’s aunt Carrie) is dating a man named Ed Patil (they have no children together, and haven’t tied the knot, but still, Ed is basically Cadence’s uncle since she was a child). Kinda-Uncle Ed has a full nephew named Gat, and even though Gat isn’t in the Sinclair bloodline, he grew up with the kids. Soooo that would make Gat Cadence’s… play cousin by marriage?
No, silly, of course not! While incest may be on the rise on TV, We Were Liars isn’t openly romanticizing an inter-family romance. Still, Gat and Cady grew up as play cousins or fake cousins — a simple term for the kids of your parents’ friends that are like family, and expect you to treat their offspring like family too.
I think what it comes down to is if it’s truly a no-no or not to date someone who grew up closer than a normal family friend but less (fine, way less) than a literal sibling. Maybe it’s because I don’t have any hot fake cuzzos to contemplate, but I can’t picture thinking of them that way, and didn’t, even when hormones were flowing as pre-teens. Now that we’re estranged fake family (lol), maybe if I ran into one, and they somehow grew up to be Michael B. Jordan, I’d feel differently!
But in this case, Gat is not estranged; he is considered a core “liar” and the only outsider adopted into intimate family moments like private dinners, funeral planning, and Father’s Day!! For the beginning of the first episode, I assumed Gat was Ed’s son because of his familiarity with the Sinclair fam (which would make him a step-cousin). So when did Cadence find the time to drop the baby bro vibes?!
It’s certainly not a crime, it’s not super taboo, but can we all just agree it’d be a little goofy to explain at a family wedding? I think Cadence would agree this scenario is too complicated to recommend, especially for horny teens, since a sorta-kinda-cousin romance doesn’t end without casualties.
MARISSA is a trending news writer at Betches. She's more than just another pop-culture-addicted-east-coaster-turned-LA-transplant...she's also an upcoming television writer and aspiring Real Housewife (whichever comes first). Live, laugh, balegdah.
