Clairmont

The goings-on at Beechwood Island revolve around Clairmont, Harris and Tipper Sinclair's beach house—and when we say house, we mean super fancy mansion. Cadence says:

The house is a three-story gray Victorian. There is a turret up top and a wraparound porch. Inside, it is full of original New Yorker cartoons, family photos, embroidered pillows, small statuettes, ivory paperweights, taxidermied fish on plaques. (11.5)

In other words, Clairmont full of expensive status symbols nobody actually needs.

Need and want, however, are two different things. Sure, the Sinclair sisters attach some sentimental value to the stuff, but what they really care about is its monetary value. After all, the trust funds are running out, and they're counting on inheriting those ivory geese and frogs and narwhals to secure their financial future. (Okay, there aren't any narwhals; we just wanted to say narwhals. Narwhals!)

Harris Sinclair is the king of the island, and Clairmont is his palace. The Liars decide to burn it down because, as Cadence says, "Clairmont seemed like the seat of the patriarchy […] We figured if the house was gone, and the paperwork and data inside it gone, and all the objects they fought about gone, the power would be gone" (70.18). After the fire, she tells us:

We burned not a home, but a symbol.

We burned a symbol to the ground. (58.30-31)

So how'd that whole burning Harris's power thing go? Not so well. After all, if the Sinclairs have one life skill, it's using their fortune to erase their old lives. Money is power for these peeps, so if you still have money, you still have power. Tipper's possessions might have perished in the blaze, but that doesn't mean Harris can't build a new palace—which is exactly what he does.

New Clairmont rises from the ashes (we'll spare you a phoenix reference here) and Harris rules his kingdom once again—same ruler, different roost. After all, you can't destroy the patriarchy if you don't destroy the patriarch.