For a series that kicks off with a literal blaze, Little Fires Everywhere is a simmering slow burn. Unfortunately, after eight long episodes, the series ends with a delicious twist but struggles to deliver a resolution.
“Sometimes you have to scorch everything to start over. And after the burning, the soil is rich and life can grow there, life that is maybe even better than what was there before,” Kerry Washington’s Mia Warren tells Izzy Richardson midway through the episode. “People are like that too.”
I hope she’s right: for the Richardsons, the Warrens, and all of us in these uncertain times, living—not unlike Pearl in this story—with choices people in power are making for us. But it seems to be a lesson Mia is all too familiar with, which is perhaps why she comes out of the series relatively unscathed, though not unchanged. Mia — who lied to Pearl her entire life, stole a daughter away from her father, and forged a bond with an isolated, troubled young teen, only to abandon her — always seems to land on her feet.
Mia is ultimately forgiven by Pearl, idolized by Izzy, and will more or less come out of Shaker Heights with a better, more honest relationship with her daughter than she had coming in…at least until she must face the Ryan family, which we unfortunately never get to see. Frankly, that’s my biggest complaint about the season: How can Little Fires Everywhere build the Ryans’ backstory up so ominously and spend so much time on nightmares featuring Jesse Williams, but not let us see the explosion?
I get it, this story is about mothers, not fathers, but there is so much here worth exploring. Instead, the season filled time with muddled storylines about Elena’s psycho ex who works for The New York Times and a somewhat contrived love triangle between Pearl, Trip, and Moody.
And yet, it’s Reese Witherspoon’s Elena (whose manipulation of Pearl is egregiously vindictive) who not only loses her daughter Izzy, but the respect of the rest of her clan. As Elena begins to see her white picket fence for the facade it truly is — her relationship with her husband is hanging by a thread, the daughter she considred her “perfect” little clone had a secret abortion, and her eldest son stole his little brother’s girlfriend — she focuses her rage on her usual target: Izzy. Though the meltdown between the toxic mother-daughter duo has been building all season, it’s Lexie, Trip, and Moody’s distressing attempt to stick up for their sister for the first time that feels far more powerful.
That’s Little Fires Everywhere’s most satisfying move. The ending of the season takes a sharp turn from the book: instead of Izzy setting the fire before running off to lands unknown, it’s the rest of the Richardson kids who decide to burn it all down after their youngest sibling is cast out. (Side note: they beg Elena to go after her, but don’t Lexie and Tripp have their licenses?! Go get your sister!)
The writers honestly couldn’t have chosen a more fitting batch of culprits. Though the acting has been phenomenal from Washington and Witherspoon the entire season, the heart of the show has always belonged to the kids, who continuously challenged each other and felt altogether much more human. Even further — just as Mia’s been trying to tell Pearl this entire time — their act of rebellion will likely have no long term consequences. Lexie is still going to go to Yale, Tripp is still a popular athlete, and Moody is a rich white boy. They’re going to be just fine.
In the end, Elena does make one move for redemption: taking credit for the house fire. Yet, her daughter and the home she built are still gone, her husband’s still a douche, and her life as she knew it has to be rebuilt from the ground up. Literally. Maybe Mia was right; maybe Elena needed this to happen and will be able to construct a more solid foundation without the facade, or maybe she won’t… honestly, I’m not sure why I should care.
Perhaps that’s why the ending between the McCulloughs and Bebe Chow leaves me a bit cold. When the McCulloughs win their court case, a heart wrenching defeat for Bebe, she steals May Ling from her bed, away from the family she’s loved for a year, now destined for a life on the run. The ending is meant to be heartbreaking and morally ambiguous — at least, I hope it is — but it does seem to end the way the writers hope we want it to: with Bebe reunited with her baby and Mia’s own choices to keep Pearl from her father seemingly given narrative endorsement. Was there really no way the McCulloughs and Bebe could somehow change the story and heal old wounds? Are we just a world of Elenas and Mias? It’s a pretty cynical punctuation mark on the series.
Source: IGN.com Little Fires Everywhere: Finale Review