'Little Fires Everywhere' Episode 5: Elena's ethics prove Lexie and Izzy are their mother's daughters after all
Spoilers for 'Little Fires Everywhere' Episode 5 'Duo'
In the most recent episode of Hulu's 'Little Fires Everywhere', we see Lexie Richardson (Jade Pettyson) brave her present, as her mother, Elena (Reese Witherspoon), braves her own past, and her sister Izzy (Megan Scott) copes with a future to come. From abortion to almost succumbing to infidelity and invasion of privacy, the Richardson ladies brave, and indulge in quite a lot in the episode titled 'Duo'.
And as their actions - both in the past, present and immediate future mirror each other, it becomes clear that Lexie isn't the only spitting image of her mother, Elena. No matter how hard and deliberate Izzy tries to rebel and assert she is not a part of Elena, her actions prove the apple didn't fall all that far from the tree.
We have seen Elena's entitlement, the way she is so accustomed to her privilege that she is basically ignorant towards the choices and options she has had to be able to develop such a smug, holier than thou sense of condescension towards others. Mia Warner (Kerry Washington) had shoved that in her face in the previous episode, and Elena gets the same dished back at her once again when she seeks out about her college sweetheart who she hasn't spoken to in years, just to dig up dirt on Mia. The episode opens with a flashback from her, the day she and this ex - Jamie - broke up.
He wanted to live an adventure and Elena had her entire life planned out in the Shaker Heights community. Because Jamie's aspirations and dreams didn't suit her plan, Elena, albeit heartbroken at the time, snubbed that relationship and cut off all ties with Jamie.
Later, when she shows up at his office dressed with full make up and a sultry red lipstick, she is flirtatious and intrigued about where Jamie's pursuit for a wondrous life has led him. She offers to take him out for a drink as signs of gratitude for digging up Mia's truth and soon that turns into dinner plans, with Jamie volunteering for the nightcap. When Jamie asks her to cut to the chase and reveal her intentions behind reaching out to him, Elena blows it off saying she wants them to be friends - thus agitating Jamie a little.
It's obvious that Elena had really hurt Jamie in the past, but she makes the ultimate fault by suggesting Jamie meet her back in her hotel room. It makes Jamie calls her out for her entitled idea of everybody being ready to help her no matter how she treats them, and that is exactly what we see Lexie doing in the same episode.
Once she finds out she is pregnant, Lexie knows there's no other way out than an abortion. Her beating around the bush about the pregnancy gets a straight-up not-interested response from her boyfriend, so she gets an abortion done but under Pearl Warren's name, because it's a matter of reputation and she can't afford to taint hers. This is after Pearl skips school to come to the clinic to drive her back home, and also after Lexie stole Pearl's intellectual property and she didn't utter a word against it.
Pearl, being the kind friend she is, or perhaps just to maintain her dynamics with the Richardsons, stays, and even caves in when Lexie begs her to drive her any place but home.
Pearl takes Lexie home, and Mia offers her the motherly kindness she needs, even after everything Elena has hurled at her. A tight hug, a place to rest for the night, and a comforting cup of tea later, Mia gives it all to Lexie along with a reality check of what a selfish person she is. Just like her mother, Lexie has never felt loneliness. There are a million places she could have gone but she called Pearl for help and didn't even flinch from sabotaging this 'reputation' for Pearl, that Lexie can't afford to ruin for her own self.
This is typical Elena behaviour because of how blinded with her selfishness and idea of what's moral and righteous Lexie is.
When it comes to Izzy, she has clearly inherited her mother's snooping skills. Invading privacy, breaching boundaries has never been an issue with Elena because in her defense, she is a journalist. But when it comes to the personal lives of those closest to her, Elena breaks the same boundaries that shouldn't be crossed because it doesn't even occur to her that it might be wrong. She took Linda's husband's checkbook and went behind her back to offer Bebe money in exchange for Mirabel.
She also snoops around on Mia and digs up dirt on her pregnancy, scheming to use it against her soon as the time seems fit.
Clearly, Izzy has no trouble breaching privacy either as we saw her go through Mia's stuff that time she was alone at the Warrens'. Izzy probably didn't intend it for malicious gain like her mom usually does, but as is also the case with her mother, it doesn't occur to Izzy that going through people's stuff is bad. When Mia calls her out for it, she recoils into rebellion further the same way Elena gets self-righteous and defensive. Given Izzy's biggest problem with her mother is how the two of them are poles apart, it's ironic that they must be so similar in such innate habits.
'Little Fires Everywhere' drops every Wednesday midnight only on Hulu.