'Little Fires Everywhere' Episode 6 reveals the man Mia keeps hallucinating about with devastating consequences
Spoilers for Episode 6: 'The Uncanny'
'Little Fires Everywhere' takes a little trip down memory lane revealing some giant truths about the mess that both Elena Richardson (Reese Witherspoon) and Mia Warren's (Kerry Washington) lives have been. On one hand, we see Elena coming close to giving it all up after trying to cope with three toddlers and a newborn. On the other hand, we see Mia losing it all except the life growing inside her and take some pretty selfish, and drastic decisions after being abandoned by everyone. In all of that, we also learn the identity of the mystery man Mia keeps hallucinating and as her whole past unravels, the choices she made might plummet her and her daughter Pearl's (Lexi Underwood) relationship further towards destruction.
The episode titled 'The Uncanny' takes us all the way back in the New York of the '80s, where Mia is a photography major looking to find herself in her artistic pursuits. Pauline, a particularly kind but intriguing professor at her school takes Mia under her wing, and soon Mia is able to amaze her professor with her art - earning all the right spots at the right galleries, exhibits, and collaborations. But during her daily commute, she keeps seeing a mysterious man gaping at her constantly - the same man that Mia still keeps hallucinating in the train every time. One night, as she gets off the subway and walks her way home, this man follows her and she almost pepper sprays him before he apologizes and explains himself.
Mia is told that she looks exactly like this man's wife, and he's been noticing her so blatantly because he believes this is a sign. The married couple is unable to conceive and he propositions Mia to be a surrogate in exchange for a handsome sum of money. Finding herself in the middle of a tricky financial crisis, Mia caves in and soon begins the reeling under self-doubt, avoiding her own feelings about the baby she is nurturing inside her. A tormented Mia also sparks off a steamy romance with her professor, whom she's living with at this point now, and when her own brother Warren comes to visit, he does express some concerns over her questionable pursuit for money, but in the end, accepts it because that's the kind of relationship the two polar opposites shared.
Just when Pauline is able to help Mia accept the decision she has made for herself as the right one, news of her brother's tragic passing arrives. She goes home and her devoutly religious family is both shocked and revolted to learn of her pregnancy — to the point where Mia is denied the chance to bid her final goodbyes to the only person whose undivided support she could always rely on. Heartbroken and dejected, Mia lies to the couple she had promised her baby, saying she had a miscarriage and promised to return their money. She lies to Pauline about her family needing her and instead leaves town in her brother's car with her unborn baby as her only company.
Mia gives birth shortly after and decides to give her daughter Pearl the last name Warren, and just as this glimmer of hope shines in her life months later when she finally tries to get in touch with Pauline, she learns of her sudden passing from ovarian cancer. Along in the world, Mia decides to do life all by herself with just a baby girl in tow, and as the episode closes off with Meredith Brooks' voice crooning, "I'm a sinner, I'm a saint, I do not feel ashamed," we see her and an oblivious Pearl on this journey together, back when they first moved to Shaker Heights. It's a stark contrast to what the mother-daughter duo's relationship is now, and it only brings to mind the deep dark secret of Pearl's identity, and the prospect of her real parents being out their somewhere.
Given the amount of resentment that Pearl's allowing herself to build up against her mother, and knowing the lies she has been fed by Mia about her father's reluctance to parent, it's not all that far fetched a deduction that the impressionable, volatile teenager might erupt in not the most pleasant of ways if, or when she finally learns the truth about how she came to be. In the previous episode, we saw Mia tell Anita that she can't tell Pearl the truth ever, and now it all makes sense: both the secrets, the lies, and Mia consistently being haunted by the stranger on the train coming for Pearl as he's her actual father. Revealing the truth would only strain Mia and Pearl's relationship further, and for all we know, there might be no coming back.
'Little Fires Everywhere' drops new episodes every Wednesday only on Hulu.