'Little Fires Everywhere' Episode 7: Elena threatens to out Mia's secrets in court to assuage her guilt
Spoilers for 'Little Fires Everywhere' episode 7 "Picture Perfect"
In episode 6, we saw Mia Warren and Elena Richardson's past play out in many ways, helping us understand why both the mothers in Shaker Heights are the way they are.
For instance, we know why Mia is attached to her Blue Chevy, why she was in tears before selling the photograph that was taken by Pauline, or even how her parents had disowned her. On the other hand, we see where Elena's obsession with calendar and planning comes from, and the reason why Elena is so hell-bent on making Izzy fit in.
With all of this giving us an idea of the mothers that Mia and Elena have grown to be, we see the two take entirely different approaches to parenting. Elena believes that she is a great mother, one who is much better than Mia who "acted poor" to manipulate people into being generous, taking advantage of them all while she was sitting on half a million dollars. Now that Elena is aware of how Mia lied to Pearl's father and claimed that she had lost the baby, Elena believes she can bring Mia under control.
All of Elena's rage against Mia stems from the fact that without the privileges that Elena was bestowed with, Mia still chose to be a mother - a good one who looked out for her daughter. Her daughter is a beautiful girl who was taught to stand up for herself, advocate for her choices and hold her head high. Elena, on the other hand, couldn't get over the fact that she had to give up on her career when she got pregnant with Izzy. A residue of leftover resentment still plays a huge part in how Elena sees her youngest daughter today.
In the meanwhile, the ongoing trial for Mai Ling/Mirabelle's custody has elicited a lot of media attention and shaken up Shaker Heights. With Mia's help, Bebe is able to fund herself and hire a lawyer to fight and gained a lot of public support. All she needs now is for Mia to take the stand, but before Mia can; Elena finds her and indirectly threatens her. She wonders what Pearl would think if she were to learn the truth about her mother from the trial proceedings and asks Mia if it would be worth it if she loses her own child in the process.
This episode sees both Elena and Mia reach new lows. It is time for Mia to really come clean with her daughter before Pearl hears it from someone else and Elena continues to believe in the facade of a happy family to escape from all the guilt that she is swimming in for leading Mia into her friend Linda's life. She is also unaware that her husband Bill is aware of who she met in New York City, and that he was aware of who she met all those years ago when she left to buy a pacifier for Izzy after a hard day.
Elena's becoming more spiteful, even going to the extent of trying to dig some dirt on Bebe, trying to portray her as irresponsible from before the birth of Mai Ling. Bill is done with her meddlesome ways, and while he doesn't question Mia about the truth of her daughter despite being aware, he makes a valid point. It is 1997 in Shaker Heights and for someone "like" Bebe to win a custody trial in court is unheard of. He depends on the judge, the society at large being racist and classist to win his case and he isn't a tad bit disturbed about it.
Izzy, on the other hand, is spiraling out of control, with her family taking it to another extreme when it comes to her. Elena even voices out how difficult it is for her to be Izzy's mother to which Izzy says, "Then don't be." All she had tried to do was challenge the status quo, make a statement about how the trial of Mai Ling's custody made her think of babies being sold at different prices and somehow; her mother did not understand why this was important.
So Izzy ends up at Mia's residence and it is this conversation that really brings forth Mia's wonderful way not just as a mother but as a friend as well. The healthy debate, understanding of Izzy's situation and thereby being able to comfort her as no one could is what results in Izzy getting further attached to Mia because she doesn't see Mia look at her as if she were a problem that needed to be fixed. Which is how Elena had looked at her all her life.
On the other hand, Mia is nowhere close to getting her daughter to understand why she had to lie about their financials. Pearl was brought up to believe that they were not well-off, in fact, she believed that they couldn't afford proper housing until she was told by Trip that it was Mia who had funded Bebe's lawyer and that she possibly had $500,000 to her name. Pearl realizes that everything that her mother has said has only been lies and this creates a rift between them, bigger than anything they had before. Mia is yet to tell Pearl the whole truth and the way things stand, Mia might very well lose her daughter too; which is why both Mia and Elena end up losing a fight that they have put up for a while now.
'Little Fires Everywhere' new episodes drop on Wednesdays on Hulu.