Fans have been loving Amazon Prime Video's brand new series Little Fires Everywhere, which was adapted from the bestselling novel by Celeste Ng. While several elements of the novel have been adjusted for the television version - viewers have noted that the television show has made one crucial change to the ending, which is an integral part of the story – as well as the title! Warning, spoilers ahead...
Like in the novel, the TV show sees the family home of the wealthy Richardson family go up in flames, with the assumption that Elena and Bill's difficult youngest daughter Izzy started the fire. However, while in the novel Izzy does indeed set several small fires in her house in revenge after realising that her three siblings have all used Mia's daughter Pearl in some way, the TV show drastically changes how the fire starts, and why.
In the book, Elena's daughter Izzy sets the fire
In the TV show, Izzy is shown to be her mother's least favourite, and it is eventually revealed that this is because Elena never wanted to have a fourth child and therefore resents Izzy for it. After being rejected by her mother, Izzy begins to pour petrol on her room before she is stopped by her siblings and runs away before the fire is set. Instead, Lexie, Moody and Trip all realise just how damaging their mother has been to their younger sibling, and agree to set the fire together as Izzy can be seen taking a bus away from her hometown, daydreaming that she will find Mia and Pearl.
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But in the TV show, Trip, Moody and Lexie start it instead
Speaking about the decision to change the ending, Liz Tigelaar told Vulture: "For the first time, Lexie, Moody, and Trip experience what it’s like to be Izzy and they see their mum through her eyes for the first time. And that really propels them into action — and, of course, there’s this excitement and energy and pack mentality. But, once the house is on fire and they’re kind of mesmerised by these flames, they’re like, We need to get... out of here. Their intention is not to kill their mother."
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Celeste added: "There's a sense that what they want to destroy isn't their mother but the life in which they all have been kind of trapped. I thought that was a really genius way of doing it. We see that the kids changed because they set the fire and they put themselves on Izzy’s side."
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