Who set the fire in Little Fires Everywhere in the book? Exploring how the TV adaptation altered the source material

The ending of Little Fires Everywhere, the five Emmy-nominated Hulu limited series starring Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon, left fans amazed but also shocked by the turn of events that deviated from its source material.

The show's eighth and final episode, titled "Find a Way," brings the story to an explosive, or perhaps a more apt description, a fiery end with the small fires turning into one massive blaze that resulted in Elena Richardson's (played by Reese Witherspoon) house going up in flames.

However, the culprit for the arson is different from Celeste Ng's bestselling 2017 novel of the same name. In the book, it was Izzy (played by Megan Stott) who torched the Richardson house, but in the series, viewers found out that it was Izzy's older siblings who were the culprits for the arson.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for Little Fires Everywhere. Reader's discretion is advised.

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Izzy didn't set the fire in Little Fires Everywhere TV adaptation

In the book, Izzy torched the house down, but it wasn't what happened in the TV adaptation. The tension-filled Little Fires Everywhere series finale wraps up with multiple fires in the Richardson household, both literally and figuratively.

During the penultimate episode, Elena and her youngest, Izzy, are arguing after the young Richardson finds out that her mother evicted Mia (played by Kerry Washington) and her daughter Pearl (played by Lexi Underwood) from their rental, leaving them no choice but to leave their Shaker Heights home.

Mia, who is Elena's upstairs tenant and house cleaner, has become a mother figure and mentor to Izzy, who doesn't have a great relationship with her mother. Learning that the woman she has grown close to, her confidante, is moving away, on top of the bullying she endures at school and the resentment she receives from Elena, pushes Izzy to her breaking point.

Kerry Washington as Mia (Image via Prime Video)

In her young mind, Izzy is fed up with everything, and the solution she thinks about is setting her life ablaze. She takes some gasoline and pours it all over her bedroom, planning to set her room and the whole house on fire. However, before she could light up the room, her siblings came and were able to stop her.

At one point, Elena and Izzy have another screaming match where nasty words are spoken. During their confrontation, Elena admitted something that further broke her youngest kid's heart:

"Do you think I wanted a daughter like you? I never wanted you in the first place."

The heartbroken Izzy flees the scene, and the night after her explosive face-off with her mother, she decides to run away. Where she's going is unclear in the series, but according to the novel, Izzy goes to Mia's parent's home in Pittsburgh. She finds the address in her mother's things and takes the Greyhound bus to go there.

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Who sets the house on fire in Little Fires Everywhere series?

In the final episode of Little Fires Everywhere, Izzy might have tried to set the Richardson house on fire, but her efforts were stopped. This raises the question of who the real culprit of the arson featured in the opening chapter of the story is.

The penultimate episode revealed that it was Izzy's three older siblings, Lexie, Trip, and Moody (played by Jade Pettyjohn, Jordan Elsass, and Gavin Lewis, respectively), who started the fire that would burn the entire Richardson house down.

When they saw Izzy trying to start the fire, they stopped their youngest sibling from finishing what she was set to do. However, when they heard Elena and Izzy argue, ending with their mother saying some nasty words to their little sister, the three of them were shocked and couldn't believe what they were hearing.

While Elena's words hurt Izzy, Lexie, Trip, and Moody felt anger on their sibling's behalf. They don't want to end up like their mother, and in retaliation, they carry out Izzy's plan to burn the whole house down.

The four Richardson siblings in "Little Fires Everywhere" (Image via Prime Video)

Finishing what Izzy started, they pour gasoline into each of their bedrooms before setting them on fire. But while they are disgusted by their mother's actions and words at that point, the older siblings make sure that Elena gets out of the house safely. And thankfully, everyone made it out of the burning house safely.

In another turn of events in the Hulu show, when the firefighters asked the Richardson matriarch who set fire to their house, she said that she did it, shifting the blame from her three kids.

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Little Fires Everywhere showrunner explains the change in the finale of the series

With the shift in the ending of Little Fires Everywhere from its source material, at least in terms of who set the house on fire, the TV show's creator explained how they decided on the narrative to have the three older Richardson siblings cause the fire instead of Izzy alone.

Little Fires Everywhere showrunner and executive producer Liz Tigelaar told Vulture during an interview published in April 2020:

"We thought there was an opportunity to create more mystery. Why tell the audience who did it at the beginning?"

Tigelaar, who was also an executive producer of Under the Bridge, added that anyone who had read the book would know the ending, but they decided to add "more layers and complexity" to the show because they found an opportunity to do it. The showrunner further noted that Ng was supportive of the changes they made to the finale, adding:

"I think she knew that we were talking about maybe doing something different for the ending, but I don't think she actually knew where we had landed until she read it... And she said she loved it."

Reese Witherspoon as Elena (Image via Prime Video)

In a post she wrote for Glamour, published in April 2020, Tigelaar said they thought about having Elena set the fire in Little Fires Everywhere, calling it the "arc of all arcs," but didn't think it would be believable. In the end, she brought the idea of having the three older Richardson siblings as the culprits for the arson to the writer's room.

Tigelaar noted that the idea wasn't successful at first, but the idea of Izzy's siblings having her back and finishing what she started is something they committed to. Also, talking about who really started the fire in Little Fires Everywhere, this is what the showrunner had to say:

"Izzy poured the gasoline. Her siblings lit the matches. But Elena was the spark that ignited the fire."

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Catch all episodes of Little Fires Everywhere now streaming on Hulu and Prime Video.