That is an interesting interpretation. What I was thinking of with Izzy and the metaphor is that Mia gave Izzy the metaphor when she explained her artwork to Izzy. Izzy is a child who clearly has some mental health problems, so when she hears the metaphor, she internalises it, and you can see how she might enact it as a way to cry out for help. So if it were Izzy who had set the fires, then it would have made sense psychologically for Izzy, as well as playing into the theme about how mothers can sometimes hurt their children even when trying to do their best. By shifting the firestarters to the older children, none of whom the same underlying mental instability as Izzy (and more importantly, none of whom heard the metaphor), the show undermines that theme and makes the older children do something that doesn't really come off as authentic for them (in my opinion).
But, again, I didn't really buy into the idea that Elena's motherliness was superficial or racist, so the argument set up by the show just fell flat for me.
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Soseiji6 (74)
4 years ago
Anyway, what I was meaning first is the "fires" started by Izzy's siblings are allegoric, instead of literal. Just depicting a generation shift, between Millennials and late Boomers, and how those particular kids are taking some distance from an overwhelming mother (whom I still think isn't that bad a person as the series suggest, in comparison at least: Mia's not that better, let alone Bebe).
I know it's not "that kind of story", that it's set in reality, but that's the sense it gave me. It might even be a hint to Graham Greene's 1954 short shory "The Destructors".
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