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Directed by: Alan Ball
Written by: Jill Soloway
Synopsis
When Ruth and George announce that they've decided to get married, the reaction is not
what they'd hoped for. Nate is openly hostile, Claire protests that they barely know each
other and David feels that in light of the ongoing search for Lisa, it would be more
prudent to wait. Ruth listens until she can't take any more. "Life doesn't stop, all right?"
she says curtly, "We didn't die. We have this precious gift of life and it's so terribly
fleeting and that is precisely why it's important to keep on living, to not give up hope."
The wedding will take place in two days - whether her children attend or not.
Unlike Ruth, none of the other Fishers feel especially hopeful. Claire remains conflicted
over the abortion, and David is not one hundred percent certain of his decision to leave
Keith. But at least they're able to function - something that is becoming increasingly
difficult for Nate. He's drinking more and more, while neglecting his responsibilities as
both a businessman and a parent: he angrily dismisses a client and leaves Maya alone in
the middle of the night.
There's turmoil in the Diaz household as well. Angelica is in residence, ostensibly until
she finds her own apartment, but she shows no signs of leaving. "I swear I wish I could just kick her sorry ass out," Federico tells David, "Vanessa always takes her side; it's like I have a fucking two-headed wife now." One night, to escape the tension, Federico goes to dance class by himself. Afterward, he accepts an invitation to a strip club, the first one he's ever been to. He gets drunk and one of the dancers flirts with him - and then they have a brief sexual encounter in his car.
After the unpleasantness surrounding the wedding announcement, both Claire and David
are visited by Nathaniel. He takes Claire on a visit to the afterlife, which is a kind of
blissful street carnival. There she encounters beatific versions of people she's cared for
and lost: Lisa, Gabe Dimas - and the baby she decided not to have. As she's about to
leave, she asks her father whether it bothers him that Ruth is remarrying. "Nah," he
replies, "That's you."
David's vision of his father is much simpler; Nathaniel appears to him at the funeral home
and coaxes him into phoning Keith. "Can't help who ya love, kid," Nathaniel tells him.
David makes the call and arranges to meet Keith for church. But instead of attending the
service, they have an open and -free discussion of their relationship. It ends with Keith
telling David that he loves him and will do anything to keep from losing him. "Just don't
give up," Keith pleads, "Not yet."
When Ruth and George are married, David, Keith, Claire and Maya are in attendance.
Nate is not. Unknown to the others, he finally got the phone call that they'd all been
dreading: the police have found Lisa's body identifiable only by her dental records. In
a state of utter despair and guilt, he goes to a local dive and goads a patron into beating
him into a bloody mess; then he gets into his car, where he envisions his father and Lisa
urging him to commit suicide by driving himself off the road into a canyon.
Eventually, however, he ends up at Brenda's. He pounds on her door and she opens it,
expecting to see Joe, the intriguing neighbor with whom she'd just had a pleasant dinner
date. But when she sees Nate's beaten and bloodied face, she looks into his eyes and then
slowly lets him in.
Title card
Lisa Kimmel Fisher
1967- 2003.
Discuss this episode in the Six Feet Under Bulletin Board.
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Mortuary Fact
In 1999, the cremated remains of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and LSD advocate Timothy Leary were launched into orbit on a Spanish research satellite. |
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