Thomas Alfredo Romano, 1944-2001. Dough mixers and dough mixer cleaners don’t, well, mix. Or they mix all too well. Rest in pieces.
Cut to Nate and Brenda, who have also just experienced a little death, if you catch my drift. They obviously match well at least in sexual terms, even if there are hints that both may have slightly misplaced expectations of the other. Ah, young love…
In the meanwhile, Claire is also blissfully sexed out (judging from the look on her face as she comes down for breakfast) in her relationship with high school drug pusher Gabe , while David and his mother bicker pretty much like an old couple. These kids need to get laid. Except, judging from the nasty slurs spraypainted all over Claire’s green hearse at school when she gets there, thanks to Gabe’s big mouth, Claire may have preferred to remain one of the sexually frustrated Fishers.
Of course, one of the reasons why Nate is pretty happy at the moment is that he still thinks he can leave the family business behind, either by dumping it on David or, more likely, by selling it to Kroener International. Their spokesman Gillardi (called a “greedy little Nazi fuck” by the late Nathaniel Fisher Sr., who may be dead but is still a pretty insistent voice in his family’s heads) pretty much turns Nate against the suggestion with the stream of euphemisms coming from his mouth. Which is pretty much capped by Late Nate’s sardonic “You hear that buddy boy? He likes you. Wow, you are so cool.” The Fishers are easily played by their dead paterfamilias, here the embodiment of their consciences. (There’s a funny scene as Nate drives home and sees a demonstration trying to “Save our park”; the boards they’re carrying change in his mind to “Sellout”, “Take the money & run”, “Go back to Seattle, bag boy” and finally “You fucking moron”.) Nate’s decision to stay and tell Kroener to stuff it (mortuary pun unintended) results in the big corporation starting the Funeral Wars – suddenly customers pull out and take their beloved ones to other mortuaries because Kroener’s underbid the Fishers, and suppliers up their prices by 200%.
And of course Nate having to pick up the ripe pieces of poor Mr Romano doesn’t exactly reassure him that he’s made the right decision. Never mind that a little time later Rico realises that one of the essential pieces – one of T.A.R.’s feet – is missing. Say what you want about Claire’s teenage self-centredness, but she does know how to exact revenge. (I’m trying very hard right now not to make puns along the lines of, “Gabe, the game’s afoot. A foot, get it?”) Even though the entire school finds out about it and David is called in, the foot goes MIA yet again – but this time Keith is on the case, which marks the first time he meets one of the Fishers as anything else than a “racquetball partner”, David being the closet case he is. Claire’s pretty savvy when she and Keith bump into each other while looking for the missing foot (“I know you and my brother are like… gay.”), but it’s obviously a relief for Keith to open up to someone close to David.
Oh… and that Kroener crematory opening just across the street from Fisher & Sons? That night it burns to the ground. I wonder whether that had anything to do with Keith telling Claire that she could be nicer to her brother, especially with all the stress he’s currently under… Nah. I’m just seeing things. As Claire says, “I guess this should solve all your problems, huh?”
Stray observations:
- Early Six Feet Under is more heavily focused on the black comedy, compared to seasons 3 and following. I’d believe it’s largely this which made some people in the audience love the first season but feel bitterly disappointed in the more dramatic (some might add a “melo-”) plotlines of the later seasons.
- The storyline with Ruth’s best friend is less compelling, mostly because her friend never seems like the kind of person Ruth would spend time with, and vice versa. She seems to have waltzed in from some other, more average TV series, both in her lines and in her performance. While the series was surefooted from the first with respect to its protagonists and customers, it took a while for their social environment to find their feet.
Quotes:
- Late Nate: “Fine. Go back to peddling soy milk and nailing waitresses. What do I care? I’m dead.”
- Nate: “I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m a little busy right now ***swimming in a man’s guts***”, and after a beat, “I don’t know what this is. I’m picking up a part of a person and I don’t even know what part it is.”
- David (to Nate, who’s just thrown up after piecing): “I have a job for you that’s much better suited to your particular talents.” Cut to Nate trimming hedges.
- Ruth: “If you lost something, look under the bed. That’s where things always turn up.” Nate, still missing a decomposing foot: “I doubt that applies in this case.”
- Mrs Romano: “Is he all put together?” David: “Oh, he’s 100% there.” Nate: “Absolutely.” (What’s a little rounding error among friends?) Mrs R: “I’d like to see him.” Nate: “… I’m sorry, our embalmer is a little on the artistic side. He gets crazy if he has any ‘input’.” (Nate does this complete with air quotes.)
- David, after getting a phone call from Claire’s school: “I don’t understand… kids. When I was her age, I never would have taken a foot.” Keith: “David, I can help. I’m a cop. That’s what I do for a living.” David: “You find feet?”
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Matt K. is a survivor of academia. He's fanatical about good TV and movies. He lives in Switzerland, which means that he gets his chosen drug mostly in the form of boxed DVD sets. You can read more of his musings on TV, life, movies, books and video games at http:\\goofybeast.wordpress.com.