Anthony Christopher Finelli. 1994-2001. No matter what your take is on gun or drug control, I’m sure everyone pretty much agrees that it’s a bad idea to get high and let your kid brother find the handgun hidden, just barely, under your mother’s bed.
As Gabe, Claire’s erstwhile lover, finds out very soon.
Not that it measures up in terms of human tragedy, but David isn’t happy either: Nate’s flunked the licensing test. Not even Mr. Sexy Senior Barndance can cheer up David, who’s at least twice as uptight as usual, although an Ecstasy-fuelled trip to a gay club that night does relieve the tension – until the next day’s dehydrated hangover. And no, David, it’s not a good idea to hide the leftover E in the family aspirin bottle in the kitchen.
Nate’s day is also pretty bad, what with the flunked test and the dead six-year old – not to mention his all-time favourite Billy shacking up with his sister Brenda yet again. And Billy’s morbid anecdotes and barely hidden barbs don’t really help anyone. “What a man does is… well, it’s who he is. A man should know the history of his profession if he expects to be anything but an amateur,” he brings up in that endearing passive-aggressive way of his, and when Nate replies, “So I’m an amateur?” Billy gives Brenda an insufferably triumphant ‘I’ve just scored against your dumbo boyfriend – love me!’ look and says, “I prefer the term ‘dilettante’.” It’s a miracle Nate doesn’t show him a bit of proactive undertaking there and then.
Then again, it’s not as if Brenda doesn’t have her own share of weird, questionable behaviour – such as taking Nate to three funeral homes to pretend they’re a bereaved couple looking to organise a funeral for Brenda’s recently deceased parents or, more morbidly, herself, pretending to be a cancer patient who’d fit right in with the self-helpers in Fight Club. It’s supposed to be a learning experience: in order to be a good undertaker, you have to know what it’s like for the other side, the customer. One thing Nate definitely learns from the three hapless funeral directors: how not to do it.
Meanwhile, with Gabe’s own loss, it’s difficult for Claire not to get pulled back to someone who’s been a genuine dick to her in the past. Her pity for guilt-tripping Gabe doesn’t make it any easier, but to his credit he doesn’t abuse the situation for an easy cheer-up. Ruth, on the other hand, is reluctantly hooking up with Hiram again, who wants to take her camping (with all the “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” that implies); her employer, Nikolai, is all jealous and childish when she takes off two days for her camping trip, which doesn’t exactly entice her to call the trip off. (Nikolai has a thing or two to learn about reverse psychology.) Once in the woods, Hiram’s middle-aged friskiness doesn’t relax Ruth all that much – but that one not-quite-an-aspirin does wonders. Oh boy, does it ever, prompting a dreamlike walk in the woods which ends with Ruth led, by a guy in a bear suit, to a hearse in the middle of the woods where she has a heart-to-heart (and exchanges a couple of passionate kisses) with her late husband.
Without the help of pills, David goes clubbing again with cute, hot squaredance instructor Kurt, only to run into Keith, looking more gorgeous than ever. (Is that something exes do?). Keith’s own date? A burly-yet-sensitive EMT (or, in David’s words, “Mr Super Guy ER”)… and Kurt’s comment, “I bet they have great sex – I mean, with the uniforms and all”, is not exactly helpful, leading to a spat which ends with David walking out on Kurt. It’s not as if the Disco Kid won’t find another lay before the end of the night, after all.
The day of Anthony’s funeral, Nate proves his worth to his brother and to the business. Funeral license or not, when Anthony’s dad turns up and starts kicking the crap out of Gabe for failing to protect his brother, it’s hands-on Nate who knows how to handle the man: “You can punch as many people as you want, that’s not gonna change the fact that boy is dead, and your chance to be in his life is over. Did you use that time well, or did you just piss it away? Your own life’s a ticking clock too. Everybody’s is.”
And there it is, encapsulated in a handful of sentences: what Six Feet Under so often is about. Yes, it may not be the most original of thoughts, but at its best the series brings it home like no other. You’re going to die, everyone you care about is going to die. How much of the time until that day do we use well, and how much do we piss away, procrastinating, thinking that we’ve got so many years left? For the Fishers, death is a constant reminder, but even they tend to forget that simple, hard fact: their lives are a ticking clock. Everyone’s is.
Stray observations:
- It’s a shame that Eric Balfour usually gets cast as minor variations of the same role, because if he’s given a part with a bit of substance he does pretty well.
- Brenda clearly has way too much fun pretending to be recently bereaved.
- Ruth’s knowledge of why you shouldn’t go camping why menstruating? Disturbing.
- With respect to who Ruth’ll end up with, Late Nate’s money is on Nikolai over Hiram. Hmm.
Quotes:
- Nate: “Okay, if you haven’t slept with that guy yet, would you start? Because I think it would do you a world of good.” You and everyone else, Nate.
- Ruth, selling flowers to a spurned lover: “What would you like the card to say?” Spurned lover: “‘Fuck you, cunt.’” Ruth: “I think it would be more personal if you write that.”
- Brenda: “What’s the word for a parent losing a child? I guess that’s just too fucking awful to even have a name.”
- David, on realising that the Ecstasy is gone: “He gave me some pills, and now I’m going to have to say, ‘Sorry, I lost them because I’m this old guy geek and I’m completely uncool in this world in which you seem to thrive, you perfect distillation of human evolution.’” Desparate much, David? (Claire’s reaction: “I like you like this way better!”)
- Late Nate, in Ruth’s Ecstasy-fuelled hallucinogenic forest adventure: “What, you’re hitting on me now? Two guys not enough for you, you slut?” The way he says it, it actually sounds sweet.
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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.