Six Feet Under 3/30/03

Cafe Society
1

Well, Brenda’s return was under-whelming.
I thought sure she’d show up great with child, or with infant in arms, totally unsure WHO the father was. But, no. Just an apology cuz she’s in a 12-step program. What the. . . .?

And now we have David making googly-eyes at a flaming baritone while Keith, the Frustrated Boyfriend, beats up yet another low-life. Oh, dear. Things are really looking bad for these two lovebirds.

The strange art teacher proves to be even weirder than we thought and Claire blows a chance for a good relationship by backing out of the “date” for the Nice Guy Friend’s brothers’ wedding.

Nate’s driving around with a ghost and having the time of his life while Wifey-Dear is sobbing over the charge slip for his drinks with Brenda. Sob more, dearie; your days are numbered.

Ruth snuggles on the steps with Kathy Bates, regretting that Bates’s Bettina is leaving to bail her daughter out of jail in Wyoming or Montana or some place with lots of space and few people. But I did love the two women spying on Weird Walter (or whatever the intern’s name is). However, I think Weird Walter is going to become Ruth’s Surrogate Son before too long. Sharing a frittata is a good first step.

We’re building up to some fireworks here. Let the spectacle begin!

2

The last two episodes have done a lot of building. Nate’s dissatisfaction with his marriage, David and Keith’s very uneasy relationship, Claire inevitably building toward having an affair with her professor, and Ruth’s relationship with Bettina. I am definitely ready for something to break here.

3

They could’ve had Brenda’s triumphant return just be a shot of her changing the toilet paper roll and I’d be thrilled. Nice jeans too. Although the leers she got from the mechanic and the waiter reached comic levels. It’s almost like Cookie from Best in Show. “You look familiar…”

I thought the scenes with Arthur and Ruth were hilarious. It was like two clones conversing with each other.

So Lisa already knew about the drinks with Brenda, why did she cry when she saw the slip? Because it was a reminder? Or because Nate had a shrimp cocktail! And I predict she’s gonna go mental about the mousetraps. I bet we’ll see her crunchy ass crawling around on the floor trying to reason with vermin, soon.

And I really don’t like Claire’s Not Gay friend. That guy’s gonna snap and go into If I Cant Have Her No One Can mode. Freak.

4

“You look . . . home-schooled.” :slight_smile:

I would be seriously uncomfortable with that guy living in my home. If I was a Fisher, I’d have performed a detailed background check, especially with that lovely tidbit about how his parents died in a fire when he was a child. And next week looks to offer some new guy fun.

I thought Brenda’s return was a little anticlimactic too. I thought it was a dream sequence at first. I’m eagerly anticipating scenes between Brenda and her mother. I love Joanna Cassidy in that role.

5

I really think Claire dodged a bullet when she blew off Nice Guy for the professor. To my interpretation, they are presenting Nice Guy as Freaky Stalker in Nice Guy Clothing. See how jealous and dark he gets whenever someone else talks to Claire? I believe Claire is picking up on this, maybe not even sure why… She may be jumping out of the frying pan into the professor’s fire. Affairs with professors generally do not bode well.

6

Wow, I had a completely different interpretation of Claire’s situation. I know that Nice Guy kinda has the piercing stare of a psychopath, but I don’t see him as a stalker. I see him as a chance for Claire to have a possibly mature relationship. OTOH, I thought the professor was driving a wedge between Claire and Nice Guy just so he could get into Claire’s pants. I just find him rather sleazy.

Man, Ruth is getting a little too attached to Bettina. I think she’s starting to cling again. (Literally. Ruth was practically choking her at the top of the stairs.) Kinda like she did with Nikolai.

That guy Arthur is an interesting addition. He seems quirky without being too annoying. And I guffawed when I heard that home schooled line. (I never even knew I could guffaw.)

I know that things don’t look good between Keith and David, but I refuse to acknowledge that because I like Keith so much. :slight_smile:

I am ready for some fireworks between Nate and Lisa. I mean, yes, we see that they’re having problems. They’ve clobbered us with foreshadowing. Gimme a confrontation or something. Brenda’s appearance is a start.

7

I have to confess that I fell asleep about 9:30 PM (was a long weekend for me, what can I say?!), so didn’t see the entire show yet, but here were my impressions, from what I did see:

-the new intern (Arthur?)–he really struck me as the psychopathic type! My first thought when he explained to Rico that his parents died in a fire when he was born was, “uh oh… did he kill them?!” He just seemed off-kilter to me, although who on that show is -on-kilter? :wally

-Claire/Professor/Artist guy–that professor is another strange bird; I’m not picking up on “stalker” vibes from the other art student who obviously likes Claire, though, except I have noticed him muttering beneath his breath; perhaps on the re-viewing tonight I will. I actually -like- that guy, I hope he won’t be a stalker! LOL

-Ruth/Bettina–I was asleep before the scenes w/Bettina, so will have to view that tonight! Ruth definitely has a crush on Bettina, though, imo. Bettina, on the other hand, has her own quirks, doesn’t she now? :smiley: Off-kilter …

-David/Keith–Oh oh… these two are (ahem) coming to a head, I do believe! :eek: (sorry for that pun!) I love Keith, but he really does have anger-management issues. David has issues as well, though! Something is going to happen with regard to the Gay Mens Chorus, I do believe.

-Nate/Lisa/return of Brenda–Only saw a bit of these scenes; Lisa I have always thought to be very off-kilter (as opposed to somewhat…:P); might Maya not be Nate’s child? If anyone was going to be psycho-stalker, I think it would be Lisa, but I could be wrong. I too thought Brenda might turn up pregnant or with a baby on her hip–whose is it?! Nate, as we have seen, is definitely unhappy with Lisa.

Those are my thoughts, for now. :stuck_out_tongue:

8

I hope they don’t decide to have odd Arthur have romantic interludes with the deceased…that is, after all, the one subject they have not yet dealt with on this show about mortuaries. I would be quite happy if they never do.

Or, now that Ruth has burst out of her shell, and Bettina is gone, maybe there will be a May December relationship between Ruth and Arthur. Now THAT would be a wedding to tape!

Brenda’s return was a major letdown…she might as well have walked by on the street and waved hello.

Lisa, on the other hand, is about ready to snap…I smell something big coming out of that direction, and I will not be surprised when the opening of an episode shows LISA, with a smile and a gun…

I think Keith will finally get off his ass and find something he really wants to do with his life - my guess it will not be cop related.

But all in all, this was kind of a blah episode…moving the story along, but without the usually ooomph.

9

I agree. I think things are building up to a breaking point, probably several.
I think Claire’s weird-but-seems nice guy friend is going to go psycho on her before the season’s over. I can see her talking him down from a ledge or something. I think Creepy Professor guy is one episode away from making a move on Claire, also.

I get the feeling that Ruth is going to do a little ‘experimenting’ with her new friend Bettina. She sooo has a crush on her.

I think Keith and David are heading for a breakup/huge blowout. I think David’s gonna hook up with the guy from the Sear’s bathroom and consequently feel guilty enough to tell Keith who in turn completely blows his stack. Or something like that.

Lisa. Oh boy, Lisa. She is ready to go off the deep end bigtime. It’s like watching a train wreck. And about the receipt–I actually think she was looking at the receipt from the record store. There was a pink slip attached and the name of the record store was across the top also. Now, as for why she was crying over it, I have no idea. Because she feels badly about how she’s suffocating him? Or because she’s upset because he is still going out and doing the same things he promised her he would stop doing? Who knows. She’s just nuts.

And Nate–he’s heading for a mid-life crisis. He’s gonna end up back in Brenda’s arms before the season’s over with, I bet.

And what about Creepy Apprentice guy Arthur? Geez, he looked like he stepped off the set of The Twilight Zone. He’s defintely got that Norman Bates vibe going on. My guess is he won’t last long and will be fired for doing something really bizarre and creepy.

10

One thing you have to realize about Nate’s situation is that Rachel Griffiths is still in the credits as a star, and Lili Taylor is there as a guest star. hint, hint :smiley:

Also, I don’t think Claire’s art student friend is a psycho. Sure, he looks jealous and hurt when Claire keeps gravitating toward these complete losers, but who wouldn’t? He likes her a lot, he knows she’s special, but she seems to keep falling in with a bunch of creeps all the time–which leaves the nice guy to wonder why she always opts for abuse instead of devotion and love. I hope they don’t make him a psycho, he reminds me too much of me.

Also, while the apprentice is plenty odd, I hope they don’t make him a total loony either. His eccentricity adds quite a bit of mild humor, and I hope it’s not just a big lead-up to some necrophilia. So, he hasn’t been very socially exposed–it doesn’t make him a sicko. I think he and Ruth will get along surprisingly well.

I hope these last two people aren’t psycho, because there’s enough of that to go around. Lisa’s a powderkeg next to the bonfire, and Rico was having some pretty weird thoughts (that I don’t think will be solved by pushing some of the light workload onto the apprentice). Oh, and there’s Keith. And Brenda (though she may be getting better). And Brenda’s mother. There are plenty of psychos already.

The preview for next week looked very. . .interesting (I know some people don’t like to hear about the previews, so I won’t elaborate–plus I don’t remember many details, so no spoiler box either). Oh wait,

I think the apprentice guy seemed truly weirded out by something that was going on in the Fisher’s lives. That was kind of funny.

11

It was the restaurant/bar, the name on the top of the receipt was “Panic Room” (how appropriate!). The name of the music store was Atomic Records. It had a cool looking space-agey sign, which is why it stuck in my head.

12

I kind of assumed that it was because it clearly showed that he hadn’t had “a drink” with Brenda, but several . He said emphatically that it was one beer, but one beer (or even two) does not a $37 tab make. Other than that, she’s unhinged anyway, and it’s all coming to the surface now.

13

We were wondering about the crying over the sales slip too, so we did a freeze frame on the sales slip.

It seemed to show an espresso, a shrimp cocktail, and a beer (Heineken (sp?) we think) for a total of about 30 bucks, plus a $7 dollar tip. The shrimp cocktail was the lion’s share of it.

So it seemed to show just what Nate said, they had a drink. Unless shrimp cocktail has some special meaning, I guess the crying was just Lisa being brought face to face with Nate’s meeting with Brenda. It still seemed a little odd to us.

14

I thought that Lisa cried over the slip because she had just bitched Nate out about his spending habits. So she tells him he can’t spend money like he’s single anymore, and, in her mind, he responds by spending $37 on drinks with an ex. But I, too, thought it was kinda silly to cry at that moment.

15

With Brenda being the old girlfriend, and Nate and Lisa already on the rocks…I figured she was crying because in retrospect this meeting with Brenda could turn out to be a major turning point for Nate and Lisa, the point where the relationship went from problematic to downright failing, and Lisa just saw it in writing.

16

Where was Nate at the end of the episode? For the life of me I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shot of any part of the Fisher abode that looked like where Nate was. He just opened the door and walked in like it was “home” but it didn’t look like “home” to me. Since nobody else is discussing it, I’m guessing I just missed something though…

17

The whole episode was disappointing, esp. with Brenda’s coming back and not really having much to say. Of course, Nate has even less to say.

The Claire/Olivier (sp?) teaming is a very bad idea. He’s looking for the ego boost of the “pupil seducer” (the whole episode before this one was his ego – oooohh, I’ve seen writing profs like this – let me introduce you to my friend the important writer . … . we’ll get drunk . … . and then I’ll make myself bigger by ripping him apart when he goes to the can). I like her with Russell – they speak the same language. He might be a little strange and intense, but I don’t think he’s stalker material. He’d hurt himself first.

18

Yeah, I think Russell’s just a intensely shy, sensitive guy who desperately wants to be with Claire but has no idea how to go about it. He sees that she’s making a mistake getting close to Olivier and falling for his bullshit, but he’s neurotic about possibly wrecking their freindship to speak out about it.

As for Claire, she sees in Russell the opportunity for a mature relationship with someone who isn’t completely fucked up, so natually she’s got to push him away in favor of the worst possible guy she can hook up with.

19

Is it just me, or is the photography (i.e. lighting) for this years’ episodes darker? For some reason, I’ve been irritated by this and haven’t been able to get into the show this year as I have the past two seasons.

Or maybe I haven’t been able to get into the show so far because Rachel Griffiths hasn’t been around (appeared briefly in episode 5)? While I dislike Brenda as a character, I am absolutely enamoured with Griffiths as an actress. Too bad she’s now married :frowning:

Overall, I haven’t been impressed, but I will admit that the writers have started some interesting storylines. I’m just hoping it won’t take the entire season for some of them to play themselves out (ala the Sopranos).

20

That’s the converted garage/coach house behind the funeral home, where Nate & Lisa are staying. Nate was standing in the driveway in front of it. I believe David lived there before moving in with Keith.

I’ve also noticed the lighting is a little “off” this season. It has a very dream-like quality about it (the disjointed LA street scenes during Claire & teacher’s trip to the mall notwitstanding!). If you subscribe to the “Nate’s dead/in a coma” theory, then this is a major clue.