Six Feet Under - Series Finale - 8/21

[FairyChatMom]

David just sorta keeled over at a family picnic/reunion/gathering.

I guess I was more into this show than I’d thought - last night I dreamed I was with George when he died…

I’m glad and sorry it’s over. But I don’t know if I can watch it in reruns - maybe some day.

[Baldwin]

BobT:

According to the LA Times, the song playing at the end was “Breathe Me” by Sila.

Thanks! I checked on iTunes, and apparently they won’t sell you just that song; you have to buy the whole album (“Six Feet Under: Everything Ends”). Nuts; I thought the whole point of music on the Internet was that you didn’t have to buy a whole album to get the specific songs you wanted.

[Baldwin]

(And to reiterate BobT’s correction, that’s Sia, not Sila.)

[ouryL]

Did one of the sons become an undertaker too?

[ouryL]

@BobT

Were we supposed to get the impression that David and Keith’s sons were going to go in to the funeral business?

During the mother’s funeral, we see one son sitting with Keith, the other standing with David…

[ouryL]

@AuntiePam

It’s 11 pm CST – by the time I’m done typing, west coasters will have seen the show, so no spoiler box.

The only thing I didn’t like was how Rico was written in this ep. His rant at David was so out-of-character, I thought for a minute it was a fantasy sequence. The writers made it seem like Rico was trying to rip David off, or gouge him, when all he wanted was what was rightfully his. The Diaz family dinner scene continued with that – it was like they got away with something. The only thing missing was Rico and Vanessa gleefully rubbing their hands together.

And the writers could have let him go with a bit more dignity, IMHO.

I read somewhere that a reviewer called Keith’s death racist. I’m not finely attuned to racism and others may see it differently, but I’ve never seen any racism in the writing in this show.

I do think maybe the writers felt they needed at least one violent, shocking death to wind things up, and Keith’s background in law enforcement and security made him the best candidate.

I doubt any of the actors had to try real hard to cry while filming this, especially Frances Conroy and Lauren Ambrose.

No Rico was in character. The rant was long in coming.

[ouryL]

@BiblioCat

I’m with Stoid. I loved it. I especially loved the end with everyone’s deaths.
I didn’t quite get the reasoning for Claire to lose the photo-house job, but I guess it was a device for Nate to show up and tell her to leave anyway.

What reference was there to a pregnancy? Like Cyros said, she’s a pharmecuetical sales rep, that’s why she was in a doctor’s office.

BobT, yes, I believe it was Durrell that followed David into the funeral business. There was that quick shot of him watching David prepare a body while David explained what he was doing, and then we saw him again at one of the funerals (Ruth’s?).

Ironically, the son that was the least accepting of David, initially.

[ouryL]

@Mr. Goob

Well we didn’t get the big explosion with fire death and mahem killing everybody like some of us had hoped for. Over the last few weeks I was getting really sick of most of the family.

I was happy that Ruth and and Brenda came together about help raising the girls. Margaret should have been ashamed of herself tossing the stuffed monkey off the chair after Ruth gave it back. During the flash forward scene when David and Kieth got married, what was a little older Maya had the monkey on her lap, so there!

I assume that car Claire drove off in was a hybred, funny going from the Caddy to that. I wonder how much was in the trust fund? If Nate and David each got a share of the business, Claire must have had a pretty good pile of money to go to NY with.

Dinner at the remodeled house, that was Nate’s real funeral. I’m surprised he was lurking in the background.

I was really stunned at the date Claire dies (I was so hoping to see her nekkid for a moment when she was in bed with the lawyer) she will be 102.

A bit sad that she was the last of the Fishers so they show her alone.

[ouryL]

@Johnny L.A.

Not really. Most people die boring deaths.

I liked Claire driving through the desert. First, I lived in the desert for 11 years. As much as I like trees and cool and rain, there’s something magical about deserts. The emptiness, the harshness, loneliness… all hiding life that flourishes. And dramatically it showed that Claire was starting her life anew. No family around, no comfortable city, no friends or teachers or cube dwellers. She was finally on her own.

I’m not surprised that they showed how the characters died. It’s become a cliché. But I think that this old gimmick was done better than I’d ever seen it done before.

I do wish they had shown what happened to Gabe though.

Yes, but they are in the funeral business. Death is a major theme.

[Stoid]

@ouryL

Yes, but they are in the funeral business. Death is a major theme.

Exactly. There was nothing REMOTELY cliched about that ending, and it was the PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT way to end the series! The more I think about it, the more it moves me and excites me because it was so beautifully done and so exquisitely appropriate!

I have never seen a more moving, poignant, meaningful, beautiful, funny and perfect expression of this universal, inescapable, exciting and painful truth:

** Everything Changes, and Everybody Dies. ** If we could just keep these simple facts at the forefront of our consciousness, and remain emotionally in touch with them, the world in general and our lives individually would be vastly improved. We’d certainly see less time and energy devoted to stupid, meaningless bullshit.

I am more emotional about this show and this episode than your average bear because it goes right to the center of the overriding angst of my life: an exceptionally acute awareness of death, and an accompanying acute and persistent anger and grief about it, as well as an equally acute appreciation of even the dumbest moments in life because of it. And i get to have all that for no apparent reason, which is what makes it especially interesting. It’s not like I lost a sibling or a parent young, or battled or watched anyone else baattle a deadly disease…I don’t have any idea why I’m this way, I just am.

All this to say, Alan Ball blew me away first with “American Beauty”, which explored exactly the same themes, and left me just as wrung out. (Loved the whole movie, but the final monologue from the Spacey character killed me, along with the baggie movie), and I consider this finale American Beauty X10.

Alan Ball rocks my world. I wish I had the words to express how much.

[BobT]

@ouryL

A bit sad that she was the last of the Fishers so they show her alone.

Clare was the last Fisher of that generation, but Nate has two daughters and David has two sons.

[BiblioCat]

Did we ever find out what Anthony and Durrell’s last name was? Charles or Fisher? Some sort of hyphenate of the two?

And Willa’s name on the title card was Willa Fisher Chenowith. Brenda gave her her last name and Nate’s last name as a middle name. I found that interesting.

[BobT]

The credits always had the boys listed as “Anthony” and “Durrell”

[Hanna]

@BiblioCat

Did we ever find out what Anthony and Durrell’s last name was? Charles or Fisher? Some sort of hyphenate of the two?

The obits on the Six Feet Under site lists them as Anthony and Durrell Charles-Fisher.

I cried my eyes out over this espisode; I don’t know if it was from the sadness of the ending or the fact the series is over. In a way I had been hoping for a reunion show in a few years. I will miss Six Feet Under.

[Dewey_Finn]

Thanks for the link to the “official” obituaries, which included some more details on the characters’ lives. For example, David had another partner after Keith and Brenda went on to do academic work in the field of child development.

[Marley23]

@Stoid

Exactly. There was nothing REMOTELY cliched about that ending, and it was the PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT way to end the series! The more I think about it, the more it moves me and excites me because it was so beautifully done and so exquisitely appropriate!

Right. Aside from the rather cheesy makeup, I liked that you could see it as “what really happened” or Claire’s imagination, and something about the way it was all reflected in her eyes was very nice.

[alphaboi867]

@ouryL

A bit sad that she was the last of the Fishers so they show her alone.

Who was that women in the room with her? I thought it was a nurse, but could it have been her (great)grandaughter?

[constantine]

Um,

I’m not sure what to say.

I think this is the best series ever. I can’t even think how to respond to this last episode. I cried more watching this show than I’ve cried in a long time.

I will miss this show.

[KSO]

I just watched the last 10 minutes or so again. Cried my eyes out again. Just an amazing 70 minutes of television.

[Stinkum]

The ending of this show was extremely well done. The scenes with Claire and Ruth were heartbreaking. Ruth just kept peeling back layers of grief until there was nothing left but herself – brave. I didn’t quite understand David’s sudden change of heart about selling the home, but then, I’ve always thought he couldn’t make up his mind about much of anything.
And Brenda did a 180 on everyone. She finally got it: it isn’t about her. Yeah! A little late, but I’ll take it. Her death was almost comical, with Billy ranting on and on about “emotional closure” – perfect.
Olivier cracked me up singing silly songs to Willa, with twitchy Billy in the background staring out the window (for Claire?). They are so nuts.
Seeing Nate in the rearview mirror running after her brought me to uncontrollable sobbing.
Loved the scene at the dog day care with Ruth and Bettina lobbing tennis balls at the dogs from the patio. She learned about “flow” finally
Claire wasn’t alone when she died, I think. The photos on the wall that represented the people she loved, they were with her.
I’m going to seriously miss this show.