I’m curious on everyone’s take on a certain scene. Right before David dies, he sees Keith. I took it as Keith showing up because it was David’s time. An article in my local paper comments on this with “Nate’s brother David died years later as an old man, remembering his lover Keith as young and strong”. Was he rememebering Keith or was it Keith coming for him?
Lots of emotion when I think about that scene.
My only nitpick on this final episode was Claire, DRIVING to New York. I suppose it is something a young, foolish Californian would do, but taking a car to Manhattan is simply idiotic, for lots and lots of reasons. For dramatic effect, OK…but in reality, a really dumb thing to do.
Otherwise, I think this ranks as one of the all-time, best series finales I have ever seen. It worked on so many levels, and left nothing more to be said.
I wonder why in Federico’s obit they had to say he went to “Cyprus College” instead of its proper name “Cypress College”. They spelled the other school names correctly.
Heads up – Alan Ball will be doing a final 6FU interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross (NPR) today (Tuesday) at 11 CST.
This is a great thread and I’m really enjoying it, but I think you’re all forgetting one burning question:
Does anyone have any screencaps of Nate doing “I Just Wanna Celebrate”?
I need new wallpaper.
I agree with your take: Keith was waiting for David, the same way Nathaniel Sr. and Nate were waiting for Ruth when she was on her death bead.
Weren’t one or two of those pictures ones that had been taken with Ted in 2005 at the beginning of this episode? I saw at least one that looked like a self portrait taken in bed by holding the camera overhead.
What sort of a place was that where they were married?
Why? If I were 22 again, setting out on such a venture, I’d much rather drive my own car coast-to-coast, setting my own route, than just get on a plane. At that age, what’s dramatically right may seem more important than practical considerations.
It would be comforting to think that dead people we loved are still existing in some form, waiting to welcome us. I don’t believe that in real life, and also don’t think it’s true in the “Six Feet Under” universe.
One thing I just remembered – in the scene where Claire is saying goodbye (which is already in the future: late November or early December), David has already had the name of the business changed back to just “Fisher & Sons” (based on the sign in the front yard). Unless I’m wrong – didn’t it say “Fisher & Sons & Diaz” while Rico was a partner?
While Rico was a partner, it said just “Fisher & Diaz.”
There were no " & sons" after Nathaniel died, it was Nate and David and Rico.
If you missed Terry Gross’s interview with Alan Ball today, it’ll be archived at www.npr.org soon. Gross is a fan, and she asked some good questions. Was Nate Maya’s biological father? What happened between Hoyt and Lisa? Was Nate really going to leave Brenda? Was Nate in love with Maggie?
What was the answer to this one? I’ve seen lots and lots of speculation that Hoyt may have been Maya’s father, but Lisa was in Seattle when she got pregnant. Nate and Claire came up to get a body (episode “Driving Mr. Mossback”) and he had a seizure, he told her about the AVM and they ended up sleeping together. That was when she got pregnant.
She didn’t start the thing with Hoyt till she was down in LA, right? He lived farther north (from LA) in California, but she wasn’t driving down from Seattle to screw around with him, was she?
I’m with you – it never entered my head that Maya wasn’t Nate’s.
Ball said he didn’t know if Nate was Maya’s biological father, but that in all other respects, he was. (Or something like that.)
Apparently the writers fooled around with this question enough that Ball thought it was a possibility, because he didn’t answer with a definitive Yes, or “What made you think he wasn’t?”.
Stoid you absolutely must read “The Denial of Death” by Ernest Becker. The central thesis is that mankind’s most crippling neurosis is its denial of mortality. It’s a masterpiece. It won the Pulitzer and I believe its also happens to be on Bill Clinton’s list of top ten books (not that it matters).
That was beyond weird. My first thought was “tell me this isn’t the credits.”
What years did each character die? The HBO site doesn’t list any but Claire’s, and I don’t remember from the show.
Look here for the death dates and circumstances.
I thought that was what I was seeing but it was so quick I wasn’t sure.
Oooh yes indeed.
Add me to the list of people who were incredibly moved by this episode. I cried for the last 20 minutes solid. My boyfriend, who has never seen a single episode of 6FU before, was also crying. Pretty impressive.
I don’t care if it was “wrap-uppey” or too pat. I also want to know what happens to characters after shows end, and I love it that this show left no room for such questions. I guess I’m giving this finale an uncritical, emotion-laden thumbs all the way up. It was perfect.
I just saw it (thanks DVR). Very good episode. Yes, it did suffer from the bane of final episodes that things get ‘wrapped up in a nice package like never happens in real life’ phenomenon, but there isn’t any other way to do things. It was pretty solid for the first 60 minutes, but the real star was what I like to call the “second final episode” which was that BRILLIANT 15 minutes at the end. What a perfect way to end a show.
Some observations:
Yes, I did notice that Anthony seemed to be gay at Claire and Ted’s wedding. Also it seemed Durrell had a pregnant wife and a kid (two sons) to continue Fisher & Sons (it seemed like Durrell followed David in. They all flanked David, who was then the patriarch of the family. It was a very wonderful scene, IMO.
Claire’s death. It seemed there was someone sitting on the chair next to her as she was in the bed, dying. Did anyone seem to notice that it seemed like she had pretty thick cataracts on her eyes when she died. Kind of ironic for a photographer.
Ted’s reappearance was interesting. I saw it as Ted had married and divorced early (not unusual for lawyers in big firms). He saw Ruth had died and decided to go down (I wondered who that person walking up behind David and Durrell during Ruth’s funeral was).
Speaking of Ruth’s funeral, it seemed that George was really griefstriken over it (in the second we saw his reaction). Seemed they worked out well until the end.
I would have liked to seen how Billy (how did he live that long anyway?) and George died though… and what Maya ended up doing.