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5.2 Dancing for Me David: "He was run over?" Nate: "Yeah, he ran over himself." David: "How do you do that?" Nate: "I have no idea." Ruth sabotaged her chances of being happy with George with her anger over old issues. David sabotaged Keith's baby plans because he wanted to adopt, instead. Billy sabotaged himself by not accepting what being unmedicated does to him. Nate's old friend Tom wanted his youth back and translated that longing into an inappropriate yen for underage girls. Has illness, his wife's murder, and working at the funeral home really changed Nate, who used to run from death? With his fortieth birthday approaching, Nate told Tom that he'd been through so much that he was just happy to be alive, that if you're not happy, change your life. But wasn't Nate deeply unhappy about his job not that long ago? That whole conversation felt uncomfortably of foreshadowing. I'm very aware that the end of the series is approaching, and I've always had the feeling that Nate would die. I was right about Keith wanting Claire's free range eggs. That surreal egg fantasy wasn't as good as their usual dream/fantasy sequences, it was sort of over-the-top creepy. Yes, I got it; David's insecurities again, worry that Claire and her eggs, or even a baby, would take Keith away from him. Instead of giving it a fair shot, David talked Claire out of donating her eggs even before she had a chance to consider it. I think if he had approached her differently she would have said yes, although it seemed doubtful that she could stop getting high long enough. The Claire/Billy stuff felt like self-sabotage, too, like trying to recapture youth. Claire was forcing herself to do more collage when she wanted to move forward; it made her seem like a failure at twenty-one. And Billy, teaching but not creating art, medicated to the point where sex was sometimes impossible, felt the loss of his youth and promise. I knew he'd stop taking his meds again at some point, and bingo. I almost can't blame him. I said almost. George was trying so hard to get his marriage back, but Ruth had completely closed down. All she could see was that she had inadvertently married her grandmother. The two of them finally imploded in front of Maggie. When they asked Maggie to stay, it felt like a return to season one when Nathaniel died and Ruth asked Nate to stay in Los Angeles. Apparently, Ruth makes a habit of asking other people to completely restructure their lives for her whenever she experiences a huge life crisis. More about meaning: -- I think Margaret has softened toward Brenda because Brenda finally chose Margaret's profession. I can't believe I didn't think of that before. I should have thought of it. The only time my musician grandfather ever liked me or spoke to me was when I was taking piano. -- Claire was planning to expand her previous collage work by doing the whole world in fragments. -- Along with the eggs and adoption stuff, there was a lot interrupted sex. Billy couldn't finish with Claire. Nate and Brenda were trying to make a baby and got interrupted by Maya. George walked in on Rico and Sharon. -- Ruth and Maggie had a long conversation with George asleep between them. I think that represented that the two of them were making decisions about George's life without actually including him, like he was a child. Bits and pieces: -- "Samuel Wayne Hoviak, 1965-2004". -- Dealing with death literally every day of his life, Rico would of course think that something had happened to Sharon. That was rude of her to just not answer his calls. -- Rico's fiasco with Sharon drove home the point that it's not all that easy to start fresh. Rico changed direction and started pursuing Vanessa. Not a surprise. -- Maya got lines again. Like "Hi, Mommy," and the title of the episode. Quotes: George: "Do you know what they call an Italian hooker?" (Ruth was unamused) George: "A pasta-tute." Margaret: "Really, Brenda. Let me find you a better internship, one that's more suited to your talents. I hate to let the fact that I've slept with half of southern California's psychiatric academia go to waste." David: "Even if it all worked out, there would be the weirdness of having a niece that you're also the mother of." Claire: "Yeah. That's really kind of creepy." David: "It could make Thanksgiving dinners a little awkward." Nate: "I really get it now that this doesn't last, and I'm no different from anybody else. Yes, indeed, this will happen to me. It is happening to me a little bit each day. And that doesn't freak me out. If anything, it's liberating." George: "All I have to look forward to is a fucking bowl of ice cream. And I can't even get that!" This episode got to me. A lot of Six Feet Under gets to me. Everything seems possible when we're eighteen, but we grow older. Our energy level drops, our choices dwindle. We're probably never going to go skydiving after all, or meet a handsome stranger on the streets of Paris in the spring, or have a fabulous career in New York. When my sister died tragically and way too soon, it changed me. From that point on, it was easy to see death coming for me. I wish I had Nate's zen-like attitude about it, but I don't. But fortunately, I don't feel like his friend Tom did, either. Anyway. Four stars, Billie View all comments or post a comment. |
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