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Six Feet Under: Brotherhood

Ruth: "I don't know why I was so nervous. For heaven's sake, I gave birth to those people."

With a title like "Brotherhood," it had to be about siblings. At the beginning of this episode, Nate and David were still at each other's throats. In the end, Nate told David he loved him.

Nate and David had a serious dilemma: do what Paul, the surviving brother, wanted to do, or carry out Victor's final wishes. One could argue that it certainly wouldn't matter to Victor now, and Paul felt so strongly about it, so angry with the Army that had taken Victor's life. But Nate's compulsion to carry out Victor's final wishes turned out to be the right thing to do.

David continued to lie to himself. Clark, the prospective minister, opened up to David and told him his true plans for the church, and David chose to reject him and make the conservative, safe choice instead. Yes, David was reflecting what he thought the congregation would have wanted, but I think this again served to show that David didn't belong there. David was still trying to remake himself into something he wasn't.

As usual, Ruth provided the comic relief. She's now bringing one of her suitors home for dinner, and working for the other. Nate's, David's, and Claire's... what would you call them? Fantasy projections? of Ruth talking dirty and having sex with Hiram in the kitchen were very amusing. They also had a certain shock value.

Speaking of shocking... in contrast to the genuine love we saw between Paul and Victor as well as Nate and David, we had the total and utter creepiness of Brenda's brother, Billy. He deliberately walked in on Nate and Brenda in bed. That was no accident; they were outright loud, and he had to have heard them. And then he stood there and kept talking to them, when nearly anyone else would have apologized and left. Billy's "gift basket" of sex toys was inappropriate, and so hostile. And then Billy got himself in a state in order to ruin their weekend together, and I'm sure it was deliberate.

Billy sucks the life right out of Brenda. He was deliberately sabotaging her relationship with Nate. Brenda was enabling the hell out of him, too.

Bits:

— The Opening Death was about two brothers wanting the best for each other, but not communicating in a painful way. (Nate and David.) It was also about lying to yourself in order to live with a bad choice that you made, which probably applied most to David.

— Ruth took a job at the florist's, and realized that flowers would no longer mean death. Ruth's life is no longer just about coping with death, too.

And pieces:

— "Victor Wayne Kovitch, PFC, 1971-2001." Sad.

— Nate told Brenda he loved her. She was taken aback.

— Nate has headaches. He said that exposure to formaldehyde gave him a brain tumor. One of Billy's photos was of a hooker with a tumor. Two tumor mentions in ten minutes.

— Claire was unintimidated by algebra. She just wouldn't do it. She was also unintimidated by algebra teachers. Claire wants a life less ordinary. She's emotionally strong; she may actually succeed in getting one.

— We learned that Billy and Brenda got their Nathaniel and Isabel tatts in Vegas when they were drunk.

— Rico got a call from Gilardi. This can't be good.

— The cemetery that Nate and Dave walked through at the end of the episode was the national cemetery in west L.A., near Sepulveda and Wilshire. It's huge. I drive past it a lot.

Quotes:

Brenda: "Well, your mom walked in on us once, so I guess we're even."
But that was accidental, Brenda.

Ruth: "Is this a school trip?"
Claire: "No, you go to the mountains and confront fear and get in touch with your most basic self. It looks good on your college application."
But Claire deliberately blew her PSATs. This had nothing to do with college applications, did it?

Brenda: "Nate, you need to take a break. Some major stress release that's not me."

Three stars? There aren't many episodes of this series that aren't at least three stars,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

1 comment:

  1. Brotherhood felt a lot darker than the episodes before. The subject "identity" was handled more por-active by the women in the family. Ruth and Claire are a lot alike, even they don't see that themselves. They're impulsive and sometimes crass, but both take steps to get out of their current situation. Ruth by taking up a job with Nicolai (oh my!) and Claire by bombing deliberatly her psat...or was that a daydream? Maybe that trail trip will do her some good. She definately dodged a bullet with Billy. Him and Brenda really look a lot alike.
    It seems like Keith and David are really over, what a shame. Is that why he's regressing, for lack of a better word? With Keith, he seemed halfway comfortable in his own skin, without him not so much.
    There was a lot of intruding and walking in on people happening. Billy walked in on Brenda and Nate, Nate accidently saw David's porn. Claire thought she interrupted her mother in the kitchen and the girls in the study room. The fellow soldiers videobombed the dead soldier's tape.

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