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Six Feet Under: Twilight

David: "I'm so bored with this kind of unhappiness. I think I'm ready for some new unhappiness."

This episode got to me. It was like everyone was in limbo, an alternate reality. The "Twilight" in the title referred to Claire's chosen form of anesthesia for her abortion, which was described as, "You're not really gone, but you're not really here." Like Lisa.

Nate went through several what-happened-to-Lisa scenarios: running off with a lover, murder, suicide. He finally accepted that Lisa was dead. Which would explain why he was so uncharacteristically cruel to the serial killer's daughter after he had sex with her, like he was taking some sort of unconscious revenge for what might have happened to Lisa. It might also explain why he refused to speak to Brenda. Maybe he was bargaining with God without even thinking about it, as in, if I don't go back to Brenda, maybe Lisa will turn up alive.

Everyone was pretty much ignoring Claire again (understandably) while she went through a major crisis. It was kind of Brenda to be there for Claire... although it was also a way to be close to Nate when Nate wasn't allowing it. But I shouldn't label Brenda as being that calculating. She was all alone and needed to connect. And Claire certainly needed the support, too.

As far as moving into an alternate reality goes, Ruth pretty much took the cake. She just proposed marriage to a complete stranger... who said yes. Lisa's disappearance must have made Ruth determined to do something, to throw herself headlong into a new relationship. And George felt like a real catch... at first. But there were several odd things about him. The biggest of which was the fact that he'd been married six times. And why wasn't his photo on the back of his book? Is he not who he says he is?

George told Ruth about a house he had with a stream running under it. He pulled up the floor and was confronted with the reality of the stream, a treasure that was always there but he had never realized how beautiful it was. I saw that metaphor another way. Like we're all suspended just a foot or two above the rushing, dangerous water of life. Look out, baby.

Bits:

— The serial killer's daughter, whose name I didn't catch, had by far the creepiest tattoo I've ever seen. It showed little stick people going into a pipe, breaking up into bits, moving up under her skirt, and coming out whole on the other side. Karma? Death and rebirth?

— How bizarre, having to bury your serial killer father. How bizarre, to lose your job because you needed to attend your father's execution. She didn't seem to have the brains to feel deeply about it. I thought she was a sociopath, too, but then she fell apart in a big way when Nate was so nasty to her. Poor woman.

— George said that life was going to the hardware store alone. David said it was focusing on getting to the end of the song. For Brenda, it was getting to the "grown up place." Father Jack said that truth and relationships don't make life better, they make life possible.

— George wrote a book on plate tectonics. Shifting reality. You don't expect your reality to change and move, but it does.

— The Gay Men's Chorus was doing "Beautiful Dreamer."

— Nate walked into the bathroom in his briefs, and came out on the beach in a black suit. Lisa was on the beach. It was like he was visiting Lisa in the afterlife.

And pieces:

— "Carl Desmond Williman, 1948-2003." A serial killer spouting furious and obscene invective. Not your usual droll, touching, or bizarre opening death, for sure.

— So Lisa does drink the occasional Dr. Pepper. Hinting that she might not have been talking to a murderous stranger, after all. But she's been gone for two weeks. That's an eternity without word.

— David broke up with Keith. He told Keith some hard truths that included the way Keith constantly put him down and criticized him. (Keith said that David being nice to a stranger was like nails on a chalkboard. Wow.) Patrick is a 180 from Keith. Maybe that will be good for David, until Keith gets his act together.

— Arthur doesn't believe in the death penalty for the same reasons that I don't believe in the death penalty. Although with serial killers, I tend to waffle back and forth over the line.

— Claire had to babysit Maya right before her appointment. Yes, let's make it harder, why don't we? Claire took those funeral flowers, probably for her own little memorial. A baby of Claire's and Russell's would probably have been strange and unusual. Or possibly normal, in order to rebel against its parents.

— The prison guard in the opening death scene was played by Jim Beaver, who has lately played major supporting characters on two other series I like, Deadwood and Supernatural.

Quotes:

David: "Everything I do is too weak or too nice. You don't really like me. You're not for me." That was a hard place for David to go. Good for him.

Ruth: "I guess I do feel like the stars are moving a little faster lately. You know, like in those movies where they speed things up, and the stars stream across the sky in stripes, they're moving so fast."

Rico: "Okay, he is a freaking Dorito. Crunch him. They'll make more."

Ruth: "Get the cordless. I'll help you make sure it stays charged." That was oddly sexy.

Ruth: "To me, the state of California has always been here. But to you, obviously, it's... just stopping by."

George: "Well, you marry six people, a few of them are gonna die. It's the odds."

Nate: "I feel like I had this once-in-a-lifetime chance, and I fucked it up." I don't know. I think Nate could do better than Lisa. He may be beating himself up big time, but he really doesn't love her.

Three stars,

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

2 comments:

  1. Lisa's disappearing act threw the whole family deeply into grief.
    Ruth is reminded that life is short, and fell into a new relationship... I smell con-artist.
    David realized that he's unhappy with Keith (boo :( !) and broke up. Is he really scared Keith might hit him? He sure is moody and nagging all the time. But would he ever cross that line? When Keith returned home earlier this season, before he got his new job, he acted defensively and didn't want to tell where he had been - so I thought Keith was the one cheating.
    Nate is probably beating himself up twice - once for Lisa's disappearance and once for kissing Brenda. I think he's feeling guilty and that is why he's falling apart . Call me cynical, but somehow I can't shake the feeling that Lisa left on purpose to shake him up.
    Poor Claire, her family is never there for her when she needs them :( Brenda showed a grown-up, less selfcentered side of her when she helped Claire... a hint that she has a motherly side? (For Maya??) or is it her need to nurse and fix people (Billy, Nate)?

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  2. The white out screen after Claire's anesthesia seemed to echo the white screens we see after each death, but with no name, for the end of her unborn baby's life.

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