Episode Report Card M. Giant: A | 3 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Dead and Buried
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 12 | Aired on 08.20.2005
Cut to the dining room, where everyone's sitting around the table reminiscing about Nate. Claire recalls the Ecstasy incident, and Anthony asks what Ecstasy is. "It's medicine," David explains, and everyone laughs. Brenda remembers Nate groping her at that dinner, and Ruth says she remembers walking in on them in much more compromising positions. Brenda laughs that they're not getting into that with "younger ears at the table." "What? Tell me!" Durrell says. "What, tell me," Bettina adds. David brings up a story about when Nate was a junior in high school, and he'd started a new wave band with the guy who ran over himself in "Dancing for Me" and their idiot buddy. David describes Nate's giant eighties hair, and he remembers sitting next to Nate at the table and noticing that a spider had spun a web in Nate's hair. Everyone laughs. David says he didn't say anything at the time, because of how cool Nate wanted to be. "And I wanted him to be that cool. I wanted him to be the coolest brother anybody had ever had." There's a long silence. George steps up to his traditional role of taking over when David trails off, and raises his wine glass, saying, "To Nate." Ruth smiles at him. David raises his red wine and responds, "To Nate." "To Nate," Bettina toasts with her tumbler. "To Nate," says Claire with her red wine. "To Nate," says Keith, at the foot of the table with something with a slice of fruit in a highball glass, easily the gayest drink at the table. "To my first-born," Ruth says with her red wine. "To Uncle Nate," say Anthony and Durrell, with their water and milk, respectively. Brenda says to Maya, "Can you say, 'To Daddy'?" "To Daddy," Maya says, hoisting a nearly empty bottle of Night Train. Not really. Finally, Brenda says, "To Nate," and sips her whisky or whatever. Everyone drinks. Moment of silence. "May he rest in peace," David says. Fade to white.
Where Nate pops onto my screen in a white suit and aviator shades, lip syncing "I Just Want to Celebrate" by Rare Earth, I think. For a second, it's like they're saying, "This is how the show would end if it were 7th Heaven," but it's just Claire being woken up by the classic rock station on her clock radio. She hits the snooze button to go back to sleep, but Nate, who's in the room with her, wearing his jogging outfit and lacing up his running shoes, isn't having it. "Everybody's waiting," he says, and heads out.