Episode Report Card Sobell: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Get out, Nate. Seriously.
By Sobell | Season 3 | Episode 7 | Aired on 04.12.2003
Instead, we get Nate reading the paper in the Fisher kitchen and saying, "Fuck." Maybe Nate finally tore his eyes away from the funnies and checked out the news the rest of us were getting. Or maybe that's just his reaction to reading about the death of the man who would have been his father-in-law. Within moments, he's calling Lisa at her food zoo and telling her that Brenda's father died and "I was wondering if it'd be okay with you if I went to" -- Claire interrupts, slurping loudly on a straw (insert your own image of Aaron pining to come back as that straw in his next life) -- "I was wondering if it'd be okay with you if I went to his funeral?" As if we didn't have enough proof of how screwed up Nate and Lisa's relationship is, he now has to ask permission before going to Bern's funeral? Is he aware that even half-functional adults don't require their partners to slog through that kind of hogwash? Nate tries to sway the argument with, "It's just, she was there with me when my father died." He does not add, "And I mean with me. In a closet." In a rare moment of non-psychosis, Lisa urges Nate to go to the funeral, and adds, "So you'll leave Maya with your mom?" Nate's just so giddy to be let off the leash, he's all, "I'll figure something out!" Lisa passes on some instructions with regards to Maya's digestive tract (verily, the Fisher family has gastrointestinal issues), and Nate, still riding high on his permission to go to a funeral, replies with, "I love you." Lisa loves him too. He asks if she's having fun, and she replies, "Not yet," before hanging up. You know, I remember when we first met Lisa in Seattle; she seemed kind of dopey with her longstanding crush on Nate, but still reasonably capable of enjoying herself. And now, she is just the black hole of fun, with a gravitational vortex capable of sucking (and sucking, and sucking) everything enjoyable out of any situation.
After Nate clicks off, he and Claire sync on the situation, and she comments on the ephemeral nature of life and death with, "That sucks." Nate fills us all in on how the funeral's in Malibu in a few hours, and he's heading up to check it out. He then asks where Ruth is so he can line up the free babysitting. Claire tells him she has no idea where Ruth is; Ruth evidently told Claire she had an urgent need to go out and get a new gardening hat. Claire adds, "She seemed kind of weird." "How can you tell when Mom's weird?" replies Nate. "Good point," Claire allows. Nate then asks Claire if she'll watch Maya, and offers her all of $20 to disrupt her day's plans. Claire shoots him down with, "You know, this isn't the Matrix. The rest of us, who don't have babies? We're real." She's out of the room and off to the art store with Russell, and she makes a great exit, muttering, "Watch my baby, watch my baby...Jesus Christ." Nate tosses a few gratuitous "fuck"s around -- nobody should be surprised when that's Maya's first word -- as he tries to line up babysitting.