Episode Report Card Aaron: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Dia De La Muerta
By Aaron | Season 2 | Episode 12 | Aired on 05.18.2002
Over the past two seasons, I've variously described Six Feet Under as a show with one foot in the grave, both hands on the bong, its mouth in the gutter, and its eyes on the prize. The show's heart, however, has long been beating in the mixed-up, fucked-up, and until now never-before-broken-up bond between Brenda and Nate. While Claire ricocheted from Gabe's guns to Billy Batty and David do-si-do-ed with Hoedown Hos and Little White Sex Dorks, Nate and Brenda have remained our only cosmic constant. They are Six Feet Under's yin and its yang, its liar and its whore, its harlot and its prodigal son. And like all epic tales before it, theirs has a hero and a villain, lovers and betrayal, and its roots firmly planted in The Greatest Story Ever Told. Hmm. Does any of this sound familiar?
"But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of the wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid." -- Judges 15:1
"And Delilah said unto Samson, 'Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies.'" -- Judges 16:10
"So he told her everything. 'No razor has ever been used on my head…If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.'" -- Judges 16:17
"And now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber." -- Judges 16:9
"With such nagging she prodded him day after day until his soul was vexed unto death." -- Judges 16:16
The Lord sure does work in mysterious ways, doesn't he? And by "Lord," I don't mean Alan Ball, by the way. And so on a night when SFU faced its stiffest competition yet (the Survivor season finale, The X-Files forever finale, and a Cosby Show reunion), the show's renewed faith in the Good Book rewards our own faith in the show with a perfectly plot-tastic penultimate episode. And they even threw in a week's vacation for your recapper! God's love is truly infinite.
And now, on with the recap!
La primera escena de esta semana fue grabada completamente en español. Un peluquero muy parecido a Hank Azaria con un "mullet" baila en su salon mientras está atendiendo a sus clientes. Si te fijas en el fondo de la escena, podemos ver a una señora viejita sentada abajo de una secadora de pelo. Cuando la vemos en la primera escena, ella todavia está con vida, pero cuando Hank Con Mullet regresa a atenderla, ya se había muerto. Adios, Leticia Perfecta Perez. Por lo menos usted falleció con un buen peinado.
We fade back up on a slow, Sex and The City-style pan across some pornographic pandering on Brenda's Powerbook. A closely-framed brain shot reveals that Nate is finally getting to read his "fiancée"'s "novel." Brenda walks up behind him, not looking at all surprised to see him reading. "Hey, Encyclopedia Brown," she says. "You snooping?" Encyclopedia Brown? Is that a shout-out? Because I used to love those books when I was a kid. Nate replies that he found the computer open on the counter, and proceeds to quote some sample dialogue: "'Fuck me harder, Surfer Boy! With your fat little crooked cock and your please-tell-me-you're-not-serious shaved balls.'" Shaved balls? Is that a shout-out? Because I used to…just kidding. Sort of. Besides, the real shout-outs aren't for another few pages. The point here is that Brenda is once again continuing in her subconscious quest to get caught. First she left her Bathroom Boink's book out on the coffee table where Nate would be sure to see it, and now she's got him reading the world's worst romance novel. It's actually pretty typical Brenda behavior, when you think about it. I mean, why show your significant other the common courtesy of actual face-to-face honesty when it's so much easier to just scatter about a few thinly veiled fictionalizations in the hope of avoiding any actual conflict? At least Nate had the maturity and the (obviously unshorn) balls to come clean with his issues, albeit belatedly. Brenda, on the other hand, is clearly so self-obsessed at this point that she can barely even tolerate his existence, as evidenced when she reminds Nate in the most patronizing tone possible, "I don't care if you like it, I didn't write it for you." And people wonder why Brenda is perceived as the bad guy here. Anyway, Nate also reads aloud some expositional information about the fictional Buttfuck, namely that he wears a yin-yang hat and says "late" a lot. That'll be important later. He then says that he thinks Brenda's still mad at him about Lisa, and that she's "getting back at [him] by writing about [her] and someone else." "It's not that simple," she replies, in the understatement of the new millennium. "I started…writing this long before I found out about you and Lisa." Feel free to mentally substitute "fucking anything with two legs" for "writing this" in that last sentence. "So tell me," asks Nate, "what else is in that computer? Or this computer?" he adds, stroking her forehead. Oy. Not only is that a complete clunker of a line, but now he's got me thinking about the contents of Brenda's mental hard drive, and that's a very scary place to be. She's probably got at least half a dozen gigs of porn in there, not to mention her drug dealer's phone number and a half-written letter to The Vine complaining about how "Ned" just doesn't understand her sometimes. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go reformat my brain.
When I get back, we've moved on to The International House Of Mancakes. It's a happy family breakfast with David, Keith, and Taylor, and Taylor's two dads are gently trying to explain that they're having a special visitor the next day, so it's important that Taylor be on her best behavior. "Oh, you mean a social worker," she says. "I've had them before. This past year we had Mr. Shipley. He smelled like Fritos and coughed a lot." Hey! There's nothing wrong with that! Crunch. Flick. Ahhhh. "Me and mom used to call him 'Shit For Brains,'" she continues, prompting Keith to give her a long lecture about language before sending her off to brush her teeth. Once she's gone, David delivers a lecture of his own, babbling about building trust and the "whole-child theory." It's actually kind of confusing, especially when you consider that if there's one thing you'd think David would associate with good parenting, it'd be warnings about foul language. After Keith helpfully reminds us that their chances at gaining custody are dependent on his being cleared for shooting that junkie, the scene comes to a quiet close.