Episode Report Card Aaron: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Dead Again
By Aaron | Season 2 | Episode 1 | Aired on 03.02.2002
Alan Ball: You see, it's funny because when he talks about "the flow," you think he means…
Lazarus: The Big O.
Alan Ball: Yeah. But then it's really all about him dying.
Lazarus: Yeah. We get it. Because you guys are always so sneaky with all that equating sex to death stuff.
Alan Ball: Would you prefer sex and free meat?
Lazarus: Are you kidding? That would be, like, my best date ever.
Hey, there's The Butcher again. It seems Claire and Gabe have gone to see Li'l Miss Slash 'n' Sniff's movie. When Gabe realizes that the star is one of the Fishers' clients, he feels compelled to mention how hot she is. Claire is appropriately disgusted.
Meanwhile, back at the house, Nate is beginning to crash. He flips channels on the TV, coming across a few movies, an infomercial, and a bunch of hamsters having a dinner party. Apparently, the hamster thing is actually a real show, so props to whoever on the editing staff managed to dig up that clip. After hearing some mysterious laughter from another room, Nate gets up from the sofa, and The Ominous Music Of An Impending Dream Sequence kicks in as he enters a plushly decorated room to find The Late Nate and two others playing a game of Chinese checkers. And actually, The Ominous Music Of An Impending Dream Sequence in this scene sounds a lot like The Ominous Techno Music Of Sydney's About To Kick Someone's Ass that's always playing on that OTHER Sunday-night show, so at first I was little confused.
The Late Nate invites his boy in, and introduces his friends. First up is Death, played by Stanley Kamel, a smarmy-looking businessman in a fancy suit. And the other is Life, who is played, as apparently always, by a jolly black woman. Um, which casting director decided that God could only ever be played by cheerful African-African women? I'm serious. Did I miss a memo on that or something? ["Could be worse. Could be Alanis Morissette." -- Sars] Nate is shocked to learn that Dad has been hanging out with both Life and Death, but Life (hereafter known as The Fat Black Sex God) points out that it's "a whole yin-yang thing." "Let's just say it's a mutually beneficial arrangement," adds Death. Dad invites Nate to join the game, and Death again scores points by mentioning the episode title (SttM = 2,719) when he says, "You're either in the game, or you're out of it." "On or off the bus, if you prefer," clarifies The Late Nate, to much amusement on my part. Nate sits down, agrees to bet "everything" on the outcome, and makes his first move. I have absolutely no idea how Chinese Checkers is played, so I won't be providing any play-by-play on the game itself. But that's actually okay, because they only manage a few more moves before Death starts showing off by adding the spliced-in sound of a lion's roar to his dialogue track. Apparently impressed with his growling skills, The Fat Black Sex God asks, "Do you want to fuck me, puppethead?" Then they jump up, head over to another chair, and start wildly humping each other. Yeah. Uh, okay. You had me up until here, Alan, but this is where it crossed the line. Anytime I start looking around expecting a midget to come out and start talking backwards, you know you've got a problem. Nate slides over to Dad, who informs him that they're watching "a big cosmic mystery, right here, right in front of you. Can't say your old man never took you anyplace interesting." Nate repeats over and over again that he knows he's high, but it doesn't help. We keep cutting back to Life and Death schtupping anyway. ["His disciples say unto him, 'Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?'" -- John 11:8] "All that lives, lives forever," says The Late Nate, stroking his son's hair. "Only the shell, the perishable passes away. The spirit is without end, eternal, deathless."