Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | 2 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT That's a wrap for Nate
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 10 | Aired on 08.06.2005
Cut to David at the morgue. Nate's body is slid out of the one locker they have. I bet they're anxious to get him out of there. The coroner or coroner's assistant unzips Nate's body bag, and the first thing we notice is that Nate's eyes are gone, and the sockets have been stuffed with cotton. Brr. The next thing is that Nate's incredibly pale, which just creates more contrast with his stubble and chest hair. And then, his head bandage is still on, and there's a crudely-sewn incision slashed up the middle of his chest. I've seen more even sutures on Boris Karloff. David expresses surprise that Nate wanted his organs harvested. "His wife approved it. Is there a problem?" the coroner's assistant bitches. David gives her a look and says of course not. "It'll save a lot of people's lives," the coroner's assistant snaps. Great. What is it with coroners being insensitive to David when he picks up family members, anyway? Also, it was thoughtful of Nate to donate his organs, but with all that chest hair I can't believe he left out Locks of Love.
And then David's behind the wheel of the corpse wagon, waiting at a red light. He stares blankly across the intersection, and there's a guy in a red-hooded sweatshirt with the hood up, trying to thumb a ride. David blinks and the guy's gone. But then the windows go all foggy, and the guy materializes in the shotgun seat. He turns to David, and of course to the surprise of nobody it's none other than Jimmy Felon -- the guy who abducted, tortured, and threatened to kill David last season. For now, he's busily masticating something. "Oh, fuck," David moans in panic, because the last thing he needs is food on the seats of the corpse wagon while his brother's in the back. Jimmy Felon spits out what's in his mouth: a pair of eyeballs with the stringy bits still attached. He offers one to David. "I got them from your brother, but they suck." Fortunately, an angrily honking horn brings David back to reality. Thanks for stopping by, Jimmy! Let us provide the snacks next time, okay?
Bettina is in Ruth's kitchen, offering to make her more food that Ruth won't eat. Ruth, in her bathrobe, asks if she can take another pill, and when Bettina finds out her last one was three hours ago, she says, "Sure, go ahead. If you get addicted, I have a lot of experience getting people through withdrawal." You know, I spend an awful lot of time looking up old recaps to link to for a show that's only on its sixty-first episode. It's probably just as well that it's ending this year, or eventually we'd be posting recaps that consist of nothing but hyperlinks. There's continuity, and then there's continuity. Back in the present, Bettina puts Ruth's breakfast in front of her and makes a little speech about eating that I think is only there because David missed his cue. Better late than never, David comes into the kitchen and Bettina offers him coffee, which he declines, saying he's had too much already today. Yeah, I'd say. Claire wanders in about now. I think this could have been a much more powerful moment, seeing the entire surviving Fisher family together in one room for the first time, and how small and vulnerable they look in their diminished numbers. But we also have Bettina sitting at the table eating, so that's an opportunity missed. Ruth suddenly turns and snaps at David, "Why didn't you call [Nate's microbiologist]?" David says, clearly not for the first time, that Dr. DiPaolo was out of town, but Ruth doesn't want to let it go. Claire gently tells Ruth, "He was talking to us, Mom. He really seemed okay." Ruth complains that it doesn't make sense, and Bettina says that sometimes things don't. Hoping to change the subject, Claire offers to help David somehow, but he rather rudely shuts her down. I think Claire should maybe offer to help David with that giant list of things to do he's toting around, or at least make it clear that that's what she's offering. He does ask her to make some calls from the list in the office and tell people that the service is the next day at noon. Ruth complains that they should wait a few days so people have time to arrive. Rather than explaining that the guest-star budget for this episode is already through the roof, David heaves a sigh and says Nate didn't want to be embalmed. "He told me. Twice," he explains when Ruth seems doubtful. He starts to say more, and then abruptly leaves the room instead. Bettina continues eating Ruth's eggs.
David's going over Nate's three-year-old pre-need, which specifies cremation and a service by the recurring Hot Rabbi from Season Two. Brenda rolls her eyes extravagantly at the mention of the Hot Rabbi's name -- not because it's another example of Nate's interest in different religions when they're practiced by women he's attracted to, but because Hot Rabbi was the one who was supposed to marry them the first time they got engaged. Of course, now the Hot Rabbi is Alma Garrett on Deadwood, which means she's almost certainly been dead for a hundred years. David goes on to explain Nate's "green funeral" request from last week, and everything that entails. "That sounds nice," Brenda whispers. David explains that they're technically supposed to follow the signed document, but that he thinks Nate intended to change it. He "just………..didn't have time to." In the time between "just" and "didn't," of course, Nate would have had time to become a skeleton in the basement. David says it's up to Brenda, as Nate's spouse, to decide what Nate would have wanted. Brenda almost breaks up as she says she has no fucking idea. "I mean, Rabbi Ari? And now apparently he's some kind of Quaker. Was, I mean." Actually, I believe he was just a Quaker Maker. Sorry. Don't email me. On that very subject, Brenda sarcastically adds, "Maybe we should just ask Maggie what he would have wanted." Which is Ruth's cue to enter, still in her bathrobe, asking, "What's Maggie have to do with it?" Nobody answers, but Ruth wants a vote in any case: "I want him buried in the family plot next to his father." When David says Nate wants to be in a nature preserve, Ruth complains that she wants Nate next to her. "Well, you can go there too, then," David suggests, not particularly kindly. Brenda isn't actually saying anything verbally, preferring to let her rudely extravagant head-shaking and eye-rolling do the talking. Ruth turns and walks out, perhaps looking for a room in her own house where somebody gives a shit what she thinks.