Six Feet Under: Eulogy

SPOILER WARNING:  If you have NOT seen the season/series finale of Six Feet Under, best to skip this post... certainly do NOT read beyond the picture... but come back, ok!?

Wow.. what a finale to Six Feet Under!  I was going to wait to post about it...since things still seem pretty "raw"... but I figured what the heck... let's just get it out...

I wasn't sure what to expect.. there had been plenty of rumors floating around (more main character deaths)... but overall I thought it was an incredibly satisfying conclusion.  SFU never liked to tie things up in a neat/tidy bow... or go for the "Hollywood" happy ending... but we kind of got both... definitely more closure than I was expecting, but there was also a whole lot left for our imaginations as well.  I am happy to read this morning that so many people (both "real" folk and critics) were blown-away by the finale.

Before we hit the play button on the TiVo, Todd asked me if I was "ready"... as you may remember, I did not get through Nate's funeral without some tears trickling or being on the edge of the "ugly cry"... but I told him that I thought that the show had probably did its big wallop for Nate's funeral... and I thought I would be fine. 

Well, that certainly was NOT the case... even before the final montage there were a few moments that were a bit tough to get through... particularly Claire getting ready to head off to NYC.  Having once been a 22-year old myself... who never lived far from home... decided to pick up and head across the country to start a new life... not knowing what to expect or what the future would hold... Claire's final goodbyes definitely struck a chord with me.

But then we had the final montage... which was just incredible on so many fronts ... the switching between Claire driving East and the future of the Fisher clans... the music ("Breathe Me" by Sia)... and needless to say it got all the emotions going... and Todd, who survived Nate's funeral in pretty good form, admitted the final moments "kicked my ass."  Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly summed it up beautifully... so I will just quote it:

Leave it to Six Feet Under to achieve a happy ending by showing the deaths of each of its major characters. Well, happy in a depressing, make you reach for a Kleenex while contemplating the meaning of mortality kind of way... (the show) pulled back the curtain to remind us that the process can be painful, absurd, violent, funny, peaceful, sad, and beautiful, sometimes all at once.

I just re-watched the final montage this morning (which I had planned on doing anyway) as I knew it was rich in clues of what happened to the Fishers.  Here is the time-line w/ some of my own interpretations (yours may be different!) of what we saw:

2005-2006
Ruth and Bettina throw balls to dogs...  Ruth followed through with her plan to open a doggy day care.

David shows Durrell "the business" ... looks to be talking about the embalming process.

Friends and family gather for Willa's first birthday... most of the LA group are in attendance... Ruth, George, David & Keith (w/ the boys), Billy, Margaret, and even Olivier.

2007-2015?
A still "current" looking David and Keith get married.  Rico and Vanessa are in attendance (suggesting Rico made peace w/ the Fishers)... as are Ruth & George... and Brenda is re-married or has a new man in life and we see more grown-up versions of Maya and Willa.  Claire snaps a final picture.

2025
Surrounded by George, David and Claire (the children looking noticeably older)... Ruth lies in a hospital bed and has visions of her two Nathaniels... first her husband, then son waiting in the hallway... Ruth dies at age 79.  Ted shows up at the funeral... and one guesses, this re-kindles the relationship with Claire.

2029
Coming out of one of his armored cars (the truck says "Charles Security"), Keith is gunned down and dies at the age of 61.

2030s
Claire and Ted get married.  Claire is probably in her late 40s/early 50s.  In the front row, David is in attendance along with adult versions of Durrell and Anthony.  Durrell appears to have a white wife (ala Keith and David?) and a child... Anthony is holding hands with his Asian boyfriend (?).  Brenda is also in attendance w/ her husband (appears to be the same guy as seen during the Keith/David marriage)... and a young-ish boy (son?) sits next to her.

2044
A family picnic... Brenda and Claire have a discussion... David shares a table with a gentleman around his age... but looks longingly to a football game going on in the distance.  A "2005 version" of Keith catches a football pass...and David falls backwards and dies at the age of 75.

2049
Rico and Vanessa are on a cruise... Rico gets up from a lounge chair and falls to the ground... dead at 75.

2051
An aged Brenda and Billy talk in a very modern looking living room... Brenda passes out and dies at age 82... most thoughts this morning being that Billy talked her to death.

2085
Surrounded by pictures of her own pictures of her family... a nurse sitting bedside... Claire's cloud-filled eyes stare upwards... our final Fisher dies at age 102.

[UPDATE: The SFU website has obituaries for each of the characters... so even more details and confirmations of some of my assumptions listed above]

So a very emotional 10-15 minutes that is for sure... first, it put the proverbial "nail in the coffin" on the show itself... as we were forced to say goodbye to each of the characters we had grown to love over the past five years.  There was no doubt that this was IT... period.

Secondly, it made you reflect on your own life and mortality.  Just like the Fishers, the road ahead for all of us are going to be filled with good and bad times...  and, given the subject matter of the show, it, of course, made you think of death.  We are lucky enough to still have both of our parents in our household... but we know that time will ultimately come... and I can't even fathom life when it gets down to the two of us. 

Watching those death years, come up just seemed to makes things more real.  Assuming a "natural" passing, do I only have 10-15 more years max with my parents?  For the two of us, the 2040s suddenly loomed much larger... it certainly does not seem like enough time...

Thinking about Claire driving off and seeing Nate running in the rear-view mirror... perhaps it is best to live one's life like the warning you see in that reflection... objects may appear closer than they are...

Comments

[Scott-O-Rama]

Okay, I thought SFU was one of the most over-hyped, pretentious, self-important TV shows there was. That being said, I did watch the final 15 minutes of the show with Buckaroo and have to admit that the ending was powerful and poignant.

There have been good series finales (Roseanne), so-so finales (Cheers -why did they bring back Diane if only to diss her again?), and bad finales (Seinfeld). I would have to rate this as one of the really good ones.

[Buckaroo]

I have to say, I think that was the BEST series finale I have every seen. It was so emotionally fulfilling & "take your breath away" at the same time. I watched, and rewatched and then rewatched it again this afternoon and still get choked up. The whole flow just is amazing. I feel I was (will be?) privy to their entire lives. They all seemed to have done what they wanted to with their lives and in the end, it was just natural. I don't feel cheated out of not knowing. Now, excuse me - I have to go watch it again!

[Scott-O-Rama]

Oh good lord! Buckaroo is watching it AGAIN!!!!

If I was smart I would have bought stock in Kleenex before this aired!

[Ed]

Haha! I have to admit, I will probably have a hard time taking it off our TiVo. Haven't watched the end again, but I am sure I will... it was pure perfection, I think! I read that they were going to do "deaths"... but I didn't really think it would have been so masterfully pulled off.

On a far more shallow note, I also did watch Ted's naked ass scene over again too! ;-)

[Todd]

Did you notice what the priest who married David and Keith said? You can distinctly hear him say "by the power vested in me by the State of California..." indicating legal gay marriage in CA! :-)

I cried during the entire montage. I even sobbed once. It was all so sad yet comforting. I truly felt angry that life and age had robbed Claire of her sight -- the one sense that she was passionate about. And nothing, nothing before has made me face my own demise in such a powerful way.

As soon as the credits began, I retreated to the bathroom to cry for about 15 minutes more. I recovered for a while, but I still fell asleep crying. Talk about an emotional wreck. No wonder Alan Ball went fetal and sobbed when he completed writing the episode.

The ending couldn't have been more perfect, though.

Now I have to go figure out what I want to do with the time I have remaining.... :-)

[Danny]

I agree with Scott. To this day, I still don't see what all the hype is about with SFU. I tried to watch an episode once, and...meh. Bored me to near tears.

[Julien]

Ok I'm late, you wrote that post more than 5 years ago and I'm just commenting now!
The thing is I just finished watching SFU last season and landed from Google to here!
Bravo for a great post about this absolute perfect finale! I cried a lot during this episode, especially at the end of course, both sad to leave the whole Fisher family and shaken by all the emotions this ending inspired me about how short life really is. Definitely an amazing show and my all time favorite!
Congratulations for this great blog & lots of kisses from France!