Six Feet Under: Ecotone
By: Mark Runyon | Category: Show Archive | 07/31/05 | 11:44 PM
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 Grade: A- |
Genre: Drama
Summary: Nate cashes in his chips to become a very personal client of Fisher and Diaz.
I don't usually take the effort to comment on individual episodes of my favorite television shows because there's no time. No knock to the clever kittens at Television Without Pity, but if I kept a running chronicle of my television watching, even as sparse as it is, I'd have no life. This week's episode of Six Feet Under was an important moment in the show's history. It's the end of an era if you will. You knew, with the final season wrapping itself to a close, the writers were going to shake things up, and I think it's safe to say that we are thoroughly shaken. Last week closed with Nate having a strange numbness in his arm, which led to his collapse on the floor of Maggie's apartment. They had just had sex, putting an ominous tone on his ever-struggling relationship with Brenda. This week opens with Nate getting packed into an ambulance as poor Maggie frets, trying to figure out what she is going to tell Brenda. Let the fireworks begin. |
The episode is named ecotone, meaning when two ecological spheres overlap. It refers most directly to this week's latest client of Fisher and Diaz who was mauled by a mountain lion while out hiking in the canyons dotting Los Angeles. More importantly, it's Nate who has come to be the central battleground of Maggie and Brenda. Two women clawing it out over one screwed up man. So we get to the hospital as the clan straggles in one by one. David is first to arrive and subsequently finds out that his brother was busy servicing Maggie seconds before he went kerplunk. Claire is fished in from her first date with Mr. Republican lawyer with goofy hair, Ted, and is wigging something serious. Ruth is missing in action on a camping trip with Hiram, which is really for the best. Could you imagine having to watch her peck around the waiting room all night? I would have had to sedate her.
Finally, Brenda arrives. Now she knows Nate was picking up Maggie to take her to Quaker church. She also knows they never made it to the serene chapel because Brenda showed up after combating her own guilty conscious. It's not long before Brenda starts peppering Maggie with questions. "Why didn't you go to church?" "What were you two talking about?" "Did he moan more with you than he did with me, you dime store tramp?" Err, scratch that last one, but you could tell the gears in her head were turning that way.
They rush Nate into emergency surgery to relieve some of the internal bleeding from the hematoma. Details are sketchy about what was the cause, and if he's going to pull through so tensions are running freakishly high. Once the doctor splits the saloon doors, the room is about to explode. The AVM had resurfaced which they were able to take care of, but Nate would be in a coma for days, weeks even. Once he came to, changes were almost a certainty be it his memory, his motor functions, his ability to be faithful to one woman. Magically, they don't see fit to let us suffer through this coma thing for very long as Nate pops out hours later complaining about a lack of feeling on the right side of his body.
The side storylines really aren't very interesting. Anthony, David and Keith's new adoptee, is spazing at the hospital because that is where they always went after their mom overdosed. Saw that one coming. Vanessa says she hates Rico because she loves him so much, which is the cornerstone of any great marriage. Ruth gives Hiram a serious case of blue balls after she leaves him wanting in the tent. She needs to come with a warning label. So, back to sick Nate.
He has his one on one time with all the characters, and we get that "God we thought we almost lost you" moment, which was a nice reminder of how much someone matters when a scare like that happens. Brenda, piecing together the certain infidelity, says we'll put it behind us and move on. Unfortunately, Nate's not onboard with that. He's tired of fighting, tired of trying. He closes the door on his pregnant wife for his momentary bliss with Maggie. Respectable left this man's side many moons ago. He's always been the character we love despite ourselves, and he tested us something fierce this week. So the night ends with the Fishers, minus Ruth, together ready to part ways to get a welcomed shower and a healthy night's sleep. Claire goes and David hangs back a couple moments. Nate dozes off into a bizarre dream of David as a hippie. They are traveling in a van with their dead father at the wheel to some grand destination they've been waiting for their entire lives. They reach the beach, and Nate strips off his shirt to swim in the surf while David, now in his funeral director suit, hangs back not ready to get in. Nate has flat-lined and nothing will bring him back from the beyond this time.
It was a great episode of goodbye, even though we didn't realize we were saying it at the time. It was a chance for our characters to reconnect and show the love they all feel for one another. It was a time for Nate to put his life back in line before he would unknowingly leave it. So this review goes out to Peter Krause for leading us through the life of Nate Fisher for five years, making him the rebel bad boy who never fit the mold everyone expected him to fill. Krause made him one of the strongest, most interesting characters on television, and my hat goes off to him for his work. Now transition over to indie cinema so we don't lose that talent. That would be a serious travesty.
Catch the final remaining episodes of the fifth season of Six Feet Under Sunday nights at 9pm on HBO.
Original Airdate: July 31, Sunday 9pm
Episode 60: "Ecotone"
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