The Succinct and the Dead

Ohhhhh....my......no....freakin'......way did that just happen.

That is all I could say upon the conclusion of this week's episode of Six Feet Under.



Nate Fisher, is dead. He's wrapped in a shroud in the photo above
(check out www.hbo.com for all the details)

Not only is he dead, but he leaves behind a pregnant wife who will now have to raise his young daughter from a previous marriage. Not only is her husband dead, but she found out minutes before his demise that Nate, her husband, had humped his very own step-sister an hour or so before, causing him to collapse and causing injury to a lurking aneurism that he'd had prior surgery on. Not only is everyone in shock, but now they must endure a 'natural' funeral which is enviro-friendly, meaning Nate will neither be embalmed nor be stuffed into a typical pine box. Not only will everyone witness the removal of his body from the hurse, but they will indeed have to pitch in, including bearing his body to the site and BURYING IT.

I sat, agog, as the newest episode of Six aired last night on HBO. I literally couldn't believe my eyes, and I wondered at the viability of the episode as the story unfolded. Most people would immediately get caught up in the story itself...the fact that NO one should have such incredibly bad luck. Not me. I was stunned at the believability of the characters themselves because I HAD LIVED THAT. The look on the face of the family members, their sorrow, the way they each reacted to the loss AND to each other. It was all hauntingly familiar...just exactly like when my brother died.

Each and every actor who appeared in this episode is to be commended for producing one of the most convincing dramatic performances I have ever witnessed. Every stunning detail was shockingly represented, but the most poignant scene was the burial. Nate was lowered into an unmarked grave by his family and friends. The normally dry-eyed David has fallen apart; the mother Ruth is a zombie; Claire, the baby sister, goes through the blind motions; and the widowed Brenda has a final argument with the departed.

Now a days, this type of funeral service might seem extremely crude, but it was nothing more than a stripping away of the beautiful packaging in which we choose to shroud our dead. There is no way to mask or transform the loss of human life to be something more than the horrible reality it is. No number of flower sprays or rosey lights or prayers or sympathy cards or hymns can take away the sting of death. To me, it was the most beautiful funeral I have ever seen...because it stripped away the very thing that makes death so unbearable, the pretense. The very loss of life itself an immensely humbling experience, and to make a gaudy display seems a mockery after seeing this type of tribute. If you want to understand the gamut of emotions that accompany losing someone, watch this week's episode of Six Feet Under. For a long moment, not-so-long ago, I was Claire.