The brilliant writing style of creator Alan Ball is obvious in the opening sequences involving a little girl, her Dad, a pigeon, an actor, and a grouchy Armenian convenience store owner...oh yeah and his wife.
It is now six weeks since Lisa was last seen alive. Nate is coping as well as he can, with beer and with early morning jogs, literally trying to outrun the pain he's in.
Ruth decides that she has waited long enough for happiness in her life, and she and George set a wedding date. I think she's being a bit insensitive, what with all the turmoil going on in the household, but she insists, "We didn't die. Life goes on." In other words, "DAMN YOU ALL, I'M LONELY AND I WANNA GET MARRIED!!! I WANNA, I WANNA, I WANNA!!!"
After her abortion, Claire's emotions are tangled, as they would and should be.
David and Keith are torn up over their recent split. Unable to give up on each other, they agree to meet at St. Stephens church. They have a long talk, and decide to give it another go.
Nate, who badly needs a haircut at this juncture, is so incapable of normal functioning that he goes off like a roman candle at the poor Armenian man and his mother-in-law. Too bad Dave and Rico didn't stop him from working, no matter how he insisted, "I need to work." To treat a family with such viciousness in their time of grief...shame... Later, he makes Claire sit with Maya, oblivious to her own frail state of mind, to go off to some bar and pick up one sorry looking blonde in even sorrier looking lingerie. Her boy seems used to Mama bringing guys home to fuck, and looks nothing more than bored as he leaves the room.
Brenda makes the acquaintence of her neighbor, Joe, who plays French Horn and feeds the neighborhood cats. To his credit, her premature admission that she-can't-have-sex-with-him-if-they-go-on-a-date-because-she-is-currently-being-celibate-and-it's-working-for-her doesn't drive Joe away screaming, "MAD WOMAN, MAD WOMAN!"
Nate returns home late, of course, and the whole family confronts him, saying in spite of the situation with Lisa, he still has responsibilities to Maya, and that Claire is not her mother. Good for them. Of course, Nate barks at all of them, especially Ruth and George. In fact, Nate has picked George as a favorite, yell-at-him-when-I'm-mad-at-the-world target. It's hard to sympathize with Nate when he's so damned MEAN to everyone.
Next morning, or actually, later THAT morning, Claire is propelled to visit her Dad in the cemetary. The joyous Richard Jenkins is a welcome sight, as Nathaniel and Claire walk around what appears to be Claire's daydream of a Carnival for the Deceased. She has a wonderful visit with her old boyfriend Gabe Dimas (and his little brother Anthony, who had the tragic gun accident in Season 1) and this brings closure and peace to her and all of us over what happened to Gabe, last seen in the early part of S2.
The fun sequence is interrupted by a terrible fight between Nate and Ruth. Now Nate, already angry and resentful over Ruth's upcoming wedding, is blaming Ruth for everything. EVERYTHING. If she hadn't talked him into staying in LA instead of going back to Seattle back when Dad was killed, none of this shit would have happened! Again, all this constant barking makes me want to get Nate de-barked. It's really hard to keep in mind that what he's going through is a nightmare for anyone.
Back to Claire and Dad. Claire meets up with Lisa, and you know what that means. But all is well, Lisa assures Claire, and that if she'll take care of Maya, Lisa will take care of Claire's little one.
I wouldn't say that these vision were of clairvoyancy (pardon the pun), but rather Claire's own way of deciding what has happened. Her way of resolving the maddeningly unresolvable. I'm sure that all this time she has wondered what became of the tragic and troubled Gabe. It's so much easier to decide he is dead, gone forever, than to go on not knowing. In Lisa's case, Claire just happened to be spot-on. For almost at the same moment, Nate receives a call at home from the Santa Barbara County Sherrif. A body has been found.
In the Diaz home, Hell is continuing to drive a wedge between Vanessa and Federico, who has recently started a semi-affair with the pretty but surgically altered Infinity. Already, he has proven susceptible to her worldly wiles. There's plenty more to come next season.
Brenda goes on a first date sort of thing with her new friend Joe. Even with her professed celibacy, it looks like Brenda might have found the love she needs. And she definitely needs it; she is truly very alone in the world.
Arthur, who has never really been a favorite of mine, still makes me feel bad for him as he sees Ruth's life changing and realizes he is no longer any part of it.
Ruth is happy, even relieved (seems relief is a theme in this episode) to be saying farewell to her old life, for it's the night of her wedding. She and Claire have a supremely emotional scene as Claire gives a gift of antique earrings made out of some blue crystal. At the ceremony, Claire breaks down in tears, and everyone believes it's about happiness and weddings, when really it's most likely everything BUT the wedding: the recent abortion, the visions in the cemetary of Lisa, Gabe, the baby, and probably a few unbalanced hormones too.
Shattered, or perhaps relieved, because now he no longer has to wonder what happened, Nate ventures into his favorite bar and proceeds to pick a fight and get his ass kicked. Now battered and shattered, he continues on his rampage of self-destruction (I really enjoy the scene with him, Lisa and Nathaniel in the car..."Boohoohoo, the ramp's coming up on your right!!!" Nathaniel is so delightfully EVIL!!!). When he can't go through with it, he instead goes to the only person he can go to at the moment: Brenda.
Thus closes Season Three...a very good episode that deserves an A.
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