In the third season opener, we rejoin Nate on the surgeon's table as they struggle to remove the bleeding AVM in his brain. Complications arise, and Nate...dies???
He wanders around the family home, with the always sadistically funny Nate Sr. in tow, each room a new scenario of alternate reality. Are some of the rooms real? Are there some moments that could have been and weren't? Are some moments in Nate's future?
He sees himself, Lisa and baby Maya in a moment of happiness and contentment. In another room, he sees what life would have been like if things worked with Brenda.
He sees David trying to teach a very pitiful, brain damaged Nate to speak again; He sees what looks like what Christmas 2000 would have been like if Dad hadn't been killed by the bus; he sees another strange family that could have been his, except it's not Ruth Nathaniel Sr. is married to, and there is no sign of David or Claire, and Nate himself is pudgier and preppier looking; In yet another room, Nate sees himself as a beerbelly Okie watching bad soap operas
What neurological oddities are causing all of this chaos? Visibly shaken and confused, Nate demands his Dad provide him with some answers, and of course the dastardly old rascal does just the opposite. Instead, he invites Nate to take a peek into his coffin...
...and Nate comes out of the surgery alive. It is obviously not his time to go yet. The doctors were able to repair the bleed and pull him through.
Cut to seven months into the future. I kind of wished that some time was given to Nate's recovery and return to full functioning, and his decision to marry Lisa, but maybe that was the whole point. Maybe it wasn't a "decision" as much as a badly thought through whirlwind, grateful to be alive, gotta do the right thing, thing for Nate.
Because Lisa has already begun her reign of terror. As she talks to a friend, she describes her relationship with Nate as long term, "together" for 8 years, well, on and off. Only the delusional and lovesick Lisa would believe that her Seattle roommate fucked her because he really loved her and not because he was just a randy guy who took advantage of what she offered him when he was down and out.
In the world of David and Keith Fisher-Charles, the gay couple has sought counseling in order to explore and sort out their many differences and difficulties. I love them. Because they want to make it work. If only Nate and Brenda had sought this kind of assistance. While their very good and open-minded therapist (Arye Gross) interviews them, we learn that Dave and Keith suffer from a common problem that occurs in a large urban sprawl: they have no real friends other than each other. Their social life is limited to the people they work with, which means Keith has no friends at all, now that he is no longer with the LAPD, and loathes his new career as a security rent-a-cop. The therapist urges them both to seek interests outside of each other and work. David finds a gay chorus and tries out for it.
We are surprised and happy for Claire that she did not end up going to East Valley College, and that the LACArts school accepted her. It is so weird seeing her and Russell in their art world infancy knowing how much they end up changing in S4 and S5.
Catherine O'Hara plays Carol Ward, Lisa's new boss, the big time movie producer who wanted a vegan chef. She is an absolute freak of a manipulative beast of an attention-rabid monstrosity!!!
Rico Diaz is now partner and part-owner of what is now Fisher & Diaz Funeral Home. Boy, once he became partner, he became kind of an asshole!!! He may be in the right at times, but God it's still so annoying!!! What's his problemo with Claire doing drop-offs if he no longer has to???!!!
Nate is in love with new fatherhood, and of course Claire thinks that's annoying. She retreats to her room and tries to draw a perfect circle. Maybe she should not be so literal minded, as the brain doesn't seem to allow anyone to draw a perfect circle. You can invision one, but even if you mentally try to draw one, you can't. Perhaps I'm being too literal minded now.
At the crematory, Claire meets a cute guy named Phil, who plays in a band. I remember this Phil as kind of uncouth with Nate over Aaron Buchbinder last season, but I guess that's forgivable. He's not bad as guitar-playing crematorists go. I'm not fond of his excessive tattoos though. In my opinion, everything in moderation.
Nate is a bit disturbed when he overhears Maya being told Ruth's sad story about her her youth, already marred by the legless grandmother burden, was further cut short by her unplanned pregancy at 19, and marriage to Nathaniel.
David and Keith are the most intimate gay couple of all time, no matter what's come before, or what will come after, SIX FEET UNDER. It's so cute to see David primping in anticipation of romance with his lover, only to have Keith fall asleep.
Nate is alive, but we are about to watch him question his life path, the choices he has made recently, and the "ideal" life he now lives as a married father.
This was a very good start, so I give this episode an A.
SIX FEET UNDER