SEASON 5

EPISODE 7: SINGING FOR OUR LIVES

An athletic Latina is combining her roller-skating workout with her job as a dog walker when she is struck down by a vehicle and killed. For anyone who might wonder, the dogs are fine.

Their marriage is virtually over, but Brenda doesn't want to give up hope, and tries to talk Nate into going to therapy.

Dave and Keith ask Ruth to babysit for them. As anyone can predict, Durrell is awful from the moment the boys arrive. Not only does he call Ruth a witch, but he steals Keith's truck and takes it for a joyride. Again, I'm sure glad I wasn't the one who adopted this monster. To top it all off, David has the gall to blame Ruth for things not going well with the babysitting. Ugh!!! When Durrell ends up pulling a knife on Keith later, I wanted to yell at David, get your head out of your ass! Take that brat back and get a refund!

Claire goes out on a coffee run for her co-workers at the corporate dungeon, and runs into her old friend Anita from LACArts, who invites her to the next big art show. Unable to shake off her unexplainable attraction to Ted at work, she invites him to join her, and is reunited with all the colorful LACArt characters we met in S4. Olivier is there, and can't wait to tell Claire about Billy's resignation. Her two exes, Russell and Jimmy, are there, getting off on their own twisted prick-tease relationship. Once she sees that they're the same self-centered freaks they've always been, Claire decides her life isn't nearly as pathetic as she had thought.

Nate is facinated with Maggie's Quaker religion, and of course drags Brenda along to a service. Poor Bren looks tortured throughout the silent 2 or 3 hours. The only time she looks paler is when Nate gets up to mouth off about how great he feels being there. Well maybe the man does get something out of it. Nate's always had a spiritual streak in him. He always seems to be seeking after that sort of thing. And as we all know, Brenda is either an agnostic or just plain atheist. You can see where this is going, and it's nowhere good. How many of us had the idea, clear back in Season 1, that their differing religious beliefs would one day divide them?

At work, Rico barks at Nate for being culturally ignorant. I think this has happened before, right? David wants to buy a crematory, and Rico is opposed to that, naturally. He must be the most difficult business partner alive.

And Nate, having studied extensively the death care industry in the past few years, has decided that he no longer wants to be cremated when he dies. He now wants a "green" funeral. He has again asserted his original stance on death, that it wasn't meant to be something pretty and neat and sanitized. He wants to be planted, no coffin or anything, in some nature preserve. That way nobody can make that place into a mall or a suburb. He believes they should be thinking of making a better world, not just making better money. The old Lisa influenced Seattle Co-op Nate has arisen before his gaping-mouth coworkers as he passionately preaches against harmful chemicals seeping into the soil. I guess Nate does have some ideals that last longer than a minute. I wonder if this show still had some funeral director fans after this episode though!

Claire spots Ruth giving herself a trim, and talks her Mom into going to a real salon and pampering herself for a change. There must be a zillion beauty salons in the LA metro area, so why did Ruth decide to go to Hiram's shop? Unless she wanted what followed to happen. Before she knows it, she's back in Hiram's arms and they go off on one of their famous camping trips.

As usual, Rico has a bland storyline. This one involves some pointless fantasy about the dead Mexican girl. All this revealed to me was that Rico has an attitude that he should be loved and honored and respected by his wife, whether he cheated on her with some two-bit whore or not, and that he thinks she's just a little too independent and needs to be taken down a notch or two. The only other vibe I got was a hint of necrophilia. Both are pretty much unforgivable, and I've decided once and for all that Rico is one of my least favorite characters. Meantime, Vanessa has become one of my most favorite. She finally tells Rico WHY she has been distant, even after having him move back in with her. Rico is damn lucky to have such a longsuffering wife.

They're sure to have a long rocky road ahead of them, but Keith is ready to keep the kids. Maybe he's a martyr, but he is willing to forgive Durrell's assaults and try to be a parent alongside David.

Brenda is another character I admire, and especially so here. Sure she's been just as selfish as all the other characters over the course of this show, but in this episode, in spite of her long held belief that there is no God, she decides that her marriage to Nate is important enough to her for her to put aside her beliefs and join him at another Quaker service.

Only Nate isn't going to show. Instead, he stops in "a little early" to pick Maggie up for the service, as her car is on the fritz. Nate confides in Maggie, saying he feels frightened about the new baby being deformed, feels powerless and useless when it comes to helping Brenda cope with the bad possibilities. Nate is able to open up to just about anyone but who he should be opening up to. He can open up to a rabbi while he is having problems with Brenda, he can open up to Brenda when he is fighting with Lisa, and now he can open up to Maggie.

Naturally, the two end up having sex in her living room. When they are finished, Nate complains about numbness in his arm. His speech becomes garbled, and he collapses to the floor.

I hate cliffhangers, but at least this one won't make you wait until next season. I'll give this episode an A.