SIX FEET UNDER: EVERYONE'S WAITING {SERIES FINALE} (TV)
Summary
The finale in this series about the Fisher clan, a loving -- if dysfunctional -- family struggling to maintain a sense of normalcy in the face of the stressful day-to-day operations of the eccentric family business, a funeral home in Los Angeles. In this episode, Brenda gives birth to her premature daughter, Willa, who is immediately whisked away for emergency care. Ruth, alone at the hospital, calls Claire with the news, while David angrily packs to leave home, sure that Keith is trying to break up with him out of resentment over the adoptions, though Keith firmly tells him that he is traumatized and "can't get well here." Brenda is distressed to hear of Willa's potential health complications, but Ruth assures her that she will soon take her two daughters home for good. Claire finds herself drawn back to the "deeply un-hip" Ted, and he encourages her to return to her artistic dream, allowing her to photograph him naked for inspiration. David tells the boys that he is merely headed for a conference in Portland, though Durrell, accustomed to abandonment, is sure that he is leaving for good. Margaret arrives at Ruth's home and informs her that Brenda is coming home, though Willa is staying in the hospital, and Rico moves ahead with his plans to buy a funeral home of his own with the money from either selling his share or the entire business itself.
George checks in on a depressed Ruth, and David returns to his mother's home for comfort. Claire finds that she has been recommended for an exciting photographer's assistant job in New York, and Rico and Vanessa happily examine their new property. Brenda learns that Willa is doing well and can have her feeding tube removed, though Nate tells her that something else will surely go wrong. George returns to Ruth and offers to care for her as she once did him, and when Brenda admits that she is uninterested in her share of the funeral home left to her by Nate, David bitterly agrees to sell the entire business. Later, David and Keith take the boys to a museum and ponder finally buying their dream home with the money from the sale, though David continues to see the threatening hooded figure. Willa finally comes home, and Claire is surprised to encounter Billy when she arrives with Ruth and Ted for a visit. Olivier shows an uncharacteristic gentle side as he plays with Willa, and he then informs Claire that he recommended her for the New York job, while elsewhere Billy interrogates Ted about Claire and frankly states that he is jealous of him. In the prep room late at night, Nathaniel coldly tells David that he cannot truly walk away from the family business, but David fights back when the hooded figure attacks him and, realizing that he is battling only with himself, is finally able to let go of his fear.
Claire is excited to learn that she landed the New York job, and Rico is angry when David declares that he is not selling the business after all but cannot afford to buy him out. When George tells Ruth about his last confrontation with Maggie, she realizes that she cannot live with him after all because of the "walls around his heart," though tells him that they will always be in one another's lives. David returns home and settles back into life with his family, though Nate continues warning Brenda that Willa is "damaged" beyond repair. Keith offers to use his own money to buy Rico out and live with David and the boys in the Fisher home rather than in a new place of their own, and Ruth achieves some degree of closure when Maggie assures her that Nate was indeed happy right before his death. Brenda readily agrees to sell her share of the home to Keith and David over time, and Ruth bonds with her daughter-in-law as she admits that Nathaniel shared many of Nate's shortcomings as a husband and promises to help her in raising Willa. Claire, seeing her mother's sadness, offers to forgo the New York job and stay with her, but Ruth urges her to move on with her life and embrace the choices that she herself did not. Brenda "meets" Nathaniel and makes peace with her memories of Nate as he finally declares his love for his daughter, and Claire struggles to leave Ted behind as Ruth moves into Sarah's Topanga Canyon home and considers the next phase of her life. Claire then learns that the job has fallen through, but Nate urges her to go to New York anyway and start a new life. As the Diaz family celebrates the buyout, the extended Fisher clan gathers for a farewell party and shares funny stories about Nate before drinking a toast to his memory.
Claire bids a tearful goodbye to David, Ruth, Keith and the boys, and as she photographs her family, Nate tells her that the moment is "already gone." As she drives east towards New York, she envisions her family members' futures: David and Keith eventually marry, with Durrell going on to inherit the funeral business, and Keith opens a security company and is killed in an armed robbery in 2029. Ruth is welcomed by Nathaniel and Nate as she dies in 2025 with George and her children by her side, and David has a vision of Keith as he passes away at a family picnic in 2044. Rico dies of a heart attack while on a cruise with Vanessa in 2049, and Brenda remarries and has a son before dying in 2051 at Billy's side. Claire reunites with Ted at Ruth's funeral and eventually marries him, dying comfortably in bed at the age of 101.
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: August 21, 2005 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:12:01
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:87347
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: LGBTQ+ Collection - Drama; Drama; Comedy; Families
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV series, 2001-2005
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- David Janollari … Executive Producer
- Robert Greenblatt … Executive Producer
- Alan Poul … Executive Producer
- Bruce Eric Kaplan … Executive Producer
- Rick Cleveland … Executive Producer
- Alan Ball … Executive Producer, Created by, Director, Writer
- Jill Solloway … Co-Executive Producer
- Scott Buck … Co-Executive Producer
- Kate Robin … Supervising Producer
- Lori Jo Nemhauser … Producer
- Robert Del Valle … Producer
- Craig Wright … Producer
- Nancy Oliver … Co-Producer
- Michael Carroll … Associate Producer
- Richard Marvin … Music by
- Thomas Newman … Theme Music by
- Peter Krause … Cast, Nate Fisher
- Michael C. Hall … Cast, David Fisher
- Frances Conroy … Cast, Ruth Fisher
- Lauren Ambrose … Cast, Claire Fisher
- Freddy Rodriguez … Cast, Federico "Rico" Diaz
- Mathew St. Patrick … Cast, Keith Charles
- Justina Machado … Cast, Vanessa Diaz
- James Cromwell … Cast, George Sibley
- Rachel Griffiths … Cast, Brenda Chenowith
- Kathy Bates … Cast, Bettina
- Jeremy Sisto … Cast, Billy Chenowith
- Joanna Cassidy … Cast, Margaret Chenowith
- Richard Jenkins … Cast, Nathaniel Fisher
- Tina Holmes … Cast, Maggie Sibley
- Peter Macdissi … Cast, Olivier Castro-Staal
- Chris Messina … Cast, Ted Fairwell
- Kendre Berry … Cast, Durrell
- C.J. Sanders … Cast, Anthony
- Tim Maculan … Cast, Father Jack
- Becky Thyre … Cast, Marcie
- James McDonnell … Cast, Dr. Frank
- Terri Hoyos … Cast, Realtor
- Kristin Morley … Cast, Obstetrician
- Sahar Bibiyan … Cast, Dr. Peterman's Nurse
- Giancarlo Rodriguez … Cast, Julio Diaz
- Brenna Tosh … Cast, Maya Fisher
- Bronwyn Tosh … Cast, Maya Fisher