Six Feet Under: In the Game

June 25, 2019 8:25 PM - Season 2, Episode 1

A young actress accidentally ODs at her movie premiere, and as Angelica, Rico's sister-in-law, was one of her castmates, Fisher & Sons handles her funeral arrangements. Nate and David both have medical appointments, Brenda experiences a sudden bout of depression, Gabriel becomes more erratic, David tries to meet someone new while still feeling connected to Keith, and Ruth plans a family dinner so that her children and their significant others can meet Nikolai.

The obituary from this episode:

Rebecca Leah Milford

1980 - 2001

Rebecca Leah Milford, 21, an actress who worked on several film and television projects, died Saturday, July 9, 2001 of a drug overdose.

Born in Bakersfield, California, Milford showed an interest in show business at an early age when she starred in grade school productions of "Grease" and "Damn Yankees." When Becky was 13, her parents died in an automobile accident. She soon moved in with her grandparents in Encino, and attended Grove Street Middle School and Herbert Hoover High School.

Becky's career began a short time later, as a model in Seventeen and Teen Cosmo, and in print ads for Bonne Bell cosmetics. She began acting professionally two years ago, with small roles on the Saturday morning kids' television show "Crank it Up" and the cable movies "Passion Play" and "Burned by Desire." She recently starred in the horror movie "Whack Job," starring Brody Farrell, an actor with whom she was romantically linked.

posted by orange swan (2 comments total)

I'm sensing Becky didn't have the best upbringing . She seems to have been a reckless, shallow, asshole, but to be fair, I suppose many people are at 20/21 and she had experienced a LOT of loss in her short life and was left on her own far too young. There is something that I find odd, which is that Brody said her parents died when she was two, but the obit says they died when she was 13. Was that a mistake on Brody's part (the douche was strong with that guy), or a simply a mistake on the part of whomever wrote the obit for the episode? I think it might be the latter, since the obit contains a gratuitous plug for Brody, which means he might have "written" it.

This is our first sight of Angelica, Rico's sister-in-law, with whom he does not get along particularly well. Later on in the show run he refers to the fact that Angelica and Vanessa are always a united front, making him feel that he "has a wife with two heads", heh. Fisher & Sons won't get paid in full for that funeral, but then it was pretty bare bones affair (a cardboard box, cremation, the lockets), so I doubt it'll be much of a loss.

Good thing David got tested for STDs following his night out in Vegas (and general promiscuity). He wasn't experiencing symptoms, just being responsible. He's pining over Keith, but won't for too much longer.

Nate's medical test results are much more alarming, and he is quite reasonably devastated and freaked out. Why was that neurologist such a useless jackass?

Brenda's in a tail spin from the trauma of Billy having attacked her, coupled with the fallout of finding out that Billy had wanted to kill her years ago rather than attempting suicide as her parents told her (fuck you, Margaret and Bernard), and that car accident probably didn't help. She's only going to get more out of control this season and ought to get some counselling right away, but thanks to being treated like a lab rat when she was a child she is leery of all mental health professionals (fuck you again, Margaret and Bernard).

I wish Gabriel had an adult on the job who could look after him -- but then if he'd had that he wouldn't have wound up the way he has. He's beyond any help that Claire can give him, and is one of the most tragic characters on this show.

Something I thought was odd was that Gabriel and Claire saw Whack Job before they figured out that Becky was the body in the morgue (and for that matter, that they saw the movie at all, since it looked like complete shit and they're both smart kids who would have better taste). An actress overdosing at the premiere of a movie she was in would have made the news and Claire surely would have known Fisher & Sons was handling the funeral -- failing that, they would surely have recognized the body when they saw it.

Claire attends Becky's funeral for fun, and then complains Becky's friends are assholes, though she isn't wrong on the latter count.

Ruth's dinner party will become the stuff of family jokes for decades to come. David's second tab of ecstasy wound up in Nate's system (WHY did David not check the aspirin bottle to be sure both tabs were no longer there) and he winds up spouting the Bhagavad Gita and thinking it a profound and original insight, which is very par for the course for Nate. And Ruth is going to throw away her book about how to deal with one's child's homosexuality. She does have the best relationship with David of any of her children, probably because the two of them are so much alike in terms of personality and temperament.

Lord have mercy! [chest thump]
posted by orange swan at 6:02 PM on June 26, 2019

I just love the big Fisher Family Dinner scenes.

Ruth always has high hopes for cohesion, but then someone's individuality crashes in to fuck it up for her.
posted by goofyfoot at 9:27 PM on June 26, 2019