Six Feet Under: Driving Mr. Mossback

July 5, 2019 9:21 PM - Season 2, Episode 4

An elderly man dies during a Seattle guided bus tour, and Nate has to fly to Seattle to drive the body back to L.A. He invites Claire to go with him, and they stay with Lisa, Nate's former roommate. Back in L.A., David helps out Keith by picking up his niece Taylor from school and keeping her for the evening, Ruth continues to work The Plan, to David's annoyance, and Margaret enlists Brenda's help in staking out the woman she believes Bernard is seeing on the side.

The obituary for this episode:

Harold Mossback (February 1, 1942 - September 18, 2001)

Harold Mossback of Culver City died peacefully on Tues., Sept. 18, 2001.

Harold recently retired after 35 years as an LA city planner. His great loves included baseball, chess, talk radio and his late wife, June. As stubborn as he was kind, Harold will be remembered as much for never accepting help, as for always being ready at hand to give it.

Harold is survived by his mother Edna and his children, Adam and Kimberly. He will also be greatly missed by Pete and his friends at the Dept. of Recreation and Parks.

The family would like to thank Roadway Tours for their kindness and consideration during this sad time and for providing Harold with so many memorable experiences over the past few years.

The family would also like to acknowledge Columbia Funeral Home in Seattle, WA.

Visitation will be held this Saturday at Fisher & Sons Funeral Home. On Sunday, Sept. 23, 2001, a graveside ceremony will be held at 11AM at Hollywood Forever in Hollywood.

posted by orange swan (2 comments total)

It was hilarious that the bus tour guide was so blasé about Mr. Mossback's death. As she called to the bus driver, they had "another one", so apparently they have tour members die on them sometimes. Maybe try being more interesting?

A peeing Brenda tells Nate not to floss in front of her because he knows she finds it disgusting, and he meekly apologizes for it.

It was a good idea for Nate to bring Claire along the trip given that he's at high risk of a seizure or stroke and shouldn't be travelling alone, but how is he even cleared to drive at all? His inviting Claire rather than Brenda was sketchy, and it clearly had something to do with Lisa. I don't blame him for not wanting to bring Brenda to stay at Lisa's given that it would be cruel to Lisa, but the unease he was clearly feeling about not bringing Brenda speaks to something more -- something that means his visiting Lisa makes him feel like he's cheating. A few things, Nate. Next time you ask your girlfriend if she's fine with something, give her all the relevant fucking information. Tell your girlfriend about your very serious health risks. And if a woman you are not interested in is clearly hung up on you emotionally and lives in the hope that you'll eventually decide you want to be with her, don't use her for casual sex. Yeah, yeah, you were honest with her and you're both consenting adults, but it's like drinking with an alcoholic. It's irresponsible and selfish to lead someone further down an unhealthy path for your own pleasure and gratification.

In this episode we meet Lisa, who is likable but more than a little soft in the head.

Taylor is such a firecracker. That poor kid deserved a much better start in life. Despite her being a handful, David clearly enjoyed his time with her anyway and was very good with her. David really loves children. At Rico's son's christening a few episodes ago he was seen holding the baby and beaming down at him.

One of the worst things about people who get into culty self-development is all the bullshit jargon they use. I've known some people who did, and I would always ask them not to use that jargon with me, but to translate it into plain language. Strangely they never could seem to, which speaks volumes about how much sense the self-development concepts they were trying to use actually made. Ruth's "warning" about how Taylor might find the relationship between David and Keith confusing (what the hell is confusing about the fact that her gay uncle has an ex he's still friends with?) was homophobic and David, quite rightly, was having none of it. It's so good to see that David has come to accept being gay and is no longer willing to take shit from anyone.

And in this episode we have another day in the life of the Chenowith family, with Margaret enlisting her daughter's help in surveilling the woman her husband is schtupping. No wonder Brenda has no boundaries. Chenowith-like, the scene includes weaponized psychological analysis, but for once Brenda is outmatched. Her accusation that her mother is jealous is lame and adolescent, while Margaret's return thrust (that Brenda has spent her entire life as her brother's nursemaid to avoid having a life of her own and is having to face her own legion of demons now that her brother has been institutionalized) is brutally accurate.

More griping from Rico about how he's not a partner.

This episode took place one week after 9/11, yet there's no mention of it. This reflects the realities of a film schedule, of course... but I can't remember if there were ever any 9/11 references in this show.

There's something hinky about Claire's education timeline. She was born March 13, 1983 (her birthdate is in her obituary for the final episode of the series), which means she would have been 17 when the show begins in December 2000, and that 2000/2001 should have been her last year in high school. Ruth mentions Claire's graduation in an episode in late season 1. Yet here we are in season 2/September 2001, Claire is now 18... yet she's still in high school.
posted by orange swan at 7:11 AM on July 7, 2019

(her birthdate is in her obituary for the final episode of the series)

Woah! Is this supposed to be a rewatch? If yes, can we somehow add that category to these episode posts? This is my first time through the series and I know it's waaaaay past a reasonable amount of time to not expect spoilers, but I still think that if we're going to allow spoilers, then we need to tag the episodes appropriately.

(thank you so much orange swan for doing this! I'm really appreciating the effort you've put into this)
posted by LizBoBiz at 12:01 AM on July 12, 2019