Six Feet Under: In Case of Rapture

September 28, 2019 9:27 PM - Season 4, Episode 2

A fundamentalist Christian woman mistakes some escaped blow up dolls for the Rapture, and, in her haste to meet Jesus, meets him in a different manner than she had expected. Nate's inability to separate his own grief from that of his clients leads to him quitting his job. George's efforts to fit in at the Fisher residence are met with sardonic impatience from the Fisher kids and righteous indignation from Arthur, and then a mysterious package arrives in the mail for him. Keith starts a new job and David gets a plumber to attend to his plumbing. Claire is feeling uninspired by her second year of art school until she meets some new friends. Rico's spending time and money on his new friend Sophia, and Vanessa is finding Rico strangely absent. Brenda and Joe decide they've been abstaining long enough.

The obituary from this episode:

Dorothy Sheedy (1954 - 2003)

Dorothy Sheedy, 49, was called home to the Lord, our God on Tuesday, Oct. 14th. Mrs. Sheedy was a devoted member of The First Baptist Church of Los Angeles, where she helped run many faith healing programs, served as Sunday School Treasurer and won numerous awards for her community service. Dorothy will be missed in her church and association.

Mrs. Sheedy leaves behind her loving husband, Thomas and son, Eric of Los Angeles; her father, Frances of Augusta, GA; and her sister, Betty of Dallas, GA.

Although we mourn the loss of our beloved wife and mother, we are certain that she is now enjoying that joy and peace that He has prepared for all that love and serve Him. We look forward to seeing her again, when we receive our call to Heaven.

The funeral will be held at 4 p.m. this evening in the Ministry Center Fellowship Hall. The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 tonight at Fisher & Diaz Funeral Home in Los Angeles. Donations can be made in Dorothy's behalf to Hope-Net Foundation of Los Angeles.

posted by orange swan (4 comments total)

This is one of my favourite cold open deaths of the entire series, and it's probably the funniest. I bet the actress who played Dorothy enjoyed the role.

There's some poor editing in the obit -- if I'm reading that right, Dorothy's father seems to be called "Frances" when it should probably read "Francis" as that is the male version of the name.

Nate, you narcissistic jackass. I don't blame him for needing to take some time away from the funeral business under the circumstances, but he should have controlled himself a little better with the clients, or quit sooner.

George's not quite relevant -- nor, apparently even entirely accurate factoids -- would be a little hard to take, I must admit, and Ruth's fluttery, "Oh George, you're so interesting!!" little woman behaviour only makes it worse. It's nothing that called for him being mailed feces, though.

Arthur eats "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" and cottage cheese because he's an 85-year-old woman inside.

Keith's new job doesn't look all that interesting in terms of being challenging work, but does have some fun elements, so he should be more contented with it than what he has been doing.

It's hard to have patience with Claire's expectation that whatever work she does should always be meaningful and inspiring. If you wait to be inspired before you pick up your camera, you will hardly ever pick it up, and hello, sometimes you just have to do routine, humdrum things in life. Such a spoiled and immature attitude.

Sophia's playing Rico like a violin. He is so naive sometimes. Meanwhile, Vanessa senses there's something going on, and Rico brings up her depression as an excuse for him being preoccupied with his stripper girlfriend. What an asshole move.

And can we take a moment to appreciate the male form as represented by a naked Justin Theroux?
posted by orange swan at 5:42 PM on October 1, 2019

I have been appreciating that male form very much!
posted by LizBoBiz at 5:07 AM on December 24, 2019

It’s Dwight’s babysitter/dinner party date. And she looks exactly the same!
posted by LizBoBiz at 7:38 AM on December 24, 2019

George's not quite relevant -- nor, apparently even entirely accurate factoids -- would be a little hard to take, I must admit, and Ruth's fluttery, "Oh George, you're so interesting!!" little woman behaviour only makes it worse. It's nothing that called for him being mailed feces, though.

I love how it is left to the audience to conclude that Arthur must have been the package sender. After George's condescending - and incorrect take down of his Formica origin story - I can almost forgive him.

I envisage the show's creators as having had to take part in an enormously long brainstorming session on how to come up with 50 or more ways for characters to die in cold opens. I envisage "Helium filled sex dolls mistaken fatally mistaken for angels by devout driver" as being one of those, (like "Death by impact from aircraft toilet ice") to have emerge towards the end of the session.
posted by rongorongo at 6:43 AM on May 27, 2022