Six Feet Under: A Coat of White Primer

November 6, 2019 9:02 PM - Season 5, Episode 1

A woman who, with the encouragement of her therapist, begins to be more open and direct with the people in her life, discovers her boyfriend isn't at all receptive to hearing about her feelings or thoughts. To Ruth's horror, George becomes so erratic he has to be hospitalized, and is subsequently diagnosed with and treated for depressive psychosis. Nate and Brenda are looking forward to both a baby and their wedding when Brenda miscarries. David and Keith explore their adoption and surrogacy options. Claire takes a semester off from school to focus on her work and Billy. Rico signs up with Match.com.

The obituary from this episode:

Andrea Kuhn (1963-2004)

Passed away suddenly on October 14, 2004. Dear sister of Janine Kuhn and Daniel Kuhn in Toledo. Loving daughter of Albert Kuhn. Pre-deceased by her mother Margery. Andrea grew up in Mission Viejo and enjoyed watercolor painting and piano. A kind soul who will always be remembered for her selflessness, Andrea would have wanted us to keep smiling. Private memorial Service will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday October 16 at Fisher & Diaz 2302 W. 25th Street in Los Angeles. Interment at Westwood Memorial Cemetery.

posted by orange swan (3 comments total)

Turns out Andrea Kuhn's fears about what might happen if she spoke up for herself weren't at all unfounded. That boyfriend of hers was a narcissistic shit. I've never forgotten that his first response after finding out that his shoving Andrea had killed her was, "Don't do this to me, Andrea!" Moreover, all those antiques he had bought for her looked fucking ridiculous in her very contemporary apartment. I love old-style things myself, but I'd never give them to someone who had different taste. This might sound shallow and materialistic, but it's not: it is a bad sign if someone you're dating can't pick out a gift that's at least reasonably appropriate for your needs and tastes. It means they have no idea who you are and/or just don't care what you want.

I cannot imagine how furious I would be if someone I had married hadn't disclosed his history of mental illness to me. But then I wouldn't marry someone I'd only known for 40 damn days, so that is unlikely to happen. Not to say the responsibility of disclosure doesn't rest with George, of course.

Miscarrying the day before your wedding is some high-grade shit. Poor Brenda. Nate clearly was very hard hit by it too, though he was quite properly trying to hold it together for Brenda's sake, given that she's the one that is physically going through the miscarriage. They had a lovely wedding and it was such a shame they didn't even get to enjoy it fully.

Margaret Chenowith had almost her only moment of good parenting in this entire series, when she was there for Brenda and helped her put the miscarriage in realistic perspective by telling her how common miscarriages are, and that women get through them, and then have a baby.

Ruth Fisher really needs to stop hysterically slapping people. Hasn't she slapped all three of her children now, plus Rico? Not that I blame her for being upset with Claire for leaving school and getting involved with a seriously mentally ill guy who has a history of violent criminal behaviour. Claire tells a rightly concerned Nate that people change, but hello Claire, Billy's bipolar diagnosis hasn't changed, and he has a long-standing pattern of repeatedly going off his medication. I must admit he's very charming when at his best, which he apparently is right now.

It's nice to see David and Keith moving forward with their plan to become parents, given that David has been wanting a child for so long.

Rico is on the dating market, and predictably is being a clueless douche about it, assessing the grief-stricken Janine Kuhn as a potential date, and sending that tactless and asinine message to a woman he'd been dating to tell her she was too negative for him. Even Nate knows better than that.
posted by orange swan at 5:51 PM on November 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

Oh man I feel for Claire. When just being yourself, and not being particularly disrespectful (photos of mishaps are the best wedding photos!) causes your parent to really just hate you. It makes you hide parts of yourself to try and get them to not hate you but then you’re just being fake and can’t have a real relationship.

It’s Pam! So many people from The Office on this show. I wonder how they all happened to coincidentally move from California to Pennsylvania...
posted by LizBoBiz at 1:34 AM on December 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

In terms of covering taboos: the show really broke new ground on death and on sexuality. On mental illness: I’m not so sure. If George had schizophrenia then ECT is not something I think gets used. On the other hand, the juxtaposition of a miscarriage and an imminent wedding is probably a fairly frequent and often hushed up ordeal. Kudos to the writers for covering it so well.
posted by rongorongo at 3:07 PM on July 3, 2022