Six Feet Under: Life's Too Short

June 7, 2019 9:02 PM - Season 1, Episode 9

Gabe tells his little brother Anthony to go play while he smokes up with a friend, and Anthony does, with disastrous results. Nate learns that he has failed his funeral director license exam, and goes on a tour of local funeral homes with Brenda in order to check out the competition. David realizes that he and his square dance instructor are not compatible. Ruth goes on a hiking trip with Hiram, and inadvertently takes a second trip alone. Claire is concerned about Gabe.

The obituary from this episode:

Anthony Christopher Finelli

April 12, 1995 - April 21, 2001

FINELLI, Anthony Christopher. Passed away April 21, 2001. Anthony just celebrated his sixth birthday on April 12. He enjoyed cartoons, video games, and playing goalie with the Stingrays in the Youth Soccer League.

Anthony is greatly missed by all his teammates and his friends and teachers at Chase Elementary School in Boyle Heights. He is survived by his mother Victoria Dimas, his father Samuel Finelli, and his brother Gabriel Dimas. Funeral services to be held Thursday, April 26th at 2:00 p.m. at Fisher & Sons Funeral Home.

posted by orange swan (2 comments total)

Poor little Anthony. This was one of the most tragic deaths of the entire run of Six Feet Under, and also a PSA for gun safety. We learn more about Gabe's background in this episode. He has had a terrible start in life, and now this. It really wasn't Gabe's fault that Anthony found that gun -- he may not have even known his mother had it, and Anthony should have been safe enough playing in his mom's room -- but of course he'll never forgive himself, and his mother will probably never recover.

What's everyone's best guess as to whether Gabe's asshole friend actually has one peanut-sized testicle? My guess is that he does.

There's a LOT of casual drug use in this show. I know so few people who do drugs in my walk of life, and yet in Six Feet Under-land basically everyone does it.

Ruth's response to the guy sending dozens of yellow roses to his cheating ex was so perfectly Ruth.

Nate got soooo freaked out by Brenda's acting in their funeral home tour. Come on, her cancer patient shtick wasn't that good. I think I'd rather go to Fisher & Sons than any of the places Nate and Brenda checked out if I had a funeral to arrange. David and Nate actually are pretty good at dealing with grieving people compared to the funeral directors they saw. They feel like they aren't, but the reality is there's very little a funeral director can do to ease the very fresh and raw grief of their clients, and at least they do that.

Billy's been researching funeral customs around the world as a way of involving himself in Brenda and Nate's relationship, because of course he has.
posted by orange swan at 3:47 PM on June 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

There's a LOT of casual drug use in this show.

I don't know how many of the show's writers are from L.A., but the weed use reads correctly to me, who grew up here. Generationally I'm in Nate's cohort. My friends always stole from their parents' stash. I find it less likely that Nate DIDN'T know until after Nathaniel Sr.'s death that the latter had a great connect and had been toking up for years.
posted by goofyfoot at 7:17 PM on June 10, 2019 [1 favorite]