Six Feet Under: Timing & Space

August 31, 2019 7:54 PM - Season 3, Episode 7

Bernard Chenowith dies of cancer, and Nate and Maya go to his funeral while Lisa is at a food conference. The Chenowiths try to come to terms with their loss. Ruth takes an interest in Arthur's hobbies. David and Keith attend a brunch hosted by David's fellow chorus members. Claire and Russell go shopping for art supplies. Rico becomes concerned about Vanessa's mental health.

The obituary from this episode:

Bernard Asa Chenowith (1939-2003)

Dr. Bernard Chenowith, Noted Psychiatrist, 65, Dies

Bernard Chenowith, long a fixture in the Los Angeles psychiatric community, died at Cedars-Sinai Hospital early Tuesday morning after a months-long battle with stomach cancer.

A native Californian, Chenowith was born in 1939 in Davis. He studied psychology as an undergraduate at University of California-Berkeley, and then earned his Doctorate in Psychiatric Studies at Stanford University. As a research fellow at Stanford, he led several pioneering studies in the pharmaceutical treatment of many psychiatric disorders and was instrumental in the fight to discontinue insulin-shock therapy in the treatment of schizophrenia.

Chenowith made headlines in the late 1960's, along with his wife and colleague Margaret Chenowith, when they agreed to let their daughter be the subject of a number of groundbreaking studies performed by the controversial Gareth Feinberg, resulting in the publication of "Charlotte, Light and Dark," a cult favorite of teenage girls for the past three decades. Recently Chenowith and his wife moved into the entertainment industry as psychiatric story consultants to many major Hollywood producers.

Chenowith is survived by his wife Margaret, and two children, Brenda and William. Memorials should be made to The Nature Conservancy, PETA, and Hadassah.

posted by orange swan (1 comment total)

In my memory of Bernard Chenowith's deathbed scene, Brenda was sitting in the window seat of his hospital room idly flipping though a magazine. Turned out that my memory was inaccurate and that she only read one of her father's get well cards, as anyone might do. It speaks volumes of my opinion of Brenda that I remembered her as doing something callous and impatient instead of looking grief-stricken and haggard, as she actually does in this scene.

Much as I like Rachel Griffiths, and as important as the Chenowiths are to this series, I find it completely unrealistic that Brenda and Nate would have anything much to do with each other again given how their relationship blew up. Their relationship lasted less than a year and a half and never had a lot of depth in any case, yet here we are, in for WAY more Brenda because she and Nate supposedly find each other irresistible. And going on about how their relationship failed because of "bad timing" [huge eyeball roll]. No, you twits, it failed because of your lies and infidelities and because neither of you know what a functional, adult relationship is actually like.

Damn, Lisa freaking out over Brenda having looked at Maya. I can understand why she's threatened by Brenda given that Nate didn't have the time he needed to get over Brenda before they got married, but Brenda isn't Medusa, Lisa -- get a grip. Nate was quite right that Lisa is putting too much emphasis on their relationship and expecting too much of it in terms of life satisfaction, that she doesn't have her own friends and work and interests the way she did back in Seattle.

Arthur's running togs and sweat patterns are... unfortunate.

Ruth, will you PLEASE find something else to do other than stalking Arthur.

I was just googling to find out what the age gap is between Ruth and Arthur, and discovered that Ruth, who was born in 1946, is much older than Frances Conroy, who was born in 1953. Conroy is not actually old enough to play Peter Krause's mother -- he was born in 1965 (as was Nate). Rainn Wilson was born in 1966. So, the actual age gap isn't that much. Of course, in 2003, Ruth is supposed to be 57 and Arthur, who is being played by someone who was then 37, is probably supposed to be 10-14 years younger than that, so Ruth is portrayed as pursing a young man over 30-34 years her junior when they're actually just over 12 years apart. Sigh. I hate it when casting directors pull this kind of shit.

Keith was soooo out of his element at that gay men's chorus brunch. But hey, I would have been too.

I am not a Russell fan, but must admit that he has treated Claire very well thus far, that they do have a stimulating and supportive relationship, and that the cobalt paint gift scene was lovely.

It's a good thing Nate picked up on the fact that there's something off about Vanessa. The show has been hinting that she's been running ragged for a little while now, and Rico hadn't really noticed.
posted by orange swan at 5:15 PM on September 3, 2019