Six Feet Under: Grinding the Corn
October 23, 2019 8:04 PM - Season 4, Episode 9 - Subscribe

A comic book collector dies attempting to retrieve an especially prized issue from the top of one of his packed bookcases. Ruth and Bettina go on a road trip to Mexico, while the men of the Fisher household bond over their relationship issues and a particularly inept home invasion attempt. Nate backs away from Brenda, who almost falls back into her old ways in response. David fears Keith's having slept with Celeste means he's "switching teams". Claire discovers that Edie isn't speaking to her, that her new substitute teacher is an old friend, and that a new sexual technique Jimmy has read about really works for her.

The obituary from this episode:

Lawrence Tuttle (1969 - 2004)

Lawrence Tuttle owned a valuable collection of limited edition comics, graphic novels and rare, original artwork. He was deeply respected by his colleagues for his commitment to the preservation of comics, as well as his sophisticated taste in the art form and his extensive knowledge in comics and Science Fiction. His favorite character was Hawkeye, AKA Clinton Francis Barton, an under-appreciated Marvel character.

His coworkers at Hi-De-Ho Comics and his fellow members of the West Co Blue Twister Society are planning a private memorial ceremony before the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention in May.

Viewing for the public at 3p.m. on Saturday, March 13 at Fisher & Diaz 2302 W. 25th Street in Los Angeles. Private burial to follow.
posted by orange swan (3 comments total)
 
Had Lawrence Tuttle no family at all?

I would never let Ruth Fisher plan any road trip I took. Holy crap, did that trip suck.

It doesn't make much sense that Ruth would leave her own home to get away from George. Why didn't she kick him out?

George is the last person who should be giving any relationship advice. He and Rico are a sad couple of clueless jackasses. Thankfully Rico has the sense not to take his advice to just move on from his marriage to Vanessa. It was nice to see Nate and Rico and George bond over their having foiled the hapless would-be burglars from stealing a comic book from Lawrence's coffin.

Also nice to see: Brenda's humility and honesty when she's asked to leave the sex addiction group therapy session because she's been smoking pot and responds not -- as is usual with her -- by trying to turn the tables on them with some bullshit countercriticsm or analysis, but by meekly asking them to please let her stay because she needs their help.

But then she and Nate get back together. And it's not a good idea -- it's just something they feel like doing, and their feelings aren't the most trustworthy given that neither Brenda nor Nate are in the best place right now.

David's reaction to Keith having had sex with Celeste was more than a little ridiculous. Come on, he has known for a long time that Keith enjoyed having sex with women, and is probably borderline bi.

Claire finally gets to have an orgasm. Yay! But Billy's back in her life. Argh.
posted by orange swan at 11:22 PM on October 25, 2019


I understood Ruth's leaving (instead of kicking George out) as a precise description of how far her personal growth has progressed.

Was “no” the first word we’ve heard from Maya?

Somehow the show has trained me to recognize its hallucinatory moments. David's dream/nightmare boobs did surprise me, but I knew something was coming.

The death of the horse at the end of the episode really got to me.
posted by kingless at 3:18 AM on October 28, 2019


Claire finally gets to have an orgasm. Yay! But Billy's back in her life. Argh.
Six Feet Under's big USP was taking on the taboo subject of death. So its easy to overlook that the writer managed to talk about sex a lot too. In both cases, the emphasis seems to have been on covering the wide spectrum of experience - so we get relationships at all ages, homosexuality, bi-sexuality, threesomes, boredom, rape, unwanted pregnancy, BDSM, drug mediated sex and a list of other issues including difficulty achieving orgasm. Somewhere in there audience members might see themselves and somewhere - as with Billy and his "grinding the corn technique" (mildly NSFW) - they might learn something helpful.
posted by rongorongo at 1:36 AM on June 17, 2022


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