Six Feet Under – A look back at the finale

In the course of series finales, there have been but a handful worthy of being terrific series enders.

M*A*S*H‘s “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” swansong.  Johnny Carson’s “… and so it has come to this” after 30 years of entertaining. Cheers finale with Sam’s final words “Sorry … we’re closed.” Heck … I even dug Twin Peaks‘ last episode where Cooper … well … I don’t want to spoil it for any Clackers who might still be making their way through the show …

And then there’s Six Feet Under. In a league of its own. Even our own Bob Degon said it reached perfect ending status for him.

“Everybody’s Waiting” just might be the perfect season finale. It was one of a scant handful of episodes that didn’t feature a death at the beginning of the program (it instead opened with the premature birth of Willa Fisher Chenowith, fading into her name and year of birth, leaving us momentarily wondering if she lived):

As the episode progressed, it cleanly and satisfyingly touched on most of the main characters, giving us some deliciously closure. Nate, enjoyably, was not only storied and toasted in a final family dinner, but was featured prominently throughout the episode haunting Ruth, Claire, David and Brenda with words  — vocalized and otherwise — for them all.

And then it hit me: With Claire saying her final goodbyes, I realized this was a coming-of-age story for her, seen over the five years of the show and then during those final moments. And fitting, heart-wrenching ones at that. Why this was such a shocker to me when I first saw it I can’t really say; caught up in the emotion of the episode, I got lost in the story and the commiseration with my beloved characters for the last time, I suppose.

And then came the final scenes, that montage. When I heard Sia’s “Breathe Me” begin (a big, huge, favorite song of mine), I knew something was about to happen. The show wasn’t going to simply bow out with Claire heading out the Fisher driveway and down her figurative “road of life” with Nate fading behind her through her side view mirror. I remember watching anticipatorily when all of a sudden Ruth’s deathbed scene played out. And yep, that was when the waterworks started for me. And they weren’t going to let up anytime soon. (Especially when I watched it again directly after via DVR.) Between each characters’ waypost events and their subsequent deaths, I was a blubbering, soppy mess. Cripes … writing this piece and viewing that ending (below) after so many years, it didn’t surprise me I teared up all over again.

A better finale for me hasn’t come along yet. I have my doubts one ever will.

RUTH O’CONNOR FISHER
1946—2025

KEITH DWAYNE CHARLES
1968–2029

DAVID JAMES FISHER
1969–2044

HECTOR FEDERICO DIAZ
1974–2049

BRENDA CHENOWITH
1969–2051

CLAIRE SIMONE FISHER
1983–2085

Clacked by Michael Noble
on Aug 20, 2011 @ 14:44 EST5EDT