When the Showtime seriesYellowjacketsdebuted,the character of Van wasn’t supposed to make it through the first season. ActorLiv Hewsonwas so great though that, producers changed their minds. In the recent second season,Lauren Ambroseplays the adult Van, and while she’s great in the role, no matter what heights Ambrose or the show soars to, nothing can likely match what she already did onSix Feet Under. That’s not a criticism, it’s not meant to imply that Ambrose isn’t capable of matching that success. Rather, it’s a compliment of her work.Six Feet Underwasn’t just any show. It was widely celebrated in its time and the years since, and its final scene, with Ambrose front and center, was the most perfect series finale goodbye imaginable.
Six Feet Under
A chronicle of the lives of a dysfunctional family who run an independent funeral home in Los Angeles.
‘Six Feet Under’ Showed Us a Family in Chaos
Six Feet Underaired on HBO for five seasons, from 2001-2005. Created byAlan Ball, who also createdTrue Blood,Six Feet Underthrived on its uniqueness. It told the story of a family running a funeral home. Ambrose played Claire, the daughter and youngest member of the Fisher clan. Her father, Nate Sr. (Richard Jenkins), ran the funeral home, Fisher & Sons, alongside his two older sons, Nate (Peter Krause) and David (Michael C. Hall). Her mother, Ruth (Frances Conroy), wasn’t part of the business, but her presence was always there.
The unique premise gave TV one of its best intros. Every week began with the viewer following a stranger. We quickly learned why we were watching them.This person was about to die in some fashion,whether in a manner that was tragic or strangely funny. After they passed, we’d see their name and the year of their birth and death appear on the screen. This person was integral because Fisher & Sons was where their bodies would go next. The very first episode didn’t give us a stranger, but rather the father, Nathan Sr., who died in a car accident on Christmas Eve.
The ‘Six Feet Under’ Scene That Proved Michael C. Hall Could Be Dexter
Michael C. Hall played the titular serial killer ‘Dexter’ for eight seasons on Showtime.
While this was a series six feet deep in death and grief, the show focused on the lives of those in the profession. The Fishers lived a chaotic life. Nate Jr. (Krause) was the black sheep who stayed away from the family, and only came back after his father died. David, who was part of the business, was a closeted gay man who struggled with his identity. Ruth was abused growing up, and it caused her to be a wife and mother who wasn’t so great with emotions.
There wasn’t just the Fisher family, but those surrounding them, like Federico Diaz (Freddy Rodriguez), the young man who worked with the Fishers, and his wife Vanessa (Justina Machado) and their struggles. David had a boyfriend, a brawny cop named Keith Charles (Mathew St. Patrick), who was open with his sexuality, which conflicted with David’s need to keep his a secret. Nate had a girlfriend, Brenda Chenowith (Rachel Griffiths) who just so happened to be a sex addict. She brought along with her a brother who is bipolar, Billy (Jeremy Sisto).
Claire Was at the Center of the Fisher Family in ‘Six Feet Under’
In the middle of it all was Claire. The show didn’t revolve around her per se, but everyone’s issues did.She tried to take care of everyone else while figuring herself outas she moved from her angsty teenage years into becoming a young woman finding love and trying to decide what to do with her life while everything fell apart around her. There was a lot of drama to be found inSix Feet Under, but as messed up as these people were, they also needed each other to feel alive.
The characters went through every heartbreak imaginable over half a decade, including, in the series' most heartbreaking moment, when Nate Jr. died toward the end of the fifth season at not even forty years old. After he passed, we focused on Claire as she was taken back to a memory of herself as a child in 1994 walking in on Nate in his bedroom. He was in tears, listening to Nirvana, telling Claire thatKurt Cobaindied that day, and how he was just too pure for this world. As the series so often did,we saw the events of the Fishers' lives through her eyes or how she processed it. At times, she was almost us in a way. In her, though, there was also hope. Claire, with her youth, and a hopefully long life ahead of her, could break the cycle and be happy. The fifth season gave us just that, with Claire finding love in a man named Ted (Chris Messina). He was there for her during Nate’s sickness and death. As her brother’s life came to an end, Claire’s was just beginning.
‘Six Feet Under’ Got Its Ending Right
Which brings us to the series finale. For almost two decades,Six Feet Under’s ending has been ranked as one of, if not the best, series finales. So many popular shows struggled in how to say goodbye. FromSeinfeld, toLost, toGame of Thrones,it was easy to get the series finale wrongby going for something so different or shocking that they failed to capture what made the show so loved in the first place.Six Feet Underknew why we loved it. We watched this show about death to see people live. They might have been messed up beyond belief, making mistakes, and going through so much pain, but they gave their all and lived fully. It was only fitting, in this show, rather than any other, that we also saw them die.
The last four minutes ofSix Feet Underis nothing but death as every single character we loved in the series meets their end. While it’s sad, it was not brutally depressing. Instead, it’s beautiful. At the end, as Claire listens to Sia’s “Breathe Me” in her car, she drives away, leaving her home and family behind to start a new life,herlife. Beside her, she sees a vision of her dead brother jogging in the street behind her. It makes her cry. As Claire drives on though, she grows calm. Then the most powerful moment in TV history begins.
We Saw Every Major Character in ‘Six Feet Under’ Die
First, there was Claire’s mom, Ruth. We see her in the future, literally on her deathbed, surrounded by her family. She looks over and sees visions of her dead husband andlate son, before slipping away to join them in the year 2025. At the funeral, Ted, who Claire had let go of, is seen standing there to her surprise, still supportive as always. David and Keith are shown to have gotten married, but their happy life doesn’t last long. In 2029, we see Keith, now working in security, shot to death by thieves.Next comes a memory of Claire and Ted getting married. She made it. She found love. In 2044, David sees a vision of Keith and immediately dies from shock, but the moment feels happy and complete. In 2049, Federico dies from a heart attack on a cruise with his wife. While talking with her brother, Brenda slips off into the next life in 2051.
We then come to Claire, a very old woman lying in her bed at home. Pictures of her loved ones adorn her walls. Nate is there. So is the rest of her family, including Ted and people who are either her kids or grandkids.She smiles and passes away in 2085 at 102 years old. Her fogged-over eyes then became Claire’s youthful eyes again as the drive continues. We’ve breathed in the deaths of the Fisher family and every soul they closely touched. Now Claire, looking sure of her next move, drives into the horizon, leaving us behind for what has yet to come. Claire would outlive them all, which was fitting, as she was the youngest by far and had learned from everyone else so much older than her.What they will eventually leave behind she will carry with her to the end. Her early life held so much pain, but in the end, we knew she’d be okay.Six Feet Underwas so much about endings and Claire will get a happy one.
Six Feet Underis available to stream on Max in the U.S.
