Perfect Circles

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"Perfect Circles"

Six Feet Under

Nate, seven months after the surgery.

Season 3 (2003)
Episode 27, 3-1
Air date(s) March 2, 2003
Writer(s) Alan Ball
Director Rodrigo Garcia
Episode chronology
Prev: The Last Time Next: You Never Know

"Perfect Circles" is the 27th episode of the HBO original series, Six Feet Under. It was the 1st episode for the show's third season. The episode was written by Alan Ball and was directed by Rodrigo Garcia. It originally aired on Sunday March 2, 2003.

Contents

[edit] Guest Starring roles

[edit] Episode Recap

Nate's embolization was not going smoothly. The AVM ruptured, and the doctors tried to put him in burst suppression.

NATHANIEL SAMUEL FISHER, JR. 1965-2002

Nate does not know whether or not he has died. He travels through parallel universes, seeing the results of what would have happened: in the first, his bald corpse lies in a coffin; in the second, he survived the surgery, but he was left almost completely paralyzed; in the third, he married Lisa; in the fourth, he married Brenda and they had a son; in the fifth, Nathaniel never died in the auto accident; in the sixth, Nathaniel had married a different woman; in the seventh, he's a "beer-bellied couch potato" watching soap operas all day.

Nate finds Nathaniel in the slumber room of the funeral home, and the two interrogate each other. Nate finally asks him if he died, and Nathaniel says: "Yes. And no. In some places you're dead, in some places you're alive, in some places you never even existed. Possibly. Theoretically. Or, who knows? It could just be the anesthesia talking." Nate then opens his casket to see which of the three happened.

NATHANIEL SAMUEL FISHER, JR. 1965-

Nate is alive; the surgery went well.

Seven months later, Nate has married Lisa and the two are rearing Maya at Lisa's boss, Carol's, home. David, trying to turn over a new leaf, auditions for a gay men's choir. Claire is now a student at LAC-Arts and has begun to date a rock musician working at the crematorium. Ruth now tries to spend most of her free time with her granddaughter now that she is jobless, but finds herself often alone. Keith has become an employee at a private security company, and he is in couples therapy with David. Federico has become a funeral director and partner at the funeral home, now renamed Fisher & Diaz.

[edit] Deaths of the week

  • Nathaniel Samuel Fisher, Jr.: (1965-2002) probably died momentarily, but was resuscitated.

[edit] Title reference

  • The title refers to an assignment Claire had to do for one of her drawing classes: practice drawing a perfect circle.

[edit] Chronology

The beginning of the episode starts minutes after the season two finale ended. After Nate's venture through alternate worlds, about seven months have elapsed.

[edit] Quotes

  • Nate: Would you look at this face? Is that the face of God, or what?
  • Claire: Yeah, there's some stuff coming out of God's nose.


  • David (to Nate): If you didn't want to see George Bush in the White House, you shouldn't have voted for Ralph Nader.

[edit] Music

Featured music includes:


Preceded by:
The Last Time
Six Feet Under episodes Followed by:
You Never Know