Pilot (Six Feet Under episode)
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| “Pilot” | |
|---|---|
| Six Feet Under episode | |
 The family mourns at Nathaniel's grave. |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1 |
| Written by | Alan Ball |
| Directed by | Alan Ball |
| Original airdate | June 3, 2001 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "None" | "The Will" |
| List of Six Feet Under episodes | |
"Pilot" is the first episode of the HBO original series, Six Feet Under. The episode was written and directed by series creator, Alan Ball. It originally aired on Sunday June 3, 2001.
Contents |
[edit] Guest Starring roles
- Jeremy Sisto as Billy Chenowith (uncredited)
- Eric Balfour as Claire's Meth Date (later known as Gabriel Dimas)
- Tim Maculan as Father Jack (uncredited)
- Richard Jenkins as Nathaniel Fisher
- Dina Waters as Tracy Montrose Blair
- Garrison Herschberger as Matt Gilardi
[edit] Episode Recap
On Christmas Eve, while driving in his brand new hearse, Nathaniel Fisher, owner of the Fisher & Sons Funeral Home in Los Angeles, is killed when he is hit by a bus. His passing reunites the family (which would have happened anyway since it was Christmas) however, Nathaniel's death makes the following days more painful than they would already have been. Nathaniel leaves behind his wife Ruth, two sons Nate and David and a daughter Claire.
As Ruth cooks Christmas dinner, she receives a phone call from the police informing her that Nathaniel has died. Ruth throws the phone and starts screaming. David, who is attending to the family downstairs in the slumber room, hears Ruth's rampage and hurries up the stairs. Ruth tells David that there has been an accident: that the new hearse is totaled and that his father is dead. David looks shocked and takes it upon himself to call his other siblings.
Meanwhile at the airport, older brother Nate, who flew in from Seattle, talks with a woman who he met on the plane. As the two talk, Nate looks for his father, but he is nowhere to be found. The woman then tells Nate that she can give him a ride; when Nate rejects her offer, she rephrases the question. The two wind up in a utility closet and have passionate sex with their clothes on. A phone call from David reveals the bad news.
The youngest Fisher sibling, Claire, is attending a party with some friends from high school where they are smoking crystal meth. As Claire gets high, she receives a phone call from David, who asks her to drive her mother to the morgue to identify the body. When Claire tells this to her friends, they laugh. Claire cries as she leaves her friend's home.
Nate arrives at the morgue late with the woman he had met. He goes to embrace his mother and she asks who the woman is. Since Nate has only known the woman for a few hours, the woman fills in for him by telling Ruth her name in person: Brenda Chenowith. Ruth then tells Nate that he has to go and identify his father's body, as she is under duress. Claire pulls Nate aside and tells her older brother that she is starting to panic due to her having taken drugs prior to David's phone call. Nate tells her to pull it together and proceeds to go and identify Nathaniel's body. He enters the room, where the attendant unzips the bag to reveal the badly damaged corpse of his father. As Nate looks at the body, he imagines that the attendant is his father, who confronts him on all of his bad choices. Nate snaps back to reality when he confirms to the attendant that the body is in fact his father's. Nate, Ruth and Claire arrive back at the funeral home, where David becomes angered that they didn't retrieve the body. David then proceeds to the morgue to retrieve the body.
The morning after, over breakfast, Claire reflects on something her father had done in the past. Ruth becomes emotional when Claire continues talking and yells "He was a good man!". Nate decides to go running. Meanwhile, David is downstairs working on his father's body when Nathaniel talks to David about how he is a poor mortician. David tells his father that he did the best he could possibly do. The conversation is interrupted when Federico, the Fishers' skilled Latino restorative artist, arrives to work.
At the viewing, Nate and Claire look on as they watch how dysfunctional the funeral really is. Nate then remembers having experienced firsthand what real grief is like. While in Sicily, Nate witnessed a burial where the mourners were honestly and demonstratively grief-stricken, unlike American funerals where grief is hidden and overly effusive or discomfiting displays thereof are hurried off to another room. David's boyfriend Keith, who is a cop, arrives at Nathaniel's wake uninvited, causing him to panic since David is still a closeted homosexual. When being approached by his mother, he tells her that Keith is his racquetball partner and they are close friends. After David leaves, Claire flirts with Keith, not knowing he is David's boyfriend. Keith tells Claire that he and David are good friends. Later, Claire sees David and Keith together and realizes they are in a significant relationship. After seeing his mother being taken off into a room, Nate follows and comforts her after she admits to having an affair with a hairdresser. Ruth reasons that she had been lonely and needed companionship since Nathaniel was constantly at work. Nate forgives his mother and she cries in his arms.
However, things take an unexpected turn at the graveside services, where Nate talks about how the funeral business is unnatural. Nate then proceeds to throw dirt onto his father's casket. Ruth starts throwing dirt onto the casket while sobbing. Afterwards, David asks Nate to stay behind, where a confrontation ensues. David advises Nate that he is no longer needed since he has been coming and going since he was 17 years old and that he "got out and should stay out". Nate takes offense to this, but David runs off. Nate meets Brenda near the gravesite where the two walk and converse, and she finally gives him her number.
David returns to Keith; he becomes very emotional and the two kiss. The following day, Nate is asked by his mother if he can stay for a few extra days before leaving for Seattle. Nate extends his visit and proceeds to go running. When he takes a break near a bus stop, he sees his father waiting to get on the bus. When the bus comes to a stop, Nathaniel gets on and smiles at his oldest son, now at peace.
[edit] Death of the week
- Nathaniel Samuel Fisher (1943-2000): hit by a bus in his hearse while not properly watching the road as he was lighting up a cigarette.
[edit] Chronology
The episode begins on December 24, 2000, then briefly shows the following day on December 25, 2000. Nathaniel's viewing and burial occur three days after, on December 27, 2000, after Claire makes a comment that "it has been three days".
[edit] Funeral Industry Commercials
This is the only episode to feature commercials directed at the funeral industry. The commercials were intended to be a recurring feature however the concept was dropped after the pilot aired.
- Commercials include:
- 2000 Crown Royal Funeral Coach- an advertisement where a woman dressed in black demonstrates the new hearse, Nathaniel Fisher will soon purchase.
- Living Splendor Embalming Fluid- a commercial selling products used for the embalming process. The commercial features a deceased young man being embalmed with the product. The product will be used and mentioned in future episodes of the series.
- Wound Filler Putty- a make-up artist applies wound filler cream on a deceased woman's face in a very 1950s Hollywood style commercial. On his 2003 audio commentary, creator Alan Ball stated there is no such product available.
- Spill-Free Earth Dispenser- The last of the 4 commercials which mimics the GAP style commercials with young men and women dancing and shaking the earth dispenser.
[edit] Music
Featured music includes:
- I Love Being Here with You by Peggy Lee
- Shake Your Booty by Kool and the Gang
- Waiting by The Devlins
- I'll Be Home for Christmas sung by Bing Crosby
| Preceded by "none" |
Six Feet Under episodes | Followed by "The Will" |
