- calificación: 8,70
- año de publicación: 2001
- Géneros : Drama
- Países: United States
- Duración: 54 minutos
A drama series that takes a darkly comical look at members of a dysfunctional California family that runs an independent funeral home.
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1. Pilot
DescripciónOn Christmas Eve, 2000, funeral-director Nathaniel Samuel Fisher is involved in a hearse-accident with a bus and is killed. Ruth Fisher has a hard time coping, so can't bring herself to identify her husband's body at the morgue. David, the secretly gay younger son who remained at home to help with the family business, feels nothing but dismay at the prospect of now continuing his hated job for good, and focuses on keeping everything in order for the newest funeral. Claire Fisher gets the news just after smoking crystal at a party, and is forced to hide it. Nate Fisher… -
2. The Will
DescripciónChandler James Swanson dives too sharply into his pool and drowns…and leaves his family not with the multi-million-dollar pyramid scheme business they thought he had, but a mountain of debt. Nathaniel's will gives Ruth all his money, Claire an unwanted trust fund, and David and Nate the funeral business. Nate tries to give it to David or Ruth, but neither will take it, so he's glad to get Matthew Gilardi's offer to join Kroehner, but first has to convince David. With their client having too little money to even buy the $9000 casket already ordered and David and Rico… -
3. The Foot
DescripciónWhile cleaning a dough-mixer from the interior, Thomas Alfredo Ramono gets caught in his aide accidentally activating it. Nate agrees to sell to Kroehner's, with Ruth's support (and David's opposition overruled), but changes his mind when he hears another's view of Gilardi so is forced to reconsider if this easy choice is the best one. Gabe reveals that he and Claire slept together, resulting in mockery from half the school, so she decides to get revenge on him in a disturbing, sick move. Ruth's friend Amelia makes it over to offer sympathy and eventually succeeds in … -
4. Familia
DescripciónThe police are investigating the fire across the street and it's clear that the police suspect a member of the family. Claire is their first choice. Nate and David find themselves caught in the middle between a family and a gang leader when ‘Paco’ Bolin is killed by a rival gang. The family want to bury their son but his gang leader, ‘Powerful’, wants it done his way. The business is in dire need of the money so they get Rico to try and settle any disagreement. David and Keith are called fags in a parking lot and Keith can't comprehend David's passive reaction to the … -
5. An Open Book
DescripciónNate finally gets to meet some of Brenda's family. he's invited to dinner but gets there to find that he is the only guest. He learns a lot about Brenda and gains some insight into her history and background. He also gets to meet her brother Billy who has moved in with her for a while. Dave is pleased when his Minister asks him to become a Deacon at the church, a post his father occupied prior to his death. His refusal to reveal that he is gay leads to a break-up with Keith however. Ruth is worried about Claire and attends a counseling session at school with Claire. … -
6. The Room
DescripciónMildred Effinger “Hattie” Jones passes away in her sleep, leaving behind her gruff, crusty husband of 56 years who forcibly stays at the Fishers' even before the brothers can see him, and stubbornly insists they can't embalm his wife despite a 2-day wait on the service. Claire falls for Billy before learning of his odd nature, and gets some interesting news about Brenda. Ruth introduces David to Hiram, which naturally doesn't go well, and is pursued by the family florist, Nikolai. David is forced to admit to Tracy Montrose Blair his engagement is actually over without… -
7. Brotherhood
DescripciónGulf War First-class Private Victor Wayne Kovich finally passes away after years of suffering lung disease, and Nate must persuade Daivd and the man's angry brother that he should receive a military-honoring burial as he wished. Claire prepares for the PSAT test she doesn't care about and wonders how much better her life will turn out compared to others'. Ruth takes a job at Nikolai's shop and invites Hiram to join them for a meal (prepared by him). Rico, angry that Nate plans to take a weekend trip with Brenda to the desert, professes the Fishers' lack of … -
8. Crossroads
DescripciónCelebrating her divorce with wine and a limo ride, Chloe Margaret Bryant runs into a cherry-picker while hanging out of the sunroof. Rico, working at Kroehner's for extra money, earns fame for embalming her. Failing to realize he's been lying to them, or taking their supplies, Nate decides to hold square-dancing lessons to raise money in a slow time, and the instructor has an interesting reaction to David. Claire's outreach trip turns out to be a disappointment. Ruth is torn between Hiram and a jealous Nikolai. Nate has to deal with one of Brenda's … -
9. Life's Too Short
DescripciónWhile babysitting, Gabe kicks his little brother out of the room so he and Andy can get high, but Anthony Cristopher Finelli ends up playing with a gun and it goes off. Claire tries to support Gabe since no one else bothers trying, and Nate has to deal with his abusive stepfather when he arrives at the funeral. David goes with Kurt to a disco where he gets some ecstasy, and later hides it in the aspirin. Unfortunately, this appears to be a weekend where the family has a case of headaches, so he has to inconspicuously question Claire if anything unusual happened after … -
10. The New Person
DescripciónAt breakfast, egomaniacal Jonathan Arthur Hanley receives a blow on the head with a frying-pan when his wife finally has enough of his mouth. Rico's replacement David and Nate find is difficult to reason with and informs Ruth she's convinced David is gay. Nate confronts Billy after he displays a degrading picture of him at an art gallery, and Brenda too grows disgusted with him when his parents reveal what he actually did instead of attempting suicide years before…but not enough to believe he should be institutionalized as they do. Ruth shows her feelings about … -
11. The Trip
Descripción3-week-old Dillon Michael Cooper suffers SIDS - an extremely uncomfortable charge for the Fishers as far as comforting the family but even more so for Rico, since his wife is currently pregnant for a second time. After Gabe's suicide attempt fails, Claire lies to Ruth that his drug overdose was an accident and points out that she, not his uncaring family, should help. David, Nate, and Brenda go to Vegas for a funeral directors' meeting where Nate informs Gilardi he knows what the arsonist's motive was, David meets Keith under unpleasant circumstances just after being … -
12. A Private Life
DescripciónA pair of young gay men is attacked, resulting in Marc Foster, Jr's death. With citizens arguing over the morality or immorality of the situation, David feels extreme discomfort on his being gay, making it even more daunting when he is encouraged to confess it to Ruth. So does Keith, instructed to deal with any troublemakers who attend the funeral. Nate tries to convince Brenda that Billy should receive treatment as their parents suggested after he attacks him, but Brenda doesn't get it until it happens to her. -
13. Knock, Knock
DescripciónMatthew Gilardi discusses the difficulties of convincing the Fishers to sell to Kroehner's with his superior Mitzi Dalton Huntley while golfing, and one of the balls hits Tracy Montrose Blair's aunt Lillian Grace Montrose. Tracy is her usual difficult self while refusing to sign the Fishers' service contract, changing her mind completely about what kind of service to have, and being finicky over the only coffin available of the chosen kind, but shows a different side of herself when revealing why she's so devoted to keeping this funeral perfect. Claire is unaware that…
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1. In the Game
DescripciónDrug-addict actress Rebecca Leah Milford overdoses on cocaine, leaving her fellow cast and crew members, including Rico's sponsoring obnoxious sister-in-law, to set up the funeral. A guide to parents with gay children recommends accepting them by welcoming their lovers for a family meal, so Ruth prepares to invite Brenda, Gabe, and Nikolai before learning that Keith is no longer part of David's life. David and Nate both get bad news on their MRI's: David has gonorrhea and Nate learns that his brain condition is indeed AVM, potentially (but not necessarily) fatal, but … -
2. Out, Out, Brief Candle
DescripciónA football player collapses of dehydration during a practice session, but doesn't die…but his fellow player and best friend Joshua Peter Lagmead is ignored as he falls a moment later. Nate and Brenda prepare to make her high-school boyfriend Trevor envious when he visits for dinner with his own family, but in between trying to succeed, Nate is plagued with visions of Josh weeping, afraid of what will happen to him in death, and does his best to ignore his presence. Robbie graduates from The Plan, and invites Ruth to be his witness, and she's intrigued by the … -
3. The Plan
DescripciónMichael John Piper finally passes away, depressed and delirious, after a long battle with cancer, and his “psychic” widow sticks around Fisher & Sons to discuss his funeral arrangements with him. She also predicts that one of the brothers will have a child, and perplexedly tells Nate she doesn't sense Nathaniel - though only because the funeral home is crowded so not everyone can be sensed. Nate is also baffled by Brenda's so-called ebb in sexual activity, especially when learning even Rico, with a family of four, has an extremely strong pattern of one. He does get … -
4. Driving Mr. Mossback
DescripciónHarold Mossback falls asleep but doesn't wake up on a bus tour in Seattle, where his kids hire the Fishers but insist he should transported by land back from LA since he feared flying in life. Unable to get any transportation services, Nate chooses to fly to Seattle and stay at his ex-roommate Lisa Kemmel's, then transport him by rental-car, offering to take Claire along for the ride (and to help drive). David is stuck sitting Taylor for Keith when he's stuck on assignment for several hours, annoying Rico and causing Ruth, now trying to contact old friends and … -
5. The Invisible Woman
DescripciónEmily Previn chokes on her TV dinner and isn't discovered dead in her apartment until a week later. Her funeral has already been set up, but Rico finds it a time-consuming impossibility to let her have an open-casket one since she's in such bad shape and Nate and David are only able to contact one of her friends (the one who has a funeral-phobia). The questions left of who she is and why she lived alone have an even more profound effect on Ruth, who begins having troubling dreams of living in an empty environment. David hopes to begin a strong relationship with Ben … -
6. In Place of Anger
DescripciónAt a corporate-funded boat-party he denounces, Matthew Heath Collins has too much to drink, drops his latest beverage over the side of the deck, and in attempting to retrieve it falls underwater and is cut by the propeller. His widow Catherine first contacts Fisher & Sons for a closed-casket funeral without bodily repairs, then chooses to switch to Kroehner's instead, forcing David and Nate to think of a way to set a cheap, but reasonable, price to convince her to switch back. Ruth's sister Sarah comes to visit upon receiving her message after years of feuding, … -
7. Back to the Garden
DescripciónJeffrey Marc Shapiro performs asphyxiation therapy while watching an adult video and jogging on his treadmill, but winds up hanging himself after not using his lemon slice to assist breathing. Nate befriends the man's religious leader, Rabbi Ari, and asks her the Jewish beliefs on death and afterlife. Claire chooses to go to Tapenga Canyon to visit Sarah for a weekend, despite Ruth's objections, and is interested more in the teenage son of a pair attending the artists' party there than the partying artists themselves. With Claire gone, Nate busy, and David going out … -
8. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
DescripciónChristmas Eve - and the 1-year anniversary of Nate and Brenda's meeting and Nathaniel Fisher's death - is approaching, and this year, the Fishers are requested by the Hell's Angels motorcyclists to allow the funeral home to be open on Christmas Day so they can have a party/memorial service for Jesse Ray Johnson, who was involved in a motorcycle accident on his way to his part-time job as a mall Santa while greeting some kids. The family (and Rico) each remember their last moments with Nathaniel and, in most cases, regret what they didn't do for him before he died. On … -
9. Someone Else's Eyes
DescripciónA construction worker's metal lunch-pail falls from his perch on the building and strikes Dwight Edgar Garrison on the head - resulting in a major family conflict between his current wife and her 2 stepdaughters from his first marriage, on whether he should be buried with his late wife or the widow. Besides having to deal with that, Nate remains unaware that Brenda is still seeing other men but wonders whether she still wants to marry him, or just does out of pity…and whether he should wed at all when Lisa meets him and announces she's pregnant with his child. … -
10. The Secret
DescripciónBenjamin Srisal suffers a heart attack at home, requiring a Bhuddist service at Fisher & Sons that Nate gets a crash-course in how to conduct, but he's still got no answers as far as what should be done concerning Brenda and Lisa. Lisa apologizes for her outburst in the store but requests she have full custody of the child, causing him to be haunted by visions of the first child they conceived, as well as all the others he lost to abortion. David and Keith begin to argue again, especially after Karla accidentally hits and kills a homeless man on the street, and Taylor… -
11. The Liar and the Whore
DescripciónEdith Kirky is the 4th patient of the year to be brought to Fisher & Sons from Bay Breeze Hospital where Vanessa works, so David predicts Rico's usual pride over the fact…but no one predicts him, suspicious about her neck-markings, to discover a whole hot dog wedged down her esophagus. When informing the authorities, Fisher & Sons is forced to allow them to bring Vanessa and her partner to be examined since they failed to find the hot dog themselves. Rabbi Ari encourages Nate and Brenda to be honest with each other, but Brenda reacts badly when Nate informs her he's… -
12. I'll Take You
DescripciónThe Diazes' friend and former neighbor Leticia Perfect Perez dies in her sleep at a beauty parlor and leaves his family a large sum of money, causing Rico to remember how he lost his father and got into the funeral business to begin with. However, she also leaves behind a son, never close to her in life, who wishes to give her a more expensive casket than her pre-meet's choice and is jealous of Rico. Nate and Brenda attend her parents' remarriage, he goes to cheer up Aaron Buchbinder, and Keith, David, and Taylor are visited by a social worker. Nikoai responds … -
13. The Last Time
DescripciónAaron Buchbinder passes away painfully shortly after Nate arrives to visit (after he argues with Ruth about her visiting and photographing his daughter Maya). Kroehner's last act against the Fisher & Sons funeral home is to hire an inspector to examine the place, and they're fined for the problematic drainage system. Nate has a bleed requiring a cranial surgery to cure. Vanessa encourages Rico to ask for permission to be a partner since he has the money to pay the fine, and he's given 25% of it only when Nate reminds David he may need a replacement for Nate. Ruth …
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1. Perfect Circles
DescripciónThe surgeons are dismayed when Nate's blood vessel ruptures and he suffers a hemorrhage, and his blood pressure continues to rise, then Nate dies…At least, the family and Rico are in shock, grieving, while Nate himself is dining in a hated restaurant with his father, impatiently waiting to get to his own funeral. He arrives early, sick of the food, and sees his funeral (open-casket, not a memorial service after cremation as he wished)…then hears David speaking to him from the next room where he sees himself paralyzed and with speech problems struggling to relearn…. -
2. You Never Know
DescripciónTelemarketers Andrew Wayne Milne, Matthew Clark Hazen, and Martin Jacobs are shot by their insane former co-worker Daniel Grant Showalter who then commits suicide. Fisher & Diaz gets both the Milne and the Showalter funerals - but Rico objects to having the killer's, especially on the same day his victim's is to be held, so makes David's life miserable by refusing to pick up his body or do his job quietly. Stuck picking it up himself, David misses therapy with Keith, and Frank Mushler encourages him to view his own feelings about David without him around to defend … -
3. The Eye Inside
DescripciónCallie Renee Morimer flees a group of jeering young men calling to her as she walks alone in the dark, who turn out to be some joking friends, but stops in the street and is hit by a car upon realizing it. David enjoys singing in the choir but turns down an opportunity to go to a member's open house - he and Keith are spending the weekend at a hotel out of town, but from the moment they get there David worries about seeming too obviously gay in front of the straight couples. Carol finally crosses a line when blaming Lisa's family for not allowing her to give her … -
4. Nobody Sleeps
DescripciónRobert Lamar Griffin's rare heart disease finally takes its fatal toll, leaving behind his boyfriend Kevin Lamb, a scene-designer of the opera company where he was a lighting-designer, who requests Fisher & Diaz to allow him to create a Chinese opera set for the funeral. David suspects Rico's views of homosexuality are narrow and defends it, while the couple's having been together so long offer new insight to his relationship with Keith. With Ruth's birthday approaching, Lisa prepares to throw her a party despite Nate's warning that she prefers her birthdays without … -
5. The Trap
DescripciónA lost pair of hikers discover the wrecked remains of a car with the skeleton of the driver, William Aaron Jaffe, inside. Nate is surprised by the son who never knew him not seeming to be troubled by it, and worried by the remarried widow's remark that they weren't right for each other and married too hastily - his own relationship with Lisa has become strained when she encourages him to cut back on his spending and considers staying home with Maya for a few years, without even letting him be the first to know. Things are further complicated when Nate runs into Brenda… -
6. Making Love Work
DescripciónKaren Postell Pepper suffers a hemorrhage to the nose while preparing to enter the “Making Love Work” TV studio with a question to ask Dr. Dave. Nate prepares to go on his first camping trip in 2 years (where he went without Brenda), with Lisa, Maya, and Dana, Todd, and their toddler daughter Spencer. By the time they arrive, though, he realizes he won't be able to drink 3 cans of beer that night or smoke cigarettes. Ruth becomes interested in Arthur the more she gets to know him, and rents a movie whose score he says he favors. David believes Russell is gay, though … -
7. Timing & Space
DescripciónSurrounded by his family, Bernard Asa Chenowith dies of stomach cancer, and when Nate learns of it he requests Lisa's permission to attend his funeral since Brenda was there after his father's. Lisa agrees, and Nate plans to leave Maya with Ruth, but she's out secretly stalking Arthur jogging. Claire chooses to go shopping with Russell at an arts store, where Russell buys her a gift of an expensive bottle of paint she refused to purchase. David takes a reluctant Keith to Terry's party, where he's humiliated at playing a game and eventually leaves David to take his … -
8. Tears, Bones & Desire
Descripción63-year-old polygamous family leader “Daddy” leaves behind 5 wives and numerous children of The People clan, making the Fishers intrigued about their spiritual and cultural beliefs, like their guarding his body throughout the embalming. Ruth gives Arthur an unwanted kiss and instantly breaks her vow not to do it again, so struggles to find a new way for her to express her passions for Arthur. Terry and Patrick invite themselves to Gay Paintball Day - which plays right into Keith's hands since he chooses to be on the opposite team as David as revenge for being taken to… -
9. The Opening
DescripciónMelinda Mary Bloch shuts herself in he garage in her activated car by way of suicide, leaving behind only a guilty ex-lover who worries Rico when he mentions she'd actually received treatment for depression, and Nate when he admits he'd tried to end their relationship more than once but wound up staying longer than he wished. Lisa, who's been having arguments constantly with him, officially meets Brenda at Claire's art show where Billy also has a display, and Brenda confronts her about her sneaky meeting and assures her she isn't close to Nate. When she and Olivier … -
10. Everyone Leaves
DescripciónJeanette Louise Bradford has an allergic reaction to a bee-sting in Balboa Park, causing Keith to go to San Diego for his aunt's funeral and David to join him, encouraging him to discuss sleeping with a third man with him and to confront his father on his abusive childhood after the funeral. Russell admits he was sleeping with Olivier and an angry, betrayed Claire demands he leave her alone from now on. She and Ruth talk with each other about their relationship problems when Ruth learns Arthur is a virgin so there's nothing new to be gained from spending time with him… -
11. Death Works Overtime
DescripciónConvience-store owner Dorothy Kim Su is fatally shot during a robbery. Nate is forced to file a missing-person report when he continues to hear nothing from Lisa. Construction-worker Edward Tully hits some electrical wires in the site where he's working during an earthquake, is electrocuted, and falls to his death. Nate calls David, where he's sleeping with Patrick, and tells him he's starting to panic, especially after the earthquake. Ruth has convinced herself, as usual, that everything, including Lisa, is fine, but doesn't convince Claire, who is set to believe … -
12. Twilight
DescripciónWoman-killer Carl Desmond Williman finally receives the death penalty by a lethal injection in Texas, and his unemployed daughter hires Fisher & Diaz for the funeral, and sleeps with Nate since they're both miserable and want to escape their problems, but he treats her unsympathetically the following day out of sheer guilt. David breaks up with Keith after spending more time with Patrick. Claire chooses to get an abortion and calls Brenda when she learns she needs a driver, who accepts. Ruth considers marrying George but does decide to slow things down a bit after … -
13. I'm Sorry, I'm Lost
DescripciónA piece of “blue ice” broken off an airplane strikes Anahid Havanessian, whose husband goes to Fisher & Diaz for a funeral…but changes his mind when, frustrated with the government for hiding that such deaths are common and suspecting Nate's silence is indifference, he's snapped at by Nate, who then snaps at David and Rico for telling him he lost them money by not demanding payment for the meeting when they “switched to the local chapel”. Walking in the early hours of the morning to clear his head without success, and drinking heavily and sleeping with a bar …
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1. Falling into Place
DescripciónIn 1972, Bruno Baskerville Walsh took LSD at a party, and “flew” off the balcony where he stood, landing on a car in a parking lot. Ruth and George sleep together their first night of marriage…extremely loudly, annoying David and Keith, and Claire. The next day, Rico is guilty and tells Vanessa Angelica can stay however long she wants, but Vanessa actually kicks her out. Claire is furious with Nate for missing Ruth's wedding, until he returns home from sleeping with Brenda and announces her death. Claire tells Russell she aborted his child, and gets an amazing … -
2. In Case of Rapture
DescripciónDevoted Christian Dorothy Sheedy mistakes inflatable dolls floating from a truck bed for angels, and jumps out of her car, unaware of her surroundings, and is hit by another driver. Her husband, also strong in his faith, doesn't know whether his wife's death was an odd accident or suicide but remains calm about it, believing it was simply her time to die. Nate doesn't accept that and when David forces him to stop pressing the man with questions on why his beliefs are thus and why he won't appear more angry or saddened, he quits the business and confronts Ruth for … -
3. Parallel Play
DescripciónNate meets a divorced mom with a tot the same age as Maya and they soon arrange for a play-date for the kids - which turns out to be quite playful for them as well. David works with Arthur on his appearance - he buys him a new suit - and on his technique for dealing with clients. Arthur and Ruth receive a wedding present that contains a tin of feces. She's convinced she knows who is sent it. Sophia has Rico wrapped around her little finger and he agrees to pay for her new boob job. Claire is surprised when she learns that Edie is a lesbian. Joe tells Brenda he wants … -
4. Can I Come Up Now?
DescripciónRuth is more convinced than ever that Arthur is responsible after they receive yet another package with feces. She decides she's going to lay a formal complaint with the police but Arthur finally tells her it's not Arthur and knows who is sending these packages to them. David receives a frantic call in the middle of the night from Jennifer, his one-time fiancée, telling him that her father Lawrence Mason died from a lightning strike. He wants to help her out as much as possible but worries when her current fiancé seems less than supportive. When he reaches out to her … -
5. That's My Dog
DescripciónAlthough their earlier visit did not go very well, Ruth suggests they invite George's estranged son Kyle for dinner. She's also thinking of inviting a friend of hers and introduce them. Nate goes to a grief management class but has trouble relating to the other participants. At the funeral home, Rico and Dave console Anne Thornton's husband who blames himself for his wife's death. Claire doesn't react well to criticism of her self-portraiture photos. David picks up an apparently stranded motorist but it all turns nightmarish for him. -
6. Terror Starts at Home
DescripciónDavid has recovered physically from his carjacking but refuses to tell his family what really happened to him. At the funeral home, he has the case of Robert Meinhardt who he thought was a suicide but then learns he was shot in the head by burglars. David has a panic attack and has to call 911. George and Ruth attend an academic receptionist where she overhears a conversation and learns of George's philandering ways. It's David's birthday and Ruth has organized a dinner to celebrate the occasion. In the kitchen she lets slip to Vanessa that Sophie visited Rico. She … -
7. The Dare
DescripciónClaire has taken a liking to her friend Edie but is having difficulty coming to terms with her emotions. With Vanessa suspicious, Rico decides to tell Sophie he can't come by anymore. She's at her manipulative best and he can't bring himself to break away. Vanessa follows him and assumes the worse when she sees her. Nate and Brenda have been sleeping together but he also goes on a date with a fellow worker from the pet retreat. George and Ruth's relationship is strained and he invites her on his annual fossil hunt. Their outing doesn't go well and they end up at her … -
8. Coming and Going
DescripciónDavid is living at home alone now that Keith is on the road with rock star Celeste. He does take advantage of an out of the blue call from an old acquaintance, Sarge, but still suffers from post-traumatic stress. Keith finally comes out to one of his co-workers but it's an encounter with Celeste that sends him packing. Ruth has come to the end of her tether when she returns from church to find that George has trimmed a tree her first husband had planted in the yard. She leaves a note saying she's gone away for awhile. Having told Joe that she has slept with someone on… -
9. Grinding the Corn
DescripciónHaving agreed over the phone not to have sex with others, Keith on his return tells David of having slept with Celeste. Still stressed from his attack, David now worries that Keith will develop an interest in women. Claire is still having trouble coming to grips with her own sexuality. Her friend Edie no longer wants to speak to her but Jimmie suggests they sleep together. Claire is also surprised at school when she learns that Billy Chenowith will be their substitute teacher for the rest of the term. In the year he's been away he seems to have gotten his act together… -
10. The Black Forest
DescripciónNate dreads having to go to Idaho to visit Lisa's family and attend a service they have arranged. He and Brenda have reconciled and she convinces him that going is the right thing to do. He asks her come along. The visit goes well but after Nate returns to LA, the local funeral director tells Lisa's parents he doesn't think the ashes they interred were in fact Lisa's. David and Keith attend a friend's wedding and decide they want to adopt a child, though David seems to think it's more pressing. Ruth returns home and tells George what it will take for them to continue … -
11. Bomb Shelter
DescripciónBrenda feels the clock is ticking and wants to have a baby sooner rather than later. Nate wants to think about it for a while. A lunch with her mother Margaret doesn't go particularly well - Margaret is rushed to the hospital. The event does give Brenda and Billy a chance to see each other again. George feels they should be preparing for whatever catastrophe may befall mankind. Ruth tells him of the old bomb shelter and he thinks it's just perfect. Claire's latest project gets raves from Billy and several of her classmates but she reacts badly when Russell claims to … -
12. Untitled
DescripciónGeorge's infatuation with impending disaster is causing him nightmares. His daughter Maggie joins him and Ruth for dinner and she has a lot of stories about her dad. Later, Ruth is quite concerned when she finds George talking by himself to an imaginary person. Claire's showing of her work is a huge success but she ignores her friends in the process. Nate is stressing over Barb's threat to take Maya away from him. He learns more about the circumstances of Lisa's death, leading to another tragedy. David hopes that if he faces his attacker, who is now in prison, he will…
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1. A Coat of White Primer
DescripciónThe insecure Andrea Kuhn is encouraged by her psychiatrist to disclose her true feeling to her family, and when she is happy being herself, her husband accidentally kills her after an argument. Ruth recalls how stress triggered a depressive psychosis in George and his treatment with electroshock. Brenda has a miscarriage in the eve of her wedding day. Billy invites Claire to move to his place. David and Keith are discussing the alternative for their baby, adoption or to rent a belly. Rico misses a steady relationship while dating women from an Internet site. -
2. Dancing for Me
DescripciónWhile trying to reach the newspaper on the sidewalk, Samuel Wayne Hoviak, who was the best high-school friend of Nate, falls and his truck run over him. In the funeral service, Nate meets their other former best friend, Tom Wheeler; they recall their adolescence and realize that they are getting up. The bitter and deranged Ruth has no patience with George, and they receive his daughter Maggie. David proposes Claire to donate her eggs for the baby of his own with Keith, but she refuses. Claire feels her art rejected by the owner of a gallery and Billy misses his former… -
3. Hold My Hand
DescripciónIn 1954 Loretta Smith Sibley committed suicide in front of her son George. With the anniversary of September 9th approaching, George is haunted by her presence enough to distract him at home, repeats his habit of placing unwanted food in his pockets, telling Ruth he was saving it, and confesses to Maggie that he again needs therapy. Ruth also has to deal with Claire confronting her after she freezes her account since she's no longer in school. Billy buys her the camera she wanted to purchase herself as they consider leaving for Spain, but Ruth disapproves of the whole… -
4. Time Flies
DescripciónLila Simmonds Coolidge passes away just before her 96th birthday…which she happened to share with Nate. This year, Nate's 40th is marked by the news that he'll be a dad, which he doesn't react to as enthusiastically as Brenda had hoped. Claire breaks off with Billy after a final night together because of his wild behavior off medication, while George's apologies to Ruth don't lessen her impatience toward his problems. Rico sleeps with Vanessa when he shows up to remind she forgot to pick their son up, but she ensures it will be the last time. At Nate's unwanted … -
5. Eat a Peach
DescripciónDiabetic Daniel Holzenchenko succumbs to the call of canned peaches…and leaves behind 2 brothers and 2 sisters who seem unable to agree on anything from refreshments to music to be used at his funeral. While trying to mediate them, Nate also has to figure out how to convince Brenda not to tell Maya that she is her stepmother and her real mother Lisa is dead. David and Keith go to an adoption agency picnic where they meet Anthony, and choose to foster and possibly adopt him and his brother, when Mary's news about conception changes to news of an error. Ruth tells her… -
6. The Rainbow of Her Reasons
DescripciónSarah O'Connor's best friend and Nate's first love Fiona Lenore Kleinschmidt falls down a mountain on a hiking trip with Sarah, causing she and her friends to stay a few days at the Fishers' and giving Ruth a good excuse not to show up to George's apartment for a few days…until Maggie notes she's put nothing of hers in the place. Claire applies for a temp agency job but the blandness of it is disappointing, especially with an art grant's rejection at about the same time. Anthony's older brother Durrel proves a rebellious, trouble-making thorn that Keith is all too … -
7. The Silence
DescripciónMaggie Sibley's friend and fellow Quaker Peter Thomas Burns suffers a heart attack while watching a play, and Nate becomes intrigued about her faith when she brings it up. Brenda's blood tests reveal that her and Nate's child has a higher-than-usual possibility for developing Down's Syndrome or other complications at birth, and the doctor recommends amniocentesis to eliminate these factors. Ruth, feeling a misfit among other women in the sudden free time offered her without George, is displeased to hear that he wants the briefest divorce possible since he's already … -
8. Singing for Our Lives
DescripciónPilar Sandoval attempts to Rollerblade a steep hill while walking her dogs but literally doesn't make it when she loses control and is hit by a car. Brenda is upset with Nate's fists-up attitude toward the daughter they'll have, and is suspicious that his latest wish to attend Quaker meetings is simply to join Maggie. David, Nate, and Rico try but fail to agree on how to invest on the business, but it gives Rico a good opportunity to focus on pursuing his relationship with Vanessa. Ruth's babysitting experience with Durrel and Anthony goes sour when they don't return … -
9. Ecotone
DescripciónLawrence Hall Matheson chooses the wrong moment to check his pulse while jogging in a California “ecotone” - a cougar mauls him. Hospitalized following his seizure, an unconscious Nate dreams he returns home after he simply woke his asleep arm up and requested a divorce, while in reality Maggie struggles to answer medical questions and contact the family. David arrives only to learn that Anthony is terrified to be in a hospital, and Claire is accompanied the whole time by Ted, so she respects him despite the fact that he's Republican. The doctor, unfamiliar with Nate … -
10. All Alone
DescripciónThe family prepares for the worst funeral of their lives. Ruth makes things worse on David by taking out her pain on him until he stands up for himself, and Nate makes things worse for Brenda by reminding her she had the chance to marry Joe if she doubted him. Claire, troubled by the fact that mainly negative memories come to mind, again finds comfort in Ted, who explains that it's not unusual. In the middle of the preparations, Keith gets an emergency call from Roger to remove a breaking-and-entering actor…who reveals Roger taped their affair as he promised he … -
11. Static
DescripciónIraqi War veteran Paul Ronald Duncan receives a euthanasia in the hospital - and Claire, on drugs, takes out her own loss on the family by denouncing the war in general but also them for letting their son serve. Later, after several days of drinking, she is fired and fights Ted for taking her keys, then later crashes her car by trying to avoid hitting a deer when going to visit the family's newest grave. David can't find a way to express his feelings so colorfully, so is still plagued by nightmares and daydreams 6 weeks after the funeral, mostly involving an … -
12. Everyone's Waiting
DescripciónNate and Brenda's daughter Willa is born, but 2 months early and at only 2 lb. 4 oz., requiring a prolonged hospital stay. Nate is convinced she won't make it and insists that he can't accept it if she does and is “damaged”, shaking Brenda's own confidence. Rico encourages David to sell the funeral home but instead he and Keith buy out Rico's 25% so he can start his own. David agrees to temporarily leave home, and goes to the funeral home. There he's confronted by Nathaniel about considering leaving the business and for his gayness, and is forced to fight his …