The Six Feet Under series finale is widely considered to be one of the greatest finales of all time. Just ask Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin, who once wrote, “That [final] episode was far and away the best finale in the entire history of television, and I cannot imagine how anyone could possibly do better.” Series creator Alan Ball even said he still cries watching it.
It’s hard to argue with the brilliance of an episode that, like life itself, begins with a birth, ends with death, and fills its allotted time with love, pain, family, friendship, resignation, reunions, and tiny miracles like watching a newborn baby breathe.
Brenda (Rachel Griffiths) gives birth to a daughter, Willa, at the start of the episode, with her mother-in-law, Ruth (Frances Conroy), by her side. But Willa’s not breathing on her own, and at a mere 2 pounds, 4 ounces, her future is precarious. “I can’t take another child dying,” a weeping Ruth tells daughter Claire (Lauren Ambrose) in an answering machine message. Willa not only survives, but thrives — and is allowed to go home. Brenda isn’t thriving, though, and continues to see visions of Nate (Peter Krause), who’s verbalizing her biggest fears about Willa being sick or blind or near death. “There’s something wrong with our baby. You should never have had her,” his ghost tells Brenda. But as she begins to feel more at ease with her newborn, Brenda’s visions of Nate become less hostile. In one last dream, she sees Nate holding baby Willa alongside his father, Nathaniel (Richard Jenkins), whose death puts the rest of the show’s story in motion. “Hi. We’ve never met. I’m Nathaniel,” he tells Brenda. And Nate says of Willa, “I love her so much. And I always will.”
Elsewhere on the parenting front, David (Michael C. Hall) is struggling with PTSD from being held hostage, coupled with the death of his brother. When Keith (Mathew St. Patrick) tells him to leave home to get well, David responds, “You’re not up to being a single parent, Keith.” Keith fires back, “You’re not up to being a parent at all!” David packs a bag and moves back in with Ruth, who’s falling apart by the minute, shuffling around in a bathrobe, wearing a straw hat indoors, and frequently bursting into tears. “I’ll never have what I want, never,” she says. In a painfully tender moment, she offers to pour her remaining son some cereal in his childhood-favorite yellow bowl. In the end, David moves out — and back in with Keith, who will soon become his husband, and their two sons. David’s finally able to leave behind the terror of seeing his tormentor in a red sweatshirt when he fights back in a dream, only to discover that the person in the red sweatshirt is a terrified version of himself.
At least things are going well for Claire. She begins the episode in bed with Ted (Chris Messina), her “deeply unhip” (as she says) lawyer boyfriend. Even she can’t believe it: “I’m eating fruit salad in bed with a naked frat boy who voted for George Bush.” She’s considering moving in with him until she learns that she got an entry-level gig at New Image, a photo agency in New York City. (She finds out later that Olivier, her art teacher, recommended her.) Nate also appears to Claire and encourages her to make the move and not live her life based in fear. The night before she’s supposed to leave, Claire gets a call that New Image has been bought by a company based in Chicago, so that promise of a new gig is yanked away. She chooses not to tell anyone (with ghost Nate’s blessing) and, after a warm going-away family dinner, leaves for New York the next morning. Ruth tells her daughter, “I pray you will be filled with hope as long as you possibly can.”
Fisher & Diaz is no more, but the bigger surprise is that Fisher & Sons almost meets the same fate. At first, Rico (Freddy Rodriguez) and Vanessa (Justina Machado) want to open their own funeral home, so Rico requests that David buy out his share. Meanwhile, David has an epiphany that he’s ready to let go of the business, and he puts it, along with the house, on the market. But after realizing how important Fisher & Sons is to him, he and Keith buy out Rico’s share and promise to buy out Brenda (now a part owner because she inherited Nate’s portion) as well, along with moving into the family home. Ruth, meanwhile, was going to move in with George (James Cromwell), but decides she’d rather just date him, live with her sister (Patricia Clarkson), and run a dog daycare business.
Before Claire drives off in the iconic final minutes of the episode, we see a family united in happiness and grief. At Claire’s going-away dinner, Keith reads Maya (Brenna Tosh and Bronwyn Tosh) a book, Brenda talks to Durrell (Kendre Berry) and Anthony (C.J. Sanders), and Bettina (Kathy Bates) walks around the Fisher family home, now owned by David and Keith, and has thoughts on the beige décor. “It’s gay. This is a 100% gay kitchen,” she tells Ruth. Three generations of family, friends, partners, and former lovers go around the table and toast Nate.
After Claire finally says goodbye, she goes to take a picture of the family on the porch of the house, at which point Nate appears to her and says, “You can’t take a picture of this. It’s already gone.” It’s both a melancholy and uplifting moment, hearing Nate, who’s already gone himself, allude to the importance of appreciating every moment for what it is. Claire gets into her blue Prius, puts in Ted’s mix CD, and turns east onto the freeway. As Sia’s “Breathe Me” begins playing, we see scenes in the future, from Willa’s birthday party to David and Keith’s wedding. And then…
The episode that began with birth concludes with the deaths of the characters we got to know, for better and worse, over five seasons.
The final shot of the series is the younger Claire driving into her new life, the long road ahead of her.
All five seasons of Six Feet Under are streaming now on Netflix.
