Forget all the joy over Rico and Vanessa’s (Federico Diaz and Justina Machado) baby’s christening at the end of Season 1, because Six Feet Under’s sophomore outing begins with gonorrhea, depression, and AVM (aka arteriovenous malformations, aka that brain thing that might kill Nate, played by Peter Krause). But it’s not all doom and gloom — Nate passes his funeral director’s test and Ruth (Frances Conroy) finds comfort (and then some) in Nikolai (Ed O’Ross). As she puts it to her horrified children, “He and I are having a sexual relationship.”  

In fact, much of Season 2 is about the life and death cycles of relationships, past and present. With David secure in his identity as an out gay man, he turns his attention to love, though his ex, Keith (Mathew St. Patrick), is now taken by a cute EMT named Eddie (Paul Terrell Clayton). (Don’t miss Adam Scott guest-starring as David’s almost-perfect date early in the season.) Claire (Lauren Ambrose) realizes she can’t give up aspects of her life to keep her gun-toting boyfriend Gabe (Eric Balfour) happy. And, during a rocky time with Brenda (Rachel Griffiths), Nate volunteers to pick up a body in Seattle, where he (and Claire, who comes along for the ride) visit Lisa (Lili Taylor), Nate’s ex from when he lived in Seattle.

And speaking of life cycles, Lisa moves to Los Angeles to work as a nutritionist for a rich client, runs into Nate, and tells him she’s five months pregnant. And, yes, that time Nate and Claire went to visit? Five months earlier. 

If Lisa is pregnant, what does that mean for Brenda and Nate? 

Believe it or not, finding out that her fiancé (yes, she and Nate get engaged this season) got his ex-girlfriend pregnant is the least of Brenda’s issues. She’s depressed after the Billy (Jeremy Sisto) drama of last season, not to mention knowing that her brother has been institutionalized. She’s also struggling to connect with Nate, emotionally and sexually. In Episode 4, she befriends her massage client Melissa (Kellie Waymire), who works as a prostitute. Intrigued by Melissa’s life and fueled by what she later realizes is a sex addiction (don’t miss guest star Grant Show as part of this storyline!), Brenda starts hooking up with strangers and gleefully reports the details to Melissa. Nate puts the pieces together that a sexually explicit novel Brenda is writing is autobiographical, Brenda has complex feelings about Nate having a child with another woman, and they break up by Episode 11. 

What happens next for Nate and Lisa?

Maya Fisher is born in the season’s penultimate episode, though at Lisa’s request, Nate signs away his legal rights to parenting her. In fact, he has almost no involvement with his daughter, but new grandmother Ruth very much does, and one day she brings Nate along for a visit. If Nate and Lisa are more cordial by the end of the season because of Maya, Ruth and Nikolai are less so. Ruth quits her job at the flower shop, not to mention her relationship, after the final straw of Nikolai not being interested in seeing pictures of new baby Maya. 

Which other new characters do we meet in Season 2?

There are several — in addition to Lisa, there’s Karla (Nicki Micheaux), Keith’s drug addicted sister, and Brenda’s friend Melissa. But the one who’ll stick around is Ruth’s sister Sarah (Patricia Clarkson), who shows up in Los Angeles after Ruth reaches out to her to say, “I forgive you.” (Ruth spent early episodes of the season participating in a cult-like take-control-of-your-life seminar called The Plan that encouraged tying up loose ends.) Sarah, a free spirit, gets drunk at Nate and Brenda’s engagement dinner (“Well, it seems I’m a bad influence!” she says), invites Claire to a drug-filled party in Topanga Canyon, and gifts her niece a box of hallucinogenic mushrooms. 

What’s happening with Claire and her art?

Claire’s growth as an artist continues throughout the season, initially as others recognize her potential and ultimately with her seeing her own talent. Her eye elevates a naked photo shoot of Billy and she finds striking imagery in the corpses at Fisher & Sons. By the end of Season 2, she seems to be headed to LAC-Arts for college. Major, major props for a fantasy sequence homage to Flashdance in which Claire dreams about presenting her work to the admissions committee while decked out in leg warmers. 

And speaking of realizing potential…

Rico now owns 25% of Fisher & Sons! The brothers needed cash, and after a surprise inheritance, he can offer them $75,000. 

Don’t miss this flashback to 2002 technology:

You may not have expected the latest iPhone, but you might not have anticipated the now-quaint internet communication. Claire and Billy “text” each other on an AIM type service and Billy’s handle is “BillyBatty.” 

… or this spit-take of the season:

“No, they’re not sexy. They’re Fruit of the Loom control-top briefs and they come three to a pack for $15 at Target.” — Ruth, after Nikolai inquires about her underwear.

How does Six Feet Under Season 2 end?

In the season finale, Brenda packs up her car and gets ready to leave… for where and for how long, we don’t know. Nate ends the season going into brain surgery after he suffers another seizure. Though Ruth tells David and Claire they must attend Claire’s high school graduation, the two join their mother in an emotional moment in the waiting room. In the season’s final moments, while he’s under anesthesia, Nate sees a city bus driving by, looking just like the bus that killed his father at the start of the series. The doors open, and we’re left not knowing if he’ll take that journey. 

Your Reality Obsessions Are Here on TudumWhether you’re into dating drama, food competitions, or selling… wherever, Tudum has the stories and stars you can’t get enough of.