User Reviews

Wow. After starting Season 5 I decided I would review the last four episodes rather than just the finale as I have been doing, mostly because I had heard the conclusion of Six Feet Under was supposed to be magnificent and that this episode was one of the top three rated on IMDb. After the final shot of the previous episode 'Singing for Our Lives' I had a sense of what was coming, but... wow.

The majority of this episode takes place in the hospital after it is revealed Nate developed another AVM. Maggie Sibley is forced into the complicated situation and it seems inevitable that Brenda is going to find out about their (almost) affair. As for the other Fishers, their hospital stays explore the development of their current relationships: David and Keith reach a new understanding with their adopted boys, and it starts to finally feel like their situation might work out after all, and Claire improves her relationship with Ted, though the scenario seems eerily familiar to the beginning of Nate and Brenda's relationship. Ruth spends the episode in the countryside with Hiram, which I am sure is going to turn out in a devastating blow for her next episode, having lost both Nathaniel's that she loved, a husband and a son. However, and surprisingly, her subplot retains some of the comedic elements of the show - and one of my favourite moments when she cartoonishly fires a shotgun at each of her past loves.

Make no mistake, though. This episode is Nate's. I don't know if I have felt as deeply connected to a fictional character as I do to Nate Fisher. It feels like we have seen his entire life, his dreams and his fears and his deepest, darkest desires. It is a most crushing blow from the writers to finally let Nate realise how he can be truly happy with Maggie, and how he and Brenda just aren't meant to be, no matter how much they tried and we as viewers approved or disapproved. I want to say that he was taken too soon, but thinking about how life works, and certainly how life in all its forms and its unpredictability take center stage throughout the show, I don't think I can. I think it is important that Nate does die in this episode, before he can finally set his life and his love in the right direction. He remains as an amalgam of countless life lessons in culture and in our thoughts and to prepare us for something equally cruel and unfair in our own lives. I think the writers knew this, and wanted to elevate Nate Fisher to be more than just a character, and to teach us. Of course, it wouldn't have been possible without the show being of a great quality in its writing and its composition, and Peter Krause's outstanding performance, but I think doing this, and ending the show with this in mind, it achieves the highest honour that a fictional property possibly can. Nate Fisher will stay in my mind for as long as I live, and I'm sure he has been for many people since 2005 and hopefully for all new viewers to come. Rest in peace.

I was about to say die jerk, but instead, I cried like a baby😭 I feel sorry for Brenda and Maya for not having their proper goodbyes. I feel especially sorry for Maya for being an orphan at this very young age💔. And for Brenda, who the love of her life, her husband and the father of her baby just told her that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life with her life right before he died. I've never seen a show like this. I'll never will. 💔

I can't believe it, I can't believe it. This is the second best send-off I have ever seen in a tv show, this is genius writing work you only see once in a million of years, the incredible character work all over these seasons feels so real when moments like the one in Ecotone, where you feeling like you are the person on that bed, where you feel that last dream is your dream too, where you are in that room with all those people you feel like family, Ecotone is an exquisite and important proof piece of writing that frames a farewell to someone else's life but ours too in an episode of just 50 minutes.

While walking in the canyon, Laurence Hall Matheson is attacked by a cougar. Nate is sent to the Saint Bridger Hospital, and the diagnosis is HVM and bleed. Maggie calls David, and he calls Brenda and Claire, who comes to the hospital with Ted. While in the waiting room, the atmosphere is tense with the presence of Maggie. Meanwhile, Ruth invites Hiram to camp, and she argues with him and leaves him, walking alone back home. Nate ends his relationship with Brenda, and while watching TV with David, he has a dream and dies.

This episode is one of the most tense and dramatic of this magnificent series. The situation between Brenda and Maggie creates a heavy situation in the hospital. The dysfunctional Ruth will certainly regret her absence with Nate in the last moments of his life. The quick recovery of Nate, basically to say farewell to his family and friends and make clear that his relationship with Brenda has finished is very touching. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "De Partida" ("Leaving")

Nate was being such a jerk I kindda celebrated the ending...although it made me really chocked when it actually happened

well... I was getting really furious with the fact nate was being such an a-hole. I mean...brenda was moving on with this great guy and he - even married to lisa - was always after her... and then we he had it all he decides to have an affair? Specially with this vanilla girl... who play-pretends as a good girl but it is like all slu**s who end up engaging relations with married guys.

The whole time in the hospital I was thinking "why is she there?" and then to discover that nate woke up with this horrible attitude towards brenda...supposedly the love of his life, mother of his children and to maggie he gives this friendly naughty smile, argh.

I´m glad they decided to terminate his participation in the show before he destroyed (completely) brenda´s life....but must admit I got REALLY CHOCKED when the show ended.

Kudos for that, always suprising us in so many levels.