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The scene: Nate, the undertaker, is having dinner at a restaurant with his fiancée, Brenda.
BRENDA: How was your day?
NATE: Oh, it was weird. Buried that psychic woman's husband.
And she was still, like, talking to the guy.
BRENDA: Oh, that's sad.
NATE: Not for her. I mean, she really believed he was there, ya know?
BRENDA: Well, she has to say that, right? If she claims she's a psychic.
NATE: You don't think that that's possible? What about you saying that things happen that leave marks in people, in places, in time?
BRENDA: That's physics. Energy affecting matter. Talking to dead people is delusional.
NATE: So you definitely don't believe in any kind of life after death?
BRENDA: I think people live on through the people they love, and the things they do with their lives. If they manage to do things with their lives.
NATE: But that's it? That's it? That's all there is? There's nothing more? There's nothing, like, bigger?
BRENDA: Just energy.
NATE: But there isn't a plan--?
BRENDA: No, there is definitely no plan. Just survival. Should I have ordered the salmon?
NATE: Uh, I don't know. (back to the topic) How can you live like that? I mean, what if you found out you were going to die tomorrow?
BRENDA: I've been prepared to die tomorrow since I was six years old.
NATE: Really?
BRENDA: Yeah, pretty much. (changing topic) We never got butter.
NATE: Well, why since you were six?
BRENDA: Because I read a report on the effect nuclear war would have on the world, and it was pretty clear to me at that point that this was definitely gonna happen.
NATE: When you were six?
BRENDA: And I wake up every day pretty much surprised that, uh, everything is still here.
NATE: Well, I don't understand how you can live like that.
BRENDA: Well, I thought we all did.
From "Six Feet Under," episode "The Plan" (2002)
Written by Kate Robin
This scene really resonates with me. Brenda is the character I identify with the most on the show "Six Feet Under", and this exchange captures me so succinctly that I had to copy it. The only difference between me and Brenda here is that I was 10 or 11 when I reached the same conclusion she did… but I understand the fatalism totally.
BRENDA: How was your day?
NATE: Oh, it was weird. Buried that psychic woman's husband.
And she was still, like, talking to the guy.
BRENDA: Oh, that's sad.
NATE: Not for her. I mean, she really believed he was there, ya know?
BRENDA: Well, she has to say that, right? If she claims she's a psychic.
NATE: You don't think that that's possible? What about you saying that things happen that leave marks in people, in places, in time?
BRENDA: That's physics. Energy affecting matter. Talking to dead people is delusional.
NATE: So you definitely don't believe in any kind of life after death?
BRENDA: I think people live on through the people they love, and the things they do with their lives. If they manage to do things with their lives.
NATE: But that's it? That's it? That's all there is? There's nothing more? There's nothing, like, bigger?
BRENDA: Just energy.
NATE: But there isn't a plan--?
BRENDA: No, there is definitely no plan. Just survival. Should I have ordered the salmon?
NATE: Uh, I don't know. (back to the topic) How can you live like that? I mean, what if you found out you were going to die tomorrow?
BRENDA: I've been prepared to die tomorrow since I was six years old.
NATE: Really?
BRENDA: Yeah, pretty much. (changing topic) We never got butter.
NATE: Well, why since you were six?
BRENDA: Because I read a report on the effect nuclear war would have on the world, and it was pretty clear to me at that point that this was definitely gonna happen.
NATE: When you were six?
BRENDA: And I wake up every day pretty much surprised that, uh, everything is still here.
NATE: Well, I don't understand how you can live like that.
BRENDA: Well, I thought we all did.
From "Six Feet Under," episode "The Plan" (2002)
Written by Kate Robin
This scene really resonates with me. Brenda is the character I identify with the most on the show "Six Feet Under", and this exchange captures me so succinctly that I had to copy it. The only difference between me and Brenda here is that I was 10 or 11 when I reached the same conclusion she did… but I understand the fatalism totally.
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