2.0

I distinctly remember rewatching the first two seasons of Six Feet Under on my friend's pirated DVDs just a few months ago. But I must've rushed through the last disc of season two, because I can't recall how Nate ended up tying the knot with Lisa. Pearl started airing the third season last week but I missed the season premiere. I must admit, Brenda's drama was way out of whack in season two. But without her now, it almost seems the show is missing a core element. Lisa, so far, has been completely dispensable. So much so that it seems she's cast a shadow over Nate's once lively character. I wonder what can happen from here onward that'd be so enticing as to be worthy of replacing the intense chemistry between Nate and Brenda, which for a good while steered the whole series.

If Nate lived in real-time he must've married Lisa no more than a couple of months after he first proposed to Brenda. The sad fact that a couple of months is enough for a once extraordinary connection between two souls to tear apart and leave one of them enough time to marry someone of a completely opposite character is more disturbing than the tragic deaths and trampled corpses depicted in the show. And having Nate settle for a bland life with the bore Lisa's been portrayed to be is more depressing than the future episode when that tumor in his head finally gets the better of him.

When two people enter a matrimony, each is wagering at least half of their individual contentment, in the forms of wealth, comfort, and happiness, in the hopes of attaining more of any or all of the above (for the couple as one entity, should the two people be so lucky as to actually be in love with each other). My theory is that a relationship is worth maintaining, even if one side loses some, as long as the other gains more. Say each individual starts off with 1.0 contentment when we're single, then two people should only stay together for as long as they can somehow make their total contentment greater than or equal to 2.0. Otherwise we're better off being our individual 1.0 selves. Nate plus Lisa, I reckon, yields something around 1.35.

The growing tumor in his head is, I assume, the single explanation for Nate's loss of judgment. But going into a marriage knowing that there will be constant deficit is like throwing in the towel and giving up the chance of ever finding something with better stakes. Might as well be lying six feet under.