I've read some positive, enthusiastic reviews of this final episode of Six Feet Under, "Everyone's Waiting." I'm forced to disagree. I do not wish to discourage others from watching the rest of the series (or this episode, for that matter), which was original and wonderful. But this finale -- as a whole -- was disappointing, especially when the previous episode, "Static," suggested a huge pay-off was on the horizon.<br /><br />"Waiting" opens with Brenda in labor. The child, a daughter, is born prematurely and her life hangs in the balance, leaving the audience unsure of whether she'll live or die. This is a good start, but, unfortunately, it never really takes off. With a 75 minute running time and no real drama, mystery, or suspense in its future, the episode leaves Everyone Waiting for it to end.<br /><br />Let me go on to say that I do not disagree with the writer's decision to kill off Nate in the fourth-to-last episode, "Ecotone." Those who watched the series from the beginning, like me, knew Nate was going to die. I figured it would be in the last episode, and why not? It began with his father's death which caused him to return home to the family business and it would have been fitting for it to end with his death. But it didn't and it worked. To see Nate die shy of the series end threw the audience for a tangent and it left them wondering exactly what the last episode was going to be about.<br /><br />The episode's main storyline, as it turned out, was to be about Claire getting a new job opportunity in New York. This made the fact that the episode was such a lackluster product even harder to bear because Claire was my favorite character in the show. Lauren Ambrose acted with a charismatic brilliance, injecting great depth into what could have been an annoying, typical, emotionally unstable teenage archetype. The result was a multidimensional, conflicted, and often, humorous soul.<br /><br />But her acting could not save a script that seemed to be ironically killing time to progress to the more satisfying conclusion. Scenes with a wounded David and Ruth suspended in their own grief and pain are uninvolved, slow moving, and uninteresting. Claire bounces through the show with a benevolent optimism (much like the audience) often looking at the other characters as if to say, "Come on. Do something. We have 75 minutes here." Another scene with Ruth and Claire where Ruth tells Claire to pursue her dreams seems forced and unnecessary in light of their heartbreaking exchange of dialog in the final sequence (the only sequence in the episode worthy of the title).<br /><br />The following paragraph is a product of speculation, not fact. But when a show as maverick as Six Feet Under has such a TV-typical finale, one has to speculate on exactly what caused such a tragedy. In the end, I am forced to accuse Alan Ball of dropping the ball on his own series. Ball's contributions to the show may have been its downfall, certainly it was with this episode. People must remember that the initial concept for the show came from the HBO network, not Ball. And though he created these wonderful characters, it was not his idea to 'kill them off' by showing their obituaries in a future-tense sequence; another writer from the show formed that concept. Indeed, the final sequence of the "Everybody's Waiting" is brilliant; the only sequence in the entire episode that does the preceding series any justice. (I love the line where Nate tells Claire, just as she takes a picture of her family, "You can't take a picture of this; it's already gone.") I'm not out to bash Ball. I know he's talented. But, as Deniro once said, the talent is in the choices. And since Ball got such great creative advice from the top and the bottom throughout the course of the show, it might have been a better choice to have someone else write the Six Feet Under finale. The writer who came up with the ending, perhaps?<br /><br />Fans of the show, answer this: Would it not have been more interesting if Claire had been injured at the end of "Static," or been pursued by the wild animal in the green graveyard? Could her struggle to survive in the wild somehow be narratively linked to Brenda giving birth, giving the show a more dramatic conflict? <br /><br />I know Ball, the writers and the cast have commented on how the show had broke new ground, most likely referring to its discussion of issues involving homosexual Americans. That is fine, but I think, at some point, they (or Ball) forgot what the real appeal of Six Feet Under was. It is not a show designed only for gay viewers or only, for that matter, liberals. I, for one, am a political conservative and straight, but this series captured my heart -- not because of its politics but because of its strong characters and rich narrative. This lacking, over-sentimental finale failed to do justice to the characters and narrative preceding it. It is my opinion that "Everyone's Waiting" is perhaps the poorest episode of Six Feet Under.