another underrated episode, this little streak of supposedly 'average' episodes in the middle of this season is so entertaining. this episode mostly focuses on nate while david is almost completely episode, which is a nice change of pace from the writers to allow him and keith to settle a bit. SPOILERS the best part of the episode was nate and lisa's storyline, but ruth and claire also had some big moments. claire finally kisses russell after she sees how damaged he is, but for now it seems like she's found someone who at the very least values monogamy, despite being very fragile mentally. ruth bonds with arthur which i really enjoyed watching. she's once again slowly growing attached to somebody and this was best symbolised with the popcorn bowl slowly moving away as they got closer together while watching the sci-fi movie. that's not to say it's all comfortable already, since when the porn accidentally comes on they are thrust back into reality and go their separate ways for the night. i really enjoyed how they joined ruth and claire's storylines and also their potential love interests with the casket falling that forced them to work together. arthur seems to be much more preoccupied and passionate about the dead for mow compared to having such a passion for ruth. even the sci-fi movie that he likes he analyses as the robots being as benign and obedient, much like the helpless dead that he works with every day. while the other storylines were good, nate had one of his best episodes yet. he takes a camping trip with lisa and another couple but their ideas for the trip are very different. nate wants to visit suicide rock, a very hauntingly symbolic name for the 'prison' he finds himself in, but lisa wants a quiet time with the other couple and with maya, seen by the fact that she even brought less beer. for nate, this is an opportunity to get high and drunk and connect with nature, so when he offers his 'bullet' to everybody else and they slowly decline, he takes another hit because he doesn't care what they want or don't want, he just wants to feel. this desire to feel is seen later on when he obliterates a snake in front of everybody. it would be one thing if he didn't know if the snake was poisonous or not but he openly admits he knew it wasn't and he brutally crushed it either way. he feels rejuvenated after 'feeling' something and embarks on a hike on his own to suicide rock, where he has one of his most potent visions yet of brenda. once again, he feels something, this time towards brenda. that lingering desire was shown to still be there in the previous episode and even now he openly knows he's dreaming because of how insane the circumstances are but he still lashes out at brenda. in reality he's lashing out at himself for still caring so much when he has a great family waiting for him back at the tent, but he still ends up kissing this fake version of brenda. even the biggest caricature version of herself still has nate giving in to the way they used to 'flow into one another.' in the end, brenda gives in to the moniker given to the cliff and throws herself off in an act of passion, something that nate hasn't expressed towards lisa. would he throw himself off for her? this dream leaves him thinking that and so does the conversation he had with todd earlier. it parallels lisa's talk with dana as it cuts between the two scenes as both of them learn that todd and dana are in it for each other, while nate and lisa seem to be in it for the concept of a happy family and for maya. there's an especially important line where todd mentions how much he cares for 'her' and how she's the main thing he lives for (paraphrasing here, i don't remember it exactly) to which nate responds that he feels the same way about maya - but todd was talking about his wife. lisa tells dana that she hasn't experienced an orgasm since she gave birth which coincidentally is when she married nate. on the other hand, dana tells lisa all about the hot sex she has with todd, something that lisa feels is lacking. when they're forced to go on their own little private retreat, they do it hesitantly and it blows into a big argument before quickly culminating into the best sex they've had so far because nate takes charge, similarly to todd. the argument isn't exactly over but at least their struggling sex life has been at the very least slightly resolved. however, what originally seems like a very huge moment for nate where he is overtaken by passion, slowly turns into a devastating reveal in the car ride back home. lisa expresses her profound love for nate and really emphasises just how profound it is and begins to recall their best sexual encounters back in seattle, both of which were right after nate had a big break up. his most passionate moments with lisa have been in moments of his deepest frustration and lisa is too blinded by love to realise. even now, when there was seemingly no moment of frustration, his vision of brenda with her suicide acted as a form of closure to his relationship with her, and his remaining feelings for her poured out into his moment with lisa. so how does nate respond to lisa's devoted confessions of love? 'i love you too, hon.' he casually answers back without actually digging deep inside himself to answer or to even reflect on what she just told him. on the surface they've taken a step forward into 'making love work' but in reality nate has taken a step back. high 4/5