Death Works Overtime

As the Fisher and Diaz funeral home fills up with clients, Nate (Peter Krause) continues his frantic search for the missing Lisa (Lili Taylor). The police recover her car from a parking lot up the coast, but Lisa herself is nowhere to be found. Federico (Freddy Rodriguez), meanwhile, finds out about the prescription-drug abuse that led to his wife's recent collapse. His concern turns to anger, however, when sister-in-law Angelica (Melissa Marsala) treats Vanessa (Justina Machado) to some expensive retail therapy on Rico's dime, then talks trash about him to his face. Brenda (Rachel Griffiths), too, suffers through familial angst when she gathers with Billy (Jeremy Sisto) and her mother (Joanna Cassidy) to scatter her father's ashes. The ceremony goes about as well as any Chenowith family get-together, though Brenda later finds refuge in the confines of her scrappy new apartment. Ruth (Frances Conroy) also seeks solace from an unexpected source, George Sibley (James Cromwell), a funeral mourner who happens to meet her when she's at her weepiest about daughter-in-law Lisa's probable fate. There's no comfort for Claire (Lauren Ambrose), either, when she fights with traitorous ex-mentor Olivier (Peter MacDissi) and sexually confused ex-boyfriend Russell (Ben Foster). As if things couldn't get any worse, the baby of the Fisher clan also finds out she's going to have a baby. Originally broadcast May 11, 2003, on HBO, "Death Works Overtime" marked season three, episode 11 of the made-for-cable drama. With three separate passings chronicled in its atypically comic opening sequence, this episode marks a departure from the show's usual solemn, single-death sequence.