The fifth episode of “Not Dead Yet” was all about Nell trying to come to terms with the fact that Jesse, or Dr. Jesse, is not alive and that he died after a shark attack during his deep-sea diving expedition. He seems to be the only person who could understand Nell, but unfortunately for her, he is not alive and is just one of the ghosts she can see because she will be writing his obituary. To keep him around longer, she refuses to send the obituary to the editor and goes on a date with him at Cricket’s Wine Bar, even though technically, it cannot be called a date. Cricket’s husband, Monty, shows up to ask Nell about what she is up to and helps her talk about her pain, which was buried at the back of her mind and something she hadn’t even shared with Sam. Nell slowly opens up with Sam, which makes their friendship even better. Will Nell understand Sam’s friendship with Lexi from here on?
Spoilers Ahead
Sam, Nell, And Lexi
The episode begins with Nell being overwhelmed by three ghosts who were run over by a bus. She has yet to submit their obituaries. The conversation serves no purpose to her but it is only a bunch of different people who are judging Nell for leading the kind of life she’s leading. Nell has stopped being surprised at the things that she sees in the name of obituaries, and sooner or later, it will be a thing of the past that she gets a sudden surprise about whose obituary she must write.
Sam, Nell, and Lexi are looking forward to the food and wine festival, organized by the newspaper, to garner some publicity and money by getting on board several grub, pub, and wine places and getting them to have a booth at the festival. This way, there would be publicity for the outlets, and the newspaper would also get some recognition for conducting the festival regularly every year. Sam and Lexi have a friendship that Nell has not gotten used to since she joined her work after the London hiatus. Sam and Lexi were there for each other when Nell was in London with her fiancé Philip. Sam was a new mother then, and Lexi was the only one who was there for her during those tough times. Though it has been a while since Nell has been back at work, it is taking a while for her to get over the idea that Sam and Lexi are good friends, and they have their inside jokes too, which makes Nell feel like an outsider and a little jealous to have to share Sam with some other friend. Nell tends to come across as a little possessive in her mind about Sam, where she claims she knows her friend more than anybody else. Though Sam understands the silent rivalry between Lexi and Nell, she makes sure to let the two of them spend as much time together as possible so that there are no jealous or possessive attributes that could manifest in either of them.
Lexi asks Sam to spend the evening drawing up last-minute arrangements for the food and wine festival for which she is in charge. Nell is visibly awkward with Sam and Lexi spending plenty of time together, but she lets it go for the sake of her sanity and her friendship with Sam as well. Nell volunteers to bring Cricket on board for the food and wine festival. Lexi again is uncomfortable with sharing Sam with Nell, but she makes it less obvious than Nell. There is a silent war brewing between Nell and Lexi for Sam’s attention, but it has yet to come to the surface. Nell is finally assigned to write an obituary for a ventriloquist named Terri Lawrence. The woman was known for imparting good moral values to the kids through her puppet show, and she intends to do the same to Nell as well from now on. The only difference is that Nell is in no mood to hear any moral values lesson and just wants to move ahead and write the obituary. She is still uncomfortable with the idea of Lexi and Sam spending time together organizing the food and wine festival, and she is unable to get that friendship out of her head.
Nell approaches Cricket with the idea of opening a booth for the wine bar at the festival. Cricket is interested, but she is concerned because she always did this kind of thing with Monty. With Monty gone, she has no partner who knows as much about wine as she and Monty did. Nell’s roommate Edward offers to partner up with Cricket because he studied a lot about wine to understand women in the hope of wooing his current girlfriend. It turns out Edward is a wine connoisseur himself, and Cricket agrees to open a booth at the wine and food festival.
‘Not Dead Yet’ Episode 6: Ending Explained – Why Did Nell Patch Things Up Between Sam And Lexi?
As the date of the food and wine festival is approaching, Lexi is having a hard time convincing herself that there will be much of a turnout, and to ensure that there is one, they will need plenty of artists who will come and perform. On top of that, Lexi is agitated and nervous because her father, the previous boss of Sam and Nell, informed her of his plans to show up at the event and have a look at what Lexi is up to as the boss. Lexi gets nervous around her father because she thinks she must always prove herself to be worthy of the position given to her. She has to make sure nothing goes wrong for the event, and for that to happen, she starts piling work on the festival organizer, which is Sam. Sam starts conveying to Lexi not to lose calm just because her father is showing up. But Lexi feels she has everything to lose if her father is dissatisfied with the event. Sam starts feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work being added to the festival, but she makes sure to keep Lexi in check and get the new things done. Nell asks Sam to ask Lexi to back off and not hyperventilate. Sam, being herself, thinks she can handle Lexi and the extra work that has piled on her. Terri Lawrence, the ghost, senses Nell being jealous of Sam and Lexi’s friendship and trying to take advantage of the friction between the two. Terri requests for her not to interfere and let them sort out their issues. Nell is not bothered by Terri’s ghost or words, and she chooses to ignore them.
On the day of the event, Lexi makes bigger changes to the program list without informing Sam, which makes Sam livid because she tried to make everything accommodating, and Lexi makes changes so frequently even after the event begins. Sam quits being part of the organizing team for the event and starts getting drunk with Nell. Nell is happy to see Sam straying further away from Lexi and falling on her shoulders, which would make Nell a better friend if she stood by her. Lexi here is painted as the bad friend only because of her overly anxious behavior, as her father will make an appearance. Lexi is also being a little difficult to manage, which makes Sam wonder if Lexi is trying to be a friend at all. Lexi starts berating Sam in front of Nell and Dennis, which again puts Sam in a bad mood. In that drunken mood, Sam decides to confront Lexi once and for all and asks if their friendship is just one way to control Sam’s work life and work-related decisions. Nell tries to stop her, and in that effort, she reaches Lexi’s office only to see a dejected Lexi upset about her father’s decision not to show up at the event. Lexi is angry at herself for letting herself put out all the stops just to impress her father. Nell is initially not interested in talking to Lexi, but she is convinced by Terri, the puppeteer ghost, that she sometimes needs to understand others’ pain.
Listening to them will not make Nell lose anything, and she might get closer to Lexi, which will ease the tension between them. Nell goes to meet Lexi, and she convinces Lexi not to be bothered by what her father wants and that she should be proud of what she could pull off without his help. Lexi is also apologetic about how she behaved with Sam, and she thanks Nell for being an understanding person. One can only hope that conversations such as this will help both ease up and form an acquaintance, if not a friendship. Sam and Lexi patch up, and Nell is happy to see them as old friends too. Nell thanked Terri for the guidance; it was something she needed to get past her jealous behavior. As a part of growing up, she needs to be an adult about Sam’s other friendships too.
Cricket and Edward, though, end up having a good time at the wine booth. Though Cricket starts missing Monty, Edward adds a pinch of humor and physical comedy to make sure Cricket has a good time and does not end up spending time thinking about Monty. Monty was a big part of Cricket, but she knows her life must move on, and Edward, being a friend and a fellow wine connoisseur, helps her get over the hitch of missing Monty at the event, and they make a day out of it. Cricket is finally finding an outlet outside of Monty in the form of Nell and Edward, with whom she is forming a great friendship. Something unexpected but something she needed with the loss of her only partner of many years.
What To Expect From Episode 7 Of ‘Not Dead Yet’?
Episode seven of “Not dead yet” might take us deeper into who Nell is, as there is not much information about her past, just the fact that Sam and herself are old friends and colleagues. There will be interesting ghosts that will come to her, and hopefully, the next one will help her close another flaw in herself that she is not proud of. Nell will have to confront plenty of her negative sides, and these ghosts will help her bring some sort of closure and make her a better person.
Final Thoughts
The sixth episode served well as a reminder of why Nell needs to work on herself and why she needs to bring new people into her life and not just be clingy with old friends. The screenplay deals with finding new friendships, with Lexi and Nell finding a connection and Edward and Cricket forming a friendship. This episode ticked off all the right elements of the show except the humor. The show is growing on me as a decent comedy-drama, but as an audience member, the humor hasn’t grabbed my attention yet. We’re looking forward to the rest of the episodes to see what the writers have in store for us.