Do you think Nate grew at all?
I recently finished watching this incredible show, it's probably one of my all-time favorites now, and I just think it's extremely interesting that essentially every major character grew significantly over the course of the show and made great strides towards becoming a more well-rounded and whole person, aside from our main character.
David obviously came such a long way from his beginnings as closed off and insecure to being an extremely honest and genuine and confident person at the end, Ruth's progression was incredible and she largely grew in the same way that David did. We got to watch Claire go through so much and go through so many different stages, some good and some bad, but in the end she too emerged as such a complete and secure woman with so many options for her life.
Brenda's growth was huge, she began so flighty and manic and afraid of commitment and afraid of letting somebody truly get to know her, and by the shows end she had toned herself down so much and had gotten the relatively stable life that she always wanted and really became so beautiful to watch as her confidence grew and she started to love herself more. I could get into how characters like Keith or Rico or George grew but they were less significant.
Anyway, for all of that growth, none of that was spread to our tragic Nate Fisher. He began the show afraid of commitment and afraid of being tied down, extremely unreliable, and that's how he ended the show. The Nate that we met in the first episode left home when he was young, had that man-child side of his personality like he still wasn't completely ready to grow up and settle down. And absolutely nothing changed by the time we got to the finale. He's constantly jogging and running, which is a great symbolism for the way he treats his life, he's even wearing the same jogging outfit he wore in the pilot, in Everyone's Waiting,
Nate can never stay in one place for too long, always scared that he's missing out on something better. He is afraid of the concept of death and the obvious restrictions that it comes with, and as result leaves home and seems to be living some type of flighty lifestyle. He originally has his relationship with Brenda, and although Brenda was equally responsible for the relationship's failure, Nate clearly was dissatisfied with the relationship. Then he has Lisa and get's bored of her and starts yearning for freedom. And then Brenda again, he runs into Maggie's arms despite the fact that Nate would surely continue his pattern with Maggie if they ever had a serious relationship. He's running away in his final dream too, heading out towards the ocean trying to escape from the shore, even in his final moments the show is trying to show Nate's inherent desire for singularity and freedom.
Nate tried to change and tried to convince himself that he could be happy playing the part of the dutiful and amicable husband and father, he tried that with both Brenda and Lisa, and he failed miserably both times, in almost identical ways. He had so many unrealistic ideas in his head of how he was supposed to behave and how people wanted him to act, that he let it get to him and ultimately drive him away from the people he was supposed to love more than anything. His constant search for a higher-purpose consistently proves to be his downfall, it's no coincidence that Nate has his AVM attack almost immediately after his affair with Maggie, he is being punished for his behavior.
This show really is incredible and so poignant and intelligent and I just think that the decision for character growth to be so prevalent in every single major character aside from the main character, it's just such an interesting choice on the part of the writers and Alan Ball.