Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: August 21, 2005

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Six Feet Under, “Everyone’s Waiting” (Season 5, Episode 12) [Watch on HBO GO and HBO Now]

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Making a case for the Six Feet Under finale on its tenth anniversary should not be very difficult. Anybody who’s watched the show will be able to tell you that, despite whatever wobbliness the series went through in its five-year run, it arrived at a powerful, poignant, moving, and altogether appropriate final few minutes. Even if you haven’t watched Six Feet Under, it’s likely that you’ve heard about its finale. But even though a ten-year-old spoiler warning seems ludicrous, I would still recommend that if you’ve never seen the series, don’t watch this clip of how it all ends. Maybe you’ll want to watch from the beginning one day. Don’t rob yourself of a moment as good as this one. Turn away!

HBO doesn’t allow embedding on clips from their 10-year-old TV episodes, so you’ll have to click on over to watch the clip again and reflect on what an absolutely perfect capstone this entire 8-minute segment was. Watching it the first time, it snuck up on you. The gradual flashing forward and grace notes for these characters who so frustrated us, which made the fact that we still loved them — headstrong Claire, neurotic David, self-destructive Brenda — mean all the more. Speaking only for myself, the conceit of these final moments didn’t hit me until the very first passing. Ruth, much older and with her family (even dumb Nate’s ghost) around her … and then that first title card. The closed-circle nature of that title card really does pack a wallop, and all at once you know where the rest of this montage is heading.

It’s a sequence packed with joy and sadness and senseless tragedy and dark humor, all things which Six Feet Under delivered in (sometimes un)equal measure through its five seasons. David and Keith raising their sons. Brenda raising her daughters. Ruth and Bettina minding their dogs. Claire finds love (finds it again, in fact, with the bet-you-forgot-he-was-on-this-show Chris Messina) in her older age. Claire and Brenda become the artsy old aunts at the family picnic. Billy still won’t shut up about Claire. Rico dies. Keith dies. David dies. Claire drives on. I honestly hope you’re watching this in another tab instead of reading these words, which can’t do it justice.

At any rate: one of the best series finales of all time. Perhaps the best series finale for a show that had been hit-or-miss (yet still incredibly important and, I would say, endearing for all its flaws) throughout its run.

[You can watch the “Everyone’s Waiting” episode of Six Feet Under on HBO GO or HBO Now]

Zoom Photo Illustration by Jaclyn Kessel; Photo Courtesy of Everett Collection 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari': The entire movie is one big flashback. Everett Collection 'Gone With The Wind': He didn't get the girl, but frankly he didn't give a damn. Everett Collection 'Citizen Kane': "Rosebud" is his sled. Everett Collection 'Casablanca': He doesn't get the girl. Everett Collection 'The Big Sleep': The slutty sister, Carmen, is the killer. Everett Collection 'Shane': Shane leaves and doesn't come back. Everett Collection 'Psycho': Norman Bates and his mother are the same person. Everett Collection 'Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' George's and Martha’s son isn’t real. Everett Collection 'Planet of the Apes (1968)': It was Earth the whole time. Everett Collection 'Soylent Green': "Soylent Green is people," and everyone in the community is a cannibal. Everett Collection 'Friday the 13th': Mrs. Voorhees is the killer. Everett Collection 'Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back': Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father. Everett Collection 'Dallas': Kristin shot J.R. Everett Collection 'The Shining': Jack Torrance is a ghost. (Sorta?) Everett Collection 'Tron': Rinzler is Tron. Everett Collection 'The Crying Game': Dil has a penis. Everett Collection 'The Usual Suspects': Roger 'Verbal' Kint is Keyser Söze. Everett Collection 'Se7en': Her head is in the box. Everett Collection 'Primal Fear': There is no Aaron, there's only Roy, and he's been faking it the entire movie. Everett Collection 'Fargo': Carl Showalter ends up a wood chipper. Everett Collection 'Titanic': It sinks and Jack freezes to death. Everett Collection 'The Matrix': Neo is The One. Oh, and he takes the Red Pill. Everett Collection 'The Sixth Sense': Dr. Malcom Crowe has been dead the whole time. Everett Collection 'Fight Club': Tyler Durden isn’t real, but a figment of The Narrator's split personality. Everett Collection 'American Beauty': Colonel Fitts kills Lester Bernham. YouTube 'American Psycho': The whole thing might have been in Patrick’s mind. Everett Collection 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' Season Five: Buffy dies to save mankind. Fox/Netflix 'Memento': Sammy Jankis' story is actually Leonard Shelby's. Everett Collection 'Requiem for a Dream': THAT scene where Marion whores herself out for heroin. Photo courtesy Everett Collection 'Unbreakable': Elijah Prince is Mr. Glass. Everett Collection 'The Others': The Stewarts are ghosts. Photo: Everett Collection 'A Beautiful Mind': John Nash's friends are delusions. Everett Collection 'Donnie Darko': The jet engine actually does kill Donnie. Everett Collection 'The Wire': Omar is shot by some kid. HBO/Everett Collection 'Identity': None of the victims were real, but split personalities of one “host.” Everett Collection 'Oldboy': He does it with his daughter. Ick. Everett Collection 'The Village': They're actually living in modern times. Everett Collection 'Saw': The guy who has been playing dead the entire movie is "Jigsaw." Photo: Everett Collection 'The Skeleton Key': Papa and Mama Justify are actually souls continuously looking for new vessels. Everett Collection 'The Prestige': Borden is a twin. Everett Collection 'The Sopranos' Season Six finale: It just...ends. HBO 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince': Snape kills Dumbledore. Everett Collection 'Orphan': Esther is not a little girl, but a 33-year-old dwarf. Everett Collection 'Black Swan': Nina stabbed herself, not Lily. Everett Collection 'The Cabin in the Woods': Their whole world in the woods is controlled by a group of scientists. Everett Collection 'The Walking Dead': The hated Lori dies. AMC/Netflix 'Mad Men': Lane Pryce hangs himself. AMC/Netflix 'The Killing': Rosie Larsen’s killer is actually her aunt. AMC/Everett Collection 'Game of Thrones' Season Three, Episode 9 "The Rains of Castamere" aka "The Red Wedding": The Starks are dead. HBO 'House of Cards' Season 2, Episode 1, "Chapter 14": Frank Underwood throws Zoe Barnes into an oncoming train. Netflix Advertisement Continue Next Gallery

Joe Reid (@joereid) is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. You can find him leaving flowers for Mrs. Landingham at the corner of 18th and Potomac.

Like what you see? Follow Decider on Facebook and Twitter to join the conversation, and sign up for our email newsletters to be the first to know about streaming movies and TV news!