Looks like I fell right into the trap that the writers of Weeds have been laying out for the past few episodes. After being treated to weeks of Nancy's selfish, stupid behavior, I was ready to write her off as the unintentional villain of the series last week. As it turns out, this was probably the intention of the Weeds scribes, who seem to have been setting their heroine up for a massive karmic tumble that finally came this week (and I'm guessing will continue on through the season finale).
This episode was all about the fallout, as Nancy begins to see the evidence of the trouble that everyone's been getting into while she was off getting spanked: Andy finds Shane's incredibly disturbing jerking-off material of choice and turns him in, and Nancy finds out who her elder son has been diddling. Appropriately, it's taking a toll on her ongoing affair with Esteban–which seems to have blossomed into a full-fledged relationship–with both of them being forced to cancel on each other repeatedly. The business end of things doesn't seem to be doing so well either, with the coke-crazed antics of Celia (who's up to doing an eight-ball a day, financed by cash stolen from the store) alerting Cesar to the various ways in which Nancy is prone to fucking up. His warnings to Esteban, which the pussy-whipped boss waves off, are a pretty glaring indication that a shitstorm's a-brewin' as the season heads into its final three episodes.
While it's certainly tough to feel sorry for Nancy and her various predicaments, which are all at least partly her own fault, she was more endearing this episode than she's been in weeks–maybe because she's being forced to grow the fuck up. While her righteous indignation when she went to visit Silas and Lisa at their new growhouse operation was a little annoying, the neat little scene where she sat her sons down for two massively awkward, wine-assisted lectures created a nice parallel between their behaviors and forced her to admit her own role in their "quirky, eccentric" Oedipal activities.
Meanwhile, at school, Shane's discovered the secret to the Botwin mojo: Treat the people around you like crap. His face-smashing coup last week seems to have landed him at the top of the middle-school food chain, and we're apparently supposed to believe that lil' ol' Bowlcut McCrazypants has somehow morphed into the cool bad boy. I don't know if I buy that, but if it moves the focus away from his masturbatory practices–which the show seems to focus on a lot–then I'm all for it. And Silas once again proves he's his own special kind of crazy, once again turning into a clingy, overeager, sex-crazed puppy; but the older, wiser (kind of) Lisa has no patience for such behavior, and quickly boots him. Surely this heralds the return of mopey, tortured Silas–though presumably they'll still be growing and selling their "special sandwiches" together, so who knows?
Speaking of mopey, Doug's becoming a downright bore in his quest to find Mermex Maria. (Though his pouting behavior did result in the gem "cock-juggling thundercunt," which I wish I had the lady-balls to bust out in conversation.) An additional thorn in his side seems to be his second-fiddle status to El Andy, who has quickly become a god-like figure in the Mexican community. The conflict that was hinted at last week–the angry, revenge-addled coyote who wants to "choot" him–was done away with very quickly, leaving me to wonder where this whole Andy storyline is going. I like the novelty of Andy being the capable, together one of the group, but it can't last very long without becoming boring.
Grade: B
Stray Observations
–Esteban has the smarmiest dirty-talk ever: "You will eat lobster and I will eat you." Blech. Not to mention bringing his security detail along on his cuddle date with Nancy.
–Even though it was horribly disturbing when it happened, I'm glad Shane's maternal masturbation didn't go unremarked upon. Hey, remember when he used to talk to dead people?
–Cesar worries that Nancy is making Esteban reckless, but wasn't it their mutual love of danger that attracted them to each other in the first place?
–I'm starting to think the rumors of Heylia and/or Conrad "guest starring" this season may have been exaggerated–at this point, I can't even see how a cameo would logically fit in. Then again, Weeds never really relies on logic that much anyway, so perhaps there's hope.