Nancy's reaction to adversity over the past season or so has been mostly in the deer-in-headlights vein, with her shuffling in wide-eyed panic through her scrapes, seemingly guided by a weird combination of luck and pure insanity. So it was refreshing to see the return of Badass Nancy tonight, complete with pistol-whipping and Celia-torturing, as she made her way through her latest breakdown. While Nancy's violence was admittedly out of character, it served its purpose as a tipping point. She seems (seems) to have come out her latest disaster smelling like roses, and it would appear that the pieces are now in place and we're getting a better idea of how this season is going to shake out.
Tonight picked right up from the last episode, which found Celia sprawled across the floor of Guillermo's warehouse with a gun to her head and a shocked Nancy scrambling for an explanation. Her response is uncharacteristic, but effective, as she proceeds to wave her gun about (so that's why she needed to have a gun), threatening Celia with enough conviction to let Guillermo remove her from the crosshairs to get the story. Of course, Celia was never in any real danger from Nancy–although she probably didn't exactly enjoy being dragged by her neck alongside Nancy's car–but the reason she's in Ren Mar would certainly never fly with Guillermo. Luckily, Guillermo accidentally provides the two with an easy alibi, assuming they're "lesbianas," and Celia's stalking was simply the behavior of a jealous lover. It doesn't seem very shrewd on Guillermo's part to be making assumptions, but it does explain how Celia's going to fit into Nancy's new life in Ren Mar.
About that new life… so much for the trafficking. Turns out Guillermo has new plans for Nancy, as the squeaky-clean manager of a maternity store that houses the entrance to a tunnel of drugs. And so Nancy returns to a life of white-bread boredom, selling stretchy pants with Celia, a suffocating situation she'll likely manage to stumble her way out of soon enough. The whole trafficking thing never really made sense from the beginning, so I'm glad it appears to have been a feint–though I'm wary of where this mystery tunnel will take Nancy. Presumably it's to that fetching dark-haired man who has to be the boss (and might as well be wearing a giant red sash that says "love interest"), so I guess we have to wait and see what kind of player he turns out to be.
I'm really starting to miss the days when Nancy was a free agent. It's obvious why that setup couldn't last, but she's generally less interesting and more prone to screwing up when she's a subordinate (another reason I'm wary of the Man In The Tunnel). However, I'm remaining optimistic about this new situation, meanwhile putting my stock in Silas and Shane to pick up the small-scale drug-trade antics with their growhouse. (Shane got cut in this episode in payment for helping Silas take care of a colony of rogue bees that set up shop in his new pot closet, replacing the easily tow-able pot van.)
Andy also continued his evolution beyond a one-dimensional gag guy this episode, unexpectedly growing a pair and rescuing a couple of immigrants (Davenport Guy and Marzipan Girl) from a skeevy wrangler. Between this and his and Nancy's Very Special Moment last week (and in the first episode), it would seem Andy really is capable of being Nancy's rock as she feels her way through this new setup–that is, when he's not screwing around with Doug and getting trapped in pudding trucks, which is hopefully how he'll continue to spend the majority of his time.
Grade: B
Stray observations:
–Do we believe Agent Till will be taken care of that easily? The dirt Nancy has on him from Peter seemed to rattle him enough to ensure her immediate immunity, but will that last?
–Very little Doug this episode, as he was relegated to hiding from bees with the boys. Well, I guess Doug can't ALWAYS be the best part of the episode.
–The best part? Nancy fucking with Celia. At first I was a little thrown by Nancy's out-of-the-blue violence, but once the shock wore off I had to admire how good she is at antagonizing Celia. "You don't get your tooth back. I keep your tooth. I drill a tiny hole in it and wear it around my neck. I become your God."
–It seems Nancy retained at least a little bit of U-Turns thug lessons, but she apparently forgot: "Thug means never having to say you're sorry." But I'm still glad she owned up to a little wrongdoing in terms of Celia's predicament.
–Sometimes I have to remind myself that Weeds is, at its core, a sitcom, despite the pay-cable trappings. I especially had to remind myself of this during the whole bees-in-the-walls shenanigans. Oh well, at least they refrained from donning wacky bee-handler outfits.
–About that photo up there: Showtime stopped providing screen caps, so I grabbed a promo still for tonight. Fine, whatever, but why the hell is Silas carrying bongos?