"Weeds" mini-cap: Bubbie gets her dying wish

The new openings are a fun and amusing concept. There’s now a different graphic each week tipping off the main plot point of the episode.

Last week’s graphic had a big green overhead highway sign with Weeds spelled across with white arrows pointing down to the lanes of the highway at the California/Mexico border and a second highway sign saying "Created by Jenji Kohan." Then we spent the episode waiting with Nancy in a two hour line concerned about her making it back across the border with drugs sealed in her car. OK, so they weren’t sealed in her car but she thought they were!

The opening of this week’s episode, “The Whole Blah Damn Thing,” had the Weeds and created by graphic spelled out using the status lines on Bubbie’s heart monitor contraption thingy. Then we spent the episode wondering when and if the Botwins were going to honor Bubbie’s “kill me” request.

Shane and Andy wanted to honor Bubbie’s wishes due to Shane’s feelings that a person has a right to self-determination and to Andy simply knowing what a fire ball Bubbie was and that this wasn’t Bubbie anymore and that she knew it, too. Nancy, of course, was sort of ambivalent. (I know, Nancy ambivalent? Surprise!)

Silas at first thought it was unethical and just plain old murder until Andy in a moment of clarity, for Andy at least, explained that life was a series of blah blah blah and then you get to the end of your life and realize the whole blah thing was nothing more than a series of blahs. For whatever reason this explanation resonated with Silas. Is there anyone out there that can explain this whole blah thing better because it didn’t really resonate with me. Oh and Lenny was absolutely against the idea of pulling the plug on Bubbie not because he didn’t want to but because it was his mother.

BTW, when Lenny was telling those stories about Bubbie hanging, yes, hanging his two dogs from trees when he was a kid and really being on him his whole life for being a loser did anyone else think that he didn’t want Bubbie to die just so that she could suffer longer? I thought that was where he was going when he was talking to Shane about why he felt it wasn't so easy to grant Bubbie’s request. I was glad to learn that wanting her to suffer was not his motive because that would be brutal even for Lenny.

Andy finally got his father to admit that yes it would be easier and better for him and for Bubbie if she passed away but guilt wouldn’t allow him to be the one that pulled the plug on his own mother no matter how awful she treated him in the past. So, Lenny and Andy both agreed that Nancy would be the perfect person because, well, because it was Nancy the Not Francie.

In other developments, Celia Hodes is free! Celia Hodes is free! Celia Hodes is free! Well, sort of. Federal agent Till struck a deal with Celia. He’s dangling the carrot of lessening any charges against her if she can land him Guillermo. He called Guillermo a whale, which I guess in crime fighting lingo means the biggest fish though whales aren’t fish. Anyway, Till referred to himself as Captain Ahab and I laughed because a good literary reference is always worth a chuckle.

The one thing sillier than seeing Celia in a County orange jail jumper with her home girl make over was watching Celia doing rather inept undercover spy work. I’m not sure what Celia actually does do well but engaging in covert operations isn’t it.

She learned of Nancy’s location by breaking into Dean and Isabelle’s FEMA hotel room (and almost getting caught) and reading Isabelle’s text messages from Shane. She was last seen in Ren Mar staking out Nancy’s house and had a great opportunity to take pictures of Nancy and Guillermo in front of Bubbie’s house. What great evidence to show that Nancy and Guillermo still know each other! But she was using a store bought disposable camera and didn’t have it set up and ready to snap the picture. Does this happen with other undercover agents? Oh right she’s not trained to be an undercover agent! Jeez, what was Till thinking?

Now, after reviewing the tape and explaining to Nancy all of the many ways she blew the dry run to Mexico (dressing like a hooker rather than a nice white suburban lady, fidgeting in the car as she waited, having urine in the coffee cup when she got to the border patrol agent, not having a clear story as to why she was down there to begin with, buying cheap worthless junk at the border from a vendor) Guillermo allowed her to go back to Tijuana.

This time she takes his SUV and watches a whole heaping lot of drugs being sealed into the car, as well as, a Mexican man. Yeah, the guy was traveling to the States to visit his mother who was having gastric by-pass surgery. Who knows if smuggling this guy will have any additional ramification on a story arc or if it was a quick hit joke about illegal immigration.

Anyway, Nancy makes it back across the border and gets to Guillermo’s industrial looking building that serves as his headquarters only to find that it had been quickly abandoned. Reaching him by cell phone didn’t work either. Not knowing what else to do she goes back to Bubbie’s where Guillermo was waiting (and the bungling undercover Celia).

Guillermo explains that the security of his operations had been breached and that he had to get out of there. Is he now suspicious of Nancy?

After a tough day of drug smuggling and aiding in illegal immigration Nancy walks inside to learn that she’s been chosen to pull the plug on Bubbie. Never one to back away from a good moral dilemma, Nancy stands in the hallway by the circuit breakers turning off switches until she finds the switch that shuts down the electricity for the room housing Bubbie and her life support system.

Now standing in complete darkness the family gathers around Bubbie and after a while we hear someone say, “she’s still breathing” then Nancy says, “get me a pillow.” RIP Bubbie. We hardly knew thee.

So, what was Bubbie’s purpose? What’s Lenny’s purpose? When will Celia and Nancy actually interact directly again? Is Ren Mar really where the Botwins will be the entire season? Nancy’s officially now a drug smuggler. Oh my.

This episode ended with me not having a clue where this season is going. Do any of you?