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“Weeds” mini-cap: A dramedy of errors

As predicted, the finale of Weeds was excellent TV drama! Oh, wait — it’s a comedy? Well, ain’t that funny? Heck, I was too scared for Nancy to notice any humor.

The title, “If You Work For a Living, Why Do You Kill Yourself Working?” is the question of Nancy’s story arc. Remember those carefree days when Nancy was crossing the border, thinking she had drugs in her Prius, or crossing the border with an illegal immigrant and drugs in Guillermo’s truck, or waiting with Andy in the desert for a drug drop made by the Mexican police? She felt she owed her family for what she had put them through. She wanted to work to live and live well. When Guillermo asked her to be a retail store manager, she was disappointed. But it turns out by doing something less dangerous (retail) for even more money, she winds up doing something that’s equivalent to suicide because it was the right thing to do.

The day starts as Cesar tells Esteban that the agent gave Nancy’s name. Esteban knows it’s true, but declines to fully entertain the thought because he knows what it will mean. He tells Cesar that he can’t trust the word of a tortured man and tells him to keep looking for the real culprit. It’s not that love is blind; it’s more that love is hopeful.

Captain Till questions Nancy. Her legal counsel is Dean Hodes, a true indication that Nancy knew she had a solid deal with the DEA. The faux questioning session is interrupted when another agent summons Till.

Meanwhile, Silas is having an early morning 18th-birthday celebration in Lisa’s bed when her ex-husband bounds in with Rad, and Silas is caught naked. The real embarrassment is that Silas realizes he’s a tool for Lisa and the ex. New-adult Silas dresses in silence as the old adults have a heated discussion about custody of their child. He’s Lisa’s distraction and really nothing more. Happy birthday, Silas.

Till returns to his office looking upset. He throws Dean out and speaks directly to Nancy. He tells her his boyfriend, Agent Shlatter, had been tortured, killed and placed on public display, and demands that Nancy tell him the name of Guillermo’s boss. She says that she doesn’t know, and he vows revenge on whoever did it and swears that he will kill her, too, if he finds out that she knew.

Celia begins her journey into Mexico to find her daughter, Quinn, whom she sent off to reform school. Uh, she’s not yet reformed! Celia finds her living happily on a farm with some guy, loving the remote life. Over a nice lunch and some tasty homemade drink, Celia tells Quinn of her sobriety and apologizes for being Mommy Dearest all these years, then falls face first in her plate. Quinn and the boyfriend spiked Celia’s drink. Quinn plans to hold her mother for ransom. Yeah, good luck with Dean or Isabelle paying up!

Andy goes over to Doug’s to confront him on calling Immigration on Maria. He and Doug share some dumb guy chatter about love and not love. Andy tells Doug that Doug still loves his wife, and Doug tells Andy that Andy loves Nancy. (NO!) Later in the episode, a despondent Doug looks like he’s going to hang himself with this gigantic rope, but no such luck. He puts the noose around his neck only to achieve some maxed-out orgasm.

Back at the Botwin’s, Silas moves the remainder of his headcheese sandwiches to his own freezer. Nancy finally gets home and is shaken because she realizes that if Shlatter was tortured, then Esteban knows she’s the informant. She makes plans with the family to go out to dinner for Silas’ birthday. But when she calls Esteban, he insists that she meet him at his office that night. He says that he’ll send his car. She says that she’ll drive herself, and we all know what it means.

Nancy takes a self-reflective bath, maybe the last one of her life. Andy knocks and is invited in. And, in a quiet, wonderfully filmed scene, Nancy shares with Andy her transformation from justifying her life choices to where she is now and all that has happened.

While Nancy drives down to meet Esteban and her fate, Silas suggests that he, Shane and Andy need to come up with a plan because Nancy is unreliable. They need to cut the apron strings and grow up and take more responsibility. Silas and Andy talk about investing in some property in Mexico, like a farm, where they can grow pot and live a chilled-out life. Shane wants to invest, too, but he’s told to go to school and stay out of the family pot business. All three are worried for Nancy, though the boys don’t know how worried they should be.

As Nancy drives closer to her uncertain fate, she orders a gift basket for Silas over the phone and struggles with the store operator over what to say in the card. She settles on, “Thanks for raising yourself these past 18 years. You’ve done a great job. You are loved. Me, Mom.” It’s a great scene. Sad.

After hearing Nancy in conversation with herself on how she’s failed as a mother, we see that Shane has stolen a couple of headcheese sandwiches from the freezer, and he and the groupies are dealing on the local playground.

At last, Nancy sits in front of Esteban with Cesar present. Esteban is genuinely hurt and says that he thought she loved him. She assures him that she does. He then slides over the damning picture of her during one of her secret meetings with Till. She then slides something over to him. It’s an ultrasound picture of a fetus. Nancy’s pregnant. And saved. Never saw that coming.

Mary Louise Parker was impressive this season. She delivers in a major way and it’s really fun to watch her work. Now, for next season they must do something about Celia. Watching Celia Hodes this season was tantrum worthy. Any thoughts on the season or what you’d like to see for next season? Are you still watching?

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