I dug this episode of Weeds but goodness it made me nervous! Nancy is breaking the law all over the North American continent, ya’ll. The girl has gone international. I’m watching the season cold with no knowledge of spoilers but I’m thinking this trafficking thing can’t end well.
This episode, “Lady’s a Charm,” highlights the charms of Nancy, who is now Guillermo’s drug smuggling ace-in-the-hole Blanca. Blanca, for the Spanish language challenged, means white en Espanol. Isn’t that clever? No, not really? Oh.
Guillermo breaks Nancy’s taillight and plans to send her to Tijuana to get it fixed. He also tells her to bring back prescription inhalers from a pharmacy while she’s down there. For her efforts she’ll get ten grand and oodles of trust from Guillermo. He gives her a bobble-head Jesus for her dashboard to keep her safe then sends her on her way.
Nancy finds the specific body shop and is told to come back in an hour. She knows that they’re sealing drugs somewhere into her car but as they say ignorance is bliss and apparently Nancy’s quite blissful to even be involved in all this mess. But she’s caliente so I’ll give her a pass.
To cross back into the States she has to sit in a two-hour line. Now that’s some awful drug traffic right there! She gets thirsty and buys an iced coffee from a roving vendor. Word of caution, avoid drinking fluids while waiting in a two-hour line at the border. There are no bathrooms. Oh well, when you have to go you have to go. Nancy wiggles into the backseat and goes in the same cup from which she just drank her iced coffee. Lovely. Not. Fine, I laughed.
Shane calls to tell Nancy that Isabelle told him Celia’s in jail and has named Nancy as the grow-house kingpin. Bet that’s not great news to hear while sitting in line at the border with drugs sealed in your car.
Nancy finally gets to the border patrol agent and she’s asked for her passport, which she doesn’t have, but she tries to charm him. That smile. That innocent face. It looks like he’ll wave her through but nope he sends her to secondary inspection where they actually empty out personal belongs and go through one’s car looking for contraband and people entering the country illegally. OK, I’m scared for her. It would serve her right to be caught but it’s only episode two! They confiscate the inhalers but send her on. Phew, Nancy Botwin and her nine lives.
She gets back to Guillermo’s happy to have at least smuggled whatever is still sealed in her car. But he’s annoyed about the inhalers because nothing was actually planted in the car. It was a dry run! Oh and the bobble-head Jesus on the dashboard? Yeah, a hidden camera meant to record how she handled the border crossing. Wait until the guys see on the video how she handled having to go to the bathroom. Good times ahead.
As for Celia, she’s still locked up. Her public defender visits and tells Celia that she’s screwed and that there’s little hope to beat these types of charges. Things look dim.
Later Doug and Isabelle visit. By then Celia has had a drastic home girl makeover. I didn’t recognize her at first but then I started to sort of dig the look. Muy loca. Holla! Celia’s not handling her incarceration very well. She’s scared. She says her cellmate wants to make her a “special friend.” Personally, I’m all for such friendships but only when it’s mutual.
Her last visitor is the DEA agent. We see that Celia now has a badly bruised eye. She sits silently as he shows her a recent picture of Nancy and Guillermo overlooking the bluff. He might believe Celia. Is there light at the end of Celia’s tunnel? I hope it’s not a train.
Seeing the transformation of Celia from being flippant with her attorney to the quiet frightened woman with a black eye looking defeated was quality acting and writing. Don’t you just love having a visceral reaction to a fictional scene? It sure got my buy in.
Free Celia Hodes! No justice, no peace!
Oh, I forgot about Lenny. He hits up Nancy for $300 to stop him from questioning as to why she’s on the lam. After Nancy leaves to meet with Guillermo Lenny leaves Shane and Silas alone with Bubbie for the day with instructions to basically make sure she doesn’t die while he runs off to the racetrack!
When Lenny comes home after blowing the cash Andy needles him about what a loser he is. Lenny starts yelling a story about giving Andy $100 as a kid with instructions to ride his bike to the track and bet on a trifecta that Lenny thought was a sure thing. (One of the horses was Lady’s a Charm…yup.) But rather than placing the bet Andy and Judah pocketed the money and bought Star War toys. Lenny’s sure thing won and his $100 bet would have paid him $20,000 and changed his luck and life forever and he has never forgiven Andy for the deceit.
Voices and tempers escalate and in the chaos Shane notices that Bubbie is trying to talk. Everyone stops and listens as she mumbles in Yiddish something to the effect of “kill me now.” Uh oh … I smell a new ethical dilemma.
Mary Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins were in true form in this episode! I laughed out loud and felt a real sadness. But the show has changed and not just the theme song. What are people feeling about the new locations, new characters of emphasis and even new ethical dilemmas like euthanasia and immigration? Is the show’s satire still relevant or has it gotten too over the top?
