(Warning: This review contains spoilers!)
You know, not for nothing, but something has to be said for the clever way the folks at Weeds do their opening titles each week. This week the show's name is on an ashtray at a sushi bar. The camera pulls out to reveal a beer bottle stamped 'created by Jenji Kohan.' A tray of sushi is served and the fish morphs into images of tiny marijuana plants.
Nancy AKA Gangsta-Mom comes downstairs in the morning to find Cesar sitting at her kitchen table. Apparently Esteban has assigned Cesar to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't try any funny biz with his baby in her belly. Ms. Botwin, being the free spirit that she is, is not pleased with this new turn of events. There's an ominous message from Guillermo to come visit him in prison, and she needs to figure out how to get away from Cesar, who is determined to be with her every moment of the day.
Meanwhile, in Oakland, Shane and Andy wake up on the living room couches of Nancy's sister Jill as two tiny twin girls who look like a Diane Arbus photo come to life, gaze at them curiously. Aunt Jill makes the girls hot pockets for breakfast before they go off to school. Jill is played brilliantly by Jennifer Jason Leigh, who has always excelled in playing characters who slowly disintegrate before our eyes. In this role she's a walking talking nutcase, still pissed at sister Nancy for infractions from years ago, in a loveless marriage, underappreciated, et cetera.
Nancy manages to give Cesar the slip after a hilarious scene in a Korean beauty parlor where the pedicurists manage to get his feet out of their huaraches and into a tank with tiny fish who bite away dead skin. She goes to see the imprisoned Guillermo who hisses to her, "I know you're the rat, and rats die." He's not impressed with her new pregnancy since there's no ring on her finger, and advises her that she's merely a whore and her life isn't worth anything.
Cut to Celia, in the Mexican rebel camp, trying to make herself useful by organizing the guns and ammo supplies for Quinn's ex-boyfriend: "Acqui -- bullets, in descending order of caliber." Rudolfo wants to kick her out because she reminds him of Quinn but she begs him to let her stay since everyone hates her and she has nowhere to go.
Doug and Silas, meanwhile, are meandering through the state park trying to find a good place to plant Silas' carefully nurtured clones. Doug is completely wacked as usual and reminiscing about grade school where a group of girls named him chunkball fairycake. Silas, who's at least half his age, is quite obviously the adult of this pair. However, in this week's 420 Moment they stumble into a clearing and almost end up dead, as they're encroaching on someone else's weed patch. They escape with their lives, minus the clones, who will enjoy a beautiful new life there in the woods.
Andy and Jill are alone in the house since everyone else is at work or school. After a few glasses of wine, Jill spills her guts about how lousy life is. A series of effectively edited jump cuts capture their descent into drunkenness and debauchery. At one point Shane comes in hoping to find an after-school snack. Jill waves him off with directions to the mall. She and Andy repair to the laundry room for wild sex while they're each screaming about bitchface Nancy, as Shane takes a cellphone photo from outside the window.
The stress and strain of not knowing when her last moment on earth will be is taking its toll on Lady Botwin. She's at the sushi bar we saw in the opening credits, telling the bartender that when she was ten she jumped off a bridge and it made the papers. 'Daredevil Girl Survives Fall.' "It wasn't a fall, it was a leap -- big difference." This story sums up the Ganja Goddess completely.
After another beer and whiskey chaser Nancy makes her way to Esteban's office. He's furious that she's drunk and endangering his child's life and decides to teach her who's boss in classic druglord manner. There's a long shot of Nancy draped across the desk face down with her dress hiked up around her hips, proving Guillermo right in their exchange a few hours earlier. And so it goes, to quote Kurt Vonnegut.
Weeds airs on Showtime Monday nights at 10PM.
Read more of Holly Cara Price's ruminations on the slings and arrows of outrageous pop culture at Snoop* Du Jour.