Weeds: Lady’s A Charm
By fred | June 24, 2008
(S04E02) Changes are still happening on Weeds, at least on the outside. Last week the show was back for its fourth season, and with it we saw the Botwins move to a new place, though not really a new life. But as a last reminder of their past, and what the show used to be like for three years, we had one last time an opening credit sequence, with the traditional “Little Boxes“.
Not this time.
No, from this point on we’ve moved on to a new season, Nancy and co have moved on to a new place, and there are no more little boxes. Instead, what we will get now, if I’m not mistaken, are each time one “card” that will illustrate what the episode will be like, or give an idea of what it’ll be about, a first sign of things to come.
This week, it was a shot of the Mexican border, because that’s what the episode was about : Nancy’s first job, which included, indeed, crossing the border and hanging in Mexico for a bit, practicing her Spanish. “Yo quiero una brake light para… this car.”
I know, I’ve said this before, many times, but there really is one thing consistent about this show, and Nancy, one thing that never changes or evolves : she’s a bit of an idiot. She’s been dealing drugs for quite some time now, she’s made plenty of mistakes, took wrong turns and made wrong choices, she screwed up, many times, big time. I mean she did get married to a DEA agent for about 5 minutes, a man who eventually died from it while the entire town was burning down, that’s not nothing.
Yet, our lovely Nancy and her long long legs keep doing their little things, going with everything in the most carefree way possible, constantly doing the same mistakes. Will Nancy ever learn from her mistake ? Will she ever try to grow, and I don’t mean weeds ?? After all that happened, she’s still fine with her teenage kid growing weeds, just not in the house (and by the way, how is in the van parked right in front any better?), and when she goes on for a job, she asks questions !
She has been in the exact same kind of situation before, she knows - or should know - asking questions is both stupid and dangerous. It’s stupid, because she won’t get any answers, that’s not how things work in the “business”; and it’s dangerous, because should she know, that’s put her in a riskier position, but the fact that she asks will have her look like the kind of person always sneaking around, asking questions, trying to know what she’s knot supposed to know… The kind of person one cannot trust, the kind of person you’ll blame for, or worst, whenever something goes wrong.
Not to mention how obvious it was, to me, that this was actually a test, that she wasn’t gonna carry anything really and that there was some kind of camera hidden in that little Jesus. It just made sense, but of course you’d need to try and think about things a little, and that’s not Nancy’s way. Proof : she didn’t even had her passport. Because in her mind, all she was doing was sneaking in drugs - and I don’t mean some inhalers - into the country, so really nothing to worry about, no reason to try and ensure not to get caught, be in trouble or anything. It’s not like she was doing anything illegal, I mean, besides the whole drug thing of course.
And then Nancy dared to be pissed and yelled that it was a test or something ?? She really thought she’s be given thousands of dollars worth of drugs and trusted with it just over her pretty face ?? And looking back at how “well” the handled things, she should be glad she wasn’t given anything to bring back in, otherwise she’d probably be in jail !
Of course they tried to add some humor into the whole thing, see Nancy peeing in a cup or Shane trying to deal with some shit, literally. Now that was not really funny, and just like the other jokes about the dying old vegetable, I’m not sure this is the best idea writers came up with.
At this point it would make sense to me that Guillermo, looking at the tape, just throws Nancy to the cops or gets ride of her the first occasion he got. But he won’t, and Nancy will be fine, because no matter how big she’s in trouble, she doesn’t even have to do anything about it, things always work out for her somehow. Just look at Celia : she’s the one behind bars, not Nancy.
Now Celia’s scenes were both the funniest thing in the episode - when Doug and Isabelle visited her I was laughing out loud at the entire thing - and the saddest, too - because even me who kinda hated her for being the bitch she is, I know she didn’t deserve that. It should be Nancy’s nightmare, and it’s pretty incredible Nancy has never been in any real trouble with the authorities so far, given her carefree way of doing about anything, from dealing drugs to drive-by shooting to sneaking in drugs into the country.
But because of that, because no matter what happened to her, Nancy somehow always managed to get out of it easily, and never had to stop for a moment and think, and learn from her past mistakes, and changes her way and try acting smarter than she used to, I just can’t get myself to worry. Sure, the cop now believes Celia that Nancy was involved, and she’ll be investigated, maybe it’ll go wrong - it surely will, it’s a TV show, we need drama - but even if people die around her, things explode and she ends up at gunpoint, she’ll get out of it fine, and so will her family.
I’m having a hard time worrying for Nancy anymore now, due to her past and the consistency with which she keeps doing the same mistake all over again. But while this episode wasn’t the best, it some its moments, and Doug was - as usual - pretty funny, even when he wasn’t there, just talked about after a phone call. I think we need more Doug! Don’t you?
