Weeds – Six months later, and we might as well be south of the border

They say that parts of Southern California (as well as the tips of some of those other states between California and the Atlantic Ocean), are indistinguishable from Mexico. Esteban’s house looks like no Mexico I’ve ever been to (go Puerto Vallarta!), but I get the idea. The architecture, the tiling, the landscaping; all very Mexican chic. Feliz cumpleanos, Nancy. No, that’s not right. Damn high school Spanish.

Anyway … I suppose all of the storylines on the show needed to grow, which is why Weeds took the unusual approach of jumping ahead six months on this week’s episode. That spares us the anguish of watching the minutia of life as it slips by, but I also feel as if it may have robbed us of a bit of fun. To wit:

Andy’s clearly lost it. Although, his poorly pasted-on beard is more Amish than caveman. But wouldn’t you have loved to see him writhe around for the last half year? Andy’s a funny dude, and when he gets lost in his own head, it makes for some good comedy. Even just the little taste that we got after six months time had passed (the Ms. Pacman game, the dueling with Esteban) was proof enough that we probably lost out on some classic funny. What was it that he said to Esteban? Ah, yes. Apparently, Andy was “Ren Mar JCC Light-Saber Battle Champ, ’79-’82.” I’m not surprised.

I also imagine that Shane and Ignacio (Hemky Madera) probably were getting into some serious trouble the past few months, especially after their incident with Mr. Sandusky (Todd Robert Anderson) last week. That the show felt it needed to first build their relationship now, as if it never occurred to Shane to ditch school, or that Ignacio was insane, seems a bit like poor pre-planning on the part of the writers. But, most of us are over Shane anyway, so what’s the difference?

I also bet that anything involving Silas and Doug would have been priceless. I realize it might work better to skip ahead and see them in their troubles with CP (Larry Joe Campbell), instead of having said troubles evolve before our eyes, but I do wish we’d gotten to make that choice. I mean, come on; when Doug spends the episode having a spray tan applied by Isabelle (Allie Grant), and spouting off nonsense about George Hamilton (Love at First Bite), you know good stuff has been going on. What’s he trying to look fancy for? Where else in his life has he been applying the “what would George Hamilton do” motto?

Silas has always been a little afraid of conflict. Hopefully Doug’s irreversible move on CP will force Silas’ hand, but I would like to see him be more aggressive on his own. Yes, part of what I enjoy about him is his easy-going ways, but I also want to see him stand up for what he thinks is right, especially after fighting so hard to be an adult in the first place. And, incidentally, I’m hoping Doug and Silas somehow loop that old lady from the business bureau into solving their CP problems; easy money that she’s a more ruthless blackmailer than he is!

It’s significant that Nancy keeps going to see Guillermo (Guillermo Diaz), and I mean beyond her feelings of guilt and insecurity. In a twisted sort of way, I think he’s her roots, the proverbial ones that she keeps returning to. Guillermo was Nancy’s gateway (you know it!) to Esteban, and the hard life. He’s still a bridge back to the old days of Conrad (Romany Malco), et al. And, I think that Nancy desperately wants back there. In fact, if Guillermo wasn’t going to slaughter her and paint Tijuana red with her blood once he gets released from prison, I’ll bet Nancy would beg him to go with her to the mall, see a movie, and generally hang out. Guillermo got her in, and only he can lead her back out. Too bad he intends to eat her heart.

The wife and I rewound the last scene of the episode many times, trying to catch exactly what transpired between Esteban and that mystery woman. My wife took five years of honors Spanish to my three of low-grade, so I blame her more for our failure. What we were able to discern is that mystery lady is giving Esteban a choice: Nancy, or life as he knows it. Whether she can simply ruin him, or she’s responsible for giving him everything that he has in the first place (it was unclear what investment that she made into him she was referring to), and can just as easily take it away, I’m not sure.

I also couldn’t tell if she was a wife, ex-wife, sister, or just a power broker behind the throne. What I do know is, Nancy means less to him than being a king. His son, I imagine he’ll want to keep. But, does that mean that Nancy’s no longer safe from the fires once she gives birth? Will Guillermo somehow end up being her knight?

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jul 15, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT