TVSquad

(S05E02) I learn something new every time I watch Weeds. Last week, I learned about flash mobs. This week, I learned that fish are used in the pedicure process and guys in prison get specific tattoos on their backs. You know the ones I mean. Yes, I lead a sheltered life.

Ok, so the fact is I found this episode really dark -- on my first time through, that is. I watched it again and decided it had lots of subtle funny moments.

The first one occurred when Esteban's goon was tasked with keeping Nancy company, and then got sucked into getting a pedicure. Big mistake because Nancy ended up ditching him on the guise of getting a bikini wax.

The second one was Silas and Doug backpacking into the national forest to find a good growing spot. The dark side: getting caught by bad guys with guns who confiscated their plants. The funny side: Doug rambling on the way there about his grade school days, then explaining his and Silas' relationship to the bad guys: "We're friends. Family friends. Not sexual."

Then there was Andy and Shane's adventures while visiting Nancy's sister, Jill (played beautifully by Jennifer Jason Leigh). The idea was to get her to look after Shane, but the funny part was when she and Andy end up doing it, with Andy muttering Nancy's name in faux-disgust (and Shane snapping a picture of them through the window). I loved the build-up to all of this, with Jill rambling on about how much work she does and never gets recognition, and how Nancy always "plays the victim, but always has time to put mascara on."

Oh, and a couple of funny lines, when Andy and Shane wake up after crashing on Jill's couches:

Shane: "Are you naked?"
Andy: "Just a little ... alert. Comfy couch. Happy dreams."

Let's talk about Celia. After getting Quinn's guy to toss Quinn out of the camp, Celia and he have a squabble, in which she says, "How can you even compare me to that little bitch?" And then slaps him, saying, "I'm sorry, you just make women want to hit you." Ok, so that's sort of funny and dark at the same time. But the truly funny part was when Celia is let go, but she has nowhere to go, so she starts organizing the guns and ammo ("Machetes up top"), making herself useful. Poor Celia. She is one sick puppy:

"I like it here ... Please let me stay. I don't have anywhere else to go. Do not make me go back there. Everyone hates me. I have no friends."

But the darkest story this week was Nancy's. After visiting Guillermo in prison, she leaves angrily (you don't really see Nancy get angry all that often - she seems to take most things in stride), then goes to see Esteban, who roughs her up and rapes her! Oy, definitely dark. But there was one darkly funny line where Esteban says she should be taking better care of their baby, and Nancy says, "What's the point? I can't live with this level of stress. I'm dead mom walking."

The scene where she visits Dean to make sure things are in order was amusing. I liked the part where he asks her why him, and she says she trusts him, but he's also the only one she could get on such short notice. Then gives him her life insurance policy and "a list of most of the places I've hidden money."

Oh, I also have to mention the part where Nancy is talking about jumping off a bridge when she was 10. "It wasn't a fall," she says. "It was a leap. Big difference." At first I thought she was saying she had a death wish, but maybe she was just saying she's always been the kind of girl to leap first and deal with the consequences later. That certainly seems to be her mantra since getting into the drug business.

What did you all think of this episode?