The fourth season of “Weeds” ended last Monday, and the show’s final minutes were met with mixed reviews.
In the season’s final scene (spoiler alert), Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker, “The West Wing”) reveals she’s pregnant with the child of Tijuana mayor/drug lord, Esteban Reyes (Demián Bichir), in order to save her life after it’s revealed she was snitching to DEA agents.
Fans are throwing around questions of whether the baby actually exists or if Nancy purposely became pregnant to remain alive. Regardless, her less-than-perfect character seems to have been tarnished even further. Over the last four seasons, Nancy has transformed from a recent widow who’s merely out to make a living for her family by selling weed, to a pistol-whipping, sneaky widow whose involvement in the drug business has gone deeper than merely trying to provide for her family.
Perhaps the most shocking change in Nancy is her ability to sleep with different men without caring. Since the second season, there have been more than a few men in Nancy’s life, some for business and some for pleasure. Nancy tries (and most of the time succeeds) to get her way with dangerous men, but it’s unclear whether she thinks about her family at all while taking these risks.
Another character who took a turn for the worse is Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon, “Saturday Night Live”). For years, Doug was one of the show’s most beloved characters. His constant pot-smoking and embezzlement activities tickled funny bones to no end, but this season, when he was rejected by a Mexican maiden, he pulled a complete dick move and had her deported. “Weeds” already has its share of unsavory characters, so it’s strange the writers are making two of the show’s likeable characters less appealing.
In a strange scene set in Nancy’s bathtub, she states her actions used to be justifiable but now are either “right or wrong.” It’s odd Nancy is coming to this conclusion now, considering that she’s been doing some shady things since the first season. Is this supposed to be a reminder of Nancy’s love of her family? If so, the writers should consider that actions speak louder than words.
Also in the season finale was the unexpected return of Quinn (Haley Hudson, “Freaky Friday”), Celia’s (Elizabeth Perkins, “Must Love Dogs”) daughter who hasn’t been heard from since the pilot when she was sent to “Casa Reforma,” a Mexican boarding school. Reform school apparently hasn’t worked out for Quinn, who’s decided to kidnap her mother and hold her ransom for $200,000. Let’s hope Quinn sticks around — “Weeds” could use another strong female character aside from Nancy, and coke-snorting Celia is hardly an independent woman.
Perhaps the most troubling scene in the finale comes near the end, when Shane (Alexander Gould, “Finding Nemo”) — Nancy’s youngest son — sells pot to schoolmates in an alley. The last bit of sanity in the Botwin house seems to have disappeared, and while it was really only a matter of time before Shane became fucked up, his intelligence and innocence were one of the few things keeping the family together.
In the past four seasons of “Weeds,” we’ve seen a household completely disintegrate from four family members to four separate individuals, each wrapped in the drug business in their own way. Nancy’s original reason for selling weed was to support her family, and as we enter into season five, it’s become apparent that her family members are really footing the bill.