Weeds Recap: Tick-Tock

"See? We can be a great team."   --Nancy

This week's episode was all a mad dash for Nancy to procure money for Stevie's preschool so that she can demonstrate reliability and self-sufficiency in any future custody battle with Evil Sister Jill. This dash involved getting a "real job" at Doug's new office, eliminating competition at said "real job" by outing the existing area dealer, sweet talking Silas into peddling their weed himself, then sweet talking Shane into giving her cash to buy more when Silas returned profitless but backed by a hefty client base. Cut to a scene that somehow managed to fit all Afghani cliches into a single 30-second conversation, all just to explain away a "glitch in the supply chain." Oh, boy. Is it wrong that I found the "women are stupid" comment funny?

The episode itself was actually pretty funny. I won't say the quality of the comedy is where it once was for this show, but "A Hole in Her Niqab" did make me laugh out loud for the first time this season: an Andy scene, of course, and not even a particularly clever one. There was just something about seeing him claw at his polyamorous married girlfriend's knob-less bedroom door in a failure to "escape" her Heffneresque husband that did it for me. There were also some mildly amusing penis/steroid jokes courtesy of Doug, but that guy isn't the comedy goldmine he used to be, either. But at least now we know that he got offered his swanky new job mostly because his company needs him for softball season.

Anyway. Even though Martin Short and especially Aidan Quinn were somewhat wasted as "special guest stars" this week, we can expect to see more of them in the future. This episode was really more about the fraught relationship between Nancy and her sons: Silas, whose resentment doesn't seem to be enough to turn him into the mean, punishing son he aspires to be, and Shane, whose guilty conscience doesn't quite motivate him to do what Nancy wants him to do. And so, Silas does his mother's bidding instead of sticking to his resolve to demand her respect, and Shane spends all his student loan money on re-creating her Agrestic bedroom instead of enrolling in college. As for Nancy, in spite of her drug business savvy and enterprising spirit (and sheer dumb luck in acquiring free legal representation and respectable employment at Doug's company), she hits roadblock after roadblock in her ongoing quest to get Stevie back, and I don't just mean physically back -- did anyone catch the part where Nancy is sending him a copy of The Real Mother Goose? I liked the final shot where she hopelessly looks on at her child being comforted by the only family he's ever known, accompanied by the sound of a kitchen timer ticking away and finally dinging. Nancy is reaching her boiling point.

I look forward to next week's custody hearing, and I hope the show does something special for Nancy's return to California. But I suppose a special appearance by Celia would be too much to hope for...