I’ve been away. There’s been three episodes of Weeds that have aired during that little hiatus. This is the first of those three episodes to bring us back to pace to where we are in the highly enjoyable season 6.
The Botwins — err, the Newmans — have settled into Seattle and taken jobs as scab workers at a local hotel in order to have a source of income while they hide from the police and Esteban. Coming in, they expected higher up jobs in the hotel, yet instead are given the bottom of the totem pole and have to make do. It sets up for an interesting theme for the episode: overcoming adversity. Nancy walks into a room of a naked man handcuffed. Andy’s free spirit is completely trapped washing dishes. Silas reads to a man in only his underwear. Yet, they all find ways to make the best of it: Silas makes a lot of money doing his naked readings, Andy attempts to win over the head chef, albeit hopelessly, and Nancy stumbles back into the world of weed, making hash in the hotel’s dryers.
Shane, meanwhile, doesn’t really have much of a purpose in this episode. He watches after the baby and it’s obvious that he cares for him in a time the rest of the family can’t, but I’m not sure where it’s going quite yet. I don’t doubt that it’ll set up for something in the future, but it’s quite interesting to see his extreme behavior mix with his childhood innocence, which is still intact there somewhere.
Finally, we are left with the return of Doug, looking for the Botwins in Ren Mar. Instead, he finds Cesar and Ignacio. This should be fun.
I’d be ashamed if I don’t talk about Linda Hamilton’s role at all. She’s absolutely perfect for her part, presenting a gigantic and stubborn roadblock for Nancy’s source of marijuana. It’s almost as like she’s Heylia 2.0, which is a very welcome return and further emphasizes the writer’s notion to bring back the series to its roots.
The one drawback with this episode was that there was a lot going on. It’s almost as if the first two episodes took too long, so everything was crammed into one episode to make up for lost time. Still, it keeps the wheels of the season turning while doing what it needs to do. The Botwins have settled and have to make the best of what they have.
