“You have no idea what a good day this is turning out to be!” – Nancy to the SCC agents, sticking up her middle finger at Counsellor Ed.
Now that we’re past the halfway point of the season, it’s time to start tending to developing storylines — so it’s back to New York for Nancy, and all the problems she left behind (plus a few more) are waiting for her. Heylia has hooked up Silas with thirty pounds of the sticky-icky but he’s holding out – he gives Nancy a paltry portion of the stash and a business proposal: he wants to start a strong business, building a crew of male model couriers to carry out the grunt work. Nancy also has Counsellor Ed breathing down her neck — he’s been given two weeks’ notice, and now he’s after Nancy to get his job back. Luckily for Nancy, she’s got a company baseball game to attend and plenty of clientele to get herself back in the other game.
Unluckily for Andy, however, his hopes for a legitimate business are circling the drain, as he’s being funded by Shane’s student loan scam, and has Silas setting up his new dope delivery service in the back room, all to make sure Nancy has it all once she’s out of the halfway house. After an almost heart-to-heart with Counsellor Ed, who’s arrived at Nancy’s game to catch her in the act of anything that will get his job back, Andy lifts Nancy’s stash and leaves, determined to rub out the “illegitimacy” in his life (spelt “N-A-N-C-Y”). Andy’s puppy-like affection for Nancy has never benefitted him, and it’d be nice to see him consistently happy without everyone — himself included — stepping on his toes along the way.
Doug’s happiness, on the other hand, has finally reached its peak, and now he’s coming down, hastened by the ill-effects of his steroid use. His kidneys are failing, he looks like deep-fried hell, and his quick-tempered attitude causes him to target everyone and everything, including a garbage can. After the game, he finally loses it over his nicknames, insisting hysterically that his name is Doug Wilson. This draws the attention of Counsellor Ed, who recognizes the name of Nancy’s employer. Doug, however, accidentally mistakes Ed for Marvin from season three, asking him if he’s still dealing with Nancy. Ed takes off in a mad sprint, but doesn’t have an opportunity to confront her, however, as she’s doing some confronting of her own.
Earlier in the episode, Nancy noticed some mysterious agents who are scouting the game. As it turns out, the SCC has targeted her as a potential informant, promising her early leave from the halfway house for her cooperation with the investigation into her and Doug’s new employer, Vehement. She’s quick to accept, weaving another intricate web of involvement that can only spell disaster. Under the new authority of the SCC, Nancy no longer has to worry about Ed’s impositions. With Ed now out of the picture, it seems like everything is once again going Nancy’s way… or not.
Speaking of informants, Shane is following up with the detective he stumped in his criminal justice class. They meet in an underground parking garage, where Shane is introduced to some, eh, “ladies of the night” who double as informants. Shane earns himself an apprenticeship with the Detective, who’s rather impressed by his experience with “morally gray areas.” Shane’s storyline is by far the most intriguing – once upon a time, his strangeness was matched only by his cunning and intelligence, which he’s finally putting to use once again. It’ll be interesting to see how far corrupt Shane’s new mentor is – the last time Shane went for a ride-along, it was with a Mexican gangster who beat up a guy with a golf club. Now that he’s got someone who knows the system to guide him through it, Shane is going to be making some big plays for Nancy’s benefit.
There’s got to be a convergence of storylines at some point – Shane’s loan scams and his involvement with a corrupt officer of the law could very well leak through to impact Nancy’s deal with the SCC, who may be out for more blood after dealing with Vehement’s cooked books. They could also target Andy, whose business front could be taking in some questionably large amounts of drug money very quickly. That would at least implicate Silas, as well as the New York modelling agency he’s been fishing delivery boys from, who also happen to run an underground boxing tournament for sub-par male models.
Everyone has jumped into a new venture without considering the consequences, and only Andy is considering abandoning his cause for a legitimate life. Everyone else could very well be in the line of fire in some form or another sometime soon: Silas seems to have won over his heavy-betting agent with his boxing savvy, and may not have seen the last of the ring; Shane now has a police badge, apprenticing for a shady cop; and Nancy, who goes to top off her day with a more-than-friendly visit to Dmitri, incurs the wrath of her former lover, her new lover’s sister, the recently released Zoya. Now that we’ve reached and passed the halfway point of the season, and the characters have come almost full circle (or spiral), it’s time for Weeds to hammer home its last handful of episodes and finally redeem itself.
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.