Weeds 5.01 ‘Wonderful Wonderful’ Recap

Finally it is back, perhaps minus the bang a lot of fans were looking for, but it is back nonetheless, and those suffering Weeds withdrawals can breathe a hefty sigh of relief.

A quick refresher of season 4, and then we are lead straight into the office of Esteban Reyes, mayor of Tijuana and Mexican Mafia boss. Picking up where we left off, Esteban and his associate are arguing about whether or not to kill Nancy now they are faced with the news she is pregnant. In order to keep silence, the two guards are shot dead (isn’t the news going to get out anyway?). Esteban then sends Nancy home, and we get the sense that although she has won for now, it won’t be for long.

If Nancy is going to provide the drama for this episode, then the comedy is once again coming from the Celia storyline. Dean and Isabelle Hodes are innocently playing cards when Quinn’s boyfriend calls, demanding a ransom for tied up and drugged by her own daughter, Celia. In typical Dean style he passes her off as his ex-wife and quickly gets back to more important things at hand, like Gin. Angered by this, and obviously bitter after years of putting up with her mother, then being shipped off, has clearly taken a toll on Quinn and she lashes out at her Mexican boyfriend, screaming and kneeing him in an inappropriate place (poor guy).

Finally it is time for some Doug, Andy and Silas stoner moments. It opens around the kitchen table, bongs are flying and they are eating the birthday gift basket Nancy sent to Silas last season. Their topic of choice is unsurprisingly growing weed, and where to do it. Shane arrives and is quick to start a debate on who should take Nancy’s room if she doesn’t return from her meeting, she walks in unnoticed on their conversation, and another reference to Doug’s noose scene makes me laugh and gag at the same time again (possibly the funniest yet most disturbing scene in Weeds to date).

A sleepy looking Nancy awakes to a phonecall from Quinn’s boyfriend, this time demanding $40,000 for the safe return of Celia, mirroring Dean’s response Nancy claims they are not friends, and hangs up on the kidnapper.

Andy then bursts into Nancy’s bedroom, with ramblings of a plan. A plan to stop being played for the mouse by the Mexican Mafia cats, and to escape by fleeing to Denmark. Andy declares his all too obvious love for Nancy and doesn’t get the response he was hoping for, she drops the bombshell on him that she is pregnant (poor guy can never catch a break).

The next scene opens in the school library, and Shane’s pre-puberty drug dealing finally catches up with him when his teacher blackmails him into supplying him with pot to help him get through the tedious task of marking papers. I am going to guess now that this won’t be the end of that storyline and that it may play heavily in later episodes.

Next place on the map is Captain Roy Till’s office, where he is interviewing Sanjay about Nancy, the phone rings and guess who it is? That’s right, it is Quinn’s boyfriend again, demanding a ransom from the Captain now, and once again Celia gets no love nor money (what a surprise). It is good to see Jack Stehlin still around playing the Captain this season.

Doug is next on the list for the ransom phonecall and replies the same as everyone else does, Andy however takes a different approach. Clearly depressed and shaken after Nancy’s reveal, he starts rambling about everyone dying anyway and people having babies everyday. This rings bells with Silas and Doug, and they ask who is having the baby.

Cut to Mexico again and Celia seems non too surprised that noone wanted to pay the ransom for her safe return. Trying another tactic, she plays Quinn off as an abuser to her boyfriend. Quinn comes in and suggests killing her and selling her organs instead. Typical Hodes family love.

Back to dreamy Esteban and this time he is in a doctor’s office with a terrified Nancy. Everyone around her is speaking in Spanish and not telling her what is going on. It turns out he wants proof that she is indeed pregnant with his son (seems fair enough given the circumstances). Nancy tries to pawn him off with an ideal about visiting an English speaking doctor and going for lunch afterwards. Everything I love about this character comes out in his response, he pushes her back onto the chair, grabs her legs and pushes them open and in his trademark calm yet menacing tone, tells her he wants proof that inside her flat belly is a baby which is both male and his. Esteban then tells her that is she wants to go home, his colleague will take her home, implying either stay and do as I say, or die.

Once again we are taken to Mexico and this time Quinn is plotting to kill Celia and sell her organs to the black market. Celia suggests a week at a spa as a peace offering but her twisted daughter is having none of it. Quinn goes into a graphic description of which organs they will take, and calmly claims she wants to be there when they remove the heart just to confirm that Celia had one. Quinn’s boyfriend is shocked to learn Celia had cancer and chemo, and informs Quinn they won’t take her organs as a result, Quinn goes mad and starts kicking her mother and screaming. The long subjcted boyfriend finally cracks and tells her to get out of his life, then breaks down into a crying wreck.

Uncle Andy is making banana bread to help him get over Nancy being pregnant, Doug reveals to Shane his mother is pregnant and Silas goes mad, just another couple of comical moments from the stoner trio.

Andy starts talking to Nancy again and she asks him to take Shane up to her sister’s house to get him away from everything. At this point Shane and Silas walk in and question her on being pregnant, Nancy admits it to her sons and it does not go down well. She lets Shane know he is going to stay with is aunt and decides to send Silas too, I am guessing a storyling involving Nancy’s sister is impending.

Comedy moment of the episode happens now. Silas and Shane start fighting, a pregnant Nancy can’t jump in, and Andy is useless to help. Not so quick thinking Nancy grabs one of the piping hot banana bread tins and throws, burning her hand in the process, this sets off Andy who screams “My beautiful love, you ruin everything you touch!”.

Up until this point, although it was great to have Weeds back, I didn’t think there were any classic Weeds moments in there, the ones you remember, and that which initially feel like they have no place in the story then surprise you. The next moment at the very end of the episode was one of them. Sitting in town, Nancy is surprised to hear music start loudly, then even more surprised to see what everyone thought were random people start dancing together, it becomes clear it was a street act which encaptures community spirit. Nancy gradually starts to relax and laugh, but her one moment of fun is ruined when she sees Estebans associate watching her from across the street. For me this is when the season really began, at the end of the episode.