The last series of Weeds ended with the Botwins, Stevie, Jill, her twins and of course Doug all gathered round the table in the garden of Jill's house as Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker) toasts to their new life. She bought Silas (Hunter Parrish) equipment so he can grow his own weed and Shane (Alexander Gould) has secretly joined the police academy. Andy (Justin Kirk) is sleeping with Nancy's sister Jill (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and Doug (Kevin Nealon) is the CFO at a firm running a Ponzi scheme. One of the twins, Taylor (Amanda Pace) or Shayla (Rachel Pace) shines a laser pointer at her head. Then, we see down the barrel of a gun as an assassin draws a bead on Nancy and fires.
Nancy was hit in the head by the bullet and is conscious but not lucid. The shooter runs from the scene, jumps into his car, pounds the steering wheel and drives off, turning the corner just as Shane emerges from the bushes after him. Nancy, meanwhile, is rushed to the hospital in an ambulance with Silas.
Back at Jill's house, Andy and Jill are arguing about what to pack to take to the hospital. Doug tells them that Shane ran off after the shooter and they hurry off to the hospital. Shane comes back to the house to find it deserted and their elderly neighbours, Phillip (Bob Larkin) and Whimsy Ardmore (Anne Bellamy) peering over the fence. They ask what the racket was and Shane tells them his mother was shot. Whimsy protests that the woods are "not hunting woods, they're strolling woods". The police arrive and Shane tells the police how to do their job before taking them up on their offer of taking him to the hospital, so he doesn't have to watch them "fuck up the crime scene".
At the hospital, Doug suggests that it was the work of the Mexicans. The doctor arrives and tells them that Nancy's in a medically-induced coma. Silas goes to see her and the hospital administrator arrives and shakes them down for money, running through a list of countries that do have universal health insurance. Jill gives the paperwork over to Doug and Shane arrives to show her a photo one of the twins has uploaded to Facebook showing Nancy covered in blood.
Silas is in Nancy's room, eating some snacks from a gift basket that the family of her roommate have left. Shane arrives and helps himself to food as well, telling Silas that he's in the police academy. Silas is more than a little surprised, telling Shane that crime is the family business. Shane says that he actually likes it and they speculate about all the people who have a motive. It's not a short list. Outside, Andy is talking to the police and demands more protection for her. Jill ticks off the twins for posting the picture of Nancy and tells Andy that they're going home. Doug takes over from Shane and Silas in Nancy's room and helps himself to snacks. He brushes crumbs off Nancy, then starts to fondle her and peeks down her gown. A relative of the other man in the room comes in and asks Doug if they've been stealing from his gift baskets.
Jill visits Nancy's room and wonders why Doug has been banned from the hospital. Deciding that she doesn't care, she tells Andy that she's taking the kids home. Andy asks if she wants to spend some time with Nancy but she doesn't, saying that she's mad at her. She does put some face cream on Nancy and Andy tells her that she's a good person. They start kissing and she tells him that she has to take out her pelvic weight before they have sex. She does and Andy tosses it onto the other man's bed. After they have had sex, Jill leaves to go home and the man's relative comes in to find the pelvic weight on his bed.
Andy, banished to the cafeteria, has a man called Dave (David Julian Hirsh) sit opposite him. He asks Andy if he wants to talk and Andy thinks he's making a pass at him but it turns out he's a chaplain and a rabbi at that. Andy regrets telling him that he had sex with Jill in Nancy's room but Dave doesn't care. Andy tells him that he doesn't know if he believes in god and says that Jill thinks Nancy will live because there is no god. He offers to pray for Nancy and Andy tells him to knock himself out.
The would-be assassin visits Nancy in her room. Who is it? It's Tim Scottson (Daryl Sabara), son of Lieutenant Peter Scottson, Nancy's second husband and a DEA agent who was murdered in series two by the Armenian drug cartel. He tells her that he thought he'd feel better but he doesn't. The man's relative comes in and he bumps into her as he rushes out, spilling her coffee all over her. Nancy goes into cardiac arrest and the woman remarks, "oh well. Karma."
This is apparently going to be the last series of Weeds. Even though Jenji Kohan and Showtime said that before series six and before series seven, I think they mean it this time. It's not quite the show it once was but it's still good and if it really is about to finish, I hope it does so on a high. As a first episode, this one was pretty standard. Despite rumours that Shane was going to have been shot and killed by the assassin, it was obvious that it was Nancy who was going to be hit and that she would not be killed. The choice of would-be assassin was quite a surprising one though and they seemed to realise that, including a brief vignette as Tim was revealed, showing his time playing judo with Shane and his father's funeral. I can't imagine him turning into anything like a lasting villain and Shane will probably kill him in a few episodes time but perhaps they're just trying to tie up all the loose ends before they finish for good.
Revelations about the shooter aside, nothing major happened. But it was still a good episode. Solid, funny and with a couple of great lines. If the rest of the series is up to this standard, I'll be satisfied.
7 out of 10.
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