S7E6: Nancy continues her crusade for more supply this week on Weeds and we start out right back where we ended last week — looking down the barrel of Heylia’s fully-loaded shotgun somewhere in Humboldt County, Calif. Now for those of you who don’t know, Humboldt County is widely regarded as the weed-growing capital of California. I’m actually surprised that it took the show 6 and a half seasons, a cross country road trip, time overseas in Denmark and a few months in New York to come right back to the hub of all things weed in California.
But alas, the episode isn’t about the illustrious history of the Northern California stoners’ haven. It’s about family, believe it or not. It takes the entire episode to really get there, but Heylia digs up the idea we’ve all been wondering about for seasons upon seasons now: how can Nancy keep doing this to her family? How can she keep digging the hole underneath them deeper and deeper? Can’t she see it’s dangerous for the people she loves?
“Be the man.” –Nancy
“Be the Mom.” –Silas
Heylia knows this truth firsthand because she now lives alone (except for the desperate suburban escapee, Dean Hoades, who we’re pretty sure is supposed to have a thing for Heylia — yes, this doesn’t make sense, your brain is fine). Conrad recently left her and he was her last tie to her family. Though she’s pretty antagonistic — leaving Nancy in the grove of marijuana with no clue how to traverse the minefield of booby traps she’s left behind — Heylia’s advice comes from a place of sadness and regret and only good can come of such advice. Of course, Nancy always knows best, so at the end of the episode, we get a montage of her seeing Stevie secretly in the planetarium and her voiceover trying to convince us that she can see beyond her own nose and that in fact, she loves intensely and deeply. We believe the love part, of course we do. But do we believe that she’s really doing right by her family? Perhaps that is the question the show is trying to raise…again, but in a big way.
“Have you seen The Wire?” –Student in Criminology class
Andy and Shane are back in New York, where the family seems to think Shane’s student loans are some endless source of free-flowing cash. Shane refuses to give Andy money to get his legitimate bike business going, though he’s fully willing to use it to buy a storefront for Andy’s bikes so he can use it as a front for his mother’s less legitimate businesses. He learns this idea from a guest speaker — an NYPD detective — in one of his college classes. For a second it looked like Shane might actually join the police force, but for now he’s just looking for tips on what detectives look for when the investigate drug dealers and money laundering as a preventative measure. This is all fine and dandy, but seeing Shane become a crooked cop just to further his fanatical devotion to follow Nancy down her rabbit hole would be a dark and delicious twist. Remember how he’s super dark, writers? Let’s use that.
Do you think Nancy was right about her take on family? Or are you just waiting (like I am) hoping that Silas staying behind in Humboldt County will be an excuse to bring Conrad back instead of just talking about him?
