Watching: Weeds (recap)

By Tom Rose
Fancast.com

High tech gadgets worked overtime on both sides of the border last night on episode 2 of Weeds. Whether it was a jerry-rigged hairdryer/vibrator, a spy cam Jesus bobble-head or a DEA telescopic snapshot, the secret life of Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) is catching up to her.

The Botwin clan is settling into their new life in Ren Mar and there are some adjustments to be made. Especially if the grass seedlings Silas (Hunter Parrish) is carefully cultivating are to survive. They need to be moved out of Lenny’s sight – quick. Not that he’s the straightest arrow in the quiver. Seems Lenny (Albert Brooks) will steal anything that’s not nailed down to support his degenerative gambling habit.

Nothing keeps him from his devotion to the comatose grandma, though. Unless you distract him with 300 bucks of track money. Then he’s off with a few hurried instructions to the kids about the occasional grunts she utters. “That’s not necessarily bad.”

And Lenny needs distraction if Nancy is to get to her first day on the new job – border crossing drug mule. She motors into Guillermo’s (Guillermo Diaz) garage where he quickly busts a brake light. It seems the best mechanics are in Tijuana and he gives detailed instructions on exactly which one to visit. And while she’s waiting for the repair (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) he gives her another errand – picking up some inhalers from the local Farmacia.

Meanwhile Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins) is having a bad hair day back in the lock-up, and her overworked lawyer isn’t helping much. She barely gets Celia’s name right before revealing she has less chance of getting out “than a terrier in China Town.” A dirty look from Celia to her eavesdropping cellmate Chita is a big mistake. The next time we see her she looks more like Boy George than he does. But there’s a glimmer of hope. Seems Nancy got herself caught on surveillance video while plotting at the fence with Guillermo, and the DEA is starting to bite.

Nancy makes her trek back and forth from TJ with only partial success. The inhalers are confiscated as contraband by the border patrol. And she learns that the Jesus bobble-head he gave her as a good luck charm is actually a mini cam that recorded every misstep along the way. Guillermo is not your average dead head. This was only a practice run - Let’s go to the videotape! But that’s next week, where we’ll also explore the possibility of putting Grammy out of her flatulent misery.

There’s a lot of ground to cover for a 30 minute show but the writing is briskly paced and the lifestyle is quirky enough to make me want to come back for more. I’ll just be looking twice at those bobble-head dolls from now on.