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Weeds recap: Season 4, episode 8

by jill on August 5th, 2008

“I am the table”

Nancy’s lounging in bed when the contractors arrive to do the bathroom. Shane doesn’t want to go to school, especially since Silas isn’t. Shane’s the only shot the family has left for going legit, Nancy tells him. He’s going to grow up to be a “doctor or a lawyer or a business executive” — a clever play on the former theme song by Malvina Reynolds.

Shane goes to answer the door, thinking some of his supplies for the remodel have arrived. Instead, it’s Cesar from the mechanic shop. He’s come to squire her to a meeting with Esteban.

They take Shane to school in a limo. As she gives him his lunch money, he whines “Can’t I do drug things with you guys?” After Shane gets out of the car, Cesar says he wouldn’t be surprised if Shane gets his ass kicked at school.

Over at Celia’s house, Isabelle’s trying to get her mother to wake up and take her to school. Celia’s totally zonked and takes another Mexican Xanax to cope with her pill hangover. Isabelle gives up and resolves to walk.

Meanwhile, Andy’s on the Mexican side of the border, playing Mose to the illegal immigrants. He gives them matzoh, explaining that it’s what the Jews ate when they were exile in the desert for 40 years. As a friendly coyote, he’s given them all travel kits with books, games and breath mints (perhaps he finds dental hygiene too low on the list of illegal alien priorities). When he discovers the group is sitting under a tree that bears the trophies of coyotes who’ve raped female immigrants, Andy shifts them to a less “rape-y” location.

In Ren-mar, Silas is at the cheese shop with Lisa. Some dude comes in and asks if they sell sandwiches. Lisa says no, then explains to Silas how frustrated she is that people don’t get the concept of a gourmet shop — all they want are “sammies.” Silas points out it’s not a bad idea if she wants to make some money. As he’s talking, Lisa grabs her bong from the back room and takes a hit. She passes it to him and Silas tries what she’s got. He declares it the Cheese Whiz of pot. When Lisa finds out she’s been eff-ing a teen drug dealer, she looks mock horrified. Silas says she need not be alarmed: He’s a grower, not a dealer, and they don’t f–k, they make love. He then fires up his pipe and shares his gourmet blend with her.
When Nancy arrives at Esteban’s office, Guillermo’s there. Esteban wants to clear the air between the two of them. He tells Guillermo that even though G. may want to kill Nancy because she’s gone over his head, that’s not gonna happen. He tells Guillermo to leave, then asks Nancy to stay for lunch.

While Nancy’s hobnobbing with the top dog, Celia’s at the maternity shop, so stoned on her pills that a customer blatantly shoplifts an armful of clothes and she makes no move to protest. The guy who guards the tunnel in the back scolds her for letting thieves into the store, saying it’s the third time it’s happened that day. He gives her something to snort — smelling salts? coke? it’s unclear — and Celia says she feels better, tingly and ready to work.

At the border fence, Doug talks with the guy from the Minutemen. The dude has a TMI moment revealing some creepy details about his love life, then agrees with Doug that this part of the fence looks secure. Once he drives away, Andy ushers the immigrants across and into Doug’s station wagon while Doug says into the radio that there’s not a “bean on the tortilla.”Davenport climbs out from under a blanket in the back of the car and hands the group baseball caps. They’re a team, he tells them, that’s their cover. Meanwhile, Doug’s passing out fliers with Maria’s picture on them, asking if anyone knows her.

At the restaurant, Nancy explains to Esteban that she’s not a lesbian, but she told Guillermo she was so he wouldn’t hit on her — back in the days before he wanted to murder her in front of her kids. When she heads off to the bathroom, machine gun fire breaks out. She cowers in the back for a bit, then goes out to see what happened. The place is a shambles. Esteban’s sitting at his table, his guards standing at the ready with their guns out. He tells the restaurant owner he’ll pay for the damage, but he’s not leaving — he wants to finish lunch.

Over the lunch break at school, Isabelle and Shane meet up. They comisserate about being geeks. Then Shane asks who the most popular guy in school is. Shane introduces himself to the kid, Dan, who says hi back and offers to shake his hand. In return, Shane throttles him him in the face with his lunch tray, saying “Don’t f–k with me.” Nothing like surrounding a 12-year-old with thugs to breed manners, eh Nancy?

At the maternity store, Celia has gone from downers to uppers — manically trying to help customers. When she starts to crash, she goes to the back and demands another snort of the magical substance. The guy says no, but she offers to pay him. “Let me check my purse,” she says, then goes to register and loots it.

Nancy asks Esteban who’s trying to kill him. Could be any number of people, he says, placing the salt and peeper shakers on different countries on a placemat map. Who is he? Nancy asks. Esteban replies that he’s not one of the countries — he’s the table.

Andy and Doug bring their immigrants to the bus depot and say goodbye. Davenport’s leaving, too — to Florida, not Iowa. Doug and Andy congratulate themselves for a job well done. Then, as the bus pull s away, Doug asks if Andy got paid. Yeah, not so much.

At the cheese store, Lisa tells Silas she has an idea. Cheese has such a strong smell, she says, it masks most other scents. She shows him how big the back room is, and says she wonders if someone would rent it out. Silas’s eyes light up. “You really don’t want to make sandwiches, do you?” he says.

Esteban and Nancy leave the restaurant and show up at some warehouse where he has a lion in a cage. Surreal, but he says its a donation to his zoo. It’s also lunchtime for the big cat. Someone brings in a goat and Esteban tells Nancy she might not want to watch. Personally, he enjoys it. Challenged, she also watches. After all that foreplay, we cut to them having rough, hot, animal sex. They tear open the flesh wound Esteban sustained in the gunfire and leave blood on the sheets, but they don’t seem to notice.

Meantime, somewhere in Mexico, a guy is telling a story about a coyote called “El Andy.” Another man listens, then stands on one good leg, one wooden. It’s the mean coyote Andy shot in the knee. He drags himself out of the bar, ready to hunt for Andy.

Hours later, Nancy leaves Esteban’s and walls back through the tunnel. The halter she’s wearing is has a bare back and we can see scratches all over her shoulder blades.

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