overnights

‘Weeds’: The Satire’s Bizzack

Weeds

Release the Hounds
Season 3 Episode 9

OMG! It’s Mary-Kate Olsen! See her??Photo: Courtesy of Showtime


We’re not out of daytime-soap-land, but that cheeky Weeds satire has finally caught up with this season’s meanderings. Dean, Celia’s estranged husband, may be in a coma, but it’s after he was forced off a cliff by bikers and left overnight as animals urinated on his wounds (conveniently disinfecting them, it turns out). The rest of the episode was a big, sweet dish of snarky domestic scenes. Celia’s new boyfriend (who we do suspect will leave her high and dry) tickled her butt; the family discussed the business around the kitchen table; and Nancy and her fabulous new friend spent an evening stargazing and drinking white wine as the California blackouts rolled through.

The old Weeds, where simple suburban delights become wickedly more delightful colored with outsider wit, might be back on track. It’s all embodied in the back and forth between Nancy and her new lady friend, Peter’s ex-wife Valerie (whom Nancy stalked last episode). Valerie, holding up a ball of bath salt: “I recommend you let it dissolve between your legs. Something about the effervescence, it feels amazing.” Earlier, apologizing for being “kind of a bitch” when Nancy tried to befriend her: “Aren’t you glad I’m not a proctologist?” Nancy: “Well, your fingernails are nice and short, but you’ve got a lot of anger.”

What we still don’t understand is why is Celia such a “c-nt” — those are Isabelle’s words, but they’re oh-so appropriate. As Isabelle cries, standing at the feet of her smashed-up father, Celia can only think to contribute this: “Oh, stop the Steel Magnolia’s act. He’s still breathing.” Can Celia be redeemed? Do we care? —Emma Pearse

‘Weeds’: The Satire’s Bizzack