Weeds recap: Season 4, episode 9

“Little boats”

Nancy — dolled up in a sexy dress — talks to Esteban on the phone; after their night of hot, animal sex, they’ve had trouble getting together for a date. Now he’s canceling for the third time.

Silas passes through the kitchen with a carrier filled with his plants. Nancy asks what’s up and he and tells her he’s moving his grow house to the cheese shop because it has a good, strong cover smell. Nance doesn’t look pleased.

At the maternity shop, Celia’s still totally zonked out. She’s telling customers arbitrary totals for their merchandise and giving them ridiculously large discounts if they pay in cash, which she pockets.

Back at the house, Andy’s in the bathroom shaving. Through the wall he hears Shane’s bed thumping against the wall as he pleasures himself. Shane then walks into the bathroom with the book that has Nancy’s nudie pics in it and puts it in a drawer of the bathroom cupboard. When Shane leaves, Andy takes the book out and finds the photos. He dies a little inside.

At the cheese shop, Silas and Lisa work out the details of the new operation. They’re mid gropefest when Nancy walks in. She gives them an icy look, saying Silas has no clue what he’s getting into. Lisa says she won’t let anything happen to him. Nancy says Lisa doesn’t exactly know what she’d doing — after all, she’s sleeping with Nancy’s 17-year-old. “Rad’s going to be 17. Sooner than you think,” Nancy says, arching an eyebrow. “He’s a good looking boy.”

At the maternity store, Celia tries to use the money she stole from the till to buy more coke from the dude in the back. He refuses to give it to her. Celia, looking loopier than ever, says she’s fine, then promptly sneezes blood on him.

Meantime, at the house Andy gives Nancy the book Shane stashed the nude photos in. In a cringe-worthy scene, Andy tells her Shane’s using them for an activity he can’t bring himself to name. She asks Andy if he can talk to Shane. He replies that this is too kiny even for him. “Why couldn’t he have had a gun?” Nancy moans. At least that would be slightly more normal.

Back in babyland, Celia dashes to the tunnel, cash in hand and tissues stuffed up her nose. She looks crazy as she accosts a worker in the tunnel, begging him to sell her coke.

In a bar near the border, Doug and Andy talk to an old woman who says she knows Maria, Doug’s illegal-immigrant love. She leads them to the alley behind the bar and then runs away. The mean peg-legged coyote who Andy shot hobbles around the corner with a gun, cornering them. Seconds later, a group of immigrants comes out to defend them. As they move menacingly on the coyote, Andy tells them the way of El Andy is peace. Still, a guy knocks the coyote out with a thrown beer bottle. He doesn’t understand English, the bartender says.

Nancy’s at the maternity store, trying to convince the guys in the back they don’t need to tell the bosses about this particular fiasco. She tries to comfort Celia, who’s tied to a chair and gagged with a bra. Nancy calls Esteban and cancels, telling him she has a very sick child to care for.

In Esteban’s office, Cesar watches the video of Celia in the tunnel and tells Esteban that Nancy is dangerous — she’s making him reckless, just like she is.

At home, Nancy tears up the naked pictures and flushes them. She drinks some wine in preparation for lecturing Shane and Silas. She talks to them separately, but gives the same talk — pointing out to both of them in a meandering monologue that even though Freud said lots of people want to have sex with their mothers, at a certain point it becomes unnatural weird “quirky” to have a sexual attraction to your mom, or a substitute (Lisa). Silas walks out on her without a word. Shane hides under a blanket.

At the Hodes’ apartment, Isabelle discovers Celia in bed pill boxes and bottles all over the place. “Are you shooting heroin?” Isabelle asks her mom, noticing the hypodermic needle stuck in Celia’s forehead. “It’s Restalyn,” Celia replies. Isabelle tells Celia she needs help and she’s going to call Dean. Celia sneezes again, splattering blood on her daughter.

In a short scene at the school, Shane’s turned himself into the ultimate bad boy. Kids call him “psycho” as he walks down the hallway, making it clear that’s a good thing. Two aspiring goth tweens with his name written across their bellies stop him and ask if he parties. Yes, he says, he does.

At the cheese shop, Silas and Lisa talk while they stuff pot into baguettes so it looks like they’re selling sandwiches. He complains about Nancy and says he’s outta there once he turns 18. He sells the “sandwiches” to the guy from the repair shop, then gets back to the groping business with Lisa. He breaks away from a kiss to say they should move in together. Lisa gets a look on her face that says”hit the breaks.”

At the bar, Andy has been immortalized in a painting, joining luminaries whose portraits line the walls. Meanwhile, Doug wallows in self-pity, missing Maria and saying he’s nothing but a boring sidekick, the equivalent of that other guy in Wham while Andy is George Michael. The bartender, Raul, tells Andy the folks there will help them find Maria.

Silas comes home while Nancy’s doing laundry. She asks if he needs anything washed; he tells her he and Lisa are going to slow their relationship down. She’s supportive in her low-key way, telling him to raid the fridge, take the car or play his music too loud if he wants to.

Later, none of the guys are around. Nancy puts on water for tea. She pours some, then shuts off the lights and heads upstairs. She turns around, noticing an unfamiliar shadow. There’s punched-tin a light globe in the window, casting images of sailboats. She sees it on the porch and when she steps out, Esteban is sitting on a bench. She lays her head on his shoulder and they relax. Outside, two of his beefy security guards stand watch.