Before I even start talking in detail about this episode, I want to throw out there that this was the best episode of Weeds to date. Too much over the last four seasons have plot lines stayed stagnant or developed too quickly out of nowhere. Last night's episode has been building now for the last four years, and it's ending will leave fans begging for more until next season.
The first thing to discuss is Nancy's predicament. Ever since the first season, the looming question is how can she do all of this without getting caught. In the past there has been a quick escape where she can convince her kids and Andy that everything is going to be okay until the next disaster and she's fine. Usually this happens with her sarcastic take on the world, causing her only to be serious when she needs to be. This episode showed that maybe that won't be possible this time. In "If You Work For a Living..." there were no humorous moments from Nancy (except her telling the woman on the phone to stop talking). Instead, we saw her finally coming to terms with everything, and I've got to say, it was refreshing. Though a couple of times before she has broken down about her failures as a mother, this was the first time that everything seemed to hit her. Her call to the gift store was humorous, but very touching and tragic at the same time. It was good to see for once that Nancy is legitimately scared and an "I'm sorry" to her family might not be enough.
Looking back at past finales, she found out Peter was in the DEA, was held at gunpoint, and burned down her house and fled Agrestic. In the first two of these finales, she was left with a problem to solve at the next season. In Season 3, it was about her moving on and fixing her problems. But this season finale was vastly different. Nancy is in trouble now. Caesar has had a weary eye on her from his first screen appearance and my guess is that no matter what Esteban tries to do, Caesar will go after her. Additionally, we saw Guillermo, albeit briefly, but long enough to suggest we're not done with him and perhaps he's not done with Nancy. Just because she's carrying Esteban's kid doesn't mean this is going to be over. Esteban went from a substitute for Conrad to something a lot more. For him, Nancy is a traitor, a lover, and now a mother, and what he does will be very interesting.
As for the other arcs we saw in this episode, the return of Quinn Hodes was probably my favorite. She mentioned she was going to ransom Dean for Celia, but she evidently doesn't know that the two hate each other. What I do know is, I'm certainly glad that's not my family. The first outright mention of Andy's crush on Nancy was a long time coming, but his awkwardness in the bathroom and his speech to the boys about Nancy were a little very human and reminded me of the Andy of Seasons 1 and 2. The plot of Shane starting to use and deal was the only weak part of the episode, as it didn't show us anything new. Silas' awkward break up with Lisa to me was secondary to his almost breakdown when he talked about Nancy failing him as a mother. Silas has always seemed to not care about his mother, but it was made apparent here that he does, deep down. The funniest part of the entire episode though was Doug's letter. I'm sure I'm not the only one that thought for sure he was going to kill himself. The fact that it was just Doug being Doug though made it hilarious and the bright spot in an otherwise very dark episode.
As is apparent, there are a lot of issues that will be nagging at fans over the summer. Looking back at this season as a whole was a return to form for the show. To me, the best season is still the first, but this one might be better than the second, and definitely better than the third. At the end of last season, I wasn't terribly excited for it to come back, but today, all I want are more new episodes of Weeds.
Grade: A+
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