Showtime Weeds "God Willing and the Creek Don't Rise"

Ah, home sweet home! The Botwins are back in Agrestic (now reincarnated as Regrestic) where it all started. The opening credit’s visuals have reverted to scenes of Agrestic.  (It looks just the way it did when we first met the Botwins.)  And the Ticky-Tacky song is being sung sweetly. It's episode 11 or Season 8 entitled "God Willing and the Creek Don't Rise."  

It’s “Old Home Week” in Agrestic/Regrestic.  So many of the characters we once knew and loved are back in the picture.  Some are important to the plot, some are just cameos. So, while I love the actual name of this episode, I’m going to rename it “Everything Old is New Again.”

Nancy reconnects with Conrad. They talk about old times and new times and high times.  Nancy has a plan to grow medical marijuana and she wants Conrad back in the game with her. Conrad has reformed; he’s getting married, he wants no part of it.  Nancy is persistent. She meets up with Conrad at a dance studio where he is taking dance lessons for his wedding. (Don’t couples usually do the dance-lesson thing together—why is Conrad dancing with Nancy?  Perhaps the producers just wanted us to see them cheek to cheek again.)  Nancy continues to try to persuade him to join her venture; Conrad still refuses.

Andy reconnects with Yael, who works at a Hebrew school. They were an item for a season, and Andy has decided that she is the only girl in the world for him.  She doesn’t remember him. That is the “you-sure-know-how-to-hurt-a-guy” moment of the week.  And, indeed, Andy is hurt.  Andy is screaming his angst from the rooftops. “We are dying meat.” We are utterly alone.”  "There is no plan … but a slow certain decomposition."  A soliloquy to rival Hamlet’s.

Silas reconnects with his high school sweetheart, “the deaf girl,” Megan. He had gotten her pregnant (he now confesses that he did it deliberately) and her parents sent Megan way. Silas tells Megan that she is the only girl her has ever loved. It turns out Megan still loves him too, so all is good between Silas and Megan.  (But don’t get too comfortable, next week’s show is an hour long, and who knows what plot twists await us.)

Meanwhile, back in Connecticut, Shane is busted by internal affairs for joy-riding in an impounded car. The agents tell Shane he can go to prison or he can rat out his mentor, Mitch. Shane denounces Mitch to the agents, and it looks like he is about to give state’s evidence.  But, he then denounces the agents too, refuses to give any evidence, and slams his badge on the table. Whereupon Mitch enters the room, and he and all the agents have a good laugh. The “agents” were imposters and Mitch was only testing Shane’s loyalty.  Mitch is slapping Shane on the back, Shane takes his badge back—being a policemen is really important to him, but is he just going to laugh off this “practical joke”?

Doug has decided to get out of the homeless shelter business. He decides that the religion business can be much more lucrative. His first disciples are his tribe of the homeless. Their sacrament is weed. Doug always has a new scheme.

Nancy is determined to move ahead with her business plan to grow medical marijuana.  She has purchased five acres of land near Agrestic. However, her old nemesis, Guillermo, who came this close to killing her in a previous season, has claimed Agrestic as his territory. Nancy will have to enlist him before proceeding. Conrad tries to warn her off, but Nancy is nothing if not a risk taker. She finds Guillermo in a park having at a birthday party for his daughter. Guillermo is not in a forgiving mood, and he pulls a gun on Nancy. Conrad arrives in the nick of time; he has a gun of his own, and we have one of those three-way gun showdowns. Conrad tells Nancy he’s in, and Guillermo is persuaded by the promise of riches, along with respectability, to join forces with them.

Later Conrad and Nancy are at Conrad’s wedding reception discussing their new business venture. Nancy is anticipating success, “God willing and the creek don’t rise,” she says. Conrad responds “The creek, she always rises.” This is the ”life-has-taught-me-to be-a-fatalist, pessimistic- cynic” moment of the week.

Shane is all lovey-dovey with Megan. Andy is there too, drowning his sorrows. Nancy asks Andy to leave with her, and she takes him to the suburban street where Judah, Nancy’s husband, died of a heart attack while out on a run. As they stand in front of a house on this quiet street, Andy tells her he’s got to move on, but Nancy begs him to stay. It’s an emotional scene that ends with some passionate splendor in the grass. 

Will Nancy and Andy finally be a couple? (It’s so Biblical when the dead husband ‘s brother marries the widow.) I don’t think so. After their moment of passion, Andy, more confused and distraught than ever, leaves Nancy in the grass and runs away. Now it is Nancy who is distraught as her cries of “Andy, Andy” are ignored.

The season finale is next Sunday. One whole hour to wrap everything up.  How do you think they will end up? 

This picture of Nancy with Guillermo is from http://examiner.com