Weeds - Season 8 Episode 1 - Full Video and Recap - Messy

Weeds has begun it's final season! When I say the episode began with a "bang," I mean quite literally that the episode began with someone getting shot in the head! Fans have waited since the season 7 finale to learn the identity of the victim and the assassin. Jenji Kohan and crew have alluded to a misguided bullet fired by a misguided killer. In other words, someone would die in place of our anti-hero Nancy Botwin (Mary Louise Parker). Who bit the bullet?

Nancy Botwin was shot in the head! An unexpected twist of sorts, but this episode worked surprisingly well, taking into account the lack of Nancy screen time. We got a nice point-of-view shot from Nancy's perspective, gazing up into a hazy angelic vision of Andy (Justin Kirk) scrambling to rescue her. Nancy isn't dead, but she's completely looped after the loss of blood. She springs awake, completely unaware of the bullet lodged in her forehead, babbling about buying nicer wine glasses and wondering "who's mom got shot" as her son dials 911. Doug (Kevin Nealon) hides under the picnic table, while Shane (Alexander Gould) takes after the shooter in the bushes. He doesn't catch him, though.

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Following that, we witnessed a bloody mess of chaos as the Botwin family attempted to get her to the hospital. With Silas (Hunter Parrish) in tow, an ambulance whisked Nancy away to a hospital bed.

EMT: "Nancy, do you know what's happened to you?"

Nancy: "Yeah, I broke a glass."

EMT: "Nancy, can you count back from a hundred by sevens for me?"

Nancy: "I'm so bad at math. I'm really good at Boggle, though... I've been shot in the head."

Back at the house, Andy packs a bag for Nancy with Nancy's sister Jill's (Jennifer Jason Leigh) help. Meanwhile, Shane is in the back yard observing the crime scene. He's been studying in secret at the police academy. It's Shane who must deal with the snooping old couple peeking over the backyard fence. They live in an "enclave" and the noise level is unacceptable! In truth, this seen was very funny to watch, but I'm slightly incapable of capturing the nuances of "senior humor" in a recap. When the police squad storms in, Shane schools them in their forensic techniques, especially after one cop actually strolls right through the pool of blood on the patio. A cop in training from a family of weed dealers will probably be an interesting story arc to watch pan out this season.

Afterwards, we spent the majority of the episode waiting and wondering along with Silas at the hospital. Did they expect this? What happens next? The gang eventually meets up with him, including Jill's twins, one of whom posted a picture of Nancy bleeding to death on Facebook. The doctor alerts them all that Nancy is in a medically induced coma, but is probably recovering. Who's paying for this?

Jill: "You didn't use that Michael Jackson drug, did you? Because that didn't turn out too well."

In her room, Silas and Shane steal snacks and booze from the patient in the next bed over, who is showered with "get well soon" gifts, while Nancy has no friends.

Shane: "He's getting everything he needs through a tube anyway."

It's at this point that Shane decides to reveal to Silas that he is in the police academy as opposed to college. Silas' reaction went something like this:

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Shane originally joined the academy to strike a deal with the police officer from last season, but as it turns out, he likes it. He just hopes the police force will let him use his signature croquet mallet on duty. They eat junk food over their mother's comatose body, and they go over every character they've burned over the course of seven seasons of drug dealing. Who shot Nancy Botwin? Season eight truly is bringing everything full circle.

Andy tries to convince the police that the house needs to be guarded. Someone could come back for Nancy. The police aren't even sure that Nancy was specifically targeted. They know nothing of the family profession, of course. Jill wants to take her twins home to remove the photo of Nancy from Facebook. She's completely unafraid. Someone's trying to kill Nancy, not them. Jill's cold, but she adds the type of humor fans have missed after the departure of Elizabeth Perkins' Celia Hodes a few seasons ago.

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Doug takes his shift watching over Nancy, next. He uses Nancy as a makeshift table for the bounty of basket snacks he's snagged from the neighbor. Of course, as things always turn out with Doug, he ends up accidentally groping Nancy's breasts as he cleans off the crumbs. Oddly, this seemed fairly innocent to me. Just before he gets caught by another visitor, he gets ejected from the hospital for stealing the gifts.

Before Jill leaves for home, she drops in to visit Nancy with Andy. She's mad at Nancy for adding more to her plate to deal with. She's still cold as ice, but she puts eye cream on Nancy. She claims to do sweet things all the time, but she's graceless about it so people don't notice. Andy compliments her on this, and this leads straight into a sex scene.

Afterwards, Andy feels guilty so he heads to the cafeteria to binge. He notes tapioca as good but sad. There, he runs into a rabbi working as a chaplain. Apparently, the leaders of different faiths often help each other out. Andy vents about his life, including his feeling for Nancy, how he hasn't protected her, and why he can't move on with his own life. He feels he has nothing, and his life is half over. He defined his life by Nancy, and now she could die or wake up as a different person. He finds solace in drinking Fanta. He likes Fanta, it reminds him of spring breaks.

Andy: "Jill said that Nancy would live because their is no God."

Rabbi: "And if there is a God, she dies?"

Andy: "Oh, absolutely. With all of the shit she's pulled, yeah."

The rabbi gives Andy advice. Religious obligation is about wrestling, not just blindly believing. He says a prayer for Nancy, just in case.

In the final scene of the episode, Nancy gets one last visitor, the shooter! Who shot Nancy Botwin?

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It was Peter Scottson's son! Peter Scottson was the DEA agent Nancy married for business reasons back in season 2. His son hated Nancy, and his father ended up dead. Season eight is really bringing this show back to its roots. As it turns out, the boy seems to regret shooting Nancy. The episode closed with Nancy's heart rate rising dangerously high.

What did you think of the final season premiere of Weeds? Do you think the show can really get back to its roots, or was this episode a false start? Do you think Jennifer Jason Leigh's lack of a credit in the title sequence means she won't be around for long? Will Celia return? Will Nancy Botwin live or die at this season's close? Will she die on episode two?

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