As we left our favourite ice-coffee-sippin’, vodka-swillin’, Prius-drivin’, drug-dealin’ mother of three, her middle child Shane – who, let’s face it, is clearly starved for attention now that little Stevie is around – had just clocked the political powerhouse Pilar in the head with a croquet mallet sending her into the pool face down. (Clearly wanting to use Elin Nordegren’s weapon of choice [too soon?] Shane quips, “I couldn’t find a golf club.”) Shane, it seems, has gone off the deep end -- but oddly enough shows concern when he questions whether or not Pilar's drowning pool contains salt water out of concern for his victim's eyes. All is not lost -- he’s a killer that cares!
Nancy, meanwhile, is forced back into survival mode to do what she does best: coming up with some sort of foolproof plan to get out of this mess. After destroying the security video camera at the crime scene, Nancy, Shane and Silas head home, and as the boys wait in the garage, Shane confesses to Silas: “She was going to kill us, so I popped the bitch.” They grow up so fast...
As Mama Botwin and her children drive to Ren Mar, the plan is to trade the environmentally friendly Prius for Andy’s minivan. When they arrive at the beach house Andy’s hovering outside contemplating his relationship with Audra. You know -- on account of how he ran away while an anti-abortion activist held her at crossbow-point. "When it came time for me to stand up and be a man," he says, "I abandoned my lady." Chivalry is not his strong suit.
Nor is tact: When Nancy explains that she doesn’t have time to tend to Andy's relationship problems because her kid killed someone, Andy replies with, “Oooh, who did Shane kill?” How did he know it was Shane? Then again, we always knew he was a little off, what with the whole getting-off-to-naked-pictures-of-his-mom thing and shooting-his-teacher's-pet-bird thing.
Thankfully, Nancy does find the time to take Audra's captor out with a vase -- like son, like mother! -- before convincing Andy to join the other Botwins on the lam. That means that Audra is abandoned once again, as Andy follows his not-so-secret love for Nancy to a new city.
As the Botwins peel out of town, we see Nancy rolling down the window to throw Shane's weapon of choice out of the car, like so much trash. If only it were so easy to move on -- as we all know, the baggage that the Botwins carry to their new home will include more than just what they've stuffed into the van.
Show creator Jenji Kohan reportedly wanted to end the episode with the family van hitting a deer, but the road kill ending was ditched for the disturbed blank stare of Shane as Nancy adjusts her rear view mirror. She should know by now that when you're on the run, you should never look back.
Where will the Botwins end up?
Watch the season premiere of Weeds Season 6, aptly titled "Thwack", in the Showcase Video Centre.