Weeds season 4
| Weeds | |
|---|---|
| Season 4 | |
 DVD cover | |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Release | |
| Original network | Showtime |
| Original release | June 16 – September 15, 2008 |
| Season chronology | |
On November 5, 2007, Showtime ordered 13 new episodes for a fourth season of Weeds.[1] It started on Monday, June 16, 2008 and concluded on Monday, September 15, 2008.[2]
The season opener "Mother Thinks the Birds are After Her"[3] was the last episode with "Little Boxes" as the theme song until Season Eight. The opening credits of subsequent episodes, after a recap of previous episodes, begin with a video title card unique to each episode. For the second episode of the season, for example, a highway sign reads "Weeds – Created by Jenji Kohan" — the embedded text used for all title cards since the show's inception. Each title card also has a prop or part of the setting that refers to a plot element in the episode. Some part of the title card morphs into a cannabis leaf. In the highway sign example, a downward arrow designating a lane becomes a slightly larger leaf.
Silas and Shane are aged 17 and 13 respectively. However, Silas turns 18 at the end of the season.
Plot
Having lost both her Agrestic grow house and her residence in fires, Nancy relocates her family to the fictional California town of Ren Mar, near the Tijuana-San Diego border.[4] They move in with Andy and Judah's grandmother in Ren Mar. Guillermo hires Nancy to bring illegal drugs from Mexico.
Celia is in jail due to being the official lessee of Nancy's grow house. She bargains to spy on Nancy for the DEA in exchange for her release. Guillermo's men catch Celia spying, but Nancy convinces them to spare Celia's life by claiming she was her partner. Andy enters a coyote partnership with Doug, who has recently moved to Ren Mar to evade questions about Agrestic's finances. Isabelle is unenthusiastic about moving in with her father in Detroit, and she pesters Celia to let her stay in Ren Mar. Silas sets up a grow room in the rear of a gourmet cheese shop owned by a neighbor, Lisa (Julie Bowen), an attractive woman in her thirties. Despite knowing that Silas is under 18, Lisa becomes intimate with him, but reveals to Silas that her interests in him are just financial and physical. Heartbroken, Silas spurns her advances and ends their business relationship after her ex-husband catches them in the act. Shane attacks the most popular boy at school without provocation in order to acquire a fearsome reputation. He also attracts the admiring attention of two classmates, Simone and Harmony, with whom he loses his virginity in a threesome. Simone and Harmony later help Shane sell weed at the school.
Guillermo's boss, whose identity is unknown to Nancy, has her open a maternity store. Nancy believes it is solely for money laundering until she finds a tunnel entrance in the back room. Though she is initially told it is for transporting marijuana, Nancy later learns that the tunnel is also used to transport other things, including guns and women. Disturbed, Nancy informs DEA Captain Roy Till, even though she has begun a sexual relationship with Guillermo's crime boss, who is revealed as Esteban Reyes (Demián Bichir), the mayor of Tijuana. The resulting DEA raid and shootout ends with most of the Mexican drug runners arrested.
While working at Nancy's store, Celia begins abusing the readily-available drugs. Isabelle and Dean stage an intervention, which spurs Celia to enter rehab and make amends to her family. Dean insists that Celia locate and make amends with their oldest daughter, Quinn, who departed during the show's inaugural episode for a Mexican boarding school named Casa Reforma. Newly graduated, Quinn and her boyfriend, Rodolfo, drug Celia and hold her hostage in order to extract a $200,000 ransom. Meanwhile, Doug falls for an undocumented woman he names "Mermex", after witnessing her unsuccessful attempt to enter the United States via the ocean. Doug is able to locate Mermex and uses his coyote enterprise to get her into California. Though he expects her to be grateful, Mermex is repelled by Doug and instead falls in love with Andy. Scorned, Doug turns Mermex in to immigration. Realizing that poverty effectively prevents him from having to pay any judgments, Doug writes to his estranged wife, daring her to take him to court. In a scene paying homage to The Shawshank Redemption, Doug appears to prepare to hang himself, but instead, he masturbates using auto-erotic asphyxiation.
Esteban intends to have Nancy killed for her part in the DEA raid. On Silas' birthday, Nancy drives to Mexico to meet Esteban; she orders a last-minute birthday present for Silas with an emotional birthday message on it. In an attempt to save her life, Nancy hands Esteban an ultrasound and reveals that she is pregnant with his child.
Cast
Main cast
- Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin
- Elizabeth Perkins as Celia Hodes
- Hunter Parrish as Silas Botwin
- Alexander Gould as Shane Botwin
- Allie Grant as Isabelle Hodes
- Justin Kirk as Andy Botwin
- Kevin Nealon as Doug Wilson
Special guest stars
- Guillermo Díaz as Guillermo García Gómez
- Demián Bichir as Esteban Reyes
Departures
Romany Malco, Tonye Patano, and Indigo do not return, with their characters' whereabouts unknown after the fire in Majestic. Patano returns as Heylia for a four-episode arc in season seven, and Malco returns as Conrad for one episode in season eight.
Recurring cast
- Albert Brooks as Lenny Botwin
- Julie Bowen as Lisa Ferris
- Andy Milder as Dean Hodes
- Jillian Rose Reed as Simone
- Hannah Marks as Harmony
- Maulik Pancholy as Sanjay Patel
- Renée Victor as Lupita
- Fatso-Fasano as Marvin
- Joey Luthman as Rad Ferris
- Haley Hudson as Quinn Hodes
- Becky Thyre as Pam Gruber
- Julanne Chidi Hill as Clinique
- Hemky Madera as Ignacio Morero, Jr.
- Jack Stehlin as Captain Roy Till
- Anthony Ledesma as Bodyguard
- Ramón Franco as Dirty Man
- Paul Alayo as Chewie
- Kevin Alejandro as Rudolpho
- Gloria Garayua as Reyna
- Alejandro Patino as Alphonso
- Emilio Rivera as El Coyote
- Andrew Rothenberg as DEA Agent Shlatter
- Onahoua Rodriguez as Mermex
- Richard Azurdia as Davenport
- Lisa Darr as Ann Carilli
- Lee Majors as Minute-Man Leader
- Rigo Sanchez as Mexican Mechanic
- Jo Farkas as Bubbie
- Jessica Chaffin as Cracklynn
- John Lafayette as Downtown Rehab Counselor
- J. Anthony Pena as Guillermo's Henchman
- Greg Pitts as Billy Boesky
- Ivo Nandi as Claudio
- Mario Revolori as Dweeb
- Manuel Urrego as Luis
Episodes
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Intertitle | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38 | 1 | "Mother Thinks the Birds Are After Her" | Craig Zisk | Jenji Kohan | Video of Majestic burning | June 16, 2008 | 1.35[5] |
| 39 | 2 | "Lady's a Charm" | Craig Zisk | Victoria Morrow | Mexican border checkpoint | June 23, 2008 | 1.10[5] |
| 40 | 3 | "The Whole Blah Damn Thing" | David Steinberg | Ron Fitzgerald | Medical monitor | June 30, 2008 | 0.86[5] |
| 41 | 4 | "The Three Coolers" | Paris Barclay | Roberto Benabib | Shiva candle | July 7, 2008 | 1.06[5] |
| 42 | 5 | "No Man is Pudding" | Craig Zisk | Rolin Jones | Pudding containers | July 14, 2008 | 1.00[5] |
| 43 | 6 | "Excellent Treasures" | Julie Anne Robinson | Jenji Kohan | Flip-flop impression on the sand | July 21, 2008 | 1.03[5] |
| 44 | 7 | "Yes I Can" | Scott Ellis | Matthew Salsberg | Package of prescription pills | July 28, 2008 | 0.77[5] |
| 45 | 8 | "I Am the Table" | Adam Bernstein | David Holstein & Brendan Kelly | Immigration sign | August 4, 2008 | 0.94[5] |
| 46 | 9 | "Little Boats" | Craig Zisk | Ron Fitzgerald | Mexican hero portraits | August 11, 2008 | 0.85[5] |
| 47 | 10 | "The Love Circle Overlap" | Julie Anne Robinson | Victoria Morrow | Condom in wrapper | August 18, 2008 | 0.88[5] |
| 48 | 11 | "Head Cheese" | Craig Zisk | Roberto Benabib & Rolin Jones & Matthew Salsberg | Neck and chest tattoos | August 25, 2008 | 0.82[5] |
| 49 | 12 | "Till We Meet Again" | Michael Trim | Roberto Benabib & Rolin Jones & Matthew Salsberg | Electric power-sander | September 8, 2008 | 0.93[5] |
| 50 | 13 | "If You Work for a Living, Then Why Do You Kill Yourself Working?" | Craig Zisk | Jenji Kohan | Gift basket | September 15, 2008 | 1.01[5] |
References
- ^ Kimberly, Nordyke (November 24, 2007). "Showtime Deals 'Weeds' a Fourth Green Light". Archived from the original on July 6, 2008. Retrieved February 26, 2008.
- ^ "Showtime Cultivates 'Weeds' in June – Fourth season paired with 'Secret Diary of a Call Girl'". Zap2it.com. February 13, 2008. Retrieved June 3, 2009.
- ^ "Showtime – Weeds Episodes". Archived from the original on June 18, 2008. Retrieved September 20, 2008.
- ^ "Ausiello Scoop: Albert Brooks Joins Weeds - Ausiello Report | TVGuide.com". Community.tvguide.com. April 14, 2008. Archived from the original on June 11, 2009. Retrieved June 3, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Berman, Marc (March 2, 2010). "Weeds Ratings". Mediaweek. Archived from the original on April 18, 2010. Retrieved July 7, 2015.