"Weeds" finale recaplet: "If You Work for a Living, Then Why Do You Kill Yourself Working?"

Hunter Parrish

Weeds continued bringing rich rewards for gay viewers in this week’s knock-out Season Four finale. For one thing, it took the occasion of Nancy’s eldest son Silas becoming of legal age to offer up a totally gratuitous shot of the backdoor variety, showing off Hunter “Look at Me, I’ve Been Working Out With a Personal Trainer!” Parrish in all his bare-assed, muscle-toned glory.

(BTW, Parrish just joined the cast of Broadway’s Spring Awakening and received a glowing review in the New York Times, which, if I’m reading it correctly, can be summed up: “He can’t really sing, but he sure is pretty.”)

As if that weren’t enough, the big gay pay-off of last week continued yielding gratifying storyline developments, as formerly barely-there FBI Agent Till continued to be very much there and a central part of the mounting action.

For all the details and to discuss the episode, click on through the jump...

As they’d secretly agreed, Till (Jack Stehlin) arrested Nancy (Mary Louise-Parker) as a means of allaying suspicions that she’d turned informant. But in the midst of his just-for-show interrogation, he received news of the gruesome fate that befell his often silent partner, Agent Shlatter.

Throwing Nancy’s lawyer from the room, a clearly enraged and distraught Till informed Nancy that his partner had been found strung up from the border fence without his face. He demanded she tell him who the “animal” was calling the shots. Likely fearing for her own life, she clammed up, leading him to swear he’d find and kill the drug kingpin, and anyone else who got in the way, including Nancy.

This was a powerful, emotional scene, particularly when Till capped it off by saying, “He was my partner,” his voice breaking on the word “partner,” making it crystal clear for Nancy just what Shlatter meant to him – and how much trouble she was in.

But Nancy refused to give up the name of her drug lord boyfriend Esteban, and instead answered his call to drive south of the border to meet him. This led to a tour-de-force of a scene that showed off Parker’s acting chops, as she phoned in a birthday gift order for Silas and struggled to compose the appropriate birthday card/possible suicide note to go with it.

Nancy: Dear Silas. If you never see me again, I’ve probably been murdered. Enjoy the dried apricots and butter cookies.

Esteban (Demian Bichir) confronted Nancy with evidence of her betrayal, in the form of an incriminating photo of her with Agent Till. But Nancy had a little ace up her sleeve. In the form of a bun in the oven. “It’s too early to tell,” she smiled at Esteban. “But I think it’s a boy.”

And just like that, Season 4 came to a sudden, rather surprising close. (Somewhere an enterprising grad student majoring in television studies is writing a paper about the significance of this season’s abundant maternity imagery, from the Maternity World shop with its birth canal-like back tunnel to that final ultrasound image.)

I was certain that Agent Till was going to show up in this final scene, guns blazing to avenge Shlatter’s death ... and promptly be gunned down himself. So I’m absolutely thrilled to see the season close out with him alive and kicking, and clearly primed for more of a role next year.

What a terrific actor Jack Stehlin is showing himself to be with this part. (Fun fact! He was in several episodes of Buffy season four, a.k.a. “The College Year,” as one of the evil scientists working for the initiative.) And I like how, in a season that problematically found most of the core characters becoming increasingly unfocused and unlikable, Till only got more interesting as he became more defined. He’s now one of a rare breed on TV, a non-stereotypical gay man who’s tough-as-nails and clearly one of the good guys.

Overall, I thought this was a mixed dimebag of a season. I missed Agrestic and the social comedy and suburban satire it provided. Instead, we got a season riddled with peculiar tonal shifts, often dark and depressing, then jarringly comic but never as funny as in previous seasons. And yet, it had its moments, from Albert Brooks’ memorable guest stint at the start, and culminating with the tightened plotting of the final two episodes which, in the end, let season four go out on a satisfying, um, high.

So what did you think of the finale? Of the season overall? Will you keep watching next year? And what do you think might happen to Agent Till? I’m hoping for a secret hook-up with Sanjay in witness protection, or any excuse, really, to bring back the wonderful Maulik Pancholy.