Weeds: Mamma Mia!!

Oedipus has got nothing on the Botwins. Sure, we all love our pot-dealing, smoking hot Mama, Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker) – let’s face it, fabulous is pretty much MLP’s default setting. But in Monday night’s episode of Showtime’s Weeds, MLP’s sons, Silas and Shane, were loving Mommy just a little too much

Kick-starting the episode’s troubling mommy issues, Andy discovers that Shane has been um … relieving some stress with the aid of some naked pictures of a young Nancy. Andy is so uncomfortable that he’s unable to speak to Shane about it, which leaves Nancy to deal with her mother-loving son, but not until after she shreds and flushes the offending pictures.   

Speaking of mother-loving, Nancy goes to investigate where Silas has moved his pot harvesting operation and discovers that Silas has been doing some mother-loving of his own. Her 17-year old has been having some good times with MILF Lisa and, boy, does Nancy have a few choice words for the teenager-boffing, cheese shop owner 

Determined to deal with her son’s “quirky” sex lives, Nancy sits them down and awkwardly bumbles through a speech advising her sons that, while normal, it’s not good to like Mommy (or a Mommy substitute) in that way. For fans of the show, this scene, while deliciously awkward, was also Nancy-rific. It’s been a while since Nancy’s acted like an actual mother. She’s been off burning down her family home, smuggling drugs across the border, and having savage sexual encounters with her Tijuana mayor Esteban. What she hasn’t been doing, is paying any attention to her kids, which were once so central to her character’s motivations in past seasons. But here she was, good old Nancy, wine glass in hand, mothering her boys with an honest and sweet – albeit super discomforting – lecture.

Silas, in his typical fashion, responds to Nancy’s candor by storming off back to his girlfriend, Lisa. After selling a few pot sandwiches, Silas revels in their little operation’s success and suggests that once he’s 18 the pair move in together. Lisa responds like any cradle-robber would and sends the boy back to his mother, requesting some space. Meanwhile Shane heads back to high school, where he’s become the school’s latest bad boy/psycho. Naturally, some chicks with some serious make-up and Shane’s name written across their abdomens, ask if he likes to party. Yeah, Shane likes to party. It looks like Shane won’t need pictures to, um, de-stress any more

However, while Shane and Silas were doing some mommy-loving all episode, mother Nancy was getting none at all. Esteban canceled on three dates, including a sailing excursion. Then Nancy canceled an outing in order to take care of a “sick child,” which was actually a coke-addicted, blood-spewing Celia. But after a long day, Esteban finally did show up, with a sailboat-casting lantern in tow and Nancy got some much needed loving in the form of a cuddle. It’s nice to know Nancy Botwin can do something normal for once – except that her boyfriend’s also a drug lord and Mexican mayor, and there are guards keeping watch outside. So close. Maybe next week.

Mondays 10pm EST, Showtime