God loves pot, says 'Weeds'
In retrospect, maybe U-Turn shouldn't have laughed at Marvin for going to see Dreamgirls.
[The following contains spoilers for Monday (Sept. 17) night's episode of Weeds. You've been warned.]
We'll talk more about the shocking turn of events regarding U-Turn and his comic foil in a bit. First, there's the more important business of Monday's episode, namely the introduction of Mary-Kate Olsen as a twin-free acting force.
Given that we've all watched Olsen since she was practically a zygote, it remains funny just how tiny she is. The general media tendency has always been to compare the Olsen Twins to troll dolls, but swimming in a t-shirt that might have come from the infant section at Baby Gap and barely coming up to co-star Hunter Parrish's waist, Mary-Kate looked more like a Monchichi, a pot-smoking, Jesus-praising, afro-free Monchichi. Or maybe I just like saying "Monchichi."
The writers have devised of Olsen's Tara as a pint-sized bundle of superficially ironic contradictions. She's ultra-Christian, but she's got just the sort of naughty, potentially hypocritical side the show loves.
"Pot is natural. It's not processed," Tara said. "It's made by God itself, so it's spiritual. It elevates you, opens your mind and that's what God's love is all about."
She also swore never to have smoked a regular cigarette or to have imbibed alcohol other than Jesus' favorite self-produced libation, wine. And although she insisted her virginity was for her husband alone, she was quick to appreciate Silas' erection and to straddle him (with impressive flexibility).
Tara: "Smoke me out and I'll tell you about my friend."
Silas: "Jesus?"
Tara: "Yeah, that's the one."
You know what? Olsen wasn't bad at all. I have to admit that my exposure to her is limited to fleeting glimpses of Full House when her talents were more nascent, but she read her lines with the necessary glint in her eye and since Tara is more of a writers' construct than an actual human, it's doubtful that much more was required. Since this is the start of a 10-episode run for Olsen, we'll see if she can steer the character into a believable realm.
But enough about Mary-Kate.
Was it just me or did this week represent a bit of a, um, u-turn for U-Turn and Marvin? In the context of the episode, I guess it made a bit of sense of Marvin to decide to snuff out his boss. U-Turn had seemingly decided to craft Nancy into his first lieutenant -- sparring with her, using her to help with his weight-lifting, teaching her intimidation tactics (in a brilliant semi-reunion with Conrad). So when U-Turn abruptly suffered an attack of some sort during a mountain run, I wasn't shocked when Marvin sent Nancy away and made things mighty uncomfortable.
"This is for saying I was too stupid to be your second-in-command," he said. "And this is for laughing at me for going to Dreamgirls. And this is for never letting me count the money."
Did anybody else think, though, that Marvin's misery and lack of direction at the end was probably heart-felt? I can buy Marvin killing U-Turn out of anger, but not out of ambition. Nothing in the way the character had been written has suggested any desire on Marvin's part to move up the ladder and if the show tries convincing us next week that Marvin wants to be in charge, I won't buy it. All we're going to be left with is a power vacuum at the top and since the only person who seems to know how to move heroin is Andy, maybe he should make his play, though not if it interferes with his new career as a caterer.
Other thoughts on the episode:
That was a mighty generic "Little Boxes" coming from The Shins. Color me disappointed.
What'd you think of the episode? And of Mary-Kate's work?
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worst way to kill u-turn ever. if he were running fast enough to have a heart attack, then how would marvin have been within one mile of him?
He didn't have a heart attack dude. Methinks, He was poisoned by Marvin.
Yea. Those big booty chicks that he was with the night before probably slipped him something that Marvin gave them to poison U-Turn. I like the preview for next week with U-Turn's body sittin up on a couch. I would have really liked to have seen him go out a little bit better, or not at all. He brought a lot of flavor and comedy to the show.
My own opinion (not that it was asked, since I already wrote 1000 words of it above) would be that Marvin wasn't responsible for U-Turn's initial attack, whether it was a heart thing, low blood sugar, whatever. My read was that U-Turn spent the episode already facing his own mortality and trying to clean up his own legacy by creating a clearer chain of command in his syndicate. That fatalism may have just been caused by last week's competing drive-bys, but I still think that U-Turn may have known of some pre-existing medical condition, a condition that caused whatever the attack was.
So Marvin just saw an opportunity and took it without any realizations of what would come next.
That wasn't in a script anywhere, of course, so I'm just reading into it...
-Daniel
i thought mary-louise sucked boxing and didn't believe she was really scared when u-turn through her up against the wall---she's been playing it so casually when really she could have her throat slit at any second.
I would tend to agree with your reading, Daniel...although it's clear that we're both operating under the ***umption that the writers aren't seriously considering turning Marvin into an evil mastermind by doing so.
I agree, I don't buy that idea bit: it's one thing to let him die when he's suffering, but it's entirely another to kill him. His lie to Nancy seemed too planned out, which would point to first degree murder...which I just can't picture.
As for Celia and Doug, I think that they're again continuing under the ***umption that Doug is in love with Celia, and watching her sex up Sullivan (in his mind, anyway) is what is truly enraging him. I'm not entirely sure I buy this (Or the storylines they've given 80% of the supporting cast), but I'm willing to along with the ride.
Is it just me or did MK Olsen just look plain terrible! I think author had it right when he said she looked like a "monchichi". She looks like she weighs 62 pounds and has this big hair do. I almost cringed for Silas when she started to grind on him. Yikes! I hope the writers offer no more that!
I think Marvin mentioned when U-turn became ill that he had high blood pressure. This makes me think he had a stroke and Marvin just took advantage of the situation.
Mary-Kate did a good job with what she had to work with but I can't stand to look at her. She is just creepy.
They pulled a Sopranos move.
Mary Kate didn't look like a Monchichi doll She looks like a troll doll.