Episode Report Card Joe R: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Cankles
By Joe R | Season 3 | Episode 11 | Aired on 10.21.2007
Botwins'. Shane is once again trying to show his mom something and Nancy once again wants no part of it. But this time it's serious, as Shane's looking at the video feed from earlier and notes Haskel, Val's P.I., in a pool-cleaning van, checking them out twice in one day. Then he directs her to footage of the same guy, now dressed up like a land surveyor, spying on them right now. Shane looks super scared that the police are staking them out. Nancy's feeling brave, though, so she strides out across the street and confronts the fake surveyor, who pulls out his P.I. card. "What do you want from me?" Nancy asks, mentally calculating how long it would take her to drag him behind the house, sex the hell out of him, and send him on his way, her problems thus having been solved in the manner to which she's become accustomed. Haskel beckons her down the road a bit (uh...why? They're no more secluded ten paces to their left, but whatever) and essentially tells her of his intention to shake her down now that he's got her dead-to-rights on marijuana trafficking. He wants $50,000. Nancy keeps trying to negotiate it down, but he's not budging. He writes down an address where he wants her to meet him, with the money, tomorrow morning. She says she can't come up with 50 grand that quick; yes, she's a drug dealer, but she's got expenses. "Consider this one of 'em," Haskel says.
Celia's at home, drunk and looking at the piles of bills that have, as she slurrily tells Dean and Isabelle, made them poor. Dean sends Isabelle off to Shane's house so she doesn't have to witness the soul-scarring horror that is her parents actually interacting with each other. As Isabelle leaves, Celia scoffs that she's going to "bring Shane's house to the ground before I'm done." She then turns her attention to Dean and asks him about "Aguatecture." So I guess this week Dean is conveniently back in on the grow-op because it suits story purposes. Whatever. Celia threatens him with bodily harm but he won't tell her anything. She finally tips his chair over and steps on his balls until he finally screams that he'll tell her whatever she wants to know. Pussy.
The next morning, Nancy meets Haskel at the rendezvous point behind a store somewhere. She's got a bag of money for him, but she asks what's to ensure that he won't use the same information to blackmail her for more money later, since that is what he's doing. He's blackmailing her. He's threatening to destroy her life unless she gives him money. Haskel's like, "Yeah, so?" Okay, Haskel, since I'm already a mile ahead of you, here's some advice: when the lady you're shaking down starts speaking in loud, painstakingly enunciated declarative sentences like this, it means she's wearing a wire. And indeed, Nancy is wearing a wire that Shane helped her pick out yesterday. So now she's got Haskel by the balls just like he's got her, and since blackmail is a felony too, this mutually assured destruction gives them both incentive to leave the other alone. And yet, weirdly enough, Nancy gives him the blackmail money anyway. Why? My suspicion is that it's so she can have the scene we're about to see...