Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Wild & Entitled
By Jacob Clifton | Season 6 | Episode 1 | Aired on 08.16.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.So Shane's pretty chill about the fact that he just murdered a lady, but for once his mother seems to get the gravity of the situation. At least until she starts drinking, at which point she pretty much just keeps drinking. It's weird to see Nancy Botwin out of control -- physically, as opposed to like existentially -- but considering the entire universe has turned against her, it's probably best.
Because every single character on the entire show would like Nancy to know what an asshole she is, and how this whole six years of cascading bullshit situations is something she made up out of her own head and that everything she does is just to make more zombies to do her fucked-up bidding. Most notably on this list are the holy trinity of authentic wisdom made up of Silas, NPR and Alanis Morissette (last and most holy of whom delivers a speech I'm sure we'd all have liked to deliver Nancy at some point, beginning with "Bitch! You crazy bitch!" and continuing on from there).
Not on this list: Poor Esteban, who covers up all evidence but will probably send his devoted Cesar to cut off her thumbs, and hapless Andy Botwin, whom she retrieves from his disappointed fiancée under the guise of commandeering the urban assault vehicle he once thought represented all manhood and now is just the bigger boat in which Mama Jaws is driving us all merrily to hell. After saving them from that crossbow-wielding Jesus freak Gale, Nancy blatantly begs Andy to come with; of course he is no match for that, and Audra's nearly happy to see him go.
So it's Silas, Shane, Nancy, baby Stevie Ray and Andy once again a happy little family on the run. But meanwhile, murderous/strangely numb Shane is either 1) Setting himself up for a massive and long-delayed comedown once reality hits, 2) Just as unstoppably crazy as we always thought, or 3) The latest casualty in Nancy's pissing match with God.
Probably all three. Next: Seattle? Lesbians? Hash. Room service. Shane most likely proving -- even with blood on his hands -- he's a better mom than Nancy could ever be. And, here's hoping, a run of twelve episodes at least as awesome as this one.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Poor Pilar never looked so tiny as when floating in a swimming pool surrounded by her blood. Strange Botwin never looked so tiny either, holding a croquet mallet. "Couldn't find a golf club," he grins. While Nancy tries and fails to pull it together and get over the freakout that she was just having -- Pilar threatening her sons' lives, feeling helpless before her because she'd never had to deal with a woman and women are her Kryptonite -- so she can start freaking out about what just happened, Shane continues to dissociate. The music all through this beginning part keeps reminding me of Rosemary's Baby, or like a Kidz Bop version of the Suspiria soundtrack. Somewhere in there, anyway.
"It's cool how the lights change color. I wonder if it's a saltwater pool. It doesn't sting your eyes as much as chlorine. Not that that's her issue..." Nancy wigs and tells him to keep hold of the mallet and closes the pool cover over the body. He waves up at the security camera and she knocks it out with the mallet. She keeps calling it a stick and he keeps correcting her and it's very annoying and it happens throughout the episode, which would be fine except there are, like, ten other recurring conversations that are much funnier, and I'm not sure what the point even is. Nancy grabs him by the face and marches him out to the limo, like, that's what you do when you're Nancy Botwin and your kid kills a lady: Straight into Time Out and no complaining.
Silas whines at them; he's been waiting in the car when he could have been inside at the party, "eating mini-sliders and making small talk with the king of Nicaragua." Silas is accustomed to waiting for Nancy to do whatever bonkers thing she's doing. "Nicaragua is a constitutional democracy," Shane says, while their mother bashes against the driver's window. "I need to get home and feed the baby!" she shrieks, and then grabs a bottle of vodka from the minibar. Like, how out-of-control does shit actually have to be for Nancy Botwin to start drinking?
Silas wonders why she's drinking if she's supposed to be feeding Stevie Ray (Your milk is poison! Be the baby!) and Shane grabs a bottle of his own. "Hey! You're underage. Thankfully!" (Parenting!) Shane complains that he's at least earned a drink to steady his nerves, but Nancy disagrees: In fact, what he is done is go off the deep end. He giggles at the pun and she gets mean-eyed and scared for a second, pointing one claw in her son's face: "No." Nancy won't tell Silas what happened, just drinkin' and cryin' and lookin' pissed off, and Shane's still being strange -- "I pegged out" -- and when Nancy finally admits she doesn't even have the words to explain what's going on, Silas knows they're in deep. I would feel sorry for him except, honestly? He was so shitty until Nancy actively started destroying his life at every opportunity.