As eight seasons of “Weeds” come to a close, one lingering question regarding pot-selling mom Nancy Botwin remains: Is she an indomitable provider for her family or the worst mother ever?
“I never want to resolve that,” series creator Jenji Kohan says. “I mean, one of the main premises of ‘Weeds’ is this gray area, that no one is black and white, that no one’s the worst mother or the greatest mother, that everyone is a mess to a certain extent and you’re not defined by how you’re behaving on one specific day.”
The woman who brought Nancy to life, actress Mary-Louise Parker, believes that realistic dichotomy — illegal endeavors aside, perhaps — is what has made the character so endearing.
“She’s guileless,” Parker says. “She just continues to make the wrong choices. Her heart’s usually in the right place, and she just can’t be defeated, and she keeps trying. When I distill her into one thing, that’s what I think about … and what I like about her.”
As for how Nancy’s story ends, neither woman will reveal details. But Parker says she cried when she read the final script.
“[Kohan] didn’t make it a total happily-ever-after thing — but there was hope in it, and there was some sort of benediction,” Parker says of the series closer. “I think the finale is beautifully written,” she adds, “and I hope it lives up to what she wrote. I mean that, really.”
