Nancy Botwin transitioned from being a widowed, suburban housewife to a drug dealer and eventually a drug trafficker. Weeds has long been off the air but the exploits of Nancy will always live on fondly to fans of the show. That being said, even the fans can admit when Nancy has scored herself a win and when she has completely screwed herself, her children, and anyone else who chooses to associate with her. We can all agree that starting a business with no capital is basically impossible but Nancy did it! Let’s take a look at some of the ups and downs she had to go through in order to keep her business thriving.
Kept Getting Married
By the end of the series, Nancy had so many last names it was embarrassing. Nancy Price Botwin-Scottson-Reyes-Bloom was her full name but most people called her the black widow seeing as every one of her husbands had died in some kind of freak accident (Andy really dodged a bullet). Nancy could have just dated, had sex with, and even had kids with these men, but marrying them? Bad decision.
They all ended up holding her down in some way or threatening her kids somehow. Getting married is a big decision and it’s an even bigger problem when you have to get a divorce. It was unrealistic on her part to think every marriage would save her from her current situation.
Open Legal Dispensary
After that time jump in season eight, Nancy has finally gone straight. She opened a bunch of legal dispensaries that made her, Silas, and even Andy a bunch of money. Shane got nothing because he went into law enforcement and stayed away from his mom’s shenanigans (for the most part). Nancy still has a lot of life to live so she made a great decision. No more running, no more watching her back. She is now a grandmother so hopefully, she does better at that than she did as a mom.
Sold Silas To Heylia
After Nancy gets out of prison in season seven, she is determined to get back into the drug game. Only, she is lacking distributors. She heads back to Agrestic (now named Majestic since it got burned down) and she meets up with Heylia asking for the drug on consignment.
Heylia knows Nancy can’t be trusted so logically, Nancy leaves her firstborn son Silas as collateral. He is forced to work as an indentured slave until Nancy comes back with Heylia’s money or weed.
Got Pregnant
In season 5, Nancy who is about to be shot dead by Guillermo and Esteban, announces she is pregnant. Fans of the show breathe a sigh of relief knowing we wouldn’t have to go on without the show's hero. This was one of the smartest decisions Nancy made on the show. Whether it as intentional or not, Nancy saved her lie and the life of her kids (born and unborn) by getting knocked up. Estaban could have still had her killed, but he was equally a family man as he was a corrupt man. She managed to pull herself out of the crap as per usual.
Basically Encouraged People To Kill
In Season three we see Nancy working as a drug mule for LA-based dealer, U-Turn. Obviously being the independent woman she is, Nancy doesn’t want to work for anyone. She also sees how poorly he run his business and knows she can do better.
Over the seasons she put bugs in the ear of Marvin who is U-Turn’s, right-hand man. She points out that he is just an errand boy, she makes him question why U-Turn can be the boss but he can’t. During a jog, U-Turn has a heart attack and while incapacitated, Marvin chokes him with his own arms. This death benefits Nancy because she is no longer forced to work for U-Turn. However, it just carries bad juju. Who antagonizes someone so much that they kill someone else?
Burned Down Agrestic
Let’s be honest, from a plot point we should really be thanking Jenji Kohan and the rest of the writers on the show. Knowing that they could not stay in the suburbs forever, they made the decision to get rid of Agrestic. Now, they could have simply up and moved, but instead, Nancy wanted to blaze a fire trail behind her on that darn adult scooter. She knows Guillermo is going to burn down her town and warns nobody, packs up her kids, and takes off. Essentially she had bigger cities to screw over like Tijuana and Ren Mar.
Kept Silas Down
Nancy loved to pretend she was a loving, caring mother. This was proven to be in question time and time again. She was also a bit of a hypocrite because she constantly held Silas down. She wanted Silas to make all these grownup decisions when he was only a teenager, and she involved him in her pot selling business before he was of legal age to do anything.
Yet, when Silas came to her and wanted to really be in business with her (for her) she shunned him. Call us crazy, but this could have been the best partner for her. Silas had great ideas and has a level of loyalty to his mom that no kid brought up the way he was should have.
Always Hooked Up Strategically
There is a debate between fans of the show where some believe Nancy was overly promiscuous for sleeping with so many men, while other people feel as though she was just an empowered woman. Nancy was a woman who loved making love. She never shied away from sex and she knew she could use it to her advantage. She strategically chose the people who she slept with because they could offer something that would undoubtedly help her in the near future. When it came to the DEA agent, Peter, she didn’t love him but he was investigating her and didn’t even know her secret. Esteban? She needed his tunnel. Conrad? She had no money to buy her weed so she needed some on consignment.
Thinking She Was Going To Get Her Kids Back
When Nancy got out of jail she, for some reason, assumed it would easy as pie to pop back into life. She must have forgotten she was a convict. She decided that she wanted her kids back, mainly Steven Ray from her third marriage to a Mexican drug cartel and wannabe politician, Esteban Reyes. Steven was at that point in the custody of her jealous sister Jill who did everything she possibly could to keep Stevie. Nancy eventually gets Stevie back, but only after a long battle with her sister.
Starting A Pot Business
Nancy may have done some messed up things over the years but let us not forget that actually starting a pot business was a great idea. It afforded the lifestyle her husband was providing and then some. She was initially very smart about it. She kept it small and made sure that she was so local that she wouldn’t even be on the cop’s radar. She got into the game in a smart way before it became legalized. At the end of the day, it did for her what she wanted, which was a lot of money.