(S04E13) The final shocking revelation of the season–which wasn’t so shocking, if you heard the rumors–made me want to write off the Weeds season finale as unimaginative. To offer up such a commonplace TV twist, and to do it in the last moments of the episode, was definitely not original.

As season finales go, this episode wasn’t legendary (I’ll never regard that word the same way again, thanks to Doug). However, there were a few scenes that gave us the Weeds we’ve always loved, and I’d like to believe that the show’s distinct, dark humor will have a stronger presence next season.

Let’s start with the major plot twist: Nancy is pregnant. The sonogram came down from on high and saved her life. I’ll admit that I’ve been in denial about this twist since I read the spoilers for the finale. An unexpected pregnancy isn’t the sort of thing that Weeds usually does, and it doesn’t really compare to the destruction of Agrestic last season. There is one positive thing about the pregnancy, though. Nancy and Esteban are still going to be a part of each other’s lives. Hopefully the writers will give the relationship more of a chance to develop. Demian Bichir was a great addition to the cast, and Nancy needs a man in her life. That said, I won’t blame those of you that want to cry foul in the comments.

Celia spent most of the season as a bizarre kind of comic relief, yet somehow ended up in the greatest danger going into the hiatus. The idea that anyone would pay $200,000 for Celia after her parade of insincere apologies is laughable. Does Celia’s fate strike anyone else as supremely unfair? Nancy takes serious risks and breaks the law, and Celia is the one that ends up in jail, injured, and now abducted. Are the writers punishing Celia merely to demonstrate that there are, in fact, consequences in the Weeds universe? I’m certainly not regarding Celia as an innocent victim, but things are definitely off-balance. Both women are below-average parents, and Celia is the only one getting drugged and held for ransom. Silas and Shane love Nancy in spite of her actions.

Things may be taking a turn in the Botwin family, though. Shane is quickly becoming a thief, a drug dealer, and a little jerk. I never thought that I’d respect Silas and dislike Shane after this season was over, but here we are. I’m relieved that someone is learning from Nancy’s mistakes. Silas has the right idea: keep it simple. Grow weed, sell it, and live modestly off the profits. The small farm is the show’s most promising storyline, and I hope the writers do something fantastic with it. Will Nancy join Andy, Silas, and Shane on the farm, or will she be with Esteban? Will Andy summon the courage to deal with his feelings for Nancy? Their candid conversation during Nancy’s bath may be the closest that Andy gets to intimacy with his former sister-in-law.

My favorite moment of the episode came from Doug. The autoerotic asphyxiation scene was not only a hilarious surprise, but was also a clever parody of The Shawshank Redemption (see the video for yourself). I’m curious to see what happens to Doug in season five. I love Kevin Nealon, but this was a perfect way to say goodbye to his character. I wouldn’t mind if this was it for Doug Wilson, although I doubt that he’s leaving the Botwins anytime soon. Why couldn’t the episode have ended with that scene, instead of with the pregnancy twist? Even the tense, tearful scene in the Prius (didn’t that just break your heart?) would have been a better ending.

All in all, the finale gave me just enough hope and humor to hold my interest. Mary-Louise Parker continues to deliver amazing performances as Nancy Botwin. If not for her, the show would have lost me.

Check out this clip entitled “Wanna Get High” from the upcoming episode of Weeds: “Till We Meet Again.” In this clip Shane impresses his girlfriends with his drug scoring abilities.

About Season 4 Episode 12:
Embracing rehab, Celia sets out to make amends with her family. Andy succumbs to Maria’s advances, and later comes clean to Doug.

Download Till We Meet Again here

Hunter Parrish, who was raised in the conservative Texas town of Plano, has played a pot dealer on TV and now has sex on stage. Well, not quite: It’s simulated.

But the scene is one of the most talked about in the Tony Award-winning rock musical “Spring Awakening.”

“It’s weird to, like, fake sex and put your parts up against someone else’s,” the 21-year-old actor says. “But I figured, ‘You know what? I’m going to be naked every night in New York, I might as well get used to it.’”

His role in “Spring Awakening” certainly isn’t the first time Parrish has bared his bottom. In the acclaimed Showtime series “Weeds,” Parrish not only deals drugs and smokes, but also steals and drops trou as Mary-Louise Parker’s oldest son. In real life, though, he’s never inhaled.

“I know that if I ever smoked pot I would probably become, like, a total pothead because I think I would like that,” he says. “I have, like, a chill personality, so that’s why I’m never going to start, because I don’t like to be dependent on anything. I don’t even drink coffee.”

Never say never — to coffee, at least. Taking the stage eight days a week might wear him down. He could find himself addicted to a good French roast, like any other sleep-deprived Broadway actor in need of a caffeine fix.

Parrish stifles a yawn during an interview with The Associated Press at a tapas restaurant in downtown Manhattan. It comes out of nowhere, though, since the rest of the time he’s a verbal dynamo, leaping animatedly into such eclectic topics as his celebrity crush (actress Amanda Seyfried), aversion to organized religion (he says it’s too hypocritical) and decision to wear a black rocker T-shirt instead of a “pretty-boy sweater” to lunch.

The night before, he had officially stepped into his role as rebellious schoolboy Melchior Gabor in “Spring Awakening,” an adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s classic German drama about sexually repressed teens.

It’s a career-defining move for Parrish, a loving son and liberal Christian, who has a surprisingly potent set of pipes. Again, he’s playing against his wholesome upbringing.

In a recent episode of “Weeds,” now in its fourth season, Parrish stripped down for a graphic sex scene with actress Julie Bowen. It can be viewed on YouTube (warning: not suitable for work), and further separates him from the Zac Efrons of the world whose handlers veto material that could possibly alienate the parents of the core tween audience.

Parrish and Efron, the 20-year-old “High School Musical” heartthrob, co-star in the upcoming comedy “Seventeen Again,” about a middle-age guy who wishes he were 17 again. Parrish, whose film credits include “Freedom Writers,” “RV” and “Premonition,” might have landed Efron’s role in the hugely successful “HSM” franchise, but he skipped his final audition to do a movie instead.

“I would have a very different career right now, and I’m happy where I’m at,” he says, grinning widely.

What Parrish is likely too diplomatic to acknowledge is that he has more creative freedom than his Disney Channel peers, and unlike Efron, Miley Cyrus (“Hannah Montana”) and the Jonas Brothers (who toured with Cyrus), he has no squeaky-clean, multimillion-dollar image to maintain.

Parrish possesses undeniable stage presence, and his angelic features — turquoise-colored eyes, high cheekbones, shaggy blond hair, choirboy smile — pop under bright lights. His singing voice is a rich tenor, gliding easily into falsetto in the ballad “Left Behind.”

Producers sneaked him on stage — unofficially — several days ahead of his debut, however, and Parrish was more than a little nervous.

“I was petrified! It was petrifying,” he says, but by the second performance, he adds, “I was like, ‘All right man, I’m ready!’ I was eager. That was great, because I just sort of was fueled, you know?”

Parrish says Parker, his TV mom, sat in the audience Aug. 18 and ended up in tears.

“She came up to my dressing room and she was crying and she was like, ‘I’m so proud of you. I can’t believe that you’re doing this. This is Broadway. You belong here,’” he recalls.

It was Parker, a Tony winner in 2001 for the play “Proof,” who persuaded him to do theater during his hiatus from shooting “Weeds.” Parish, who had been in local theater productions in the Dallas area before heading to Hollywood, missed the stage. He flew out to New York last year to talk about a role in the musical “Hairspray.” But in a lucky break, he also connected with “Spring Awakening” while the show was recasting its original Melchior, the multitalented Jonathan Groff.

It was love at first sight for the show’s producer Tom Hulce.

“I don’t get Showtime, so I don’t have any great reference for him, and so when he came in to see us last November, we couldn’t believe that there was this guy who was so charismatic and such a good actor, and then when he opened his mouth and sang for us, all the little hairs on our arms stood up,” Hulce gushes. “I feel like we just had a very fortuitous moment … just the right person, the right time, the right part.”

Parrish’s run extends at least through February. He leads an ensemble cast that includes Alexandra Socha (as sweet, curious Wendla) and Gerard Canonico (as the tormented Moritz).

“He has a very empathetic spirit, and it allows him to climb into the character from the inside-out, and in a kind of complete and authentic way. … He’s so big-hearted as a person that he can stand at the center of the story and the audience wants to climb in with him. And that’s such a gift,” Hulce says.

Parrish began singing in church as a boy, and is now working on his debut album, which he describes as fitting into the “rock-acoustic-chill-coffeehouse” genre.

But he geeks out over portraying Melchior, a freethinking atheist who rebels against the buttoned-up society of provincial 1890s Germany.

“I feel like we would be good friends,” says Parrish, who relates to Melchior’s strong moral center and progressive-minded parents, if not the character’s atheism.

He says he loved growing up in Plano, “but they definitely put you in a box, and my parents were very lenient and very open-minded and let me explore for myself what I felt was right and wrong. And they raised all their kids that way, and none of us have problems with alcohol or drugs.”

Parrish has an older brother and sister, both in their 20s, and the siblings are “all very centered, grounded people,” he says.

But you wouldn’t be able to tell that by Parrish’s portrayal on “Weeds” of Silas Botwin, who insinuates himself into his mother’s suburban drug operation.

“Silas is totally opposite of me, and also not as smart as Melchior,” Parrish says. “So Silas is like the stupid version of not being me, and Melchior is like the smart, intellectual version of not being me. … But I like doing that. I like being able to play roles that are totally different from me.”

And Parrish hopes to be acting for the rest of his life: “I like people and I like characters and I like jumping out of myself.”