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CHARACTER
Nancy "The Black Widow" Botwin Bloom
NancyBotwin
Gender Female
Date of Birth 1965 (In the zodiac is Scorpio)
First Appearance You Can't Miss The Bear
Last Appearance It's Time (Part 2)
Aliases/Nicknames Blanca (nickname given by Guillermo); Nathalie Newman, Lacy LaPlant; Pants (nickname given by Andy)
Occupation Former Drug Dealer
Former Retail Manager
Former P.A.
Former Bakery Owner
Pharmaceutical Sales Representative
Number of episodes 102
Relatives Judah (first husband: widowed)
Peter (second husband: widowed)
Esteban Reyes (third husband: Widowed)
David (Fourth husband: Widowed)
Silas (first-born son)
Shane (second-born son)
Steven Ray Botwin (third-born son)
Jill Price-Gray (sister)
Andy (brother-in-law)
Lenny Botwin (father-in-law)
Flora Botwin (granddaughter)
Portrayed by Mary-Louise Parker

Nancy "The Black Widow" Price Botwin-Scottson-Reyes-Bloom (previously Price, Botwin, Scottson and Reyes), known as Nancy Botwin, is the protagonist in the series; the mother of Silas Botwin, Shane Botwin, and Stevie Botwin-Reyes; and the sister-in-law of Andy Botwin. She met her late husband, Judah, while attending Berkeley; he hired Nancy as a dancer for one of his performance pieces. In season one, the story reveals that the two of them dated for several years before getting married shortly after Judah's graduation with an engineering degree. Nancy herself never graduated, but did study dance for some time. They married in 1988. The two are married for almost 17 years before he suddenly dies of a heart attack while jogging with their younger son Shane. Nancy has stated that she is of Welsh ancestry. She is in her forties and a Scorpio, putting her date of birth in the fall of 1965.

Nancy is left almost penniless by her husband's death so she turns to selling marijuana in order to maintain her affluent lifestyle. Nancy quickly becomes the top dealer for Agrestic, to the dismay of other dealers in the area. She has even slept with rivals in order to maintain her markets, as seen in Season 1. In the pilot, Doug Wilson's son Josh tells her that the other dealers all resent her for the speed with which she established herself as a dealer. Nancy exhibits high levels of swag. When the show opens, she's a fledging but promising name in marijuana distribution.

Character History[]

Far from being the guileless and frightened female in need of protection, Nancy Botwin is unendingly resourceful in saving adult male family and friends, including brother-in-law Andy Botwin, accountant Doug Wilson, and lawyer Dean Hodes, from their own folly.[1]

Nancy was a PTA soccer mom until her husband, Judah, suddenly died of a heart attack. To maintain the upper-middle-class lifestyle to which she was accustomed, Nancy enters the world of pot dealing. At the start, her regular clients include her accountant and fellow suburban friends. However, as she expands, she is confronted with competitors, gangs, drug lords, and blackmail. Eventually, she rises to the highest levels of an international drug-smuggling cartel.

She excitedly jumps on the opportunity to traffic pot across the border at the beginning of season four but is uncomfortable with transporting other drugs like heroin and child-prostitute smuggling. She also has trouble respecting the "chain of command" within the drug cartel and sometimes blatantly violates its rules. However, her insubordination leads to a romance with Esteban Reyes. Her attempt to shut down an underground tunnel almost leads to her death during the season four cliffhanger. Nancy takes a break from dealing in season five while building a relationship with Esteban. However, after fleeing to Seattle, Washington, she starts selling hashish—a concentrated form of pot—as opposed to sustaining a "normal life".


At the beginning of the series, Nancy struggles to keep her drug dealing separate from her family life. However, Andy, Silas, and Shane find out about her dealing at different parts of the series. While she is willing to risk life and limb for the love of her family, she also wants to protect them from the hazards of drugs and the drug trade. She is particularly hesitant to allow Silas to enter the business until her crisis with U-turn forces her to allow Silas to deal. Nancy has only smoked pot three times on screen.


Nancy has married four times. Peter Scottson, her second husband, was murdered by a rival drug cartel; they did not have children but Peter did have a dickhead son known as Tim Scottson. After having a son with Esteban, they wed. They have one son named Stevie Ray who was taken by Nancy to Seattle. In the final episode, it is revealed that she also married Rabbi David Bloom, but he passed away in a car accident. He also became Stevie's adopted father.

Trivia[]

  • Nancy's blood type is O positive.
  • Nancy enjoys rough sex.
  • She used to have small feet, but she went up a size with each kid.
  • Nancy is one of only three characters who appears in every episode of Weeds, the other two being Silas and Shane.
  • Nancy is a Scorpio.

Footnotes[]

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