,
Tonye Patano,
Mary-Louise Parker,
Kevin Nealon,
Elizabeth Perkins, and
Justin Kirk. This image was also used for the Season 2 DVD box set. } The principal character is Nancy Price Botwin (
Mary-Louise Parker), a housewife from Southern California who becomes a marijuana dealer after her husband Judah (
Jeffrey Dean Morgan) dies. Although her drug-dealing career achieves mixed success, she eventually rises to the highest levels of an international drug-smuggling cartel. Nancy remarries three times during the series. First, she has an under-the-radar wedding with Peter Scottson (
Martin Donovan), a DEA agent, who is later killed. In season five, she marries Esteban Reyes (
Demián Bichir), the fictional mayor of
Tijuana and leader of a cartel, who is murdered by the seventh season. While in prison, Nancy also establishes a long-term relationship with Zoya (
Olga Sosnovska), a woman convicted of murdering her own boyfriend. In the series finale, which leaps forward seven years, viewers come to know that Nancy marries Rabbi David Bloom (
David Julian Hirsh), who later dies in a car accident. Throughout most of the show, Nancy shares her house with her brother-in-law Andy Botwin (
Justin Kirk). When Andy arrives in Agrestic, he is little more than a fun-loving slacker (albeit a handsome and charming one), and Nancy views him as a burden. Nonetheless, he emerges as the primary father figure in the household; her children adore him, and there is the suggestion that Nancy and her sons view Andy as their last link to Judah. Andy falls in love with Nancy during the fourth season but eventually realizes his feelings are unreciprocated. Nancy tries to balance their relationship to keep him "in the family." When he is not helping Nancy run her household, Andy engages in various educational and business ventures, from studying to be a rabbi in Hebrew school, to marijuana dealer, to entrepreneurial bicycle salesman. He also has a passion for cooking, and he became a professional chef by the sixth season. Nancy begins the series with two sons, who, after Judah's death, are raised haphazardly. In the fifth season, she has a third son, Stevie Ray Botwin (portrayed by uncredited babies and later by Ethan and Gavin Kent), with Esteban Reyes. Her first son, Silas (
Hunter Parrish), who has been sexually active since the show's debut, later follows in his mother's footsteps: he becomes a marijuana dealer, grower, and dispensary operator. Nancy's younger son, Shane (
Alexander Gould), is highly intelligent yet poorly socialized and vulgar; he is deeply affected by his father's death and yearns for more attention from his mother. In the first three seasons, Shane was also frequently bullied in school. After his peers harassed him in the bathroom for his sexual inexperience, his uncle pursues his request in taking him for a
handjob at the local
massage parlor. He is portrayed as having psychological issues. For instance, just before leaving Agrestic, Shane has conversations with his deceased father. Upon moving to Ren Mar, he loses his virginity and becomes a temporary alcoholic. Shane also engages in violence. Pilar, Esteban's boss and political consultant, arranged for Nancy to be shot—an awry attempt that inadvertently wounded Shane's arm instead. Later, when Shane overheard his mother's hostile conversation with Pilar, who threatened his and Silas' lives, he murdered Pilar by abruptly striking her over the head with a croquet mallet, causing her body to collapse into the pool. By the seventh season, he joins the police academy before receiving his criminal justice degree — working for the
New York City Police Department in season eight. Celia Hodes (
Elizabeth Perkins) is Nancy's "
frenemy". Obsessed with her personal image, she manipulates those around her who do not fit neatly into that image. She is unhappily married to Dean (
Andy Milder), whom she regards as a "loser asshole"; they later divorce. Other characters also dislike her. Celia's older daughter, Quinn (
Haley Hudson), kidnaps her as revenge for shipping her to a reform school in Mexico. She is also demanding over her younger daughter Isabelle's (
Allie Grant) "weight problem," and disapproves of her being a
lesbian. Later, Celia is diagnosed with breast cancer and cured with
chemotherapy. In the second season, she appeared at Nancy's house holding a gun, which she test shot at her kitchen cabinets. Celia was planning to shoot Doug Wilson at their children's elementary school graduation, but ran out of bullets. When interrogated by the police over Nancy's
grow house in Celia's home burning down the city, Dean, Doug, and other characters falsely allege that Celia coordinated it, which leads to her arrest. Following her release from prison, she becomes addicted to cocaine, so Isabelle arranges a rehab home intervention. Celia later becomes envious of Nancy; therefore, she dresses like her. After the fifth season, the actress left to pursue other projects. Doug Wilson (
Kevin Nealon) begins the series as an accountant and city councilman for the town of Agrestic. Doug is friends with many characters in the series including Andy, Dean, and Sanjay Patel (
Maulik Pancholy); all four aid Nancy's career as a marijuana dealer. Doug makes mistakes and loses his position; his wife Dana leaves him. He becomes a drifter who follows the Botwins during seasons four through eight. He and the Botwins move to
New York City, where he becomes the chief accountant for a
Ponzi scheme posing as a hedge fund. The show has a changing cast of supporting characters. Heylia James (
Tonye Patano) and her family — Conrad and Vaneeta, portrayed by
Romany Malco and
Indigo, respectively — play key roles during the first three seasons. They are wholesalers who supply marijuana to Nancy. Conrad later develops his own
strain of marijuana, called MILF weed, which Nancy sells. Season three features Sullivan Groff (
Matthew Modine), an unethical, womanizing real estate developer with big plans for Agrestic. When Nancy moves to Ren Mar, the characters in Esteban's drug cartel—primarily Cesar (
Enrique Castillo), Ignacio (
Hemky Madera), and Guillermo (
Guillermo Díaz), the latter first appearing in the third season—take a leading role. Other key characters include Nancy's housekeeper Lupita (
Renée Victor); rival drug dealers; countless law enforcement officials; the romantic interests of Andy, Silas, and Shane; and the residents of Agrestic and Ren Mar. In the sixth season, Nancy is on the run, and the new characters only have minor roles and appear for only a few episodes. An exception to this is Warren Schiff (
Richard Dreyfuss), whom she first met when teaching her math in high school; he becomes infatuated with Nancy. When the Botwins and Doug settle in New York City, new supporting characters are introduced. The family later settles in Nancy's estranged sister
Jill's (
Jennifer Jason Leigh) house in Connecticut, becoming a regular guest character by the eighth season. Other recurring characters include
Albert Brooks as Nancy's father-in-law Lenny,
Carrie Fisher as Celia's lawyer,
Dave Thomas as a doctor,
Martin Short as a lawyer for Nancy's custody battle,
Alanis Morissette as a doctor at an abortion clinic,
Zooey Deschanel as Andy's estranged girlfriend,
Lee Majors as a border guard,
Mary-Kate Olsen as a student who worships Jesus and sells pot, as well as
Aidan Quinn, among others. == Episodes ==