Brief summary: The citizens of a gated community turn to Frank when teenage boys become the target of a self-righteous killer who is punishing them for their fathers' sins.

Rogue's Review: Like "522666," something about "Weeds" just doesn't quite click, which is a shame, because the episode had a promising premise. Someone is kidnapping young men in a gated community, a planned housing area populated by moderately affluent folks who came here to escape the hassles and horrors of urban living. But there's a sickness at work in their midst, a punisher bent on exacting Biblical punishment.

The sins of the father are much on the minds of the residents of Vista Verde, and Frank and Group pathologist Cheryl Andrews (the versatile and delightful CCH Pounder) gradually learn they are tracking a local - someone privy to the secret sins of various other residents.

Where "Weeds" falls short is, simply, a convoluted, confusing plot, one gaping hole, and one odd omission. The various sins of Vista Verde's fathers are hardly given enough screen time, while the similarities in the appearance of many of them - which should have been a neat trick to help confuse the real killer's identity - merely make it nettlesome to keep track of who's who. There is also a thunderingly stupid mistake on the part of Frank and the local police in guessing the actions of one guilty father, Birckenbuehl; given all the previous insight Frank has shown into human nature, it seems unlikely he would have permitted Birckenbuehl the opportunity to take the action he does.

And finally, "Weeds" seems detached from the kind of close-to-home reality we've seen in other episodes, in which events in Frank's home life smoothly mirror the central storyline. Instead of examining Jordan's strange gift, her link to her father's innate ability (inheriting the accepted "sin" of her father, as it were - his embrace of darkness for the purpose of fighting it), we're treated to a rather mundane "How was your day, honey?" sequence, in which Megan Gallagher gets to do little more than look pensive and the creators hamhandedly link the prerequisite Black family moment to the plot with an awkward, clue-dropping visit from the killer. Granted, Frank's transgression is not so evident - he has wronged no one but Jordan herself by passing on his talent to her, but the parent/child relationships that are central to this outing could have benefited from additional development of Frank's bond with his cherished daughter.

The episode wins a lot of its points for the entrance of CCH Pounder as Cheryl Andrews - this appearance is notable for the fact that the Vista Verde security is hesitant to admit her inside - obvious racial overtones that emphasize the paranoia and defensiveness of these (all-white) closed-community folks. [Rating: 5/10]

"I hope this tragedy can bring us all together--that it can strengthen the ties that bind us, rather than tear them apart." -- Edward Petey