The question is always: Is Clark Kent the costume that Superman puts on, or is Superman just a costume that Clark Kent puts on? Is Minivan Andy the thing he's turning into, or the thing he's stuck reaching for? Is Daredevil Girl a mask Nancy needs to cover up her cowardice, or is Nancy Botwin just the cage she lives in? Who knows. The answer is usually "All of the above." A face for all the faces that you meet.

But look at the boys: Silas already is the man that Andy is becoming/trying to become. Shane already is the beast that Nancy is avoiding/trying to avoid. And they are both doing really well, this season. Maybe in part because they're not trying to be anything. They are at peace in a way their grownups can't be, because their grownups are so stuck on how they think their lives should work. Silas and Shane, though, have no experience of what that could possibly be like. They are formed by their experiences, where Nancy and Andy are formed by their fantasies. (And then you've got the third pair, Doug/Stevie: Is that a Tao-of-Pooh peace? Or are you just shitting your diaper?)

So either the boys are telling us the truth about their grownups, or are diametrically opposed to their grownups: Either way, they're embodying one half of their respective dynamics. If anything, I would say the balance will shift back the other way: Andy will try more than ever to be like Silas, and Nancy will end up more like Shane than ever. And then it'll shift back the other way, because the answer is still and will always be "All of the above," because that's what being a grownup is actually like.

Chilling in a tent with a huge hookah, as the band starts up onstage, Doug introduces the hookah, Medusa, to a giant penguin. Awkwardly, the penguin shoves a gardenhose into his beak and gets to it.

Now Andy wants to know what they're going to tell Clovis Ludwig. Is he the uncle? What is he? Nancy's like, "See above re: we'll get there when we get there. Isolation and mobility." But he's onto her: In this yet-to-be-determined "there," will he get to have a wife? What will it look like? Will he get to have a Danish lover named Famke, living with them in a polyamorous free-love situation? Will it be joint custody, with Andy taking the kid on weekends and the Sabbath and major US holidays?