Kevin Nealon

If anyone had planned it, it would have felt too soon.

On Monday's season premiere of Weeds, Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon) sports noticeable ligature marks around his neck. When Andy (Justin Kirk) asks him what happened, Doug replies with signature nonchalance, "[Masturbated] with a noose," a scene we saw in vivid detail in the Season 4 finale. The premiere aired, of course, just days after reports and speculation that actor David Carradine might have died under similar circumstances. (The death remains under investigation; Carradine's manager has said he suspects "foul play.")

For Nealon, the show's apparent ability to echo current events is nothing new. "You know, it's really interesting how Weeds is prophetic in a way; it's kind of eerie," he says. He points to prescient storylines about the California wildfires and the Mexican drug wars. "We did a story about [the show's fictional suburb] Agrestic burning down, and we shoot in Valencia [Calif.], and then Valencia sort of burnt down shortly thereafter," he says.

Nealon says the latest scene was shot last year. "It was too late to have any second thoughts about it." He says the edgy scene is par for the course on a show like Weeds. "I'm never surprised by what the writers come up with," he says. "You have to be willing to pretty much do anything on that show."

Has he ever refused them? "No, not yet," he says.