Hello again housewives viewers and welcome to this week’s review of Desperate Housewives. Before I start, I wanted to ask you (all 5 of you) whether or not you like that I am recapping the episode as well as reviewing it. It is up to you so please don’t hesitate to answer in a comment.
Spoiler-free zone:
There isn’t much to say about this episode without giving anything away. All I can say is expect some funny ensemble moments and while the episode starts out slow, it ends with a bang (a very comedic one)!
Spoiler zone:
If you saw this last episode you will understand my, rather cheesy, line at the spoiler-free zone. The episode opens by talking about judgements and how we can reach a judgement by judging others. You get the point. Lots of criticism happening on Wisteria Lane, and some of the housewives’ ego was hurt.
Bree’s story for instance, while it doesn’t move along, it certainly gives us insight of how Bree feels about her affair. The one that helps Bree realise how she feels, is a maid from the motel she is using with Karl to get naughty. When Bree lies on the phone to Orson (while the maid is cleaning the room) about being in the supermarket, the maid gives her a look. Bree of course is ticked off, and revisits the motel to have a little chat. At that point it was obvious that Bree already felt guilty about her affair and the maid’s look I think made her feel even guiltier. It turned out the maid was once in her position, and now ended up with no one in her life (the actress playing the maid did a very good job, and I think she was on True Blood at some time. Am I right?). After the, anonymous, maid told Bree about her past, Bree showed the audience that she is indeed guilty. In the end of the episode Bree is once again left in a dilemma. Should she go on with her sinful but “spicy” life? Or should she do the right thing? This is shown in a clever way during the end of the episode, where Bree is at the motel looking at the Bible (something she has always followed) and at Karl… She chose Karl. I am really looking forward to see how this story is going to peak.
Gaby on the other hand, also seems to be facing some concern of how people judge her. Specifically, the mother of Juanita’s play date told Gaby that she was an unfit parent after seeing her daughter sliding down the stairs. The mother believed that children should be supervised all the time, while Gaby didn’t want to supervise her daughter’s play time. What I like about this story, is that we are given two extremes and that way we see what the writers want to point out. While children need supervision, they don’t need to always feel another presence controlling their actions. That way a child might grow up constantly needing that presence. We can see that, when in Juanita’s party, a monkey attempts to kill a clown (that was funny, in a really disturbing sort of way) and while all the kids run for their mommies; Juanita and Celia defended themselves (Juanita hid in a bouncy house and Celia played dead). The moral? Constant attention does more harm than good and children aren’t the extension of their mother, but individuals. Maybe I am taking it too far but still I think the moral is along those lines.
Moving on to Lynette, her storyline focuses off her pregnancy (I’m glad because, I think, it would be too much if she had a pregnancy issue every week) and focuses on her, helping McCluskey’s boyfriend out by offering him to work as a handyman at her house (after McCluskey asked her to). It turns out that the handyman is used to the male being the man of the house and, as we know, this isn’t the case for the Scavo family. He follows strictly Tom’s advice and that of course annoys bossy Lynette. In the end, handyman, Roy gets fired when he refuses to put a birdhouse. where Lynette wants it, without asking Tom. Do Roy and Lynette kiss and make up? No, but they don’t need to. Tom goes to Roy and explains to him that he allows Lynette to be in control because he has realised that this is her way of feeling safe. I agree with this, and I like that the writer’s gave us insight on that, because Lynette’s control over Tom was an issue that was constantly shown once in awhile and hadn’t been given enough depth.
In Susan’s storyline, we see her being concerned about Katherine’s plotting to win over Mike. After finding out from Bree that Katherine made a move on Mike, Susan is now positive that Katherine is plotting. She therefore starts kissing Mike in front of her, to mark her territory. Furthermore, Julie is finally home and is still pretty shaken up about the person who attacked her. She also clarifies to Nick (Dominick) that it is over between them. Apparently, their relationship didn’t end quickly enough since Danny already knew about it, and threatened his dad by saying that if he sees him with Julie again, he will make sure his mom knows. Furthermore, Danny, in an effort to get closer to Julie, tries to help her with her fear of someone attacking again, by giving her his mother’s gun. Thus, when Julie calls for Mama Susan (when she hears something in the middle of the night) Susan takes the gun (thinking she can use it more wisely than Julie) and from a scare she got, she shoots and hits someone. That someone was Katherine who (as she says) was on a neighbourhood watch. Fortunately the bullet barely scratched her, but still gave her enough attention to play the innocent victim. The Bolen’s however aren’t happy about that, since the gun that shot her was under their old names (which we still don’t know). Angie, very cleverly, goes over to Katherine’s house, before she calls the cops, so she can try and convince her to not call them. Specifically, she tells her that she thinks Mike still wants her and that she would never be able to win him back if she told the cops about Susan. Poor, Katherine becomes more delusional in every episode.
To sum up, this is one of the few episodes that is loyal to the theme Mary Alice has presented in the beginning. The episode provides some good laughs but also some classic Wisteria Lane action and drama.
