Hello, hello, hello my fellow viewers. I welcome you to the review of the sixth episode of the sixth season of your favourite guilty pleasure, Desperate Housewives.
Spoiler-free zone:
In my opinion, this episode proves why Desperate Housewives isn’t purely a drama show and that it is indeed half drama half comedy. In this episode you will get: one or two pieces of information about the mystery, a great blend of drama and comedy, swear words and, what is arguably, the show’s funniest catfight ever.
Spoiler zone:
The episode opens with Bree, and according to Mary Alice, she is beginning to fall for Karl. I guess that sometimes opposites do attract. Although Bree is still in hesitation as to whether she is genuinely falling for him or not, when Karl gives her his grandmother’s broach and confesses that he loves her, Bree decides to let her feelings for him take over. However, she isn’t that happy when she finds out it was also given to Susan and when she confronts Karl about it, he proposes to her without letting her answer yet. It seems Karl really knows how to use a woman. What I found interesting about this story is the part where Bree (in her own subtle way) starts discussing with Susan about Karl. Susan starts talking about this softer Karl (without knowing that she is helping Bree with her decision) and how there where good times in their otherwise bad marriage. In the end, Bree tells Karl that while she won’t say no, she won’t say yes either until she sees that softer Karl that she wants. The storyline ends with a little cliff-hanger when Orson starts to get suspicious of Bree since he finds out that the broach, he saw Bree wearing, wasn’t purchased at the antique shop that Bree told him. I guess that in one of the next episodes, things will really heat up between Orson and Bree. I came to the conclusion, that what I like about this storyline is that, while it isn’t drama packed, it manages to stay simple yet also add a lot of dimension to the characters.
Moving on, Gaby’s storyline begins right after the opening, and is what establishes the theme of the episode which is “rules”. It seems that the Solis family is much more outspoken than we thought since Juanita, after screwing up a line in her school’s play, says a “four letter word” (as Mary Alice describes it) which I’m pretty sure rhymes with luck. Unfortunately, no luck was found on Juanita’s side, because Gaby decided to pull her out of the school when the principle questioned Gaby’s skills as a mother. This, first, takes a comedic turn because Gaby is forced to home school Juanita. The storyline, however, ends with a sad note when Gaby realises that Juanita doesn’t consider her to be a good parent. This final scene is actually pretty strong, I think, because even though not many words are said, you can see Gaby trying to balance her ego and arrogance (which she has learned to live with) with her parenting skills. While she wants to be a good mother, she sometimes makes reckless actions, due to her own vanity.
In Lynette’s storyline, we see her trying to still hide her pregnancy (despite the fact she was criticized by Gaby about her weight) and this time she has to deal with Tom and his new friends from college. In the end she gives up, and then Tom tells her that he is hanging out with these students because they know the answers to a subject that he is failing at. For the first time (in these small Tom-Lynette arguments) I agree 100% with Lynette. I get, that Tom is having a rough time coping with college, but Lynette can’t be going through with this at the state she is in. Tom, however, says something very true, in my opinion, which is that sometimes in order to survive you have to break the rules.
Moving on to Susan, we see that she tries to be nice to Katherine after shooting her (by mistake) in the previous episode. Katherine then calls Mike for a plumping business, and suspicious Susan goes with him. Then, it begins… The funniest catfight I think I have seen on this show (probably because of the acting). Katherine tries to tidy up her room from all the sexually motivating candles, rose petals and chocolates. At the same time, Susan tries to call Mike up in Katherine’s room, so he can see the evidence (she calls him in a way that reminds me of a 5 year old shouting for mommy to see the mosquito that was definitely in the room when mommy left). Then Katherine threatens to sue Susan and Susan then shoves a chocolate in Katherine’s mouth and Katherine then does the same. As they both fight with a piece of chocolate as a weapon, they fall in the bath tub Katherine had prepared for Mike (You can almost see Dana Delany laughing at a point, when she shoves the chocolate on Teri Hatcher’s mouth). In conclusion, like Susan said “FYI, we hate her again”. I love Katherine more and more this season.
Finally, as far as Angie is concerned, it seems that after encouraging Katherine to go after Mike, she is now stuck with her. We do learn however, that Angie has probably run away from something or someone, since she called her mother just to inform her that she is fine. In the end, in an attempt to get Katherine out of her hands, she talks to Susan and intentionally implies that Katherine might be responsible for Julies attack. Drea de Matteo proves she is a terrific actress in some dramatic scenes that she has to carry alone, without knowing exactly what she is sad for.
To sum up, in this very uplifting episode, Season 6 has once again proved that there is a lot of life left on this show.
