"Desperate Housewives" - October 5, 2008 and October 12, 2008 episodes

October 5, 2008 episode

When Susan's new boyfriend Jackson stays the night, he inadvertently ends up separately meeting both Mike and their son MJ while he is still in his robe. Mike says that he wants to get to know Jackson if he's going to be around his son, and they arrange a night out together, which goes smashingly well. Susan is happy that Mike approves of Jackson until she finds out that during their night, Mike happened to reveal a bit of information about what she finds appealing sexually, and she's weirded out about them exchanging that kind of information so doesn't want their budding friendship to progress. She is also concerned about what bad things Mike might tell Jackson given their acrimonious breakup, but Mike assures her that he holds no such bad feelings about her, which makes Susan feel better about letting their friendship continue to develop. I can understand Mike's desire to make sure a man around his son is ok, and I get that Susan wants them all to get along ok, but I'm with her in that I would probably be weirded out and not happy about it if my new boyfriend was going to be bff's with my ex-husband.


Edie still doesn't understand why they came back to Wisteria Lane when they could have gone anywhere, but husband Dave says he thinks they could have a nice life there, though she is (and we are) unaware of his ulterior motive.

Karen McClusky makes a remark to Edie that hurts her, and after she tells Dave about it, Dave goes over to see Karen to ask her to apologize, but Karen refuses. Dave then makes a veiled threat about her not wanting to lose the friends she has, and her cat mysteriously disappears for several days and then immediately and just as mysteriously reappears right after she apologizes to Edie. Karen has a feeling something is up with Dave and enlists Katherine's help in find out what that is.


Carlos works as a massager out of the home, but Gabrielle convinces him to take a job as a masseuse at a swanky country club because the clients will be more wealthy and therefore pay more. That ends up having repercussions she didn't anticipate when a birthday invitation she had previously been excited about receiving ends up being rescinded because most of the guests are members of the country club and the birthday lady thinks it would be weird for her guests to be mingling with the hired help. Gabrielle is concerned that she's falling further and further down the social ladder and that not being at this party will make her standing fall even more, so she arranges to crash the party, with disastrous results when they're discovered. Carlos tries to explain to her that money isn't everything, that as their blind masseuse, he hears all about how miserable they all are, just as miserable as he was when he was always thinking about money, and he says that with each other and the kids, they're much better off and happier now.


Bree is getting ready for the launch of her cookbook, but her decision to use the name "Mrs. Van de Kamp" because it sounds better than "Mrs. Hodge" hurts Orson, who would rather she use his last name not just for social purposes but also professional ones. She convinces him that she's already got that name out in the public and that she had used that name when they were separated, so she doesn't want to lose the branding now. However, when she's being interviewed on a much-coveted food radio show, she doesn't see the irony of talking about her cookbook and how she focuses on home-cooked meals while Orson is sitting at home with take-out. When asked about her husband, Bree effectively denies having one, which Orson hears and is upset about. When Orson later confronts her about that, she relies on the techicality of being asked whether there is a "Mr. Van de Kamp" and her saying there wasn't, which is true. Orson then accuses her of hiding him because she's ashamed that he went to jail, and she more or less confirms that. He says that he went to jail because she said it was the only way to get her back, but now, she's still denying him. I'm going to agree with Bree that "Mrs. Van de Kamp" sounds better, and somehow to me, it also fits better with the cooking persona than "Mrs. Hodge", but I completely see how and why Orson would be angry that she did not contradict the notion that she currently has a husband.


Lynette is concerned that Porter might be involved in drugs because a fellow student and former friend was recently busted, so she decides to open an account and pretend to be a similarly-aged girl on a sort of "myspace" website in order to talk to him and get information from him. She gets hooked because she finds out more and information from him, information he would be unlikely to tell his mother, but she doesn't realize that he's actually falling for this girl. When he tells her, she writes him a lovely "I can't get involved with you" letter that's nonetheless supportive, but she makes the fatal mistake of absentmindedly signing it "love, mom". Porter is appropriately angry and refuses to speak to her for some time, though we see that he misses talking to her too. I can't believe that she didn't see it coming that he'd fall for the persona she had created.


October 12, 2008 episode

Orson has been trying for several years to get Danielle to visit for a weekend, and Danielle finally agrees, bringing husband Leo (who works as a lawyer for the EPA) and son Ben, now 6, with her. Orson cautions Bree to be on her best behaviour, but Bree can't help herself from butting in and judging, especially when she finds out that all three of them are vegetarians and that Danielle will be homeschooling Ben, not to mention that they're apparently Jewish now as well. When Bree is alone with Ben at the park, she tempts him with a story of how little boys and girls need hot dogs to grow up big and strong and then offers him a hot dog, as long as he doesn't tell his mom. At a dinner party later that night that Bree throws which includes their family and the neighbors, Ben gets sick and Danielle finds out that Bree not only fed Ben meat in the form of two hot dogs but that she also instructed him to lie to her about it. Danielle is furious and declares that her family will be leaving in the morning, and Bree's apologies do nothing to help the situation. Orson is angry at her for her behaviour, but he's most angry because when he agreed to go to jail, he still had Ben in the house as his son, but when he got out, Ben was gone and now barely even recognizes him. He blames Bree for not fighting hard enough for Ben, a comment which angers Bree in turn. I can certainly understand if Bree objects to how Danielle is raising Ben, but she herself said that Danielle is actually Ben's mother. How she could think it's ok to completely undermine Danielle with the vegetarian thing, not to mention her not realizing that if he hasn't had meat in a while, having meat and lots of it was going to make him really sick, really surprised me. I can't imagine she would have been very happy if her mother or her MIL had pulled the same thing on her, encouraging her children to do something she didn't allow. She also makes a comment about not being able to watch Danielle make all these mistakes with Ben. Ummm, yeah, you know, Bree, you're not exactly the paragon of child-rearing, given your track record with Danielle and Andrew. She said so herself that she did a horrible job with them and that she was going to get a second chance with Ben. Well, who says she wasn't going to screw up again, and why should her second chance trump Danielle's first chance at being a mother? The husband also noticed that when they were at the dinner table, she made some comment about having her entire family under the same roof for the first time in a long time, but Andrew was noticeably absent. Yeah, I guess Andrew doesn't count. That's a mother's love and concern for you.


Susan's son MJ is getting picked on by other kids, but when Susan tries to talk to him, he says he wants to talk to Mike. Susan eventually finds out that the person picking on MJ the most, that he didn't want to disclose, is in fact Juanita, Gabrielle's oldest daughter. Susan tries to talk to Gabrielle, but Gabrielle is mostly defensive. Things escalate when Susan tries to handle the situation herself and Juanita refuses to stop bullying MJ, which results in a catfight between Susan and Gabrielle. Later, Susan comes over to Gabrielle's with a peace offering of wine, and the two bond and talk about their fears raising their children. I wasn't crazy about this story at first because I didn't like Gabrielle's reaction. Your child is bulling another child, the child of a good friend no less, and you're not really all that concerned about it and instead turn it around and insult the other kid for not being tough enough? However, I did like the heart-to-heart talk they had in which Gabrielle admitted how and why she felt what she did when Susan told her about Juanita's bullying, and then Susan expressed her fears about MJ's growing up without his father being there all the time. These are the kinds of moments I actually really like about this show, and which they do really well but haven't done much of lately.


Gabrielle and Carlos are hurting for money and decide they have to sell their sports car, much to Gabrielle's dismay since she is losing more and more signs of her once-wealthy stature. Their negotiation tactics, partly because of their desperation, are awful, and the sale goes through with them getting much less than they had originally wanted. I thought it was odd, though, that after the verbal agreement, she tossed the keys to the new owners and then she and Carlos just walked away. Ummm, don't they need to pay you first? Gabrielle and Carlos then end up buying a really crappy car from Andrew, and they aren't able to negotiate him down. Gabrielle drives the car and then discovers that it needs a new radiator, but Andrew is completely unremorseful about having sold her a lemon. After Gabrielle's talk with Susan, though, in which she admitted to feeling defeated, she gets her spunk back and forces Andrew to pay for the new radiator. Hmm, ok, maybe now, she'll also stand up to both Carlos and Juanita about Juanita's weight and attitude.


Karen asks Katherine how she's done about looking up information on Dave, but Katherine says that because he has a fairly common name (Dave Williams), she's coming up with a billion hits, so she needs more information about him, like where he grew up or where he went to school or something. Katherine and Karen arrange to meet Edie for lunch in order to get more information about Dave, but whereas Katherine had recommended subtlety, Karen just starts firing question after question about Dave, most of which Edie doesn't know the answers to, and Karen berates Edie for not knowing that information about her husband. Edie is startled and leaves.


Dave happens upon Tom and Lynette cleaning out their garage, with Tom being upset that he has to throw away so many things, including his guitar. Tom mentions that he used to jam with Mike before he moved away, and Dave says he plays the drums so offers to jam with him. Tom enjoys jamming with Dave so much that he enthusiastically tells Lynette that they're going to add a few more people and start a garage band and maybe even play some gigs. Lynette reminds him that with the restaurant to run, and being a husband and father, he doesn't really have time for that, but Tom is stubborn and insists. Lynette arranges for his very-expensive guitar to be "accidentally" destroyed, but then Dave comes by with another one and ends up manipulating her into accepting the guitar and then presenting it to Tom as a gift from herself. The more they play out Lynette and Tom, the more I'm getting to dislike him. They actually used to be my favorite couple because they were the most honest and grounded, but more and more, Tom has just turned into a completely ineffectual father and husband. They have the restaurant because HE wanted it as it was his dream and he threw away a perfectly good career to pursue this. HE doesn't want to deal with being a real father to his children and so pretty much has a hands-off approach, leaving Lynette to do everything. HE is the one having a mid-life crisis with his red sports car. I get that there are things he wishes he could do, but he's completely throwing all responsibility out the window, and he has been for some time, and Lynette totally allows it! The boys are in so much trouble precisely because they get no guidance and direction from their father. I've gotten to really dislike Tom for being such a big baby and Lynette for allowing him to be one.


At Bree's dinner party, they're talking to Leo about what he does and where he grew up and where he went to school, and the same questions end up being asked of Dave, who deflects them, but then Edie presses the issue, at which point Dave tells a well-fashioned and sympathetic sob story about how he's ashamed to admit he didn't go to college and that he grew up in a terrible household with abusive parents. Later that night, Edie apologizes and says she was egged on by all of Karen's questions, and Dave finally understands what happened, but he makes up a story about a relative who started going senile and becoming paranoid, so much so that she ended up having to be put in a home, all of which we know is a thinly-veiled threat against Karen. I think Karen went about it the wrong way, but I do think it's weird to marry someone without knowing so many details about their life. I would think that would just come out in conversation and that you'd want to know about a person you were planning to spend the rest of your life with. Dave's telling of his story was just awesome though. Karen better look out!