"Desperate Housewives" - October 19, 2008 episode

Through a drawing by MJ, Mike discovers that his son thinks of Susan's boyfriend Jackson as the man of the house whereas Mike is a tiny speck of a presence. Mike tries to remedy that situation by buying a bicycle for MJ and telling him that he'll be back sometime to take off his training wheels and teach him how to ride a bike. In the meantime, though, MJ is so excited that he asks Jackson to teach him, which Jackson agrees to, but Susan is mortified to learn this just as Mike is saying that he's coming over to teach MJ to ride the bike. Susan tries to get MJ to pretend to not know how to ride the bike by purposely falling down, but MJ hurts himself in the process, and a trip to the hospital reveals the truth to Mike. Mike laments that he's missing out on so much with MJ because he lives so far away, and Susan says they both are, but it's something they have to learn to deal with. I'm going to agree with Susan that Mike can't just buy a bike for his son and then make him wait until Mike is free to learn how to ride it.

Orson was fired from his job three weeks prior after they found out that he lied about not having a criminal record. I'm not sure what he was doing since he was a dentist before going to jail. He hadn't told Bree because he was ashamed since she was doing so well, but she found out by accident and was hurt that he hadn't told her. He's not having very good luck finding another job, so he says that he wants to work with Bree as a partner, neglecting to remember that Katherine is already her partner. Bree is initially not keen on the idea but is about to give in when Katherine privately tells Bree that if Orson joins, Katherine quits. Bree eventually tells Orson no, who pitches a fit, even going so far as moving into the guest bedroom. Bree's friends make half-joking comments that when she gets rich and famous from the cookbook, she'll be too busy to talk to any of them anymore, and her being named Businesswoman of the Year (which includes a luncheon) brings on even more jealousy. I do think it was a bit presumptuous of Orson to assume that Bree would hire him just because he's her husband when he really had no experience in the subject.

After Bree talks to the girls about her new cookbook, Lynette asks to see the marketing plan Bree mentions, and later, Lynette thinks it's an awful marketing plan. She ends up making up an elaborate new marketing plan presentation, which Tom sees, and she says she might do some freelance work in marketing again. When Tom asks when she'll have time for that with the restaurant and the family, she shoots back that she'll find time just like he finds time for his band. Lynette presents her plan to Bree but Lynette is hurt when she doesn't like it. At the luncheon, Lynette is still bitter about her marketing plan being rejected, and she has too much to drink. She is pushed further over the edge when she meets the person running the marketing campaign, and it turns out to be someone she knew long ago, and she is depressed that this guy who was kind of a flake is now doing this job whereas she used to be a high-powered ad exec and is now nothing. Lynette ends up causing a scene at the luncheon, much to Bree's embarrassment. When Lynette goes to apologize to Bree after she has sobered up, Bree dismisses it, and they have a nice talk where Bree talks about all the problems she has, mostly brought on by her success, and she wonders if it's all worth it. I loved Lynette's line that her friends were all proud of her and would support her, even if they were all pea-green with jealousy. It's true that even while we are happy for our friends when good things happen to them, we might also still be envious. Tom's objection to Lynette wanting to work part-time *really* irritated me. I'm glad Lynette called him on his hypocrisy, but the fact that he even had the nerve to bring it up!

Gabby decides that Carlos is lucky because he gets to have blind sex, especially since he says he has to rely on other senses rather than sight so sex is different for him now. She wants to try it, so she puts on a blindfold, but that means neither of them are aware that Juanita has walked into the room at some point. When Juanita asks what they were doing and is concerned that in their "wrestling", her dad is hurting her mom, they eventually decide to tell her the truth about sex, which she then promptly talks about to a girl with whom she has a playdate, which angers the girl's parents. Even though they manage to straighten out that misunderstanding, the playdates are called off again when Carlos says that Santa isn't real, unaware that the daughter is standing there, devastated to hear that news. I wasn't particularly interested in this story except to hear how much parents look forward to playdates when they can leave their kids somewhere for a couple of hours.

Tom and Dave have been rehearsing their band, and they're auditioning for a guitarist, but even though they find one who's really good and who Tom really likes, Dave pushes hard to get Mike in the band. Mike says that he doesn't really have the time, and if he's in the neighborhood, he's going to want to spend time with his son instead. Dave then takes Edie's suggestion to buy a neighborhood house as an investment, but he tells Edie to rent it to Mike for a very cheap price without letting him know that they're the landlords. (This wigs out Susan, but hey, it's not the first time an ex of hers has lived down the street.) There is speculation on the net that the person Dave has a grudge against is Mike because Dave is the husband of the mother and child who were killed in the car accident with Mike and Susan. Dave's fixation on Mike would seem to give credence to that, but then you wonder why he's after only Mike and not Susan as well.