'Desperate Housewives' premiere: The cast teases the beginning of the end

You've seen the ads. It's time to kiss them goodbye. And on Sept. 24, the long farewell begins.

The eighth and final season of "Desperate Housewives" premieres this Sunday, and to celebrate the milestone, the cast gathered on Wisteria Lane (aka Universal Studios' historic Colonial Street) earlier in the week to talk about the upcoming run.

Zap2it was there, and in addition to getting some tidbits on what the ladies would like to see go down in the final season, we got a preview of what to expect during the return, "Secrets That I Never Want to Know."

"Gaby's or Eva's?" Eva Longoria said when we inquired about her mental state going into the final stretch. "Eva's mental state is a little unstable... Gaby is stressed. The women are trying to cover up the murder. It's going to test their friendship but it's also going to test her marriage."

The premiere finds Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) and Gaby at odds over her stepfather's death, with Mrs. Solis ready to move on and her husband stricken with guilt. We're not sure how they'll square that away, but we do know how Longoria wants it to all end. "I want to see them all drive off a cliff," she says, laughing, "like Thelma and Louise, but all four of them. Marc Cherry has always said he would know how it ends. He knows exactly how it's going to end, and he won't tell us."

Co-star Marcia Cross is a little more optimistic. She seems to think the ladies of Fairview could learn a lot in these last episodes. On the matter of Bree's detective boyfriend (Jonathan Cake), things seem less promising...

"It's not a good set up... It doesn't look good," says Cross of the latest in her character's long string of gentlemen. "I'd like to see her grow more. I feel like she's like a ping pong ball. She's experimented and become less repressed, but I don't think she's found her center yet."

So should Bree end up with anyone in the end? "Not necessarily," says Cross.

Brenda Strong (absentee narrator Mary Alice Young) made a rare corporeal appearance on the lane, and it looks like promises of a flashback-heavy season could come true.

"There should be more Mary Alice," says Strong, who doesn't often get to make an on-camera appearance for the show. "We're hearkening back to her mystery. I've already shot one episode, and we're only on seven. One out of Seven... that could mean at least three!"

And if the tease at the end of the premiere says anything about it, we're inclined to agree.

On the lighter side of "Desperate Housewives," Renee (Vanessa Williams) continues to avoid the actual drama.

"She has no idea, and would she care? No," Williams says of the season's big murder cover-up. "I'm working my Australian hottie over there."

The new neighbor to whom she's referring is Ben (Charles Mesure). And to say that he's unresponsive to her advances would be an understatement. "That's the comedy," says Williams. "It doesn't come easy for her, and she's not used to that."

"Desperate Housewives" premiers Sunday, Sept. 25, at 9:00 p.m. ET on ABC. Head back to Zap2it after the premiere for Felicity Huffman and Doug Savant's take on their alter egos' mounting marital problems.