'Desperate Housewives': Bully for you
After a weak showing last week, Desperate Housewives was back on track tonight with an episode that did a great job mixing humor and mystery. Plus, we got a healthy dose of Bree's kids. And that's never a bad thing.
Bree: Benjamin, Danielle's son, is 6 years old and visiting his grandparents for the first time in three years, along with Danielle and her husband Leo. It's tense, especially since Bree reacts to every bit of news about how Danielle is raising Benji as if she had announced they were teaching him to worship Satan. Come on, Bree! Being an ethical vegetarian is a HUGE step in the right direction when you consider the path Danielle was on. Satan worship wouldn't have been a huge surprise at one point, am I right?
Unfortunately, Bree is kind of a horrible human being, and gets Benji to eat a hot dog. Which, of course, makes him violently ill. At Danielle's "Welcome Home" dinner party. Where she sees that his barf has meat in it. Uuuuncomfortable. Danielle understandably cuts the visit short, and Orson is seriously pissed at Bree. Side note: Why weren't Susan, Lynette, or Gabby invited to the dinner party?
Susan: Maynard, perhaps because his name is Maynard (calling him M.J. isn't fooling anyone, Susan), is getting bullied by Juanita Solis. I don't think I really need to explain any further when I say that this leads to Susan and Gabby wrestling on the front lawn. Because, you know, it's Susan and Gabby. I really liked the scene where they made up, though, talking about how difficult their lives are these days. Very sweet.
Gabby: To pay their mortgage, Gabby and Carlos are forced to sell their nice car and buy Andrew's old junker, which immediately breaks down. Andrew, back to the complete tool that we all knew he was, not only refused to bargain on the initial price, but refuses to chip in for the repairs. Gabby, also back to her usual uncompromising self, threatens to damage his fancy new car until he backs down. Did anyone else think Gabby looked a little cuter tonight, at least in some scenes? I like the short hair when it's not in that awful half ponytail.
Lynette: Tom's cleaning out the garage and Lynette is playing the role of my mom, mercilessly junking everything in sight. Even my favorite cut-offs from tenth grade! Um, I mean, even Tom's unused mountain climbing equipment! Dave, ever the troublemaker, wanders by and notices Tom's bass guitar. Cut to Tom and Dave, playing in their newly formed garage band. Oh, my. Lynette makes the mistake of telling Tom he's way too busy for this crap (which, true) in front of Dave, thus forcing Tom to stand up to her or risk looking like he's whipped.
In her continued bid to win "Worst Mother of the Neighborhood" (a neighborhood which includes Susan, Bree, AND Gabby), Lynette frames Penny (still alive!) for the intentional destruction of Tom's bass. Real nice. Dave, in his continued bid to win "Most Popular Vaguely Creepy Dude of the Neighborhood," buys a new bass for Lynette to give to Tom after essentially telling her that Tom will cheat on her if she doesn't let him play in the band. Right now, I'm guessing that Dave's diabolical scheme involves beating his old high school rivals in a Battle of the Bands.
Mystery: Katherine tells Mrs. McCluskey that Dave is way too nice to investigate. Mrs. McCluskey very fairly points out that Katherine doesn't have an excellent track record with men. However, they come up empty when they grill a clueless Edie, though it was a pretty hilarious scene. At Danielle's party, they take the opportunity to question Dave directly, and Edie joins them in their curiosity, embarrassed that she doesn't know anything about Dave's history. Dave tearfully confesses in front of everyone that he never went to college, shaming Edie for forcing him to answer such a humiliating question. Awkward!
After he finds out from Edie that Mrs. McCluskey pushed her to ask, he implies that she's paranoid because she's going senile. Did anyone else feel a chill when he was talking about his poor senile grandma, who imagined that someone was breaking into her house and stealing her stuff? Watch out, Mrs. McCluskey!
Favorite Bree quote: On Danielle's decision to home school Benji. Danielle: "He's only six and he's reading at a third grade level." Bree: "Well, what happens next year, when he overtakes you?" Snap!
Do you feel like this season is back on track? Any new ideas about Dave's target?
Best episode of the season. And it's a very young season!
Actually I honestly think this is one of the best episodes of the series. Every scene jumped off the screen, every line of dialog was crisp and vibrant.
Man, I adored this episode.
HUGE thumbs up.
I'm warning you, Marc Cherry, you had BETTER not let Dave do something mean to Mrs. McClusky. She's one of my favorite characters on the show. She is not expendable. Just so we're clear.
I will say though that Dave is an awesome character. I don't know what the mystery is, but he's adding a lot to the show. I think Katherine needs a little more to do though, Dana Delaney is being wasted right now.
Lynette is becoming one of the more irritating characters of late. She and Bree both have this unshakable belief that they are always right. And they seldom are. Lynette was horrible last week with Porter, and horrible this week with Tom and Penny. She's just been horrible. I hope that the writers give her the comeuppance she needs soon. Who does she think she is?
I totally agree with everything that you said. That Bree quote had me dying laughing!!! I was also thinking the same thing why werent Lynette, Susan and Gabby invited??? Especially since Mrs. McCluskey is never really invited anywhere!
Gabby is turning into the Scarlett O'Hara of Wisteria Lane. Who knew that (mild) hardship and (relative) privation could bring out Gabby's inner strength in the way that it has this season? I like her more than I ever have in previous seasons!
Susan was also more likeable and less irritatingly cute, and I like the buddy relationship between her ex and her new boyfriend.
It's sad to see trouble developping between Bree and Orson. The writers seem to be giving Orson a harder edge. Maybe prison has toughened him up, so that he can stand up to Bree, who was at her most annoying this episode. Being a vegetarian is not the same thing as being a free-love hippy pot-smoking radical leftist!
kudos to marc cherry and the writers.
excellent episode! i busted out laughing with bree's line too!
i didn't get the notion that tom would cheat on lynette if she didn't let him join the band. i probably just missed that interpretation. i'll have to rewatch it tomorrow online. and even though lynette is becoming the worst mom on the show, i couldn't help but laugh when she told tom where penny was. i'm just sadistic that way i guess.
Every one of the Scavos could be written off this show and I wouldn't miss them a bit. Lynette a control freak, Tom's a wuss and don't get me started on those brat (now) teenagers.
I think Dave has it in for the Scavos! I mean, the last frame in which the narrator is saying that the worst bully is the one that gets close to you and trick you without you even knowing it (or something along that line) was done with this scene in which Lynette was giving Tom the guitar. So maybe he's related to Kayla in some way or something. Who knows? But I gotta say, watching him ride the bicycle, very creepy!
And I gotta say, Bree cracked me up! It's Bree, did anyone really expect gun-toting- traditional Bree to be happy that her grandson is being raised a vegetarian and being homeschooled? Certainly not me! But her last conversation with Orson was heart-wrenching. You did get the sense that Bree fought to keep Benjamin (on her knees, sobbing)and Orson's criticism of her not having fought enough is unwarranted I think.
I think it's funny how Lynette tries to do the "strong woman in control of her house" thing and tell Tom to get rid of this or that or do what she wants in some other way, then he realizes she's not Queen of the World and does what he wants. She then resorts to trickery and subterfuge to get what she wants. It's happened several times on the series, and it's almost always funny. Usually on shows aimed at women, the husbands simply knuckle under, or are forced to eat crow eventually. DH knows that's seldom the case.
Has there been any explanation yet of how Bree told her friends that Ben wasn't her child but her grandchild? Has that been addressed yet?
'Jazz hands' I laughed so hard I cried.
Very good episode.