Welcome back, Desperate Housewives fans. It’s certainly been awhile, and you might need to refresh your memory from where we last left off. You can skim the fall finale recap here, but let’s just run through the basics — Lynette confessed her murder secret to Tom right before he was to leave for Paris with his new girlfriend, Susan contemplated a move to New York, Carlos disappeared from rehab, Detective Vance was run down by someone unknown, and Bree was left staring at the barrel of her own gun. Dive in below!
The episode picks up right where we left off, with Bree preparing for her suicide. She’s interrupted, however, by Renee, who bangs down her door convinced that Ben is cheating on her. After ranting and raving and throwing some insults around, Renee notices the note and shotgun and immediately sobers.
In the Scavo household, Tom is none too happy about learning Lynette’s secret, upset that she’s been dragged into the mess. After Tom leaves for work, Lynette hears about Chuck’s death on the news. Meanwhile, Gabrielle shows up at the rehab center, upset about the fact Carlos checked himself out and that no one can tell her what’s going on. As the nurse blows her off, she herself hears about Chuck.
Bree finds out that Renee has moved into her house to keep watch on her. ‘I’d rather see you in a straight jacket than a coffin,’Renee says when Bree tells her she can’t stay because she’ll drive her crazy. Renee asks why she wanted to kill herself in the first place, and Bree is saved from giving her answer by finding out about Chuck’s death. Meanwhile, Mike finds Susan trying to sneak away to New York. While Susan tries to convince him it’s because of her art, Mike believes otherwise and says he’s not moving to New York just so Susan can run away from Chuck.
The ladies meet to discuss Chuck’s death and try to figure out whether or not it was a true accident or someone trying to help them cover up their secret. When the girls ask about Carlos, Gabrielle lies and says he’s in rehab. Lynette comes home to tell Tom about Chuck’s death, and finds out that Tom told Bob about the murders – because if Lynette goes to jail, she’ll need an attorney. Meanwhile, Mike is trying to figure out why Susan is depressed despite the fact that Chuck is dead.
Worried that Carlos was behind Chuck’s murder, Gabrielle stops by the police station to share her condolences. She’s told that the police know the crime wasn’t an accident and that whoever did it will pay — big time. Bree stops by Lynette, unsettled because Chuck’s death means someone purposefully protected them — which means someone else knows about their secret. However, they can’t come up with anyone in the neighborhood who would be capable of committing murder.
Gabrielle finds Carlos and asks him to remember where he went when he checked out of rehab. She tells him Chuck was killed by a hit and run driver, and Carlos gets upset that Gabrielle thinks he actually committed the crime. As Renee continues to play caregiver, she also tells Bree she needs to talk and pushes her to open up. When Bree becomes difficult, Renee gets upset and tells her that she refuses to ‘go through that again.’This seems to sober Bree up, and when the girls attend Chuck’s funeral, she pushes Renee to open up about the comment. Leading to one of the strongest scenes of the hour, Renee admits that the person she knew who committed suicide was her mother — she had been suicidal for most of her life, but told Renee she was fine and so Renee never worried about her. Touched by her honesty, Bree told her about Mary Alice and then admitted how grateful she was that Renee had saved her life. My personal favorite moments of the show are anytime the ladies have personal moments, and kudos to Marcia Cross and Vanessa Williams for giving it their all emotionally and successfully pulling off a scene that was heartfelt, touching and believable.
Lynette thanks Tom for being so supportive and surprisingly, Tom seems touched by this, even offering to bring a pizza over later for movie night. Despite the fact these two will probably never get a nice reconciliation, it was a sweet moment given all the hurt they’ve encountered so far this season. Carlos is upset that Gabrielle has dragged him to the funeral since there are cops everywhere, and his fears are confirmed when one recognizes him and asks if he remembers coming into the station ranting about a confession — something about beating someone with a candlestick. Though Gabrielle manages to diffuse the situation, both are still on edge.
Tom later shows up with pizza night like he promised, and for a brief moment, it was nice to see a touch of the old Scavo magic we’ve become accustomed to for 8 seasons. But happiness doesn’t last long, and in the second strongest scene of the night, Tom tells Lynette that he likes Jane because she doesn’t criticize things like Lynette does. When Lynette defends herself, Tom apologizes and tells her that he shouldn’t have compared her. Lynette seems to accept the fact that they’re happy together, and tells him that he should go to Paris with her. When Tom asks if he’ll still have his family, Lynette promises him that he will.
Mike wakes up and finds Susan trying to leave for the second day in a row. When he tries to stop her again, Susan finally tells her why she feels so guilty — she remembers the phone that went off when they buried Gabrielle’s stepfather, and she knows that he has a family. She needs to find out if they’re okay, because it’s the only way she’ll get closure. Bold move, Susan. Mike lets her go, albeit hesitantly, and I’m extremely curious as to how this is all going to turn out.
As the episode comes to a close, everyone seems to be in a better place emotionally but something tells me that the Housewives won’t be feeling better for long. And as Bree walks out of her house to check the mail, she finds another letter. This one simply reads, ‘you’re welcome.’
What did you think of the episode? I personally thought it was a strong return for the show, which has been pulling out all the stops this season. Who do you think the mysterious stranger leaving notes is? What do you think of Susan’s new ‘mission?’With only 5 months left until the series finale, I can’t wait to see how this all ends up.
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