Desperate Housewives – Recap & Review – Assassins

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Desperate Housewives
Assassins

Original Air Date: Jan 2, 2011

Annette – Associate Staff Writer
annette@thetwocentscorp.com

Happy New Year everyone!  It is not, however such a happy new year on Wisteria Lane.  Despite being shot in what seemed like the heart, Paul Young is alive and well, and I’m sure plotting his revenge.

The clean up process has begun after last month’s (last week in show time) riot and the housewives are trying to put their lives back together.

Grace is gone and Gaby is trying desperately to make up to Juanita by taking her to a Madame Alexander type doll shop to get her a doll for her birthday.  The shop owner brings out a beautiful doll and Juanita is finally happy, but when Gaby goes to take her picture with her phone, Juanita sees Grace’s picture and she storms out of the shop.  Gaby and Carols take Juanita to therapy and the therapist tells them they must rid Grace of their lives to help Juanita heal.  All pictures, artwork, anything reminding them of Grace must be thrown out.   Gaby complies, but is heartbroken.  To help herself heal, she goes back to the creepy doll shop and buys a doll for herself – one that looks a lot like Grace.

Susan was badly trampled during the riot and at the hospital the doctors had to remove one of her kidneys.  Unfortunately, the remaining kidney is badly deformed and only functioning at 5%.  The doctor wants to start her on dialysis and put her on the transplant list.  Susan wants to try alternative medicine instead of dialysis, insisting that she feels fine.  MJ is scared that she’s dying, so to prove she’s OK, she offers to walk him to the cafeteria for ice cream.  Of course she falls and starts having a seizure.  This is her wakeup call and she is going to start the dialysis. As a side note, I had to laugh at the extra standing near MJ who didn’t even turn around when MJ started screaming.  Where do they find these people?   When Bree, Lynette and Gaby visit, she asks them to help Mike take care of MJ if anything happens to her.  Teri Hatcher is getting her own show next fall (to be produced by Marc Cherry) so is this the beginning of the end of Susan?

Susan has a moment of clarity and tells Renee that she’s not going to tell Lynette about her and Tom.  She thinks Renee should do it herself.  Tom doesn’t want her to tell and it seems like Renee’s not going to until Lynette brings her a plate of her favorite cookies.  Renee starts crying and tells Lynette the truth.  Lynette is of course furious, but is forced to ride home with Renee from the restaurant.  In the car Lynette asks Renee not to tell Tom that Lynette knows.  When Tom gets home, Lynette says nothing but offers Tom a cup of boiling hot chocolate that she tells him is cold – he burns his tongue.  According to the preview for next week’s episode, this covert torture of Tom is going to continue.  Lynette’s not really helping her reputation of being the bitchy wife.

As Keith is moving into Bree’s house, Orson shows up.  He claims his girlfriend broke up with him and he needs somewhere to stay until he can find an apartment.  Bree, ever the perfect hostess, agrees to let him stay. She makes him is favorite dinner (coq au vain) and Keith has a temper tantrum because they’re not having sloppy joes.  Orson makes snide comments about how he is dressed (white tank top) and Keith’s mature reaction is to fling mashed potatoes at him.  A major food fight ensues.  Bree goes to Orson’s ex asking her to let him stay with her even though she broke up with him.  Judy tells Bree that Orson left her because he’s still in love with Bree.  Despite this information, Bree allows Orson to continue to stay at her house.  When Keith threatens to leave (for the ten thousandth time) she tackles him in her yard (full of steer manure) and tells him she’s not in love with Orson, she’s changed – obviously, because the old Bree would never sit in manure.  I’m not sure I like the new Bree.  I know I don’t like Keith.  He’s a spoiled brat who threatens to leave every time something doesn’t go quite his way.

Paul Young’s not dead, so who was the lousy shot?   We were promised that we would find out this week, and as the episode started it looked as if Mike was the shooter.  He’s back from Alaska and was apparently talking to Felicia Tillman who seems to have bribed Mike to shoot him.  However, this was not the case.  Felicia did call Mike and ask him to kill Paul, but Mike told her no.  I didn’t really think it would be him.  He had the chance to shoot him once, way back in season one and he didn’t do it then, why would he do it now?  While investigating the shooting, the Fairview detectives discover that Felicia Tillman is Paul’s mother-in-law.  They question him as to why he didn’t let them know, considering their somewhat rocky history.  He lies and says that they’ve forgiven each other.  However, he had that murderous look in his eyes when they left.

I have to say that I did not like this episode.  I’m beyond annoyed that Paul is not dead (as I’m sure a lot of others are) and we have no idea who shot him.  No mention was made of the ex-cons in the halfway house so I can only assume they all moved out.  The Bree and Keith story is tired and he needs to go away soon.  Hopefully Orson will hang around and make Bree see that she deserves better than a spoiled brat (and this has nothing to do with the age difference – I’m all for May-December romances, being in one myself).  I’m not thrilled with the Lynette/Tom torture story although the previews for next week did look kind of funny, we’ll see.  So what did you all think?  Leave me your two cents!