DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES: City on Fire

Hey guys! It’s Tricia back for the big November sweeps episode of Desperate Housewives. A lot went down this episode, so without further ado, let’s jump in.

Andrea Bowen returns this episode as Julie, who’s now a 24-year-old grad student. Julie brings home quite a surprise for Susan; a 40 year old college professor! Susan is none too happy about this romance and when Lloyd tells her that he’s planning to propose, Susan is horrified. She does her best to stop him, even going so far as to obnoxiously cut in on Lloyd and Julie while their dancing. I thought this scene was hilarious. Watching Susan awkwardly dance next to Lloyd and Julie was very amusing. Shortly after, Susan spills the beans about the proposal, and Julie is horrified. It turns out she has no intentions of getting married now, or ever. I thought it was unbelievable that Julie would be quite that jaded; being a bit more cautious would make sense but not being as much jaded as she is. Susan was being quite the hypocrite too; when she was attacking Dave for being married three times, I wanted to point out to her that’s she’s been married three time as well! It seems pretty convenient Susan doesn’t seem to remember that she married Carl twice. I was glad to see Julie again and Steven Weber as her boyfriend was a great surprise. Unfortunately, I don’t think either will be sticking around.

Virginia is back to intruding into Gabby and Carlos’s family life after both getting Carlos rehired at the country club and making Gabby and Carlos the sole heirs of her entire fortune. Basically, she’s buying their family, and Gabby’s allowing it to happen. This isn’t at all surprising, since we all know that money is one of Gabby’s favorite things. Gabby puts her foot down, however, when Virginia starts butting into the girls’ education. Virginia takes Gabby out of her will after this. I was proud of Gabby when she saved Virginia from the fire; she could have had millions if she’d left her. This is why Gabby is one of my favorite characters; she can be shallow and fun but she also has a lot of integrity and loyalty for her family.

Bree is being interviewed by a reporter for a feature on her cookbook. She tries to put on the perfect housewife façade but that goes to pot when Orson’s parole officer calls. Bree then has to prevent a juicy story about her past from being published. She successfully does so after confronting the reporter at the club. It’s pretty obvious that Bree is trying to make it look like she’s perfect in order to make up for parts of her life that she feels are out of control; Orson’s prison sentence and Andrew’s sexuality among them. I was excited to see Rachel Harris again, even though this wasn’t the biggest role for her. I’ve missed her since Notes From the Underbelly got canceled.

Lynette finds out that Porter got Anne pregnant and goes to confront her. Anne admits to the affair and tries to explain it. Her husband walks in on her confession and tells Lynette to leave so he and Anne can “talk”. Lynette does so, even though Anne clearly doesn’t want to be left alone. Lynette soon realizes her mistake and goes back to help Anne. This was one of the most disturbing scenes I’ve seen on television in a while. For a network TV show, it was very graphic. The storyline is very interesting though; the twins now have a clear role in the overall plot.

Of course, the main event of the episode was the fire at the club. It all starts when Dave is confronted by his therapist and his accusations cause him to panic. Dave strangles the therapist and lights him on fire to cover his crime. The entire club catches on fire and in the rush to get out several are injured including Carlos. Jackson gets trapped in the bathroom and Mike goes back into rescue him. Jackson is gone already, however, and Mike passes out due to smoke inhalation. Dave runs in to rescue him because he’s “not done with him yet”. It’s pretty obvious that Dave is after Mike, although we still have to find out why. I personally don’t believe his story about his brother being murdered in prison; I still think the woman killed by Mike and Susan in the car crash was his wife. The fire was done very well; it was believable (for the most part) and dramatic. I also like that the fire lasted only one episode. The three and four episode sweeps stunt episodes are way too much for me.

I’m really excited for next week; it looks like Carlos could be getting his sight back and we find out for sure who died in the fire. I’m thinking it was probably Lloyd. What do you guys think?

Tricia is your Desperate Housewives girl this year. She’s from upstate New York and is currently a freshman in college. She’s also a hardcore TV fan; check out her homemade TV schedule: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27093551@N08/2782207387/