Desperate Housewives: Welcome (back) to the neighborhood

I'd kinda forgotten about this show. I suspect I'm not the only one.

Not that I'd forgotten that there was a show called "Desperate Housewives" on, but this show lost so much of its heat from its first season thanks to a mostly disastrous second year (and the emergence of shows "Grey's Anatomy" for one) that people just kinda stopped talking about it around the watercooler. I mean, there's an actual watercooler in my job and it's been pitifully quiet over there.

As I watched the recap of the events leading up to last season's finale, I realized how much I'd forgotten — and this coming from someone who wrote a column on each of those Season 3 episodes. It's a shame because this show, in my opinion, came "back" last year, and rediscovered most of its season one quality.

One thing I DID remember was the cliffhanger involving Edie hanging herself after being dumped by Carlos. This was resolved right away as it was revealed Edie was just staging the whole affair so Carlos would walk in, save her life and stay with her out of guilt. Personally, I thought Edie was going to die and become the new dead narrator, but I was happy with how this scene played out (with Edie almost killing herself for real). Still, I think it would've been even better (and taken REAL balls) for the writers to have Edie REALLY kill herself by accident after staging the whole thing and having her become the dead narrator anyway. What better way to open the season?

Well, I guess a better way would be to introduce a few new characters that we actually give a damn about. That would be Dana Delaney's Katherine Mayfair (pictured, left) and her new family, including gynecologist husband (Nathan Fillion, playing his second OB-GYN in a row after "Waitress") and their seemingly forgetful daughter, who seems to be in the center of a new mystery.

Now the difference between this mystery involving a new neighbor, and the Applewhite debacle from two years ago with a mentally challenged child in the basement no one cared about is that Katherine was instantly linked to many of the main characters in a single episode. Her and Lynette were friends before Katherine left the neighborhood under suspicious circumstances. Most promisingly though is an inevitable rival between Katherine and Bree (note: Dana Delaney was originally offered the part of Bree, but turned it down — oops).

Speaking of Bree, it was more apparent last night how much the show missed her during her real-life pregnancy last year. Marcia Cross had the best scenes as she and her family continue to pretend she's having a baby to cover for her daughter's "bastard" child. Not only did she have the funniest moments (nearly assaulting a pushy "old lady" at a department store), but she had one of the more heartfelt scenes when she revealed her family's dignity as her motivation for trying to fool everyone.

I'm not really sure I understood Lynette's motivations for fooling everyone and hiding the fact that she was undergoing chemo. I get that she's a strong proud woman, but I just didn't buy her hiding something THIS serious from her friends and it seemed like an easy setup for the big scene where she pulls off her wig in front of everyone. Fortunately, this all happened last night and wasn't dragged out over a few weeks and, as usual, Felicity Huffman did more with the material than most other actresses could.

Eva Longoria-Parker made her debut on the show and I enjoyed her much more than I enjoyed Eva Longoria toward the end of last year. Again, it's probably because I love the characters of Gabby and Carlos together, but Longoria-Parker (am I really going to have to refer to her that way from now on) shined in her scenes last night, as she plotted leaving her husband and running away with Carlos. It'd be nice if I (and Gabby) were a bit more conflicted about her leaving her husband, but he's just too much of a sleaze.

Meanwhile, the happy couple of Susan and Mike (though not happy enough for Susan's sake) were a lot less boring than I thought. The writers came up with a pretty nice curveball for Teri Hatcher's character because I feared that Susan and Mike together would be snoozeville. First, there was a funny menopause scare, and, later, the bombshell — Susan's pregnant. I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out because, for some reason, I really can't see Susan spending the entire season being pregnant and simply having a child in the end. Then again, the show's already played the miscarriage card (when Gabby lost her baby), so stay tuned.

So what'd you think of last night's episode? Is the Mayfair daughter really a different person? How long will Carlos have to stick with Edie now that she knows about his apparently not-quite-legal off-shore accounts? Finally, exactly how many old ladies do you think Bree has assaulted (Orson implied it was many)?