Desperate Housewives: What's the Secret? Recipe?

It's pretty obvious those two are going to fight at some point.

You know who I'm talking about. For the second week in a row, Dana Delany's Katherine Mayfair, the newest "lady" on the block seemingly went out of her way to infuriate alpha-female Bree.

In a bit of "culinary terrorism" as Orson called it, Katherine sneakily slipped in her own (superior) lemon meringue pie in place of Bree's after ignoring Bree's orders to bring a green salad to a luncheon for Lynette that Katherine had suggested in the first place (got all that?)

But here's the thing: as bitchy and unlikable as Katherine's character is, I'm loving her addition to the neighborhood. Mostly because now Bree (and Marcia Cross) has a worthy rival to go up against who won't back down (since Susan, Lynette and Gabby seem frequently afraid of her). I mean, why DOES Bree get to decide everything?

By the end of the episode, Bree had desperately let herself into Katherine's house in search of her secret recipe, but instead overheard a fight between Katherine and her daughter, who was asking too many questions about her dad. Tune in next week when Bree tells the rest of the ladies about this bit of gossip.

Speaking of the other women, Felicity Huffman (as usual) turned in the best performance as Lynette bravely underwent chemo. A lot more bravely than Tom, at least, who was comically emotional and excused from his duties as chemo partner. Eventually, the other ladies stepped in, except for Gabby, who seemed hesitant about visiting Lynette in the hospital.

Eventually we found out (kind of out of nowhere) that Gabby's dad had died of cancer and that's why she was being distant toward her friend. Like I said, this storyline seemed a bit out of leftfield, but I mostly just enjoyed seeing Huffman and Eva Longoria-Parker in scenes together. Lynette and Gabby just don't hang that much. Also, I liked the scene at the end with all the ladies putting on their very best fake smiles in the hospital bedroom.

I wish I were seeing a lot less of my boy Carlos and Edie. After a funny opening scene with Carlos hiding his affair with Gabby from Edie using a little "Back to the Future" skateboard action, we got more drawn-out, repetitive scenes of Edie blackmailing Carlos into staying with her. Why is Carlos such a punk now? Why is Edie so clingy and when and why did she decide to stop sleeping around? Did Carlos just hire a hitman? What?! I'm thinking maybe they should've killed off Edie at the end of last year.

Meanwhile, Teri Hatcher's breasts are out of control. That's pretty much the gist of her storyline this week. Ok, I guess there was some stuff about (a suddenly/randomly jerky) Mike overstepping his boundaries and trying to discipline Julie by not letting her go to a party and Susan ending up at said party in a bustier that displayed her pregnancy-enhanced bust. I mean, this stuff was undeniably dopey, but Teri Hatcher (pictured, right) handled it well and somehow made it kind of endearing. More effective, are any scenes with Susan and daughter Julie (Andrea Bowen), where it's apparent how much wiser the daughter is.

Also, can someone tell me what happened in that flashback scene with Susan, Mary Alice and Katherine? I was too distracted by how stupid Teri Hatcher looked.

So what do you think is the big mystery involving the new family? My ridiculously early prediction is that Katherine maybe killed her first husband and that's why she left the neighborhood in a hurry. Did you miss Gabby's husband Victor this week? (Me neither) Finally, was that really a hitman at the end? I'm thinking (hoping) he's something else — a more creative solution, since I'm pretty sure a hitman was almost set to kill Edie in the first season.