Desperate Housewives: A League of Her Own

Well it didn't take long to find out whether Lynette's family survived the tornado-induced house collapse.

In the first (and apparently only) new episode of 2008 we got an episode that was absolutely hilarious at times, but left me with mixed feelings. I think it's mostly due to the fact that, while a major cliffhanger was resolved, this was probably the last new episode of the season.

Usually the last episode of a season either leaves you with a cliffhanger or wraps up a major storyline. This episode, while very funny, did neither, and was kind of an odd way to leave the show until who knows when.

And the hour got off to a semi-slow/predictable start when it was revealed Lynette's entire family survived the tornado (despite what insensitive pessimist Edie thought), but Ida, the old lady we didn't know that well, didn't.

I have to admit — I was one of those cold people who was hoping for a major shocker and that, at least, one member of Lynette's family was dead (she has WAY too many kids anyway, right?). So, initially, I was a bit disappointed.

Fortunately, the writers did something very smart and decided to try to build up Ida's character. Not only was it revealed she was part of the All-American Women's Baseball League (I love "A League of Their Own"!), but it turns out that she sacrificed herself during the fire to save the Scavos. Once again, what could've seemed like a manipulative and totally random turn of events was saved by the strong acting of Felicity Huffman (pictured, left) and Kathryn Joosten (Huffman, particularly, is making a strong play for another Emmy), as well as terrific writing. I loved the scene with Ida's uncaring family poaching her valuable stuff and making her urn ride in the cupholder, as well as the scene with Lynette being chased by the cops as she scattered Ida's ashes in the baseball field. "Run, Jane Doe, run!" HAS to be right up there for line of the night.

In fact, I put it up there with anything Orson said during the Van de Kamp/Hodge dinner with the heartbroken gay contractor. The guy Bob and Lee recommended (who is apparently only a 3 — I kinda like how full of themselves they are) to Bree so he could rebuild her house quit because of a bad breakup. So the logical thing to do is to boost his confidence by setting him up with Andrew.

I'm really enjoying the kindler, gentler Andrew. He's not trying to destroy his mom anymore, but he's no angel either, so he negotiated his way into a 60-inch plasma TV. The highlight was Bree and Orson shamelessly pushing Andrew on the guy. Orson's lines were particularly funny ("Oh when I think of the fun you two could have boot shopping" "Andrew has a mesh T-shirt that would bring your ex to tears.")

In the end, though, they were thwarted by Susan, who, along with Julie had become accustomed to Bree's cooking and hemming while she stayed with them. At first this seemed like another characteristically nutty thing for Susan to do (and I was ok with that), but her nice, touching scene with Bree in which she explained that she felt overwhelmed with Mike in rehab and a baby on the way was very well done. To further drive the point home, they finally had Susan actually look like she was pregnant.

Then there was Gaby, who started off the episode at Victor's funeral where she was informed by his father that she would be getting nothing. Not really sure why this was a shocker. Was Gaby really brazen enough to expect anything? (Oh wait, she probably is). After all, this is a woman who later went to Carlos' business partner's funeral to try to find a backup file that would give them access to all the money he has stashed in offshore accounts. Once again, Eva Longoria Parker (still getting used to typing that) worked the silly material as well as anyone could, but her scene at the funeral was still a bit overdone.

Also, didn't Gaby wonder at all why Carlos' eyes were bandaged throughout last night's episode? Of course, it wasn't a huge shocker to discover then that he was blind as a result of the blow to the head during the tornado. Since Longoria Parker and Ricardo Antonio Chavira are both really good, I'm sure they'll make this work, but I'm not really too thrilled with this turn of events. With Victor dead, it seems like the writers are just throwing up ridiculous obstacles for these two to be together and happy (I mean, the fact that their poor is enough and much more interesting). Also, does anyone out there think this is actually permanent?

So what'd you think of this episode? Are you also starting to be over the whole Mayfair mystery? I mean, we still know — what exactly? That Katherine lied? Whatever. I like Dana Delaney better when she's interacting with the other "Housewives."

Is there ANY chance Carlos is blind for more than a handful of episodes? Did you like how Bob and Lee's hideous fountain was shown to be destroyed? (I did). Weren't they a little harsh on that contractor guy? I thought, for an old guy, he was at least a 5. Finally, since he was missing last night, and the episode was very funny, do we NEED to bring Mike back?