Desperate Housewives: Bad Omens

As it builds towards what's supposed to be a series-shaking season finale, "Desperate Housewives" delivered what I thought was the best episode of the year.

While the hour wasn't perfect, it had the welcome return of a few characters we hadn't seen in a while, good outings for characters who'd been a waste lately (Edie and Mike) plenty of sex (with PBS), drugs (Gabby and Carlos' new tenant) and (sort of) rock and roll (Lee looking like the lost member of "Wham!")

So let's get the one weak link out of the way right at the top. In a show full of characters who do dumb things in the name of soap opera plots, Dylan has to be the most relentlessly stupid person on TV right now (since "Heroes" isn't on, making Mohinder ineligible).

Apparently, she thinks it's a good idea to sneak away in the middle of the night and meet up with her (admittedly woman-beating) dad behind her mom's back, even though he totally creeped her out when they first met, and Gary Cole continued to bring the creepy last night. I thought Katherine was going to blow Wayne — who's CLEARLY up to no good — away last night after inviting him into her home and standing up to him. She probably should've, but that probably would've pushed stupid Dylan away. I'm guessing we're going to have to wait until Wayne physically assaults Dylan before Katherine can shoot him.

Dylan's stupidity aside, the hour highlighted a drug dealer, a recovering drug addict, and a pair of arsonists. However, none of them could hold a candle to Lynette's adoptive (and Tom's illegitimate) daughter Kayle, who was revealed last night to be a demon.

Well, not officially, but after she coolly revealed that it was her idea for the twins to set Rick's place on fire, and then easily manipulated Lynette by threatening to go to the police, Kayla (pictured, right) stepped up and joined the ranks of Damien in "The Omen" and, um, Macaulay Culkin in "The Good Son" as "evil kids that need to be destroyed immediately." I mean, she even convinced one of the twins (honestly, I can never tell which one) to jump off the roof.

That child is pure evil. Sure, the twins apparently wanted to use dynamite to blow Rick's place up, but that Road Runner plot, while unhealthy, was so cartoonish, that the twins would never be able to pull it off. Kayla came up with a realistic course of action then watched the puppets dance for her. The whole Kayla-hates-Lynette subplot had been on the backburner for a while, so it was good to see it burst back onto the surface. I'm looking forward to watching Lynette devise a way to vanquish Kayla (I suggest a beheading, to make sure she doesn't come back), since Tom is being spectacularly stupid about the whole thing (since Kayla is "his").

Kayla had some competition in the "despicable character" competition last night, as Susan's husband Karl made his return. I always enjoyed the character because he's about 25 times more interesting than Mike, and I think Richard Burgi and Teri Hatcher have real chemistry as exes. While Burgi delivered some laughs, I think Karl was WAY too much on the nasty side, parading around his young law professor wife, and calling Susan fat and old. Then again, the character was so infuriating that you can see how Susan could tear herself away from that chimichanga and focus all her energy on trying to one-up him, when she's got a good reliable man by her side just then.

Indeed, Mike had another strong episode in a row, even making me laugh a few times after Susan made him dress up for Lamaze class, hence I'll not make fun of his acting.

While Susan unintentionally does her best to put a strain on her solid (if not as sexy as Karl's) marriage, Bree looked like she had every intention of walking away from Orson. I actually thought she was being kind of stupid and acting unnecessarily superior towards Orson. Sure, we all know she's obsessed with appearances (and how embarrassing is it to have your husband try to kill your friends husband), but I wasn't buying her demanding that Orson turn himself into the police and not really believing that he's sorry (which he clearly is). I guess I missed the part where she demanded Andrew turn himself into the police for driving drunk and killing Carlos' mom in season 1. Or I guess the jail stint Bree did after turning herself in for poisoning and killing George the pharmacist, or letting her ex-husband Rex suffer for a while when he had a heart attack. She needs to get over herself.

Fortunately, this storyline was rescued when Edie drove up in her convertible and ridiculous hat to take Orson in and rescue him from a depressing sounding divorcee book club. Of course, when he spent the night on Edie's couch, Bree assumed the worst, since Edie DOES pick at other women's leftovers. I loved Edie recoiling and saying it'd be "like having sex with PBS" and later hinting that she thought he was gay. I also like that Edie's nasty side is making a bit of a return — she's not hitting at Orson because she's attracted to him, she's doing it just to mess with Bree because Bree insulted her. And I'm strangely ok with that.

Finally, Bob and Lee turned up on Wisteria Lane again (maybe they were away on a gay cruise or something). Gabby enlisted their help (because gays are theatrical!) when she suspected that her new tenant (Justine Bateman) was a prostitute. She wanted the butcher of the pair (first thought to be Bob, but it turns out that it was Lee, who played Tony in "West Side Story") to try to solicit the art student/tattoo artist/would-be tramp, resulting in Lee getting a few kicks to the stomach. I mean, how could that plan have possibly failed? It was only slightly less ridiculous than the twins' "Let's use dynamite to blow up Rick's" concoction. Either way, it turns out that the new tenant is merely a lying drug dealer who is probably pretty dangerous.

Still, it was a great idea to have Bob and Lee (who crack me up consistently) paired up with Gabby. Hopefully that won't be the last time we see that trio together.

So what'd you think of this episode? What would you do if you were Kayla's parents? Are Edie and Orson going to become a couple? Finally, do you think Carlos gets his sight back this season or next? (Honestly, how much longer can they milk this?)