Desperate Housewives: Slappy Mother's Day

It's one thing when fringe characters (like Dylan) or people I don't care that much about (Mike) behave stupidly on this show. It's another when some of the show's better characters start acting like idiots.

Last night's Mother's Day-themed episode opened with annoying commentary from Mary Alice on the slap heard 'round the block (at least by Carlos and his "Daredevil"-esque hearing prowess) after Edie got smacked by Bree. During this sequence, I was mostly wondering if Mrs. McClusky was ever going to get another decent storyline.

If you recall, Bree caught Edie kissing Orson last week after she'd booted Orson out of her house and asked Edie to drive drunk Orson away. Although Edie's CLEARLY not attracted to Orson, she eventually kissed him anyway because, well that's what Edie does.

On top of slapping Edie, Bree also decided to mess with Edie's professional life as she drove away some potential clients. Edie countered with blackmail after reading the incredibly incriminating (and beautifully handwritten) note Orson had left out in the open regarding Bree's baby Benjamin really being Danielle's son. Since Bree was busted, she decided to round up her posse (Susan, Lynette and Gabby), and the four strode up the street like they were some badass action heroines (pictured, right) and announced to Edie that they'd be shunning her.

There were some things I liked about this storyline, and some things I didn't. Here's what I didn't like — Bree! I get that she's not quite ready to forgive Orson for driving over Mike, but she's been annoying self-righteous the last couple of weeks. The only reason Edie even kissed Orson in the first place was because Bree basically called Edie a slut after finding out Orson had spent the night at her place (when nothing happened). The thing that REALLY made Bree look like a bitch was preventing Orson from seeing their son, Benjamin. I get that Orson is NOT technically related to the baby, but that goofy, prim guy was more than ready to be that baby's father and, personally, I think he deserved better than to be coldly shut out.

On the other side, it was somewhat fitting that Edie's past indiscretions with other people's husbands caught up with her in the one instance where she wasn't even interested in the guy. Still, the whole "we're shunning you" thing was silly (even beyond the "badass walk" thing). I mean, how would this be different from how they treat Edie now? It's not like they're best friends. Also, all Edie wanted was muffins and to be invited to some poker games.

Although Bree is being stupid, she has some reason to be upset. Tom is just being a blind dolt. The Scavos had a doctor over to examine the family, though Lynette was under the impression the guy was there to back her up and serve as an exorcist for evil Kayla.

I'm liking the way the Kayla/Lynette thing has built. At first, you figured Kayla was just acting out because of Lynette's history with Kayla's mom, but what's become apparent (after Kayla taunted Lynette and threatened her youngest daughter) is that the child is evil. Not only was Lynette right in slapping her, she should have, to paraphrase Robin Williams in "Good Will Hunting", ended her.

Great job by both actresses in pulling this off, and I can't wait to see where they go with this next week when the police seemingly get involved. Also, I've never been married, but I'm pretty sure one of the golden rules is that you should probably side with your wife above anyone else, right Tom?

Tom's not the only one that needs to review that rule, as Mike's mom came to visit last night. Although Susan's nightmare of a mother-in-law got some laughs as she continually dissed whory Susan's lack of cooking and housekeeping skills, the storyline stretches logic. I did NOT buy that Mike's mom was related to him and she looked like she wandered away from the set of "Designing Women." Also, what son tells their mom ALL that stuff their marriage? I can see complaining about Susan's snoring, but NOT about her sleeping naked! I'd probably fake labor to get out of that woman's presence. In fact, the situation would be so stressful I'd probably go into forced labor a month early.

I was glad to see that Susan had her baby in this episode, freeing her up to do something less predictable for the season finale next week than the clichéd delivery sequence. I was also weirdly glad to see Mike being a dolt again (I didn't recognize the well-adjusted, interesting Mike I'd seen the past two weeks).

Still, the most reliably stupid character on the show got a wakeup call yesterday. Sort of. Dylan finally saw her father Wayne for the drunken, woman beater he is after Katherine revealed to him that she'd cheated on him and Dylan wasn't his daughter. The only problem is that the girl we know as Dylan is not the same scarred little girl Wayne knows as his daughter. To be honest, I'd kinda forgotten about the whole "Dylan didn't remember anything about living on Wisteria Lane" subplot that strongly suggested she was a different person from the girl that grew up in that neighborhood. Hopefully we'll get some answers and some more dark and scary Wayne next week. Gary Cole's bringing an element of danger to the show I haven't seen in a while.

Finally, there was Gabby and Carlos, who discovered their new tenant and friend is also a not-too-bright cocaine dealer who leaves her stash under her bed. As (apparently) the world's shortest fashion model, Gabby recognized the white substance as drugs (and not flour, as she hoped) and the two went to the police, who had been targeting Ellie for a while. At first, it seemed sort of silly for Gabby to hesitate in turning Ellie in, just because she made the house (and Carlos) more manageable. Then again, when you think about it, Gabby doesn't have too much in the way of friends or family besides Carlos, so I was able to buy her desperation to hang on to one of the few friends she has.

So what'd you think of this episode? Was Lynette wrong to put her hands on Kayla? Is Gabby going to turn Celie in? Is Edie gone for good? Finally, has it really been 11 years since "Good Will Hunting" (and the last time Robin Williams was REALLY good in a movie)?