Well we knew this episode was coming.As soon as the show's action jumped to five years in the future, we knew we'd get the inevitable episode that helped fill in that gap. I'm only surprised the show's creators and ABC didn't make an even bigger deal out of this. I mean they didn't even wait till November sweeps.
Another thing that was surprising — how great the episode was!
Last night's installment managed to answer some questions we've all had about the time-jump in a way that helped explain certain characters' present behavior. More importantly, the episode didn't compromise the current season's forward narrative momentum one bit. Just because we were looking back didn't mean everything else had to come to a complete stop.
I knew this episode would be a winner right from the clever opening sequence, which featured each of the Wisteria Lane couples in various states of conflict and culminated with Mrs. McCluskey attacking Dave with a baseball bat. Eventually we were shown the cause of all this craziness, but structuring the episode in which we look into the past by opening with the climax was a brilliant move.
Since there was so much great stuff last night, let's get the not-so-great stuff out of the way. I don't feel like we learned anything new or surprising about Susan and Jackson.
From the start of the season, it was apparent that Jackson was more into Susan than vice versa. Last night we saw how Jackson came over to paint Susan's house (not a metaphor) shortly after she'd expressed second thoughts about her divorce to Mike (not surprising) and both agreed to keep their relationship casual. Unfortunately, Jackson's hair isn't the only girly about him. Back in the present, he was asking Susan if he could move in and pressing her for a commitment (my girl Erica called him a girl first, not me). Susan, obviously afraid to lose someone again, couldn't commit and the two apparently went their separate ways, though I'm pretty sure we haven't seen the last of Jackson (or his girly bangs). Maybe he can kiss Katherine some more.
I've been complaining that the show hasn't given Dana Delaney anything to do this season (after she graciously saved this show last year). Apparently, most of her accomplishments have come off-screen as we learned that Katherine was the one who helped put Bree back together after Mrs. Van De Hodge fell apart and hit the bottle while Orson was in prison. The hangover scenes Bree were, both, funny and sad because Bree is usually so well put-together.
In the present, Orson couldn't understand why Bree was so insistent on sparing Katherine's feelings at the party by not announcing Orson's partnership (which was always a bad idea). Orson's plan to announce the partnership to passive-aggressive Katherine at a party where she wouldn't make a scene was funny, and I felt for the guy, who's had a rough go of it. However, he took it too far when he threatened to divorce Bree, and I was glad to see these two very proud people actually communicate with each other. Once Orson understood what Katherine had done, he backed off and let her decide when (and if) he'd be fit to become partner. Meanwhile, the audience got an explanation as to why Katherine was so (oddly) violently opposed to Orson becoming a partner last week, but it still doesn't explain why Bree was so willing to toss Katherine to the wayside professionally earlier this year.
By contrast, we've always known that Tom is an overgrown kid, so I didn't really think his midlife crisis-y behavior (convertible, pizza place, garage band) needed an explanation. We still got one after we found out Tom had nearly died after an electrical accident at Scavo's. The accident inspired Tom to seize the day.
I've been pretty harsh on Lynette in this column for being a huge buzz kill the last couple of weeks, but Tom's decision to sell the pizza place (without consulting her), buy an RV and travel across the country was too much. I was 100 percent on her side last night when she pointed out the impracticality of chasing all his childish dream (she didn't even mention how selfish it is). She was also right on point when she said that the pizza place WAS his dream, and he can't chase something else every time he's bored. It's one thing to jam out in a band from time to time at your house, but it's another to uproot your entire family because you're getting old. It's too damn much.
Meanwhile, there were WAY too many funny lines courtesy of Gabby (involving her period, doctor slapping, bionic sperm and blind piano playing) after she feared she'd gotten pregnant with her third child. It wasn't exactly a surprise to find out that Carlos had lied to Gabby about having a vasectomy. The only problem I saw with this storyline was that Carlos' now-signature sappy speech at the end about wanting a boy rang hollow given the fact that what he did was COMPLETELY f---ed up!
Also falling into the "COMPLETELY f---ed up" category was Dave (pictured, right) setting Mrs. McCluskey up to be sent to a nursing home. We knew this was coming after he brought the idea up to Edie a few weeks ago. Still, the scene after Dave broke into her house, moved stuff around and caused Mrs. M. to act crazy in front of everyone was excellently played by Kathryn Joosten (looking sad, confused and lost — not what she usually plays on this show) and Neal McDonough (that creepy smile in the middle of her freakout was great).
The crazy thing is that I actually believed Dave when he told McCluskey that he was sorry for what he did. I actually believe that he didn't have anything personal against her and only did what he did because she was threatening to keep him from accomplishing what he came to Wisteria Lane to do.
So what'd you think of this episode? Am I the only one who kinda forgot about Bree being an alcoholic? Is the show going to do ANYTHING with Bob and Lee other than occasionally deliver gay-themed jokes with phrases like "cavity searches"? Finally, how many boob jokes could YOU have gotten from Edie's dress?
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