Desperate Housewives: Fire and Lies

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

After a much-needed mini vacation, (both of) my readers will be glad to know that I'm now back to planting myself in front of the TV and, later, planting myself in front of my computer to write about it.
Following a week off due to the American Music Awards (I think turkey and fierceness from Beyonce's performance were the two main leftovers from last week), "Desperate Housewives" came back with an uneven episode that picked up right after The Great White Horse Fire of 2008 (ok, so no one's calling it that but me). The episode had some good dramatic moments, a pair of overly sitcom-y storylines and yet another completely infuriating development involving the most annoying Housewife.

If you've watched this show in the past three years, you know I'm talking about Susan.
The episode opened with the women of Wisteria Lane visiting their loved ones at the hospital (where it appeared that mostly the men got injured), where Susan eventually discovered — due to some macadamia cookie-related detective work — that Mike was seeing one of her friends. When she tasted the same cookie at Katherine's house, she realized it was Katherine that Mike was seeing, and not Susan's other friend with the "booby" shirt.

The only thing more annoying than watching Susan storm off in a huff like a child, was watching Mike, Katherine and everyone else go out of their way to tip toe around Susan's feelings. I get that Susan and Katherine are friends, but Mike and Katherine's relationship started well after Mike and Susan's ended. Yes, it's weird and, yes, Susan would rather that her ex-husband NOT date one of her good friends, but Mike and Katherine are not doing ANYTHING wrong. Thank God a half-awake Bree was there to hit Susan with a healthy dose of honesty about how Susan ended her marriage with Mike, despite the fact that she clearly still loves him.

I remember how Susan was the heart of the show when it started or at least the one we rooted for. I don't understand what Teri Hatcher did to the writers to have them make her character increasingly immature, annoying and unbearable (although she WAS right about how macadamia cookies trick you into thinking they're white chocolate chip). It seems like the show is headed for a Susan and Mike reunion, but, at this point, I like Mike with Katherine. Or it could just be that I don't want Susan with anyone until she stops acting like such a psycho. It's not a good sign that a sleep-deprived Bree is ten times smarter and more reasonable than Susan.

The reason Bree was sleep-deprived was because Orson's nasal injury during the fire caused him to snore. This was one of those sitcom-y plots I was talking about that have been done to death. I suppose this one had a "Desperate Housewives" twist in that there was an attempted drugging and that, eventually, Bree got her way over the increasingly emasculated Orson. Marcia Cross and Kyle McLachlan are better than this stuff, but they still sold it. Still, as far as drug-induced craziness on this show goes, I prefer Lynette's game of charades after some pot brownies.

Of course, Lynette was in a much more serious mood last night. She was in full-on protective mother mode after finding out the police's number one suspect in the fire was her son Porter. First, she lied to the police about hearing her son threaten the club owner's life, then she secretly gave Anne a wad of money (apparently whoever bought the pizzeria paid in cash) for her and her baby to go away (only there was no baby). Finally, after imploring her son to be completely honest with her, she lied to his face when he asked if she knew anything about Anne's whereabouts.

I know I've been tough on Lynette this season (when's Felicity Huffman going to get to play something light again?) and I realize the scene was set up to make her out to be a hypocrite, but I'm kind of totally ok with her lying to her son. I'm not saying that parents should lie to their kids as a rule, but sometimes it really is the best course of action. What would be gained from Lynette telling Porter the truth? He'd probably hate Lynette and run off to try to find Anne, which isn't good for anybody. I'm also completely ok with her lying to the police, but that's because we all know Porter's innocent.

Then again, the police don't know that. It's going to be even harder to believe that after local hero Dave Williams put the blame on Porter. I continue to be fascinated by this character's actions. I mean, Dave laying the blame on Porter in itself isn't exactly shocking. What is interesting is how messed up this character is (the scene where he asked Mike to be his good friend) and what is surprising is that he continues to express guilt for his actions. He appeared to feel bad about strangling his doctor, tricking Mrs. McCluskey into earning a trip to a nursing home and, last night, he appeared to be really broken up about the seven people who died in the fire. I like that Dave isn't exactly capital e "Evil."

Not quite as interesting are the events in the Solis household. Ok, so it WAS interesting that Carlos could potentially be getting his sight back (we knew it was a matter of time). However, it wasn't exactly thrilling to watch Gabby and Carlos act out the same plot they've already done a few times this season: she frets that things aren't how they used to be, he tells her it's ok, they embrace. It's sweet, but it's repetitive. That being said, I enjoyed watching Gabby hastily exercise in the hospital and try to convince her daughters to eat healthy food.

With the Mrs. Hildebrand storyline apparently behind them, I hope there's good (and new) things ahead for this entertaining couple.

So what'd you think of this episode? Do you think we've seen the last of Anne? Wasn't the introduction of Andrew's relationship WAY too abrupt and a little too convenient? (Really? He just happens to be dating Bree and Orson's doctor?) Finally, are we sure Carlos is getting his sight back?