Sunday night’s episode of Desperate Housewives was called “Gossip” and dealt mostly with the various ways that neighborhood gossip interferes with people’s lives. We got lots of interaction between the wives (which is always a good thing), plus a nice mention of Bree. Anyway, here’s a more detailed look at what happened in episode 3×20.
Lynette/Tom: Tom is becoming more mobile after six weeks of bed rest, so one night he surprises Lynette at the pizza joint — just as she and Rick were about to head out to a restaurant event together. Lynette pulls herself together quickly and doesn’t let on that she’s disappointed to see her family, but Kayla sees her talking to Rick and gets the feeling that something’s up between those two.
She opens her big mouth to Tom, saying that she thinks Lynette “likes” Rick. No, likes likes him, ya know? So Tom puts the feelers out there and tells Lynette that he thinks it’s time for him to get back to the restaurant. That way, they’ll be able to cut Rick loose and enjoy more of the profits for themselves. Lynette skirts around the issue, saying Tom needs to rest some more so he doesn’t injure himself again. Plus, why would they fire Rick when he’s the one that’s responsible for their new-and-improved menu in the first place? At that point, Tom realizes that Lynette is acting strange and that maybe he has something to worry about after all.
Susan/Ian/Mike: Both Ian and Mike continue to try to get back with Susan, but she refuses to see either one of them. The strain of her personal life is causing her to stress out over little things, and she flips out on a guy in a mall parking lot. She ends up assaulting him, then has to go to court-ordered therapy.
While in therapy, Susan decides that she really does love Ian and that she wants to marry him. She goes and breaks the news to Mike first, then calls Ian to celebrate. Just before they head upstairs, Susan checks her phone messages and hears one from Mike (he’s congratulating the couple and telling them he’ll stay out of their way). She listens to it again, not knowing that Ian is standing behind her. At that point, Ian knows for sure that Susan will never be his, so he breaks up with her.
Later on, Susan hears from a neighbor that Mike packed up his truck and moved away — all without stopping to say goodbye to her.
Gabby/Carlos/Edie: Gabby has an engagement party to celebrate her upcoming nuptials with Victor, but Edie ruins her night by admitting that she and Carlos have been seeing each other for a while. Gabby is outraged, and tries to get Lynette and Susan to join her in dissing Edie. They reluctantly agree, but Edie gets the last laugh by asking Lynette to cater Travers’s birthday party and asking Susan to do a book signing at the party.
Gabby ends up making a scene at the party, at which point Carlos physically hauls her off to have a chat with her. He wants to know what her problem is, since she’s the one who demanded a divorce in the first place. He’s free to date whomever she wants, and Gabby’s engagement should mean that she doesn’t care what Carlos does. Gabby finally relents, but only because she can see that Carlos is still in love with her.
Mrs. McCluskey: As expected, it’s revealed that Mrs. McCluskey didn’t actually kill her husband before putting him in the freezer. He died of natural causes, but since he didn’t change the beneficiary on his pension plan, his first wife stood to get everything and Karen was about to lose it all. So she decided to put him in the freezer, not report his death, and keep cashing his pension checks.
My Reaction: While this wasn’t a great episode, I did enjoy it very much. There were even a few laugh-out-loud moments along the way, like when Lynette and Susan were crawling around on the ground trying to hide from Gabby or when Susan attacked the guy in the parking lot. This felt like a fun episode again, and that’s really what Desperate Housewives should be. Here’s hoping this trend continues next week!
