Last night’s episode of Desperate Housewives was their Halloween edition, which felt way off since it aired on November 4. I would much rather have holiday-related eps air before the holiday than after it. Don’t most shows usually do it that way? At any rate, I thought the whole thing was pretty much a jumbled mess with far too many things going on, so I couldn’t get into it at all. Here’s what happened in episode 4×06, which was called “Now I Know, Don’t Be Scared.”

Bree/Danielle: Danielle was feeling bored all cooped up in her room, so she decided to sneak out and attend Bob and Lee’s Halloween party even though Bree told her she wasn’t to go anywhere. She dressed up as her mother, which kinda/sorta kept the baby questions at bay — that is, until her water broke right there and she had to be rushed back home. For some reason, there wasn’t any time to get her to the hospital or call an ambulance, so Bree had to bring Adam Mayfair in to help deliver the baby.

Afterwards, Bree asks Danielle if she is still intent on giving up the baby. Danielle says yes, because it would be the best thing for her son. At the end of the ep, we see Danielle leaving with packed bags again, presumably going to college in Miami as Orson and Bree promised.

Susan/Mike: Susan and Mike went to see a genetic specialist about their baby, and had to run through their families’ medical histories so the specialist could determine whether or not they were at risk for certain problems. During the interview, Mike said that his father has high blood pressure, but is taking pills for the condition. Susan interrupts, saying that Mike told her his father was dead.

Susan keeps pressing Mike for details, and it finally emerges that Mike’s father is serving time in prison for murder. Mike didn’t want to tell Susan that on their first date for obvious reasons. Susan insists on meeting the man, so Mike takes her to the prison the next day.

At the prison, Susan asks Mike’s father for details regarding the murder. She’s horrified to discover that Mike’s father feels zero remorse for strangling a co-worker who was promoted over him, and she worries that the child she has with Mike could turn out to be a conscience-less, soulless psycho. Of course, this leads to an argument, with heavy-handed hints from Mike’s father that Mike isn’t always as happy as he lets on.

Lynette/Tom: Lynette wages war on an opossum that has been digging up her garden. From the way she talks about the opossum as an “invader” that is “attacking” their home and must be eliminated at any cost, it’s clear that she equates the pest with her cancer.

Later on, her oncologist drops by the house with some good news: Lynette’s chemo treatment has worked, and she is now cancer free. She’s overwhelmed by this announcement and goes outside to let it sink in. That’s when she sees that the opossum was caught (and killed) by her trap, and she loses it.

Gabby/Carlos/Edie/Victor: Gabby tries to break up with Victor over voicemail, but his father intercepts the message, deletes it, and then comes over to have a chat. Victor will be running for Governor soon, he says, and can’t afford to have a messy divorce hanging over his head. Victor’s father then gives Gabby a postdated check: if she agrees to stay with Victor for 13 more months, the money is hers. We don’t see how much it is, but we know it has a lot of zeros.

Gabby tells Carlos of the offer, but he’s totally against the plan. He then reveals that he has $10 million in an offshore account and that he and Gabby won’t need Victor’s money anyway. Gabby is outraged by this news because Carlos had that money when they were married, which means he lied to her. Now she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to trust him ever again.

Meanwhile, Edie finally realizes that Carlos is leaving for good. Instead of just sitting back and accepting that fact, she goes to Victor and shows him the photo her P.I. took of Carlos and Gabby kissing.

My Reaction: I was pretty “meh” on the whole episode because it seemed to jump around too much. I was happy to see that the ridiculous Bree-with-fake-baby plot is finally, mercifully at an end, but other than that, there wasn’t too much in here that was interesting.

Even the news that Lynette is in remission, which should have been a very emotional scene, didn’t resonate with me at all. I simply wasn’t invested in her character tonight (especially since I thought the whole opossum thing was ridiculous), so by the time she broke down I was barely even paying attention.

Susan, who started off the season so well, is now in full-on annoying mode. It started a couple eps ago when she couldn’t let the impressing-the-new-gay-neighbors thing drop, and it’s continuing now with this whole thing about worrying about the crazy genes Mike’s dad has contributed to her baby. Uh, hello… as if you needed to meet the father to realize that? Remember a little neighborhood psycho called Zach? Yeah, whose offspring is he again? Good lord, get with it, Susan!

The Carlos and Gabby storyline used to be my favorite one, but now it’s veering into predictable territory. I tell ya, I’m just not interested in where this is going!

I was expecting a much better episode as we head into November sweeps, so I was definitely disappointed with this one. Dare I hope that next week will be an improvement?