I haven’t done a Desperate Housewives post in a while, so here we go!
Every year, Desperate Housewives has a mystery to keep the viewers watching. In Season One, we were wondering why Mary Alice killed herself, and why Mike Delfino was in Wysteria Lane. In Season Two, we wondered why the new neighbor lady kept one of her sons in the basement. In Season Three, we were curious as to why Orson ran over Mike Delfino. In Season Four, the mystery concerned Katherine’s husband and daughter. In Season Five, we wanted to know what Dave Williams was up to and why.
Ordinarily, the Seasons resolved the mystery with the same sort of twist: we think one person is the guilty party, when actually it’s another person. In Season One, we thought that Mary Alice’s sinister-looking husband killed their adopted son’s biological mother and buried her underneath the pool, when actually that was sweet Mary Alice’s doing. In Season Two, we thought that the developmentally-delayed son in the basement killed his brother’s girlfriend because she didn’t like him back, when it was the handsome, athlete brother who killed her. In Season Three, we thought Orson was the evil one who killed his mistress, when actually his mother was the sinister party.
This year, the mystery is two-fold. First of all, there was an attempt on Julie Meyer’s life, and a young waitress in a coffee shop was killed. And, second, there’s a new family in Wysteria Lane: Nick and Angie, and their son, Danny. Or, actually, those aren’t their real names. They’re hiding something. They don’t want the cops to inquire into their past because Angie is a fugitive from justice, who will get the death penalty if she is caught. Angie also has burns on her side. We’ve seen in this season, perhaps prematurely, the usual Desperate Housewives twist: we think they’re on the run because of something Nick did, when it turns out that Angie is the guilty one. We’re also expected to think that Nick is the one responsible for strangling Julie Meyer, since he had an affair with her. Plus, Nick was supposedly the last person to see the dead waitress.
What worries me is that the solution to the mystery this season will be a big let-down. Last week, Danny was inadvertently telling a nurse about his mom’s background. He said that, since 9/11, the government has cracked down on all sorts of terror, including acts committed a long time ago. I’m wondering if Angie was a leftist radical during the 1960’s-1970’s, who blew up a lab and ended up killing innocent people. I hope that’s not the case because I’ve encountered this plot-line before: on an episode of Quantum Leap, in Stephen King’s Hearts in Atlantis, on Touched by an Angel (the one with “Stands with a Fist,” also the President from Battlestar Galactica). Angie doesn’t strike me as a political person, but who knows? She could’ve opposed the Vietnam War because her brother was killed in it. I just hope the solution to the mystery is something different.
I felt a little let down last year with the Dave William’s mystery. I just didn’t feel that I learned anything in the last episode of that season. Dave was mad because Mike killed his family in a car accident, so Dave was trying to kill Mike’s son, or at least to set it up so that Mike runs over him. No twists there. I’m afraid that Desperate Housewives is running out of material.
There was something inspiring in the Nick/Angie/Danny saga, though. A few weeks ago, Angie told Nick that she was glad he stuck by her, even though he didn’t have to do so. He sacrificed a lot so she wouldn’t have to be alone. This, despite his character flaws.