By David Valdes
A week before the much touted tornado episode, tonight's DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES was anything but the calm before the storm.
Gabrielle was visited by the authorities who questioned her on the whereabouts of Victor. Ever the good actress, Gaby pretended to have no idea that Victor had gone missing or where he could be. Carlos was feeling guilty and eager to talk, so it's a good thing Gabrielle drugged him before the feds saw him. Having your ex-husband in the house while the police question you about your missing husband just screams innocent, doesn't it?
Meanwhile, Lynette teamed up with her former stepfather to retrieve her mother. See, Stella took off last episode after her daughters' bickering left her feeling unwanted. Upon getting her back, Lynette found out that the reason Stella and her former stepfather broke up was that he was gay. This revelation was kind of a nonevent, but it at least made for a tidy conclusion to the Where's Stella Gonna Live? storyline: She's going to stay with her gay former husband. So there.
Favors were all the rage on Wisteria Lane this week. See if you can keep up. A good looking brunette woman from Chicago (dun dun dun) visited Katherine's husband while MIke was over. Mike was politely asked to not tell Katherine about what he had seen, which Mike saw a green light to ask for his own favor -- he wanted a prescription for painkillers. Problem is, gynecologists probably shouldn't be writing prescriptions for men. In comes Orson, who owes Katherine's husband a favor because he did, after all, deliver Bree's daughter's baby. So there you have it, Orson wrote Mike a prescription for his pain drugs.
It's a good thing Orson wrote that prescription, because Mike's other drug dealer was a college student who made house calls. On one of those house calls, a completely oblivious Susan tried to set the guy up with her daughter, Julie. That didn't go over so well once Susan found out he was a drug dealer.
The best part of the episode was also the most unexpected. Bree (along with, I suspect, much of the viewing audience) was had all but forgotten her teenage son Andrew. What with the new baby and all other drama in the Van de Kamp household, Andrew felt shafted. Rightfully so because until he piped up, I had forgotten how much he added to the show's dynamic. Season 2 of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES caught a bad rap with critics but one thing that all agreed upon was that Bree's storylines -- most of which featured her squaring off against Andrew -- were the most dynamic. Watching Andrew tell his mother he forgave her but had to move forward on his own so that she could start fresh was bittersweet. I like where this development took his character, but it felt an awful lot like a conclusion. Though no one could argue this wouldn't be a good send-off for Andrew Van de Kamp, here's hoping the kid's not gone for good.
Speaking of gone for good, who do you think will perish in next week's big tornado episode? I don't think it'll be a major character. Possibly one of the Scavo kids. There are like seven or eight of them anyway. Or maybe Edie, if we're lucky. But hopefully it's the mayor so that storyline can just be over. It was fun for a while, but now I just want Victor gone and for Gaby and Carlos to move forward with fresher problems. Anyway, what do you think? Weigh in!