Episode 11 – Assassins

Now that I’ve had a nice two week break from “Desperate Housewives”—which I’ve spent celebrating the holidays, watching previous seasons of this fascinating show called “Weeds,” and not doing any homework, I’m ready for the second half of the season.

I knew I missed writing the blog when I saw a preview for this week’s episode and started analyzing each character’s plotline.

Is Paul Young dead? I thought so at first. But he can’t be, according to my younger sister, because that would completely kill the major plotline of this season. Oh. I guess I hadn’t thought of that.

Just as my sister predicted, Paul was alive, recuperating at the hospital. As expected, the preliminary investigation yielded no suspects, instead only revealing the bitter feelings the neighbors felt toward Paul.

Beth was the only one who looked rather sketchy, but Paul himself insisted to the investigators that he fully trusts his wife. So they reluctantly dropped her as a suspect.

Even Beth’s mother seems genuinely shocked upon hearing about the shooting. I mentally went through the character list in my head and couldn’t think of a single other person who might have something against Paul.

“I’m thrilled [about the shooting]…I just wish you’d waited,” Felicia said into a stolen cell phone. Imagine my horrified expression when the camera cuts to the person on the other end of the line—Mike Delfino?

Sweet, beautiful Mike. Seriously?

I thought those days were behind you.

Further confusion ensued when Mike swore that he did not shoot Paul.

Mike was, after all, in Alaska this whole time. Well, after he suddenly appeared at Susan’s bedside a few scenes later, I’m inclined to believe that maybe he lied about the whole job.

Maybe Felicia hired him as an assassin? Then again, he said he didn’t shoot Paul.

Speaking of Susan, her plotline is super depressing. Her kidney was so badly injured in that massive riot scene last week that it had to be removed. Because her other one is deformed, she’s going to need a transplant, which is rather tragic news.

However, it was when Susan tried to show her son MJ that she’s going to be okay but ended up convulsing on the floor that I nearly started crying. Enough with the scenes involving terrified little children already!

Continuing with the children-put-in-awful-situations motif, Juanita’s breakdown sends the entire Solis family to therapy, where the therapist tells Gaby and Carlos to remove all traces of Grace from their lives. But that’s too hard for Gaby to handle.

Carlos throws away all the pictures, but Gaby, having a creepy obsession with her biological daughter, takes it one step too far and buys a look-alike doll.

I mean, I understand that it’s awful to have to lose a child, especially in a situation like Gaby’s, but give it up already. Gaby’s going crazy. If she keeps this up, she might take Katherine Mayfair’s position as the neighborhood psycho.

On a side note, Celia appeared in the episode for the first time all season. For the record, she has not changed.

Another character who hasn’t changed is…Orson? He returned momentarily to declare his undying love for Bree. Oh give it up already, hon. Cheesy lines like “Why change something that is already perfect?” aren’t going to work on her anymore.

I thought that maybe, just maybe, she might fall for him again, when all of a sudden she passionately showed her love for Keith right in front of Orson. It was completely out of character for her, but it fit perfectly with her new attitude toward life. Go Bree!

Unfortunately, all was not well in every Wisteria Lane couple’s lives. As much as Renee’s affair with Tom hurt Lynette at first, I have to commend Renee for her honesty. She’s progressed so well since her arrival at the beginning of this season.

Fortunately, it doesn’t look like Lynette will stay angry for too long—but not before she has her own revenge on Tom. I’m predicting that the tricks she’ll play on him will bring back her former comical self.

All in all, this show was a slight improvement from the last episode. The ever-twisting major plotline has grabbed my attention again, but I hope that creepy side-plots like Gaby’s disturbing obsession with a doll won’t ruin the rest of the show.