REVIEW: Desperate Housewives “Everything’s Different, Nothing’s Changed”

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Nothing’s changed is right. Dysfunction and drunkenness were the words of the week on Desperate Housewives, which saw the return of Bree’s gay son Andrew and his booze swillin, marriage wrecking ways and a surprising development in the fate of Felicia Tilman. As for the other ladies on the lane it was business as usual.

If you’ve been reading along you know that Desperate Housewives has been on my last gay nerve this season, but I haven’t given up hope completely. There is always next season right? As for this season there have been moments of brilliance shining through though the murky fail now and then and this episode gave us a little of both and thankfully didn’t leave me curled on the floor screaming by the end of it.

As the sun rises on the lane we find that Mrs. McKlesky is none too pleased to find Bree’s homo son Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) passed out drunk on her sofa and she wants him out. I like Andrew a lot and think he’s been gone from the show for far too long. I miss the days when he was making out in the pool with cute boys and plotting ways to destroy Bree’s façade of polished perfection. I had hoped that when Bob and Lee showed up they could get into some trouble with him but instead Andrew moved into The House of Leaves and vanished. Now he’s back and he’s drunk. Bree (Marcia Cross) is here to save the day though. She has a heart to heart with Andrew’s ex-porn star husband Alex (Todd Grinnell) who is so over Andrew’s issues he is ready to cancel his subscription, which he does at the end of the hour. Bree and Andrew’s relationship, though tumultuous at best, is one of the better things about Desperate Housewives.

If you recall last week looney Beth Young (Emily Bergl) found out too late that marrying convicted murderers and participating in elaborately stupid revenge plots was not a recipe for happiness and decided to clean her ears with the business end of a revolver so that poor naked clumsy Susan (Teri Hatcher) could have her kidney and in turn give Beth’s pathetic life some meaning. But of course Paul (Mark Moses) steps in to deny her even that last grasp at redemption by vowing to deny Susan her door prize. Mike (James Denton) is less than pleased but doesn’t get to scrap with Paul because Susan is feeling guilty over not being BFFs with Beth.

And speaking of Paul and Susan, the big story this week was the fact that these two were hugging by the end of the episode. Why not let bygones be bygones right? I guess it could be argued that Paul is a changed man now that he knows Beth did actually love him. Although the fact that it was Felicia Tilman who delivered that news would make me think twice about believing it, but Paul bought it and fell apart when he realized his Bethy was gone. And now that we know Felicia Tilman is getting paroled it is time to start placing bets on when and how Paul Young will die, cuz you know it’s coming. The two-hour season finale is called “Guess Who’s Dying at Dinner?” and promises to kill off a series regular…again. My money this year is on Paul because seriously, where else can they go with his character?

Elsewhere on the lane Lynette (Felicity Huffman) manipulated Tom (Doug Savant) again into doing something she decided was best for him; taking a higher paying job despite his wish to not hurt his friend/boss Carlos (Ricardo Antonia Chavira). And Renee revealed that her mother committed suicide when she was young which is why she was unfazed by Beth’s antics and still went ahead with her Spring Fling, earning the scorn of her neighbors who were suddenly in mourning for a woman they barely knew or liked.

The season is rapidly coming to a close and there be drama ahead. Andrew tells Carlos the truth about his mother’s death and Felicia Tilman returns! Desperate Housewives is back in two weeks on April 17th with “Moments in the Woods”.