Desperate Housewives – Carlos gets his sight back; Gaby grows up

(Season 5, Episode 10 – “A Vision’s Just a Vision”)

This episode returned Desperate Housewives to a bit of its glory days, and the five-year-jump reboot is finally starting to come together for me. So much happened, and some major plotpoints were revealed, including a bit more about Dave’s mystery and why he’s out to get Mike.

But first, my favorite storyline of the night involved Gaby and Carlos. As promised in last week’s episode, Carlos began getting his sight back. What a joy to see him reconnect with Gaby and see his daughters.

And it’s clear that Gaby has done some growing up over the years. She’s done what needed to be done to keep the family fed and a roof over their heads, including selling Carlos’ prized baseball signed by Lou Gehrig and handed down from Carlos’ grandfather to his father to him. Was Gaby right in selling the baseball? Or was Bree right when she said, “Gaby you never sell a man’s autographed baseball.”

Well, if it means keeping things afloat, then yeah, you do sell the baseball. Desperate times call for desperate measures. But Gaby wants to set things right, so she goes to get the ball back from the Italian guy who bought it. OK, so the story about him wanting her to dance on the table seemed a little out of place, but we’ll go with it. And Gaby isn’t into it at first, but when she realizes how much the ball meant to Carlos, she goes back and does indeed dance on the table. That couldn’t have been easy for her, but again, this supports my theory that she’s grown over the years, and if that’s what it takes to get the ball back for Carlos, that’s what she does.

But I loved how the story completely turned around and ended with Carlos realizing just how much Gaby has sacrificed to keep them going. So he sells the ball and buys her that beautiful dress. Very sweet. But we still get to see a little of their playfulness when he says he intends to sell his watch and buy her some new shoes to go with the dress. And she says, “You should know that watch is a knock-off. I sold the original two years ago.”

My favorite line of the night comes when Carlos says to Gaby, “Thank you for taking such good care of us. I’m going to spend the rest of my life making it up to you.” These two have really grown, both individually and as a couple. They seem perfect for each other.

Bree is also showing some growth by accepting Andrew’s boyfriend and soon-to-be son-in-law, Alex. While she’s a little ticked that Andrew would keep Alex a secret after living with him for six months, Andrew has a point when he says, “Did you even once ask if I was dating someone?” Well, no, but Bree intends to set things right by having them over for dinner.

It’s a little awkward, especially when Bree tries to get them to “scootch” over and sit together on the couch. Loved Andrew’s comment: “Mom, as much as we appreciate your tolerance, we can wait ’til we get home to make out.”

The problem comes when the gay neighbors reveal to Bree that they saw Alex in an “adult movie.” Not the complex, analytical kind, the gay porn kind. So you can imagine that Andrew would be a little surprised when Bree goes to see Andrew and plops down a DVD titled “Rear Deployment.”

More growth here: Andrew knows about the movie and says Alex only did it to pay bills during medical school. And as Andrew says, he’s got quite the interesting past himself, so “glass houses, stones…”  But he loves Alex anyway. “Even with his sordid past, he’s the one,” says Andrew.

The best part of this storyline comes when Bree freely admits that she meddled in Andrew’s love life because she loves him, and he says, “This might be about the nicest thing you’ve ever done for me. Not every boy can say his mother is willing to rent gay porn for him.” Then adds, “I can have Alex autograph this for you, if you want.” Nice little end-quote. Both Andrew and Bree seem to have grown into adults.

Lynette, on the other hand, is sinking into desperation and doing all she can to keep her family from slipping away. When Porter gets the cuffs slapped on him and he’s hauled off to jail, Lynette and Tom somehow manage to scrape up the $20,000 needed for bail, even though Lynette used their emergency money to pay Anne Schilling to leave town. Hey, a mom’s gotta do what a mom’s gotta do, right? I’ve already decided that Lynette is like a big momma bear protecting her cub bears, especially when they get into scrapes with all the other animals in the forest.

But things definitely get tense when we learn that the gun Porter stole from Edie’s house is now in Lynette’s flour jar, where Porter stashed it the night of the fire. Loved it when Tom initially thought Porter might be having an affair with Edie, and said something to the effect of, “Can’t you find some nice girls your own age?!”

Anyway, Lynette continues her path of trying to save her family and manages to get the gun cleaned up and back into Edie’s house. But now with Porter on the run and Preston taking his place at the arraignment, what a mess! We’ll see what Lynette’s next moves will be to try and keep her family together and out of prison. It’s clear that she will do whatever she needs to in order to make that happen.

I can see why Porter might want to run, though, not only because of the mess he’s in, but also because of Warren’s ominous threat: “Someday, you’ll be walking home from school or work or your buddy’s house, and you’ll just disappear.”

Meanwhile, Susan is trying to adjust to the idea of Mike and Katherine being together. When M.J. doesn’t really go for it and throws his hot fudge sundae at Katherine, Susan decides to tag along on a bowling outing, so M.J. can see that they can all get along happily. Seems like a great idea, right? It’s good for kids to see the adults getting along.

And things were really looking up there for a few moments, when M.J. and Katherine were bonding on the bowling alley. But I can see where M.J. would get a mixed message when he sees Mike and Susan chatting happily at the table and Mike putting his hand on Susan’s. M.J. harks back to the time when Susan told him that she and Mike might be getting back together.

I have to agree with Susan that maybe she and Mike haven’t really moved on, even though it seems that way from their actions. She’s with Jackson, and he’s with Katherine. But when Susan tells Mike point-blank that they’ve never “looked each other in the eye and said there’s no chance of getting back together,” what does Mike do? Says he needs to go check on Katherine and walks out the door. It seems like he hasn’t really accepted the idea either. Still, I really like Mike and Katherine together, so I hope that continues.

As for Dave’s mystery, I knew from the moment we saw the woman and child on the street in front of his house that they were hallucinations. It’s clear he’s got some painful issues to deal with, and he’s hell-bent on making Mike pay for the loss of his wife and child.

When Dave visits the cemetery and kneels at the graves of Lila Dash and Paige Dash, he tearfully tells them, “I know it must seem like I’ve forgotten about you, but you have to know I think about you every day. I have a plan, so I hope you can wait a little longer. But first, Mike Delfino has to pay for taking you away from me.”

With both of them dead, you have to wonder what exactly Dave is asking them to wait for.

What are your thoughts on tonight’s episode? Do you think Gaby and Carlos are showing some depth in their relationship? Is Lynette headed down a path of no return by getting in deeper and deeper regarding Porter’s situation? Will she figure out that Dave is the one who fingered Porter to the cops? Will Mike and Susan end up getting back together?

And what about Dave? What do you think Mike could have done to push Dave over the edge and seek revenge for the death of his wife and child?

Clacked by Jane Boursaw
on Dec 08, 2008 @ 10:00 EST5EDT