Always the over-considerate one, Susan is afraid to tell the other women of Wisteria Lane that she is leaving Fairvaiw to help Julie raise her baby, especially during the middle of Bree's trial. This of course leads to a funny situation in which Susan has to pretend that an elderly couple inspecting her house are old friends, as not to reveal to the girls that she's leaving. To be honest, I was very disappointed that Susan's character didn't play a more prominent part in the last two episodes, considering I've always seen her as the main housewife. Then again situations like the one described above, and like her stealing a limousine to get Julie to the hospital, are typical fluffy Susan fare, and they have been for eight seasons, so I shouldn't say I'm all that surprised. Once she tells Lynette, Bree and Gabrielle that she is moving at the beginning of The Finishing Hat, Susan spends the rest of the episode trying to set Julie up with her oncologist and rambling on about all sorts of things that mother 's generally do, including reminiscing about their dead husbands and how lucky she has been in life. While I understand that there's little left for Susan to do now that Mike's gone, I generally detest the idea of Susan looking after Julie's child while she finishes her PhD, being the typical 'grandmother', even if she really enjoys it. I would have liked to have seen, as discussed earlier in the season, Susan go of to New York and start her art career. She's spent most of her life either chasing after, or looking after, someone on Desperate Housewives. I thought it might have been refreshing for the character, just as is was when she started the art class at the beginning of this season, to actually have Susan follow her dreams, but again Desperate Housewives appears to be subverting the role of women, when generally they're just solidifying the stereotypes.
I'm very disappointed that in the end Lynette and Tom got back together. While Lynette has been as stubborn and manipulative as ever this season in trying to get back with Tom, there were at least several moments of self-realisation in which Lynette became aware that she had a problem, and that her controlling nature pushed Tom away. Initially I thought this was finally some much needed character development for her, but these moments came and went, including the one in Give Me The Blame in which she realises that despite having broken up with Jane, that Tom still did not want to be with her. Despite this, it seems these epiphanies were short lived because many instances this season Lynette continued to pursue Tom, leading to some of her character's most degrading moments. Unfortunately, Roy convinces Tom that things shouldn't be left unsaid, and that you must tell your loved one these things before it's too late. He tells Lynette that while their problems were big, that the love they shared was bigger. I've always been indifferent towards Tom's character, mainly because his role has always been a fairly two-dimensional one as 'the husband', but I think he deserves better than Lynette. For eight seasons, she's always gotten her way, whether Tom agreed with her or not. His confession of love to her at the end of Give Me The Blame demonstrates that when you love someone you see past their faults, which is no doubt an uplifting statement about the power of love. But for Tom it also possibly means settling for unhappiness. I would have liked Lynette to have come to the realisation that while she may want Tom back, that it may not necessarily be the best option for him and his future happiness, but being Lynette, she's happy to let Tom come back to her, because that is what she wants. Therefore, when Katherine arrives back on Wisteria Lane with a prospective job offer, the head of a U.S. division at her food company, Lynette wants that too. While Tom initially sees this as proof that Lynette is someone who is never truly happy, and is always looking for something else, she convinces him that she has just forgotten that's she's happy. Because it's always been his way as the passive 'husband', he then agrees to move to New York with her, and Lynette again, gets everything she wants, while Tom is the only one making the sacrifices.
Gabrielle too, is not one to make sacrifices, as she desperately tries to stop Carlos from confessing to Alejandro's murder, despite the fact she's only doing it for selfish reasons, and possibly at the expense of someone who's supposed to be one of her closet friends. In the end, Gabrielle manges to redeem herself a little by telling Carlos she will confess to the murder in self-defence, and that the jury will acquit her. She doesn't want Carlos to have to go to prison for protecting her, something he done their whole marriage, and something she now wants to do for him. Then again, she only does so once Renee testifies against Bree, forcing Tripp to ask Gabrielle back to the stand. Funny how she wouldn't confess for Bree. Carlos thanks Gabrielle for the sacrifice she is willing to make, but still refuses to let her take the fall for him, telling her that there's nothing she can say or do to stop him. Of course there's not. Cue a hilarious scene in which Gabrielle hides a pocket knife in Carlos' jacket causing him to be apprehended by security guards at the courthouse. I have to admit, I'll miss their antics a little. As Mrs. McCluskey confesses though, Gabrielle needn't worry, accept about her new promotion at Cumberly's as head of V.I.P. sales, which causes a fun role reversal for her and Carlos, and puts an interesting retrospect on the relationship the couple have shared throughout the series. While Carlos hiring a female gardener was predictable, it was a nice throwback for long time fans. Carlos is a real hypocrite when Gabrielle returns home late from work, but like Gabrielle he manges to redeem himself a little by telling Gabrielle that they have to pay attention to one another and not take their relationship for granted heading into the future.
While Bree has by far been by favourite housewife this season, going beyond the call of duty of a good friend while the others betrayed her, her undying devotion to them, especially Gabrielle, is very frustrating, particularly in Give Me The Blame. She has no legitimate to keep protecting for Carlos Alejandro's murder, considering her friends abandonment of her, which almost lead to her suicide. But now, I guess, having her friends back, and desperate not to lose them, Bree was willing to go to prison. Bree's further warped sense of morals continued its display even after she was cleared of the murder, when she was willing to forgive Renee for testifying against her, but not Tripp for making Gabrielle take the stand. However, I loved the idea that Bree's self-esteem, having gone so low this season, thought that Tripp's seduction of her was only a ploy to win him the case, when in fact he had legitimate feelings for her. It was refreshing this season to see a once confident and always debonair Bree become so uncertain of herself. But in the end Tripp convinces her that despite knowing all her dirty laundry as her lawyer, that our mistakes are what makes us human, a very valuable lesson Bree needed to learn to except her herself and truly begin her new life after the ordeal of the past year.
The progression of Karen McCluskey terminal cancer served as a fine plot to tie up several plots ongoing storylines over the last two episodes. That being said, in true Desperate Housewives fashion, it's disappointing that McCluskey, and Roy, were absent for most of the season. Having them feature so heavily in the last two episodes seemed as more of a necessary convenience rather than as a legitimate couple of characters and their storyline the writers had been trying to develop for the length of the season, because they obviously hadn't. After overhearing Gabrielle tell Carlos she will confess to Alejandro's, Karen in turn, cunningly gets Tripp to put her on the stand where she confesses. Not only does it clear Carlos, Gabrielle and Bree of any crime, but because of her age and deteriorating health, not even Mrs. McCluskey herself is tried for the murder. Well didn't everything turn out just peachy for everyone? Not only that, but Roy's 'you've got to tell these things to the people you love before it's too late' speech convinces Tom to reunite with Lynette. Thanks a lot, Roy. To finish the trifecta of problems solved by Karen and Roy to make the ending of Desperate Housewives a very happy one, they convince Bree to give Tripp a second chance, when he retrieves Karen a record player and a Johnny Mathis record, one of her last wishes, which she listens to as she passes away.
Despite Renee initially seeming a promiscuous, gold-digging, socialite, at the beginning of her time on Desperate Housewives, and Ben being portrayed as a lying, petty criminal, Aussie drongo, both are able to show true morals in their characters. Twice Ben is willing to be thrown into jail for contempt of court by not answering the prosecutor's questions to protect Bree, even with the possibility of ruining his wedding and his relationship with Renee. And Renee has shown enormous resolve throughout the entire season dealing with Ben and Bree's secret despite her forthright temperament, and it's a testament to her character. Although, in the end, she gave up Bree to ensure Ben wasn't deported back to Australia, her motivations for doing so are clear and heart felt, whereas Gabrielle's, at least for the most part of the season, and majority of Give Me The Blame, are presented as selfish and insincere. However, most of Renee good qualities are left in the wake of Finishing The Hat, when her impending wedding to Ben turns her into an unimaginable bridezilla that would even put a young Gabrielle Solis to shame. She does pay hilariously for it though, it true Desperate Housewives fashion, having Julie's water break on her wedding dress, then having to steal one from Cumberly's, and walk to her wedding after Susan steals the limousine to take Julie to the hospital.
Katherine Mayfair's return to Wisteria Lane, for me, was most definitely not a case of absence makes the heart grow fonder, but rather a crude reminder why from the beginning of the fourth season I started to enjoy Desperate Housewives less and less. While having coffee with the women on Gabrielle's porch she tells them how three months after moving to Paris her and Robin broke up. Since then she's channelled her sexual frustration by starting her own business, microwavable french cuisine, which has made her very rich, and offers Lynette that job as head of their new U.S. division in New York. And not even one, 'Sorry to hear about Mike', her ex-fiance. The nerve of that woman.
The episode concluded with, as the music from Karen' record player swelled, her passing, the birth of Julie and Preston's baby girl, and Renee and Ben's wedding dance. After one last poker game Mary Alice narrates the futures of the four housewives lives. How Lynette and Tom move to New York and buy an apartment overlooking central park, how Gabrielle and Carlos move to a mansion in Los Angeles after he helps her start personal shopper website, how Bree and Tripp move to Kentucky where she becomes a politician. And how Susan, the first to leave Wisteria Lane, takes one last drive around the street, and is farewelled by the dead, in all their cliched sentimental glory.Rating: 3.5/5
So what did everyone else think? Happy how it ended? Or do you think the writers could have done better?
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