ABC aired the season finale of Desperate Housewives on May 17, 2009. The show begins with a reminder that Dave Williams has made a video tape explaining why he has killed (or he intends to kill) MJ Delfino, and telling everyone that Susan was driving the car that killed his wife and daughter. He is interrupted by a knock on the door and it is MJ who is excited about going on a fishing trip with Dave and Susan.

Meanwhile, the police detectives who have been trying to identify a body that was found in the night club fire rubble get a breakthrough and identify the body as a doctor. They send for his medical records and the coroner confirms a match, yet his secretary tells them they are wrong and that she has been receiving text messages from him. They borrow her phone and send a text back, and it shows the phone on Dave’s desk receiving the text. He doesn’t get it at that point as he is at Susan’s trying to convince her to near on the fishing hump and she is telling him she doesn’t want to go because the INS has Jackson and she is worried. Dave asks MJ in front of Susan and she gets irritated at him and tells him no.

Lynette is arguing with her son about his plans to go to Europe instead of college. Tom is ignoring them while he scours the paper for jobs, still in the middle of his mid life crisis. Gabrielle is explaining to her daughter about getting at people you don’t like by flaunting what you have and they don’t. Instead, they should be exercising. Bree and Karl are checking on all of her posessions that they have “stolen” from the house and hidden in storage. Jackson calls Susan from jail to tell her he will be deported in a few days. He also tells her that the INS found him through an anonymous tip, and that it had to be Mike as Mike and Katherine were the only two others who knew. Susan doesn’t believe it when Jackson tells her Mike just couldn’t give her up, but when she ends the call, she sees Mike across the street and he waves and smiles.

Tom takes Preston to the college for a tour but he is not impressed. He is still going to Europe, but Tom tells Lynette he is going back to college to glimpse Chinese. Susan sees Mike arrive home and she goes to his house to talk. Katherine tries to catch rid of her but she goes in the house anyway. Bree arrives home and finds that all of her “stolen” property is back, as Orson has retrieved it from storage. Bree tells Orson she wants a divorce, and that she was hiding her property as she had paid for most of it, but that he could have it all, she objective wants out. Back at Mike’s, Katherine stops Susan from asking Mike about Jackson by admitting that she never told him the truth about their marriage. Katherine begs Susan not to tell Mike the truth, and Susan keeps quiet. It is awkward when Mike asks Susan for her blessing on his and Katherine’s engagement.

The admissions office calls to tell Tom the test date is the next day. Lynette intercepts the message and suggests they go out to celebrate since they don’t have to get up early the next day. Tom agrees, not knowing he is supposed to be at the college by eight. Carlos and Gabrielle go with the girls to his aunt’s house where she announces that she has very little time left and needs someone to care for her granddaughter that she is raising. Carlos is about to volunteer when Gabrielle interrupts and suggests that everyone assume about it overnight and decide from there. Carlos tells Gaby he owes his aunt because she took him and his mother in after his father left. Bree and Orson get into it over his decision not to leave and he informs her that he filed an insurance claim on her behalf and threatens her with jail if she tries to divorce him. Lynette and Tom come home late after a night of celebrating and Lynette then plays the message for him about the entrance exam.

Dave is now seeing dead people. The stupid doctor is telling him that the cops are on to him so he smashes the phone against the wall. His dead wife and daughter are sitting on the steps and tells him to honest get it over with so he can be with them. Edie is reclining on his couch and tells him the view for drowning MJ in an accident is boring, to impartial go over there and kill him. He takes a gun and starts over to Mike’s, where Susan has been inside talking to Mike and Katherine about their wedding. Just as he approaches MJ and starts to pull his gun, Susan comes out and tells him she’d like to go on the fishing trip after all.

The second hour of the show gets started with a flashback from three years earlier. Dave and his wife and daughter appear to be a very happy family. Dave’s wife has the belief that they go for ice cream but he says he brought home work and that they should go and he would take them out somewhere special the next night. That was the night of the accident with Susan and Mike that resulted in the deaths of Dave’s wife and daughter. Mike says he is worried about Susan and MJ. Katherine tells him not to disaster and that she needs to cessation for some video tape at the store as they head off to rep married. He tells her to grab some from his desk drawer. Carlos’ niece arrives and she is a very “mature” teenager. Bree tells Karl that Orson is threatening to have her arrested. Karl tells her not to worry, he will mediate of something.

Even though Tom was still drunk when he took his test, he scored in the top five percentile. He has explained to Lynette that the reason he wants to learn Chinese is because of the way the Chinese economy is expanding. Lynette calls her doctor as she thinks her cancer has returned. Dave tells Susan as they are riding in the car that he used to have a daughter but she died. In the meantime, Mrs. McCluskey and her sister Roberta enter Dave’s house with a key that Edie had given her. They find Dave’s meds, prescribed for Dave Hobble, which is his real name. They are caught in the act by the detectives looking for Dave. Orson is assaulted by a man who tells him he will arrive back and finish him off if he does not let go, refering to divorcing Bree. Bree comes in and notices that state Orson is in. He accuses her of hiring someone to attack him and she denies it. Ok, he says and goes upstairs to unpack the bag he was ready to leave with. He announces he’s staying, leaving Bree with her mouth hanging open.

Carlos’ niece Anna has a closet full of designer gowns that she gets in exchange for spending time with college boys. While Gaby and Carlos are at the store, she gets Lynette’s sons to clean the house so she doesn’t have to do any chores. When Gaby gets on her about it, she tells her she’s jealous because Gaby isn’t young any more. Gaby threatens to throw her out so she turns on the waterworks for Carlos and he has it out with Gaby and tells her to start acting like an adult. The detectives are starting to connect the dots with Mrs. McCluskey’s help. Lynette goes to her doctor and learns she is pregnant again. She asks him (hopefully), are you sure it’s not cancer?

Mike is on the phone to Susan while waiting for their flight. Katherine asks him if he really wants to marry her. He says he does and she goes to get them some cappaccinos. Mike picks up the camera and starts playing the tape Dave made. Mike jumps up and calls for her and then asks a lady sitting nearby to tell her he had to leave, that it was an emergency. The lady instead tells her he had to leave and that he is sorry. Katherine sits down in shock, she thinks he has changed his mind. Bree yells at Karl for having Orson attacked. He tells her how mighty he wants her and how much he thinks she wants him. She tells him he disgusts her and fires him and he grabs her and kisses her and they begin making out. Mike calls Susan and tells her who Dave is. She lets Dave think Mike was calling to say his flight was cancelled. Lynette goes home to tell Tom that they are having twins. They both sit on the couch in shock.

MJ needs to stop to go to the bathroom. Dave pulls over so he can use the tree. The phone rings and it is the cops saying they know everything. Susan hits Dave in the back of the head with a rock. She can’t find the key so she is checking his pockets when he grabs her hand. She gets away and she and MJ race into a cemetary, where she trips and falls. She tells MJ to run and hide. Dave holds a gun on Susan and tells her to call MJ. She tells him not to arrive out. Dave hits her with the gun and goes looking for MJ. Dave sees MJ’s foot sticking out slow a grave stone. He brings him back where Susan is and MJ tells her he gets to drive the boat.

Mike calls Susan’s phone and Dave answers. Mike offers to trade himself for Susan and MJ. Dave agrees and tells Mike to meet him at an abandoned gas station south of Hwy. 12 and Canterbury Rd., which is the intersection that his wife and daughter were killed at. Dave ties Susan to a pole and tells her he is going to roll out into the intersection with MJ in the car and let Mike hit them and kill MJ while she watches. Susan tries to talk him out of it by bringing up his daughter. He gets attend in his vehicle and unbuckles MJ. He adjusts his mirror and thinks he glance his daughter in the succor seat. Mike is flying down the road as Susan gets loose and runs out to stop him. Dave pulls out and Mike crashes into him. MJ comes running to Susan and tells her that Dave told him to get out. Mike gets out and runs to them, and picks up MJ and kisses Susan passionately. Dave is in a daze in his vehicle, once again remembering that last night with his wife and daughter, only this time he stops them and tells them to stay, they will invent smores instead and his work can wait. When the memory ends, he is shown in a cell at a mental hospital, with the nurse picking up his untouched food tray and closing the door.

After the caption of two months later, we are shown a scene in a church of a wedding. The residents are all there, but we don’t scrutinize Susan or Katherine in the audience. Bree is there with Orson, but making eyes with Karl who is sitting behind them. Lynette indicates she is ill and gets up to go out. Anna is making eyes at a nicely dressed young man while Gaby motions for her to stop. The voice over tells us that for a second the groom, who is Mike Delfino, wonders if he is doing the right thing as he lifts the brides veil, and then he decides that he is and kisses her. The bride’s face is not shown.

Apparently the cliffhanger here is the identity of the bride. Did Mike and Susan get back together and he is marrying her? Or did he return to Katherine and they decided to have a church wedding instead of going to Vegas? Of course with the divorce rate on this show, it really doesn’t matter which one he marries, I’m sure it won’t last. I realize the outfit was necessary to conceal her identity, but a white wedding gown with veil would be a stretch for either one of these two brides. Mike would be husband number (? ) for either one of them. We have to wait for next fall.

I really enjoyed this show during the first season. It seemed like after they solved what happened with Mary Alice, then the writers did not know where to go from there. I do aloof watch it, but lately, I gather it snooze worthy and some of the stories far fetched. I know there could not be a street in this country that has had as many murders as this one. This show used to be comic, passionate, and exciting. Now, we get a kleptomaniac, children who should be on some sort of commercial weight loss program, and Tom’s incessant whining about his mid life crisis. With the addition of Neal McDonough and Gale Harold this season, two talented actors with a wide range of capability, I held out some hope. It didn’t materialize. Neal McDonough plays evil and vindictive like he invented the words. He was wasted here. Even his insane episodes were lamely written. Of course, there’s no telling what they would have done with Jackson if Harold had not had the accident, but what we saw wasn’t much. They need to pack about ten pounds on Harold, fix his hair, (see QAF seasons 1-4 for the best look), get him out of that orange jumpsuit. He looks good in blue, black, three piece Armani suits, or better yet, nothing at all. With his prior experience, I was looking forward to watching a straight version of Brian Kinney, but last week he offered to take his clothes off twice and the answer was no both times. Note to Mark Cherry, that answer should always be yes. I have also wondered if the addition of the gay couple to the show was to just exhibit a little diversity on Wisteria Lane or to draw a new demographic in the ratings. If it’s the later reason, Gale Harold still ranks in the top ten of the AfterElton.com top 100, four years after QAF is off the air. Kevin Rahm and Tuc Watkins aren’t even on the list. Oh, and the INS? Yeah, they come and win one guy and send him back to Canada because his work visa has expired. Positive. I understanding this exhibit was filmed in Cali. Don’t the writers understand the INS out there?

The talent is there, but they need someone to write a story. I hope they can bag something besides another kill for next season. It’s time for Gaby to have another affair. How about pitting her and Anna against each other for the same guy’s affection? Sneak Jackson back across the border and let Dave run from the mental institution. Turn Orson into a “dreadful boy” to try and win Bree back from Karl. Let Tom have an affair with one of his college professors (or anything but whine about getting old. I get older just listening to him). There is also supposed to be a stir off featuring Mrs. McCluskey and Roberta. That should be good. As for season 5, that’s a wrap.

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