Welcome to Desperately Devoted. Join us as we explore the human experience through the lens of the iconic show Desperate Housewise.
I'm Terry Patcher, I'm Andrea Bowen, and I'm a Mercantana.
Gosh. Well, we have just been loving this episode and all there is to talk about. So this week we are shining our spotlight on episode nine, suspicious Mind. Well, this episode I remembered, right, so a lot of them. I don't why, yeah, right, why, young Andrea, did this episode stick out to you? So we kind of I'll go through the little storyline quickly, but we learned that Julia and Zach are pen paling each other, and then we also learned that Julie is hiding Zach up in
her bedroom. He has escaped from where he was the juvenile mental health facility, and Julie's keeping him up in her bedroom as a secret from everybody.
I guess I did have a question about that.
I thought, wait, is Susan aware and keeping Julie's secret, because if.
She is, she's a really good poker face. And I feel like.
I don't think she's aware. She's not aware, She's dealing with a lot this episode, Susan, she's off at the Passion show and she's fielding all physical attacks so so, and also this might only be one night. I don't really know how long this is. This her hiding him up there has gone on, but in any case, she has him up there and she's trying to get information from him about what's going on gently but and he
does reveal some thing so traumatic. He reveals that he had buried no pun intended, a memory from when he was four years old that he kind of he's recently unearthed after his mom's passing, about this argument that he overheard his parents having, and it led him to the conclusion that he was that he had a baby sister named Dana, and that he somehow is responsible for her death.
And it's just like this crazy admission, and you feel so much for this young boy who has no outlet, and his father is denying him any sort of therapy in which to discuss any of this, and so he's just left with all these feelings and Julie is trying to provide him a safe place to talk about these things and be a friend, be a good friend to him. And then this scene ends with him kissing Julie. And that's you know, one of the reasons why this episode stands out in my memory so much, because I had
probably had I had had a friend, I had been kissed. No, no, but.
I had had Who was your first kiss?
It was at school? It was nothing interesting.
It was not a great school during school day.
Well, I went to a performing arts school in Manhattan, and half of our day was not kissing, was practicing kissing from when we were going to have to do it on screen, right right, No, but this was I mean, this was probably my second I mean I was not. I had not had a lot of experience. I was fourteen, as we know, and so it was nerve wracking. It was very I was very nervous and trying to act
like I wasn't. And it's weird, right because you just this is one of those things about being a child actor and a child performer is that you often have to act out things before you've had a lot of
experience doing them in your personal life. And you're not just acting them out for eventually millions of people who will watch it, but you're doing it in front of your coworkers, and you're doing it, you know, my mom was there, probably standing by the monitor, although she always handled it so well and so so respectfully to me, and you know, all of those things. But yeah, it was.
Totally Also, this pre dates by decades, this idea of an intimacy coordinator. I mean, I can't even begin to tell you, like all of the yeah, I mean the stories from way back in the nineties or whatever of just how uncomfortable a certain person might or situation. I mean, so it seems to me that there should have been
somebody there. I know your mom was there, but like, do you recall did the director did anybody like talk you through so Andrea, is this okay when he's going to lean forward and just kiss you on the lips, or like, do you remember any of that.
I don't recall anyone really acting in that capacity. No, obviously it was a pretty tame scene and a pretty innocent moment, but no, And I do think that nowadays, hopefully we are providing that to providing that level of support to all performers of all ages, but particularly children,
because it is it is uncomfortable. But I think Cody and I Cody, who played Zach, navigated the best way as possible Something that stood out to me also is that I'm realizing there was another level too in that I was the age I was, but I think Cody was maybe seventeen, so not a huge difference, but it's different enough than that he probably wasn't kissing fourteen year old girls in his personal life. You know, that is kind hosts on right, Decidedly there's an age gap there
that that, right is kind of weird. But but I don't have any negative memories of that moment, I will say that, but definitely a weird, a weird thing to have to act out.
Yeah there, Yeah, I think I imagine there's some sort of presumption that like you'll just be okay, you'll just do it. Yeah, you know, I do think that feels familiar for for me, even as an adult actor, Like you know that I don't know whatever it is, like even the silly things like you jump through the floor and your legs so like, ope, you'll just do it because you know it. And if there's ever any pushback, there's then like the label start right right thrown at you.
But totally rewatching it. My cheeks got very hot again.
I mean, just from a writing standpoint in that moment. I found it a little surprising and interesting the idea that a level of genuine friendship and closeness and safety that Julie is providing can be misconstrued or open a door to a physical intimacy, because I don't feel like Julie is saying, oh, I'm romantically leaning in. I mean, and she physically isn't leaning in either, but Zak takes it that way, and I think that is I'm telling
I'm excited to see where that that storyline develops. I feel like on the other side of the storyline, we have Lynette who has finally had her come to Jesus moment and stop taking her medication, and I like that she is relying on Tom, who's taken you know, the week off, to help her, even in his somewhat hapless way, get back on her feet and kind of have a reset and try to relax.
He's holding the baby.
The baby has come back, yes, And I just a very small note again on the fashion of the show. I think this is the third or fourth episode where Lynette is wearing this pearl choker necklace that she has been wearing in every single episode, and I gotta say, I love it, And now I'm gonna go try to find a pearl choker like that and buy it, because it the imaging has happen. I've seen it so many times now that I'm like, I need that, I need to I love that. I love that moment, And I
think it's interesting that her character hasn't changed that. I think it feels telling about her kind of being a frazzled mom who of course doesn't have time to be changing her jewelry when she gets ready, and there maybe it's a.
Special piece that she wears in her life, because you know, there are people who wear the same jewelry all the time and shower in it and sleep in it and all that.
But yeah, yeah, I don't know. It just it stood out to me.
So Brie and Rex are at this swim meet where Andrew is apparently like going to be going to college for swimming, like on a scholarship or whatever, and.
They begin to.
Argue about whether they've made the right choice because Andrew is saying some pretty crazy things like you know that like he's off the hook, and that you know, he's kind of like doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact that he's nearly potentially killed someone.
Yeah, and bree is it seems to be coming down on the line of we have to find a way to discipline him further. And Rex is saying, well, we took away his you know, phone, we took away the TV. He's grounded, Like, what more can we do? And I think it's so interesting that at the swim meet she says we should make him stop swimming competitively, like that should be the punishment. And I'm I mean at which I love because they're arguing over who loves him more
or loves him in the right way. And I think my favorite line of the episode has to go to Rex, who says he hung out in your womb for a couple of months in the eighties.
Yeah, that one felt personal. I'll say, as someone who's got someone hanging out in their womb, it's a little bit more than that. Rex.
Yeah, yeah, he's so.
He's so dismissive, of course, as always of Breeze feelings. But I I do actually think and I'm curious to hear both of your takes. I think I fall on Rex's side of the argument in the sense that while I too am horrified that Andrew is having seemingly no remorse, although I would say I think him smoking so much pot is potentially indicative of the fact that he's having feelings that he doesn't want to address, that he's trying to bury.
Or we should note that we we know, we learn that Andrew is smoking a lot of thought.
Yeah in this episode, and I think that's a telling sign. But I do not think the correct to me parenting choice is to take the one thing that your child is passionate about that is actually a constructive, potentially life affirming activity that gives them structure and discipline and focus and ambition and take that one thing away as a punishment. I don't know what do you guys think? It really stood out to me, this divide between Brie and Rex.
I have to say I used to tell people all the time that I could ever weigh in on these kinds of like real life parenting things because you never did anything wrong, Emerson, and I never had to punish you.
I'm Kristin Davis, host of the podcast Are You a Charlotte? The most anticipated guest from season three is here the Tray to My Charlotte. Kyle McLaughlin joins me to relive all of the magical tray in Charlotte moments. He reveals what he thinks of Trey giving Charlotte a cardboard baby.
Why would I bring her a cardboard baby? I was literally I was like, this doesn't track for me at all.
When he found out Trey's shortcomings, I'm kind.
Of excited to talking about.
You know.
I think he's he's a guy spends time in Central Park.
You know, he's probably be some.
Surgery stuff, you know. And I was like all this kind of stuff going on. And they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah, fine, and they said, but.
He's impotent, and I was like, he's impotent, and why he chose not to return to inges like that? They came and presented an idea and I was like, I get I see it.
It's so kind of a one joke idea. You don't want to miss this.
Listen to Are You a Charlotte on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
I think I tend to agree with you Emerson on the punishment being let me take away the thing that is a positive source for you to focus on in your life as a form of forcing you to reconcile with your bad behavior. Maybe not the right call, but I also it's hard to put yourself in breeze shoes
in this episode. It would be very scary to watch your teenage child, your teenage son do something so reckless with such a huge scary consequences of maybe taking someone's life, and be so callous about it, be so cavalier about Well, at least I'm off the hook, you know, and so I while I agree, I also think for Brie, I don't fault her necessarily for not knowing how to get through to him. Yeah, and this is another form of desperation.
I guess she's really desperate to find a way to get him to recognize what he's done.
Which leads us to like, what was my I think most desperate moment was So Brie finds out that Andrew is smoking pot, and so she makes him pee in a cup, and then she urgently drives the urine over to the golf course where Rex is in the middle of playing eighteen holes.
I mean, crazy behavior.
That's a crazy decision because even if Rex was to agree with her, it's not like he's going to leave the golf game and take the pe to the doctor or wherever you take it to get tested. Like she was definitely out of her mind in this maneuver. But it leaves them to be literally on a golf course arguing in front of everybody about what is the right way to handle this. And he says, oh, just it's
so heartbreaking. He basically says that you know, everything about their marriage and everything was just a lie and he hated it all and he's always hated it and it's always been bad. And so she takes the urine and she rows it on him. It's one of those like visceral things where you know, they've shown us this.
Jar of liquid.
Yeah, it looks exactly like you're you know, of course it wasn't urine, but it looks like uric.
Thank you for coming.
And so it's very hard for us to believe, like we feel like actual urine got thrown on Rex and it is so disgusting, Like it's just so disgusting. And then she has this line where she says, if you were my mom, I would want to smoke pot too.
Yes, such a good line, Oh my god.
Yeah, and then she throws the urine on him and she's and He's like, why did you do that? And he said and and she says, because it's the same thing you just did to all the memories I've had of our marriage, and I mean, poor Brie.
Yeah, I really do feel I feel for breathe and and to pivot a little bit, there are quite a few physical altercations happening in this episode.
Wait wait, wait before can we back all the way back up to the Susan and Gabby thing, because yes, this is my favorite line and also like I we we We've been talking about it now for nine episodes.
You you personally have been waiting for this moment.
In her affair.
Yes, okay, and I forgot, genuinely I forgot, Like when did this happen? And were there any ever come up ins or not or whatever. But we we are at this fashion show or the readying of the fashion show, and Susan Uh sees under the table that Gabby has taken her foot out of her high heel and is now massaging John's bratch.
And old move.
And she sees that nearby.
Okayah, fine form, so so she Susan marches over to Gabby's house and Uh and Gabby's like Hey, you know, do you want to help me with the with the with the clothes or something? And Susan says, sure, do you want to tell me why you had your foot in John rowlands crotch yesterday? And I just I love sort of the comedy. I mean, it's such a heavy thing. It's like, do you want to do this? Oh?
Sure, do you want to do this?
Tell you? And then I loved this order. Susan says, he's in high school, it's illegal, and you're married, and like that is the order in which she kind of puts the act back.
But finally someone gets that order of offenses right.
But then right after that, and this is like where I think Susan is a little annoying. Right after that, she does completely take a tangential left turn away from the illegality of it all and just completely buries her plants her, you know, foot in the ground of you're married and it's so wrong to have an affair on your spouse. And I was so hurt when that happened to me, And how can you do that to Carlos? And I just kept thinking like okay, okay, okay, but
the bigger thing is here. Wait, let's go back high school illegal, and then and then you're married, like, yeah, wait, almost eighteen, those are the words that are used. I'm almost eighteen. So this started when he was sixteen or sixteen and a half, because it's been going on for a year. So wait, forget about the fact that, yes, it's bad that your husband cheats on you or whatever, but wait, go back high school illegal.
Yeah.
Although I will say, I mean, I think as a character motivator, it makes sense that and I love just on a personal level that in this podcast we have been talking so much about when is this affair gonna be exposed?
And it is your character Susan, which.
I totally forgot, Yeah, who is a.
Catalyst of exposing it. But she has been so devastated by her husband cheating on her that, of course, in addition to in high school and illegal, the cheating element feels personal to Susan.
Right, She's still walking around with that as kind of a raw nerve.
And so it is so extra unfortunate that the person who is so morally like upset and offended by this
action is the person who gets blamed. When John's mom sees her talking to John, of course, John's coming over to say, you know, I heard that you told Gabby that you saw us, and Susan is really tender thoughtful to him, and you know, touches his face, and his mom completely misconstrues it and pulls out of the runway show because she's so upset, and then shows up to assault Susan, who looks so beautiful in her white dress and so angelic I know, and she's gonna be the
closer they're gonna reorder even though everyone looks so beautiful, she just is shining, and even Eatie is eating her words. And then she just gets literally torn apart and push on to the stage with the broken heel and her crotch out, looking.
Like a little baby deer or something.
Down you still look so sweet, and I actually I wanted to ask you because obviously misfortune befalls Susan a lot, and this felt like such an epitome of that moment where she is just trying to do the right thing and then literally gets blamed. And thank god that Gabby takes some accountability later in the or else I might not have been able to live with myself.
Hi.
It's Jenny Garth, host of the I Choose Me podcast this week. I'm so excited to welcome my friend Gabrielle carteris the Andrea Zuckerman from Beverly Hills nine o two one OHO to the pod. We're choosing to get real.
I applied to the networks about my age and contracts.
They never would have hired me if they had known my age. We're choosing to be honest.
She looked at me, and she said, this business is about the mask, which you have neither of.
Now we're choosing to get nostalgic.
Listen to I Choose Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Mom, I wanted to know, how did it feel to play a character that misfortune befell so consistently.
H What a good question. I think in the beginning, I really enjoyed the physical comedy as a challenge, you know. I really enjoyed not trying to be a you know, a clownish buffoon, but like to have the things be you know, cemented in something that seemed sort of real. And then this physical flaw mistake situation happens, you know, and I I also like slipping on the banana peel.
I also like the pie in the face. Like I grew up watching Lucile Ball, Like you know, I love Lucy was my favorite show all all you know, all the Mary Tyler Moore's and the and then and then the you know, the Young Frankenstein and the Anie Python and whatever like like all those comedic rhythms and and I don't know that they they're they're just inspirations and
they just live in me. So so at first I think I really enjoyed it, and then myself kind of like the audience that that came to say that Susan was klutzy. You know, I didn't love that, And I think that label came from how many times Susan had mishaps. But you know, you go back to it was like episode two or three where the whole sort of intro is about how Susan is unlucky and you know she they just follow through with that, like things, no matter how well and tended Susan was, things were not going
to go her way. Yeah, and sometimes you were on her side, and sometimes I think that quality was exhaustive.
Right, I mean, it totally works in this scene, but it's working so far.
Yeah, Well, I mean, in general, I guess I love the challenge. I love the vulnerability, I love the physical challenge of it. I love the dance that you're doing with the cameraman when you're shooting it.
Yeah, all of that you certainly delivered. I mean I love watching you do those things. And sometimes I got a very up close view of you doing those things, and I was always in awe of it. Another thing that was happening that I just want to mention during this runway scene was Tom was the MC and I feel like his calling because man, was he good at that. I just really want to kick out of it. And I also just I think I have a soft spot in my heart for when someone publicly gets to gas
up the person they love. And he literally got a stage in which to do that for Lynette, and I thought that was really nice when he commented on her her little stress down the runway.
You did a great job because he's he's really showing up the lines.
The angles, and the dress looks nice too. I was like, oh, yeah, I love their marriage. Yeah.
So, speaking of Tom and Lynette, like Lynette I think had just an also amazing side storyline here with one of I might have been. I mean, I already said that. My favorite line was sure, do you want to tell me why you had your foot in John Rowlands crotch yesterday? But this quick it was very closely followed by where can I score some high grade nanny? I mean, you know that is pretty pretty flawless.
And the nanny in this case is played by the wonderful Marla Sokoloff, who I recently got to work with. She directed me in a movie that we did for for Lifetime.
Yeah, and she shared she shared wondering, I always wonder what happens to people.
Yeah, yeah, well she's directing and she is awesome, And she shared a little bit of her experience on the show. I really wanted to know more because it sounds like she had some interesting stories to share about what her time on Desperate House Ives was like. And I hadn't seen her. I mean, I guess we'd met at the table read, but then we hadn't seen each other again until this last year, right, because yeah, we didn't work directly together. But Lynette's storyline here of trying to approach
herself a nanny is interesting. And also I think it's nice that we're opening the door for her to actually receive some real help on the ground, help with these kids, and that maybe she'll end up actually getting some rest at some point.
Yeah, and I love I love Lynette talking to Claire the baby's that are like she's in a bar picking her up and you know, and she doesn't want the jealous partner to come back. And of course the partner you know, being Claire's current boss who she ultimately ends up deciding to leave because Lynette makes her an offer that she can't refuse. But all the sneaking around and the subtle play of like do you come here often?
And when are they coming back?
I just I really enjoyed the writing in those scenes that it was really making me smile. In this episode, it was kind of nice to have a slightly lighter toned episode for Lynette after what last week's.
Episode was like for her.
Absolutely and then of enjoyed that break, I mean, speaking of a darker tone. Yes, we end with so much drama. We have the discovery of the adult female body that has been chopped up.
So was Dana not a baby?
But yeah, no, that was a big surprise, So it's not I mean, maybe there is a dead baby. But that's not what was in the in the in the chest.
Yeah, in the toy chest.
And so that is shocking and chilling, gruesome and gruesome. And then we have an eye. Yeah, no, I was That's what I was gonna say. Carlos and Gabby, I as a writer, and I think, Mom, we've talked about this a lot, even in relation to you actually doing stand up, which is funny, but the idea of set up and punchline and how you deliver a bait and switch, and we have been building the whole episode to Gabby
confessing and being held accountable for her actions. And Gabby does confess finally, after you know, Susan is assaulted by John's mom. Gabby goes and confesses and she does the right thing to John's mom. Yeah, to John's mom. She has not confessed to Carlos yet. And they are sitting at home and he is working and he's clearly been
stressed with work. That's his demo, and you think maybe she is going to confess, and she doesn't, and she says she's going to bed, and as she walks to the stairs, we see all the cop cars pull up, and she thinks.
John's moms called her n is illegal. As Susan said, it's illegal. It comes under it.
And she runs up to him and she drops to her knees and she doesn't explain anything.
She just says, I'm so sorry.
I love you. Just whatever happens, know that I love you. And they come in the door and they're there to arrest Carlos.
Yeah, talk about a twist and turn, and it is.
It is such a good bait and switch. I was like, this is good television.
We need to tune in next week. I need to see what happens, Carlos.
You have the ending of the episode, which is when Susan sees a friend in need, and in spite of the fact that the whole episode Susan has been justifiably hurt, angry, confused, mystified by Gabrielle's choices, she goes to support her friend in need who is clearly hurting, and you have this moment of them sitting on the porch and it actually is my my other favorite line of the episode, which is Mary Alice saying, sometimes the only way to ward
off the darkness is to shine the light of compassion.
That is a really great line. For the world right now. Sometimes the only way to what was it, get through.
The ward off the dark shiny light.
Well that's beautiful.
I mean, may we all go out into our weeks after listening to this episode. And you know, obviously it's a lighthearted podcast, but I hope you feel inspired to shine the light of compassion where you can this week.
Well, as always, we'll.
Be here next week because we are desperately to you.
Thank you,