It was nice to see Desperate Housewives bring all of its dangling plot points to a head for this week’s holiday cliffhanger, even if we did have go continue to endure the Gaby/Juanita/Grace storyline after Lynette told Gaby that writing a letter to Grace would help her pour out her feelings even though Grace would never see the letter. Gaby carelessly left the letter out in the open and Juanita found it, running off into an angry mob.
And that angry mob was a result of Paul Young’s halfway house that was about to open after he gained a majority vote in the neighborhood association. Just to prove what a snake he is, Paul lured Mitzi away from her home and tricked Bob and Lee into selling him their house because they thought Mitzi caved. Everyone thought Mitzi was the one who sold, but they found out it was Bob and Lee and that set into motion the exciting climax that had every major character on Wisteria Lane in some kind of danger.
Poor Keith can’t catch a break. He never got to propose to Bree, he tried to move in with her but that lasted about a minute, then his dad shows up to finish his yard work and managed to save the day when an ex-con wandered into Bree’s house. Unfortunately, dad Richard showed his true colors and when Keith found out they started to brawl on Bree’s lawn in the middle of the protest as the mayor was about to give Paul a medal for his good deeds in the neighborhood. Some of the neighbors thought Keith was a con and they started to join in the fight to save Richard, and Bree’s only solution to stop everything was to get her gun and fire it into the air … setting off an epic panic.
I love good panicking crowd scenes. It’s amazing the work that has to go into one and just to see hundreds of people going crazy is pretty awesome — at least on a fictional TV show. This riot was staged very well, even if it was a bit cheesy and clichéd at the same time. Renee thought the best time to confront Susan about her confession of loving Tom was during this highly emotional protest? Bob and Lee thought fleeing the neighborhood while crowds of people packed the lane was a good idea? Bree thought shooting off a gun to calm an unruly bunch of people would work? Of course, Susan was left injured and unconscious (someone stepped on her stomach!) after the crowd dispersed, Lynette found Mrs. McClusky nearly trampled, Juanita managed to get into Bob and Lee’s car but the crowd was alerted to them being the ones who sold and their car was attacked (Gaby and Carlos managed to get her out before things got really bad) and Lynette saved Bob and Lee in the end, telling the mob that they are her neighbors.
And then, just before sunrise Paul roamed the street surveying his handiwork. He succeeded in doing what he really wanted to do — pit neighbor against neighbor and prove to them that they’re no better than the ex-cons he wanted to move into the neighborhood. As he stood there, I thought to myself I bet there’s going to be a gun shot and BANG, there it was leaving Paul lying in a pool of blood and us with a new mystery to ponder … who shot Paul Young?
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Dec 13, 2010 @ 08:09 EST5EDT
