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Monday 11 June 2012

Desperate Housewives 8.22 "Give Me The Blame" Review


Mary Alice: "Karen McClusky had never been sure what her neighbours thought of her...did they see her as merely a baby sitter - or just the mean old lady who lived down the street...but for the first time in her life, she found herself thinking about such things.  Because she knew that her life...was coming to an end."  The women agree to care for Karen (Kathryn Joosten) at home so she doesn't have to leave for the hospice and can die at home like she wants.  Wow Gaby (Eva Longoria) carried  a lot of things back to the house - don't over do it Gaby!

Mary Alice (Brenda Strong) "The town of Fairview have been rocked by scandal.  A housewife had been accused of murder, and her trial was growing more sensational each day.  It truly was all anyone was talking about."  WEll after 8 years of murders, deaths, divorces, betrayals and marriages etc, seems Fairview is still besotted with its scandals.  (Hence the name of the other ABC show, Scandal.)

Gaby tries to hide the newspaper from Carlos (Richardo Antonio Chavira) as it has the bombshell headlines about the trial, but he sees it anyway.  Susan (Teri Hatcher) hasn't told anyone of her decision to move and wants Lee (Kevin Rahm) to remove the sale sign - paying him a compliment about his ass.

Trip (Scott Bakula) believes Ben's (Charles Mesure) testimony could be damning but Bree (Marcia Cross) tells him he doesn't need to worry.  Stone (Christina Chang) plays the tape (from Any Moment) about how Bree put  a body in the ground.  Ben refuses to testify and is held in contempt.  Tom (Doug Savant) tells Lynette (Felicity Huffman) he's filed for divorce and she thinks he was coming round to get back with her.  Renee (Vanessa Williams) meets Ben in jail and recalls the night of the progressive dinner party, though how she could have recalled must be amazing even for her seeing as she was drunk.  She saw Bree coming out of her car and tells Ben this in jail.

Stone hears everything she said to Ben as there's "no expectation of privacy in jail."  She got that line from CSI:Miami no doubt.  Stone threatens to send Ben back to Australia, yeah cos it's a deprived country isn't it and Renee falls for her threat.  The next day, Ben still refuses to testify and tells the judge to "save time and send me back to jail."  Renee testifies as to what she saw to the women's surprise and disgust.  Even though Renee was drunk, Stone was was so desperate for a conviction that she didn't want to check the facts.  She recalls Bree in her car and carrying a shovel.

Lynette is angry as friends don't turn on each other.  Renee was forced to testify to protect Ben.  Picking the man she loves over them. "judging by how I was treated..made the right choice."  She was kept in the dark for a year and that's something Susan can relate to when she complained about the others keeping secrets from her earlier on in the season,  which prompted her to paint that picture.

Trip demands the truth from Bree but she promised her friends.  He tells her she should be scared and admits he has feelings for her as they passionately kiss.  Which prompts Bree to blab, well she was easily convinced, I don't mean that in a horrible way, I like Bree, but after everything she's been through she still falls for a man in the same way as before; admitting it was Carlos and tells Trip everything.  Susan hides the sale of her house from Gaby and tells her the old couple are friends from high school.  Gaby: "What year did you graduate?"

Trip recalls Gaby to the stand and he made a promise to keep Bree out of jail.  Yes but that's his job and besides how unprofessional was kissing his client and then doing the exact opposite and breaking his word to her.   No wonder Bree was angry.  Gaby doesn't recognize Ramon but she knew him as Alejandro, her step father.  Bree feigns a fainting spell and tells Trip not to touch her.  Gaby and Carlos argue at Karen's house and she isn't really asleep which was obvious.  Carlo's admits the truth.  Gaby will tell them she was a victim of abuse and the jury will side with her, not Carlos.  Gaby was selfish and wants to change.  She could have buried the body and killed him out of fear, adrenalin, "you'd be surprised what people can do."  Meaning Karen as she overhears everything.

Gaby wakes and knows it's 2 in the morning without looking at the clock!  Carlos doesn't want Gaby to sacrifice her life for him, she's their daughter's role model. Karen wants to testify that Renee was drunk and convinces Trip to put her on the stand.  Gaby: "I've always been in charge and made Carlos wear the coat.  If it's cold in the courtroom, why was she wearing such a skimpy dress.  She planted a knife in the coat to keep Carlos out.  Karen talks about the Lane and how they "protect each other" and tells of how Gaby's stepfather abused her and confesses.  She did it with "adrenalin, fear" and repeats Gaby's words.  Gaby is too late to confess, well she couldn't even do that right, ha.

Stone accuses Trip of knowing this and he claims she wanted it off her conscience.  She drops the charges against Bree and doesn't file any against Karen.  Roy (Orson Bean) is proud of Karen and got her recipe card for her pot roast.  He tells Tom to not leave anything unsaid, which makes him change his mind about Lynette.  They celebrate Bree's freedom. Bree wants Trip to leave her private party and he wants to explain why he put Gaby on the stand.  He lied to her to win.  In fairness Bree did the same, I mean the man was her lawyer, everything was confidential, to a point.  She claims he was pretending to care about her but she manages to forgive Renee.  Calling Ben her hero;  but not her lawyer!  How could Bree not expect him to do what he had to for her.  Yet she was once a stickler for doing the right thing, irrespective of the consequences.

Tom admits his feelings to Lynette as does she.  She'll "always be the love of my life."

Hey no one mentioned what Lee was doing with Lynette and that it was him who unzipped her dress, that was  a bit of a niggle.  Nor did they get Murphy for falsifying documents in order to arrest Bree for Alejandro and Vance's hit and run which wasn't really solved either.  It was obvious Tom and Lynette would be back together, that is after all how the show began.  E4, dedicated this episode to the memory of Kathryn Joosten who passed away the week this episode was aired in the UK, which made it even more poignant.

Only fitting this episode was more about Karen and how her final swan song was to save Bree - not to mention a few eps ago she actually wanted Bree to end it all for her.  Lynette looked smart in her trouser suit, she should have worn those more often.  Loved the courtroom scenes and they didn't detract from the remainder of the stories either, since it was all kind of interlinked anyway.    Aww Bree treating Trip like that, I mean she had feelings for him and when he reciprocated she was just setting herself up for more heartache!

The title of this episode was from a lyric in the song Last Midnight from the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods.  Which kind of started the whole season going with burying Alejandro in the woods.

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