TVSquad

(S05E14) "We can no longer afford Tom's mid-life crisis." - Lynette

The financial crisis hit Wisteria Lane this week: the Scavos had to sell Tom's car and accept an investment from Bree; Mike had to work extra shifts to help take care of his son; Susan had to get a new job with regular hours to help pay for MJ's tuition; and the show had to resort to ad placement (Sprint, Lexus) to make ends meet! And since it's Desperate Housewives we are talking about here, the financial crisis was tackled with humor and some bitchiness.

Sadly for Tom, he has to put his mid-life crisis on hold because the financial crisis is hitting his family hard. Of course, the legal fees they must pay, thanks to Dave saying Porter was in the club, don't help their financial situation. This crisis allowed Bree to ruin save the day! As soon as Lynette suggested that Bree invest in the pizzeria and didn't take time to discuss what it exactly meant (silent partner, for example), I knew it would end up badly. Bree, no meddling in other people's business? Yeah, right!

To Bree, throwing the "bad" pizzas in the garbage was pennies. But for Lynette, those pizzas could have made the difference in making profit or not at the end of the day. It was heartbreaking when Lynette told Bree that the five-years-ago Bree would have never acted the way that the present Bree did. Ouch! Money can break friendships, and we've got an example here this week. I wonder what Bree will do next to make amends and try to mend her friendship.

Speaking of friendships, Tom and Dave are definitely not friends anymore. It was about time someone punched Dave for at least one of the awful things he did. However, now that Tom knows Dave lied about the fire, I'm worried that Dave will put in motion his plan to hurt Mike's loved ones sooner rather than later. Then again, we know Dave won't take real action until May Sweeps, so Mike has a few weeks of happiness ahead.

Dave is really not at the top of his game, because if Edie had asked her question a few months back, Dave would have lied through his teeth that his marriage to Edie was perfect so as not to raise suspicions and have her stay by his side. Instead, Dave tells her he had a fairytale with Lila and that his marriage to Edie is more real and that it won't last forever! WTF? Does Dave want to be thrown out on the curb again? If he isn't more cautious, he may get in more trouble than he's in with Tom...

Gaby's storyline this week was amusing but not that entertaining until the seamstress told her that she couldn't see how Gaby changed. As Edie told Gaby, the latter was now back to her old self-centered jerk ways. Thankfully, Gaby has grown up these past five years and not only thanked but hugged the seamstress. Could it be that Gaby will not only be in her model shape once again, but still be a soccer mom inside?

One type of storyline I'm tired of is that of Susan reacting to things without thinking. It's always the same: Susan is not happy, acts on impulse in the hope of rectifying things, gets herself in trouble, learns the truth, and asks for forgiveness. We've seen that story with her over and over again! Let's hope that giving Susan a new job that will require her to commit to a schedule and be a grown-up to the students will allow the writers to be a tad more original with her character.

I've learned to live with ad placement, but there is a limit to what I will tolerate. This week's episode crossed the line with Bree talking about her new Lexus as a salesman would. Is there a car feature she didn't mention? I get it, the "sales pitch" Bree did to her friends was to show how luxurious the car she bought was to enhance the fact that she was loaded with money. But still, did the dialog have to be so detailed to have us understand Bree is rich?

Once again this week, the scene stealer has been Lee. How fun was it to watch him childishly repeat "Bob" over and over again to get his partner to spill the beans about Dave and, later on, see Lee start telling Tom the secret, stopping, and continuing, stopping and finally giving Tom all the details? Bob and Lee definitely need to be recurring a bit more in the coming weeks and next season as they bring a whole lot of fun to Wisteria Lane. Don't you agree?