Desperate Housewives has mostly given short shrift to its gay characters but for some reason, the show had its gayest episode ever on Sunday night.
The biggest twist was Katherine (Dana Delaney) finding herself attracted to her new tenant Robin (Julie Benz), The show started with Katherine having dreams about them making love. She fights it, goes to a shrink, tries to get Robin to move out. But by episode’s end, the two spend the night together.
Where things go from here, I do not know but it is an unbelievable treat to have to such intelligent, first-rate actresses in these roles.
Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm are also superb actors as we’ve seen in their previous series. But as Bob and Lee, the gay couple on Wisteria Lane, they have been given very little to do which is such a wasted opportunity.
Finally, they were put on the front-burner in a storyline that had next-door neighbor Gaby (Eva Longoria Parker) moving in with them for a few days after her daughter comes down with the chicken pox which Gaby has not yet had. She instantly goes from harried mom to party girl having pre-dinner Cosmos at home and going out with the boys and all their cute gay friends.
“I know I don’t know you guys that well, but I love you,” she says as she takes a sip of Cosmo.
Of course these scenes played up every gay stereotype possible. When Gaby gets out of a car filled with gay guys, she says: “Good night Fernando! And good luck with the pec implants!”
Gaby is loving the life so much that she’s in no rush to go home. The guys throw her a party and her daughter calls to tell her she's better and can return to their home. Gaby lies to them and says she's coming down with the flu in order to stay for the party. She goes to find a quiet place to talk and happens upon a baby nursery that Bob and Lee have prepared.
Bob (Watkins) finds her and confides: “Lee and I are trying to adopt a baby. It’s something we’ve wanted for years.” He says they were set to have a baby before and spent two days bonding with it when the birth mother changed her mind.
Gaby realizes how lucky she is to have her kids and she leaves the party to head home. She tells Lee (Rahm) how much she envies their life and he says: “It’s nothing compared to how we envy yours.”
I hope this is a sign that we will see more of Bob and Lee and that the audience will get to know them better.
And finally, there is the return of Wisteria Lane’s original gay: Andrew Van de Kamp who is played by the terrific Shawn Pyfrom. Shawn left the show at the end of last season and this was his first guest appearance since then. Since his absence was never acknowledged, he just pops up again still in charge of mom Bree’s company.
Andrew had seemed so competent previously but here he is making excuses for a really cute, but really dumb employee named Tad who we later find out he is sleeping with. How do we find out? Because a smooth guy named Sam shows up, convinces Bree to hire him, and he immediately works at undermining Andrew and getting Tad fired.
Andrew apparently is still in the relationship with Alex, and doesn’t deny an affair (”He came on to me, it was late and I’d been drinking.”), which trigger's Bree, who was cheating on her husband until her lover was killed, to have some moral outrage over it, Andrew delivers a real zinger: “Hello pot, it’s kettle. It’s nice to meet you.”It appears as if Sam is trying to also get rid of Andrew and replace his role as Bree's "son". We'll see where this storyline leads.
There’s a good chance that Tuc Watkins will be getting more screen time when Desperate Housewives returns for its seventh season in the fall.
