See Also: 'Children Will Listen' Episode Guide

Synopsis:

After encountering a neighborhood child, Gabrielle Solis is thanking her lucky stars that her husband Carlos has accepted that she doesn't want children. Unbeknownst to Gabrielle, Carlos has replaced her birth control pills with placebo, and Mary Alice Young informs viewers that within a week, Gabrielle will be pregnant.

Paul Young and his son Zach are visited by several officers inquiring about a unique chest Paul once purchased. The remains of a woman in a similar box have washed up on Torch Lake. Zach steps in and "reminds" his father that he discarded the chest long ago. Felicia Tilman is watching from her yard, so Paul pulls Zach in and tells him that the dead woman was the private investigator who was trying to take him from the Youngs.

Bree and Rex debate over whether Bree will accompany Rex to visit Andrew at Camp Henessey. Bree doesn't want t go, but Rex feels like she needs to. Gabrielle arrives home to find Mr. Steinberg, the hospital's attorney, sitting with Carlos at home. Carlos is furious that Gabrielle didn't tell him about the settlement--he thinks they could have used the money for legal fees so that he didn't have to take the plea bargain, while she thinks the money should be put away for a fresh start once he's released from prison. Trouble arrives at Susan's house as well in the form of Sophie Bremmer, Susan's mother. She has hit Mike Delfino's car pulling into the driveway, and Susan awkwardly tells her she and Mike broke up as Mike looks on.

Lynette's babysitter has cancelled on the day she is supposed to go for drinks with her old work colleagues, so she begs Bree to take care of her boys. Bree reluctantly agrees. At Susan's house, Susan tells her mother about Mike's criminal past and Sophie tells Susan she's left her current lover, Morty. She claims he shoved her and threw a book at her. Things are no more peaceful at Bree's house--the Scavo boys are as wild as ever. Porter threatens to take one of Bree's newly baked cookies, and she tells him if he does, she'll spank him. When he disobeys and spills the tray, she follows through on her threat.

Carlos tries to get Gabrielle to sign a post-nuptial agreement which will leave her with nothing if she divorces him while he's in jail. She refuses, revealing that she learned about his offshore bank accounts when he told her to burn his papers. Susan brings Sophie along to the housewives' weekly poker game. Things get tense when Bree tells Lynette she spanked Porter. Lynette is furious--she and Tom threaten to spank the children, but they never follow through. They argue over how their children have turned out and Bree storms out. Lynette turns to Tom for support, but he fears their threats to keep the boys in line have become hollow because they never actually spank the boys and the boys know this.

Felicia Tilman invites Zach over and tell him she used to work with Mary Alice. She tells him she remembers him as a child, when he went by another name: Dana. Susan treats Sophie to a day at the spa, but things go awry when Sophie tells Susan she wants to come live with her. Bree has decided to go to the camp to see Andrew, but she wanted to wear his favorite color and she can't remember what it is. Rex reassures her that she's a good mother. Carlos has found a way to one-up Gabrielle: he's moved the money in the offshore account and he physically forces her to sign the post-nup.

At Camp Henessey, the counselor tells Rex and Bree that Andrew only wants to speak with Rex and refuses to see his mother. She looks on as Rex goes in and Andrew embraces him. At the Scavo house, the boys are driving Lynette up the wall. Preston is threatening to drop his toothbrush into the toilet. Suddenly inspired, Lynette threatens to take him to Mrs. Van De Kamp's house for a spanking, and he immediately runs away from the toilet. Back at the camp, Bree overhears the other mothers talking about their delinquent children and storms in to Rex and Andrew's meeting to tell Andrew she is a good mother. Andrew reveals something that shocks her: he thinks he's gay.

Furious at Carlos, Gabrielle pays John a visit. When he sees the bruise on her wrist he's ready to fight Carlos, but she tells him the best way to get back at Carlos is for John to sleep with her. He acquiesces. Susan has decided to help repair the relationship between Morty and her mother and she pays a visit to Morty and gets him to agree to talk to Sophie. The talk does not go well, and Susan is left with Sophie. Lynette sees Bree outside her house and apologizes, prompting Bree to apologize in turn. The two women decide to go out for coffee together.

Analysis:

Despite her annoying behavior recently, I'm convinced the writers want us to like Susan Mayer. What other reason could they have for introducing Sophie Bremmer, a character even more annoyingly twittery and flaky than Susan herself? Leslie Ann Warren is a good actress, but it seems she's being typecast as a ditz--in Will & Grace she plays a similar (but less-grating) character. When Mike Delfino tells Susan he now understands why she's the way she is, the audience can nod along. Whether that's a good thing or not depends on how long the writers are planning on keeping Sophie around and whether they're planning to give her any depth.

The episode features a couple of surprises, the first being revealed in the teaser. Gabrielle gets pregnant in this episode, and the implication seems to be that the child is John's. It serves Carlos right for switching out her birth control, but what is Gabrielle going to do? She seems pretty set on not wanting a child and with Carlos about to go away to prison for eight months, it seems likely she'll at least consider an abortion.

By now some fans may have put together that Zach is in fact Dana, and tonight Zach catches up with them. This private detective that Paul killed--could she possibly be the woman Mike Delfino is searching for? It seems a strong possibility at the very least. Mike barely gets anything to do these days beyond sending smoldering gazes Susan's way, so hopefully that plotline will be revisited soon.

Andrew's revelation that he's gay clearly has the effect he worried it would: Bree can't handle it and leaves. Ironically, as the division between Bree and Andrew widens, she and Rex grow closer together. He's been a model husband in the last two episodes, supporting Bree's decision to send Andrew to Camp Henessey and standing up to the boy when Andrew kicked Bree. In this episode, he stands by her as she frets over whether to visit Andrew or not, and when she worries that she hasn’t been a good mother, he reassures her she has.

The dilemma that divides Bree and Lynette, to spank or not to spank, is all parents face. Both sides are presented as sympathetic and understandable in the episode. Lynette had a bad childhood experience with her own mother and doesn't want to repeat those mistakes with her own children. On the other hand, the boys are a terror and clearly have little regard for authority. The resolution, where Lynette threatens her children with something that actually carries weight--taking them to Bree's house for a spanking--is a clever one that manages to remain fairly in the middle of the spanking dilemma.

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