See Also: 'Live Alone And Like It' Episode Guide

Synopsis:

Lynette looks out her window and sees her neighbor, Mrs. McCluskey, across the street. Lynette has a fantasy that Mrs. McCluskey drops dead and a Swedish family with two adorable twin daughters moves in across the street. Alas, it's not to be, and Lynette groans and rushes outside when she sees Mrs. McCluskey taking her trashcans. They argue over how long Lynette left them out, but as Lynette storms away with the trashcans, Mrs. McCluskey collapses and Lynette calls the paramedics and ends up going along for the ride when Mrs. McCluskey asks her to.

Noah tells Mike Delfino that Deidre's remains were found in a toy chest. He shows Mike the list of purchasers of the chest and Mike immediately notices Paul Young's name. Noah asks Mike to get a file on Deidre's case from Detective Sullivan, the officer who got the charges against Mike dropped. At Camp Henessey, the Van De Camps are preparing to take Andrew home. Bree is concerned about Andrew, who just confessed that he thinks he's gay, spending so much time around other boys. When Andrew joins her and Rex, she tells him she'd love him even if he was a murderer. Susan has murder in her eye while her mother, Sophie, flirts with the ice cream truck man. Sophie wants to go out to a hip club and meet men.

Lynette is surprised to open her door and discover a grateful Mrs. McCluskey on the other side. The older woman thanks Lynette and gives her a Tiffany lamp and invites herself in. At the Solis house, Gabrielle is sulking over the post-nuptial agreement and refuses to let Carlos into bed. He threatens to take away her credit cards and the argument escalates. Gabrielle seeks solace in John's arms, upset about her credit cards. John offers her his student credit card, which she is at first reluctant to accept, but when he insists takes it with a gleam in her eye.

Mrs. McCluskey pays another visit to Lynette, and in frustration Lynette gives her back her lamp and sends her packing. Susan wishes she could send her mother packing when she discovers her in her living room with a man named Tim. Susan makes Sophie get rid of Tim, at least for the evening. Mike meets with Sullivan who gives him Deidre's file but is contemptuous of his past. He beats Mike up before leaving. Across town, Gabrielle is dining in a nice restaurant after picking up a pair of shoes. A man from another table admires her while she sips her wine. But the waiter returns, he tells her John's card has been declined. She calls John and learns the credit card company reported suspicious activity on the card and he had to lie to his mother and report it stolen. Clever as always, Gabrielle gets herself invited to the table of the man checking her out and he covers her lunch.

Bree invites Reverend Sikes to dinner hoping he can have some influence over his sexuality. Reverend Sikes begins a lecture, but when Andrew says he doesn't want to talk, the Reverend desists. Bree is upset, but he refuses to pressure Andrew. Angry that Rex isn't supporting her, Bree exclaim that Rex is into S&M. Things aren't any more peaceful at Susan's house--Sophie has Tim over again, and she's come up with a date for Susan: a friend of Tim's named Lamont. Back at the Solis house, Gabrielle shows Carlos her new shoes and tells him that men will take care of her no matter what happens and she'll leave him if he doesn't tear up the post-nup.

Susan and Lamont make awkward conversation while Tim and Sophie fool around. Susan is uninterested, but Sophie wants to go off with the two men. Susan yells at her mother and tells her that she's envious that her mother can move on and she can't. Susan tells Sophie she's devastated and can't get over Mike. Lynette, concerned that Mrs. McCluskey hasn't picked up a package in front of her house, finally pays her a visit. She finds Mrs. McCluskey unable to open her medicine, so she helps her and offers to take her to the pharmacy. Lynette admits she views Mrs. McCluskey as an obligation, but she notes that everyone has them. She takes the Tiffany lamp back on her way out.

Bree is looking at Andrew's baby pictures fondly. She tells him she would die for him and asks him to talk to Reverend Sikes. She fears he won't go to heaven. Andrew, in an unusual show of devotion, agrees to talk to the Reverend. Sophie decides to pay a visit to Mike to tell him Susan still cares for him, but when she does, he turns her away, consumed by his desire to find Deidre's killer. Andrew makes his promised visit to Reverend Sikes, but it doesn't go as Bree intended. He tells the Reverend he lied about being gay to get out of camp--he believes he's bisexual. He has a goal in mind: to do something so awful it will "destroy" his mother. At the Solis house, Carlos tears up the post-nup for Gabrielle to see.

Analysis:

When one of the major plotlines of the week involves a crotchety old lady who doesn’t have anything to do with the show’s main mysteries (that we know of), you know you’re in for a filler episode. “Live Alone and Like It” sets up a few intriguing situations, but it doesn’t do much to advance the story. Rather, it sets things in motion, hopefully promising more exciting developments in weeks to come.

If I have to witness one more soulful look between Susan and Mike, I think I'm going to scream. How many weeks has this been going on for? Her pity party has gotten old, especially since she won't even hear the guy out. I realize she thinks she shouldn't be with him because he wasn't honest with her, but given how hard he pushed for a second chance or for her to at least hear him out, her confession of being devastated is less moving than it should be. She refused to even read the letter he wrote her about his past! It's hard to have sympathy for a character who is so resolute over the wrong thing (how would it have hurt her to have the full story?) and so weepy in part due to her own actions.

Being irritating clearly runs in Susan's family, because her mother is worse than she is. Is there a more annoying character than Sophie Bremmer on television? If so, I'd be shocked. She twitters breathlessly throughout the episode, more like a teenager than a woman old enough to be Susan's mother. Her one redeeming action in the episode is when she goes to visit Mike to tell him about Susan's feelings for him, and it's not fair to fault her for bad timing.

Kudos to Mike this week for focusing on more important things than Susan's dramatics. He's more interesting when he's pursuing the mystery of Deidre's death than he is mooning over Susan. As I'm sure many suspected, Deidre is indeed the woman Paul Young chopped up and put in that toy crate. Not much comes of the mystery in this episode, though--Mike gets beat up by Detective Sullivan and gets the folder, but we don't learn about its contents in this episode.

Gabrielle finally wins the weeks long tug-of-war she's been engaged in with Carlos and even if it's no victory for feminism, it is a satisfying triumph. Gabrielle is a survivor, and she'll do just fine with or without Carlos. She's easily the show's most cunning character, and despite the fact that she's unfaithful and manipulative, it's hard not to sympathize with her. Eva Longoria imbues her character with a charming, likeable quality that makes Gabrielle appealing even when she misbehaves.

The episode's theme of obligation with Lynette and Mrs. McCluskey feels slightly out of place. While Susan copes with loneliness, Gabrielle tests the waters to see if she can survive on her own, and Bree grapples with her love for her son and her faith, the plotline with Mrs. McCluskey feels rather light. Lynette has a point about obligations--we all have them, and all have instances where we do something for someone that we'd probably rather not do--but it seems a little callous to bring it up so directly. Part of fulfilling obligations is being gracious about it. Whatever would Bree think?

Bree has plenty of her own problems with Andrew, who is nowhere near as reformed as he seems. Clearly he's still nurturing a deep hatred for his mother, to say the least. Bree, despite all her good intentions, manages to say all of the wrong things, from her deplorable comment which equates homosexuality with being a murderer to her plantive attempt to make him see the issue from a religious standpoint. At this point, Bree seems fairly set in her beliefs, but it's made somewhat irrelevant by Andrew's admission to Reverend Sikes that he just made the confession to get away from Camp Henessey. Clever move, Andrew--so what's next?

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