The Ballad of Booth

"The Ballad of Booth" is the 133rd episode of Desperate Housewives.

Susan
Susan realizes her and Mike’s financial status is sinking further and further, and Mike confesses not all of his customers are paying him, because the bad economy has hit everyone. Susan decides to take matters into her own hands, which means tracking everyone down and asking for the money they owe Mike. Mike doesn’t agree with the plan, but Susan turns on her waterworks and proves to him she is capable of persuading anyone with her act. However, this is not the case, as she fails to get to anyone. Every person she tracks down does not respond to her teary-eyed performance, but when a man named Jake Walker manages to upset her, Susan shames him into giving her the money. This causes her to realize playing the bully card pays off a lot more, so she starts being mean to every deadbeat who comes up with a story to justify for not paying. Susan gets home with a lot of money and “booty” she took from the people she visited, and lets Mike she has felt power in the role of the bully like she has never felt before, and demands they have sex right then. She is happy they’re so close to the finish line. However, Mike tells her the IRS has just moved the finish line. Susan then goes to the IRS agency to bully them into giving them some more time. This all blows up in her face, as not only do they still have to pay their debts within the same amount of time, they are charged with several penalties. Susan realizes she is the worst bully ever, and Mike says they have nothing to fall back on. Susan tells him they’ve got the house. Later, she tells her girlfriends she and her family will be moving away from the street for a while, just until they get back on their feet. The girls offer to loan her some money, but Susan rejects the offer, and promises them this will change nothing between them. The girls want to hold her to that promise.

Lynette
Detective John Booth was upset because he couldn't track down the Fairview Strangler. However, he gets a call, informing him that another supposed victim of the serial killer was found buried in the woods. In the meantime, Lynette has a talk with Eddie, letting him know she went by his mother's, and she appeared to be missing. Eddie tells her it's natural; she often goes on benders and goes missing for days. Later, the detectives come by the Scavo house and tell Lynette they need to have a word with her son Preston because they found Irina Korsakov's body buried in the woods. Eddie overhears the conversation from upstairs and becomes frightened. He then tells Lynette he's leaving because this is an emotional time for the family, and he has no place there. He should also try to track down his mother. Lynette tells him he is free to come back at any time. Before he leaves, they hug, and Eddie whispers to her "I can't help thinking I would’ve turned out so different if you had been my mom". This gets to Lynette. At the police station, Preston is cleared, but he is very upset because he feels guilty. If he hadn't brought Irina to his home country, she wouldn’t have been murdered. Tom and Porter take him out to cheer him up. Lynette is left to organize her purse, and she overhears the officers talking about Barbara Orlofsky’s body being found in the woods as well. She stops by Eddie's, and she is relieved when she hears him say his mother’s okay, he just spoke to her, and he and his uncle will try to get her to check into rehab. He really needs to go, though. Lynette says the officers must've gotten her name wrong. Eddie is surprised by this remark, and asks her what she's talking about. Lynette explains it to him, and the fear in his face becomes apparent. He drops his bag and Lynette realizes the truth: Eddie killed his own mother. Eddie says he wishes she hadn't come. Then, he locks the doors and pulls down the window shutters, holding Lynette hostage in his house.

Bree
Bree, Orson and Andrew debate over what they should do about Sam. Orson suggests they pay him off to walk away, and Bree likes the idea, although Andrew doesn’t think it’s original. Bree has a meeting with Sam, giving him a check because her first husband Rex never set up a trust fund for him, and tells him how much she values the work he did for her company, and wishes him all the best luck. Sam realizes this is a goodbye, and Bree tells him now that he has so much money he doesn’t need to work for her, and since she and Andrew made up, she’s giving her son Sam’s job, after all, it is a family business. Sam says he’s part of the family, to which Bree replies “Not really”. He becomes very angry and rips off the check in front of her, telling her the next time she insults him, she’ll wish she hadn’t. The following day, Sam comes over and Bree is having a tea party with some old friends she once catered for, Detective Turner and Sergeant Clemente. Apparently, they’re sharing some stories about good old days when they used to scare off creepy guys who harassed lovely ladies. It is all a ruse to get Sam to back off. The two men make demonstrations on Sam of exactly what they did when they were faced with such challenges. Sam appears to be mortified and leaves. However, the next morning, he shows up on Bree’s kitchen. She tells him to leave, but he tells her he wants her company, and if she doesn’t give it to him, he’ll tell Carlos Solis and the police that it was Andrew who was driving the car that hit Juanita Solis ten years before. Bree is bedazzled by this.

Gabrielle & Angie
Mary Alice tells us a little bit about Angie’s life as she lies asleep on her bed. Angie dropped out of college, and joined a group of eco-terrorists, where she met Patrick Logan. They started a romantic relationship, and Patrick convinced her to build a bomb, with the purpose of saving the environment. However, something went wrong, a guy was killed, and Angie got her scars that way. In the present, as she sleeps, Patrick stares at her scares. Angie wakes up, and we see she’s handcuffed to the bed. She covers up her back once Patrick tells her he was admiring her scars, which are like a souvenir of the great things they accomplished together. Angie, however, is not so proud, since they killed a man. Patrick finally tells her what he needs from her: another bomb. Angie, fearing for her life, agrees to build it. Patrick shows her the material she needs, and says there’s a part missing. In the meantime, Gabrielle comes over, in order to get some help with preparing lasagna, because Carlos doesn’t like her lasagna. Patrick passes as Angie’s brother, and Angie gives Gaby the recipe. At night, Danny comes home, as he received a text message from his mother’s cell phone, but it was all a part of Patrick’s plan, who claims Danny is the part that was missing. He ties Danny up to a chair, and tells him he expects them to have a real father-son relationship after this ordeal is done with. The following day, Gaby comes by to have Angie sample the lasagna she made, and Patrick distracts Gaby as Angie cuts a piece. She manages to scribble on a note and stick it in the lasagna, and gives it back to Gabrielle, saying it’s delicious but she can’t hold on to it as she’s trying to cut on carbs. Gaby takes this to mean her food is terrible and she leaves angrily. Once she gets home, she tosses the lasagna in the garbage can. At night, she finds her girls in the kitchen eating the lasagna they took out of the trash, and Celia spits out the note, which reads "Danny and I held hostage. No cops. Get Nick."

Production Notes

 * The title of this episode comes from a song with the same name in the Stephen Sondheim musical, "Assassins". The character of Detective John Booth, who guest stars in this episode as portrayed by Rick Pasqualone, is named so that the title has some connection to the episode.
 * This episode ends with the screen message "To Be Continued..", shown before the ending credits, therefore making it the first part of the season finale.
 * Although credited, Dana Delany (Katherine Mayfair), Maiara Walsh (Ana Solis), Jeffrey Nordling (Nick Bolen), Joshua Logan Moore (Parker Scavo), Kendall Applegate (Penny Scavo) and Mason Vale Cotton (MJ Delfino) are absent from this episode. Andrea Bowen (Julie Mayer) and Kathryn Joosten (Karen McCluskey) are too absent, and therefore are not credited.
 * Vic Polizos who appears as Detective Turner is married to Christine Estabrook who played Martha Huber.
 * This episode was watched by 11.361 million viewers in its original broadcast.