Kids Ain't Like Everybody Else

"Kids Ain't Like Everybody Else" is the 90th episode of Desperate Housewives.

Summary
Bree's estranged daughter, Danielle, returns to Wisteria Lane and is met with a deluge of criticism. Meanwhile, Gabrielle and Susan find themselves embroiled in a catfight brought on by an altercation between their kids. To her chagrin, Lynette comes home to find Tom and Dave have formed a garage band after she told him to get rid of his old things. Finally, Katherine and Mrs. McCluskey invite Edie to lunch to press her for more information on Dave.

Bree
Danielle returns to Wisteria Lane for a visit with her husband, Leo, and son, Benjamin. Orson advises Bree not to criticize Danielle but this soon proves difficult when Bree learns Benjamin is vegetarian, being home schooled by Danielle and calling his mother by her first name. While at the park, she convinces Benjamin to eat meat by showing him pictures of Danielle when she was young and telling him that eating meat will make him strong. She then gives Benjamin two hot dogs and instructs him not to tell his mom, but later at Danielle's welcome home party Benjamin is sick and Danielle finds the traces of meat in his vomit. Angry at Bree's decisions, Danielle leaves. Orson reveals his anger at Bree for ruining the visit in one day, that took three years to arrange. He also blames Bree for losing Benjamin, arguing she didn't fight for him enough.

Susan and Gabrielle
Susan's son MJ is suffering at the hands of a bully, but he did not want to tell who is bullying him. Later Susan sees Gabrielle's daughter, Juanita, pushing him after she took his ball. Susan asks Gaby to have a word with her daughter but a simple request turns unpleasant when they start insulting each other's children. In the meantime, Susan prepares MJ to face bullies by asking Miketo teach him to fight (who insists he doesn't condone fighting with girls) and giving him a whistle. When Juanita pushes MJ down the next time around, Susan retaliates by doing the same to Juanita to show her how it feels. As Gabrielle observes this, she goes over to Susan and they engage in argument which then turns into a cat fight between the women. Susan apologizes with a bottle of Vodka and the women talk, as Gabrielle reveals how much her life has changed and Susan encourages her to stand up for herself to change things around. Gabrielle loses the last part of her glamorous life, her maroon Aston Martin, to a rich couple as a gift to their nanny. Carlos sold the car for less than it's worth, and Gaby is forced to buy an older car from Andrew. As Gaby takes it out the car breaks down. She confronts Andrew about it and learns the radiator is broken which will cost $300 to repair. However, Andrew refuses to pay for the damages as it is her burden to repair the car. Later, Gabrielle demands that Andrew pays the money and threatens to crash into his new sports car if he doesn't. Andrew eventually agrees to pay for the repair.

Lynette
Dave stumbles across Tom, who is clearing out the garage with Lynette. Lynette criticizes Tom for not throwing more useless items out. Dave then uncovers Tom's old bass guitar and suggests to start a garage band. Tom agreed and they both start playing together, much to Lynette's discomfort. In order to get him to stop, Lynette leaves his guitar in the middle of the garage, leaving Penny's doll next to it so she has to take the blame when Tom runs over it with the car. Dave later drops by with a new guitar to give to Tom. When Lynette disagrees again, Dave reveals to her the truth of a mid-life crisis which Tom is experiencing, and he wishes to fulfill his dreams. Struck by these home truths, Lynette takes the guitar and gives it to Tom as a present from her. When Dave sees this, we're told that he has in fact just taken advantage of them, but we're not told why.

Edie, Karen and Katherine
Mrs. McCluskey, still suspicious of Dave, joins with Katherine to discover more about him. Katherine can't find anything over the Internet about him as they have very little information about him. So they invite Edie for lunch to fish some details about Dave. Mrs. McCluskey very blatantly asks questions about Dave's past, but even Edie doesn't know herself. At Danielle's welcome home dinner, Katherine subtly steers the conversation back to Dave's past asking where he went to college. When Dave is reluctant to answer, Edie continues questioning him. Dave claims that he comes from "the mid-west". Dave tells the others he didn't go to college and that his dad had drinking problems. Edie later apologizes when they reach home, and she blames her questioning him on Mrs. McCluskey's keen interest. Aware that she's trying to suss him out, Dave feeds the idea into Edie's head that Mrs. McCluskey may be starting to go senile.

Production
"Kids Ain't Like Everybody Else" was written by Joe Keenan and directed by Bethany Rooney.

Reception

 * The episode received high ratings - an averaged 15.51 million viewers, with a rating of 9.8 and share of 15. It was #6 for the week of Oct.6 - Oct.12. It was met with mixed reviews from critics and fans.
 * Tanner Stransky, reviewer/recapper for EW.com, had this to say about the episode: "The happenings last night on Wisteria Lane were all rather run-of-the-mill, wouldn't you agree? (...) Admittedly, I don't live in suburbia like these ladies and their husbands, but aren't all these things the usual perils of the charmed life outside of the city? I'm waiting for something big to happen on Desperate Housewives.

Trivia

 * Susan and Gabrielle fight for a second time, but unlike the season 3 episode "What Would We Do Without You?", this time they engage in a catfight, the first catfight ever to happen between the four ladies. And just like last time, by the end of the day Susan goes to Gabrielle bringing booze and Gabrielle invites her in her house and they make up eventually. In regard to catfights, this is actually the third one for Gabrielle. She previously engaged in catfights with Sister Mary, and Ellie.
 * Tom and Dave play the 1972 song "Smoke On The Water" by Deep Purple.
 * Danielle, referring to Bree, says "She's made it impossible for us to stay…" - This same line was said by Phyllis, Bree's former mother-in-law, when she last visited for Bree's surprise baby shower. She says that to Andrew after Bree made her feel unwanted in her house and in her life.
 * "Kids Ain't Like Everybody Else" is the title of a song cut from the Stephen Sondheim musical West Side Story

Bloopers and Continuity Errors

 * Lynette says that Tom is 45 years old. However in the season 1 episode "Impossible" (2005), which takes place eight years before this episode's time (if we count the five-year jump), Tom says he's 41.