Come In, Stranger

Come In, Stranger is the fifth episode of Desperate Housewives

Previously on Desperate Housewives
"''Ultimatums were made. Questions were asked. And lots of evidence was uncovered. Talk about dirty laundry."

- Mary Alice Young

Teaser
"''Every neighborhood has a woman like Alberta Fromme, and every woman like Mrs. Fromme has a cat. When she traveled, Mrs. Fromme would arrange for friends to look after her beloved cat. This time, however, she was forced to ask her neighbor, Susan Mayer. Mrs. Fromme liked Susan, but it was common knowledge on Wisteria Lane, where Susan Mayer went, bad luck was sure to follow. Her misfortunes ranged from the commonplace, to the unusual, to the truly bizarre. As she waved goodbye, she worried that Susan's streak of bad luck would continue. For that matter, so did her pet."

- Mary Alice Young

Before Alberta Fromme leaves for vacation, she asks Susan to take care of Mr. Whiskers, her cat. When Susan and Julie go to search for Mr. Whiskers and feed him, someone has broken into Alberta's house. The burglar exits while Susan is in the house, placing Mr. Whiskers back in the house and leaving behind a screwdriver."''Though she didn't know it at the time, Susan's luck had finally started to change."

- Mary Alice Young

The news of the break-in quickly spreads over Wisteria Lane, and the neighborhood holds a meeting to determine the next steps. Ida Greenberg announces that she has a peeper, Bob Fisk announces that an unnamed organization was tapping their phones, and Helen Vale talks about a "gang" that egged her minivan. Officer Thompson gives safety tips and suggests that a neighborhood watch would be the best for the community. Susan shows him the screwdriver as evidence, and he tells her that he'll take it to get fingerprinted. Andrew and Danielle are going to camp the next day, which is why the meeting wasn't held at Bree's house. Lynette asks Bree to recommend Porter and Preston to Barcliff Academy. Bree is initially worried that her word would no longer be accepted there because she wants to get her grandchildren into the school. When Gabrielle Solis and Susan take out the trash, they stop and all four hear Paul Young and Zach Young fighting from the across the street. It was the second time that week.

The next day, Mama Solis makes a “surprise” visit at her daughter-in-law’s house. In reality Carlos Solis suspects Gaby is cheating, so he had asked his mother to come stay and keep an eye on her. Lynette and Tom Scavo are in an interview with the headmaster at Barcliff. The headmaster tells them that Bree mentioned the twins were identical, and Barcliff is always looking for diversity in their students, and thus they'd make great additions to the school. He added the twins to the "must meet" list, meaning that the boys would be observed by the school to determine acceptance. Bree is in the NRA and owns "like four guns". The officer asks Susan out. At first, she denied his offer. After he got a call for a "hostage situation", he guilted her into saying yes. He later said said that it was actually a call for a T.V. being on too loud. Gaby went outside to do her yoga and had a talk with Carlos. Carlos then went back inside to talk with his mother. She was knitting while he told her that Gaby may be cheating on him. He starts to cry and Mama slapped him. Her husband cheated on him with a waitress and left him.

Lynette devises a plan so the twins will behave during their observation. She exercises and tires them out, which is successful. Gaby receives a text message from John Rowland, telling her to meet him at the motel. She lies to Mama Solis, saying that she's going to the store. Mama Solis then invites herself and stays with Gaby the entire time they're shopping. Susan then tells Mike Delfino about the cop and that he asked her out. Mike says he didn't have an opinion and that his life is complicated right now. Mike tells someone that he was the one who broke into Mrs. Fromme's house. We find out that he has a secret life from the one he's showing to Wisteria Lane.

Zach is trying to revarnish the wooden floor where his mother killed herself and where he cleaned up her blood. Bree invites him over for dinner. Lynette fills in the hole that the boys dug to tire them out from her plan. She told Susan that it was created by gophers. Susan married Karl after dating him for only a couple of months. Gaby visits John when Mama is watching her Mexican soap operas John waited at the motel for three hours and saved his lunch money for a month to pay for it. They made plans for tomorrow at the front entrance of the mall after school. Lynette tells Tom that Barcliff wants a donation of $15,000 to make sure that they are accepted into the Academy. She told them that they can't afford it. Tom suggests homeschooling the twins and that doesn't go over well with Lynette. Bree made plum pudding for her dinner with Zach. During the dinner, she tells him about her mother's death. Her mother was hit by a car around Christmas time. She was giving a neighbor that lived across the street to give them a present. The family went to the hospital, but Bree stayed at home. She washed the blood from the street with a hose. She felt better after that. This is the first and only time she's ever told this to anyone. Zach tells Bree that he knows why his mom killed herself. He told her it was something he did. He fights with Bree (verbally) then leaves.

Bree invites Zach over for dinner again, this time with a purpose. Gaby puts a blouse in Mama's bag so that she would be alone with John. Rex calls Bree to go to dinner with him. She cancelled her dinner plans with Zach. Susan and the police officer are on their date. They start their date on his shift. They check people's police reports on her old bullies. Lynette tells Tom that she has sacrificed a lot for her kids and that he hasn't sacrificed anything for them yet. She silently gives Tom the idea to sell his boat. Susan finds the out that the officer didn't send the screwdriver in for printing. She calls him a Karl in disguise and leaves him while they're in the wrong part of town. Zach breaks into Bree's house. Susan is mistaken by a hooker to be a hooker. Susan asks if she has change, instead she offers her to use her cellphone. She calls Julie for help. Zach broke into the Van De Kamp's house to decorate for Christmas. Paul goes into the house extremely mad at Zach. Mike saves Susan from the corner. Juanita tells Gaby that she married Diego when she was 16 and that he beat her. Shen then prayed to God to help her out of her problem and found out she was pregnant with Carlos. He was her pride and joy. Then Diego came home drunk when Carlos was 4 and beat him. Juanita made sure that he would never harm her or Carlos again. Susan and Mike kiss for the first time. Paul and Zach have their third fight of the week. Mike and Susan start dating. Bree sees Paul and Zach leaving.

Trivia

 * Although credited, Nicollette Sheridan (Edie Britt) does not appear in this episode.


 * The episode title Come in, Stranger comes from a Johnny Cash song of the same name.
 * Lynette's actions in this episode, in particular giving a hefty donation in exchange for her son's to attend private school, drew parallels in 2019 when Felicity Huffman was arrested as part of the College Admissions Scandal. Huffman pleaded guilty to paying $15,000 to improve her child's SAT score, and has been sentenced to 14 days in jail. Marc Cherry and Eva Longoria also wrote letters in support of their former co-worker during her trial.

Quotes

 * Lynette: The boys are fascinating. They even have their own twin secret language, don't they Tom?
 * Tom: Yeah, yeah-it's pretty scary.
 * Lynette: Well, not really so much scary as highly developed.
 * Tom: Y-yeah, they bark, and growl at each other-


 * Bree: Did you hear there was a break-in at Mrs. Fromme's last night?
 * Rex: Yeah, I heard they didn't take anything.
 * Bree: Well, it doesn't make it any less frightening. I mean, he could've been a sexual predator.
 * Rex: And he ended up at Mrs. Fromme's? Boy that would've been a lose-lose situation.
 * Bree: The point is, I don't feel safe. I was wondering if you could spend the night.
 * Rex: You're in the NRA. You own like four guns. If somebody broke in, I'd expect you to protect me.


 * Bree: My mother died when I was young; she was hit by a car. It was right before Christmas, as a matter-of-fact. We were all singing carols, and the dog was howling because everybody in my family sings off-key. Except for me. Anyway, it was just a terrible ruckus. So, well, no one noticed when my mother went across the street to give the neighbors a gift. And the next thing we heard were brakes screeching. Most of my family went to the hospital, but I stayed home because I was so young. When I looked out the window, I saw all of my mother's blood on the street. Nobody was doing anything about it, so I got a hose and I washed it off. And once it was clean, i felt so much better.

Bloopers
While discussing Mrs. Frome’s break-in, Bree tells Rex that she would like for him to spend the night at home because it is the first time in 17 years that she will be all alone in their house, while their kids are also gone for the weekend (10:19), and he’s spending his nights in a motel since they’re in marriage counseling. The series begins with Mary Alice’s 2004 suicide, which would mean that, the Van De Kamps have lived on Wisteria Lane since 1987.

Video
Eindringlinge 1x05 1.05 Come in, Stranger Sezonul 1/Episodul 05