Irina Korsakov

"We have a term in America for women who get paid for sex, and it is not "daughter-in-law"."

- Lynette Scavo

Irina Korsakov (ru. Иpинa Коpсaкoва) was a Russian gold-digger and the ex-fiancée of Preston Scavo. Soon after her arrival on the Lane, Irina became a victim of the Fairview Strangler.

Early life
Irina was born in Russia. She married several men, including a guy from Italy who pressed charges when his bank account was cleaned out by his gold-digging wife. She then married a fellow Russian person, Alexei - who refused to work and treated Irina badly. Irina filed for divorce, but Alexei refused to sign the papers, thus the two never legally divorced. Irina left Russia and met Preston Scavo at a nudist beach in Nice, France and quickly seduced the young man. ("We All Deserve to Die")

Season 6
'''"Yes, Preston Scavo had returned from his trip with a beautiful souvenir. And his mother would soon wish, he hadn't."

- Mary Alice Young '''

The Scavo family is preparing to welcome home Preston, who's been in Europe for the past months. He arrives, accompanied by his twin brother Porter, who picked him up, and everyone is happy to see him. Preston then introduces them to his Russian fiancée, a beautiful woman named Irina. Lynette enters a state of shock. During dinner, Lynette and Tom discover that while in France, Preston bought Irina several gifts, and they start to wonder what the woman's true intentions are, and what she expects to get out of this relationship. Lynette becomes even more concerned once she realizes Preston has told her about his college fund.

She is pretty sure Irina is a gold-digger. Later that night, Lynette is telling Tom that sooner or later her son will realize his fiancée is no good. However, Preston walks in to announce that he has asked Irina to marry him, and she said "yes". His parents become horrified, and when Lynette tells him she doesn't think Irina's right for

him, Preston becomes angry. It is soon revealed that he is planning on giving Irina his grandmother's wedding ring, because Lynette promised it to him. The latter comes up with a plan: to give Irina a fake ring, because she knows right away that she'll have it evaluated, and once she realizes it's a fake, she'll dump Preston. She does so, but it all backfires when Irina comes home for dinner and tells the Scavos she can't just accept a treasured family heirloom, and they should save the ring for Penny instead. Lynette can tell her soon-to-be daughter-in-law was charming her way out of the scam that was set up for her, but there's nothing she can do. ("Chromolume")

Lynette is seen collecting the dirty laundry in her house and she then knocks on Irina's door. Irina is busy having sex with Preston inside, and takes her sweet time to open the door. Lynette catches on that something is wrong, particularly since she had made the bed that morning. Lynette proceeds to leave, but doesn't, shutting the door of the bedroom in front of her instead. Preston thinks his mother's gone, and steps out of the closet. Lynette becomes infuriated at them, because she had warned them not to have sex in the house. She becomes even madder when Porter, who's in on it, warns Preston about her. The two Scavo siblings leave, not wanting to undergo a sermon from their mother, and Irina tells Lynette she knows the only reason they can't have sex in the house is because the latter doesn't get along with her future daughter-in-law. Lynette tries to cover it up, but is unable to, and leaves.

Later, the young couple announce to Preston's parents they are getting their own apartment. Tom rejects the idea because he thinks that's what Lynette would do, but his wife appears to be on board. Lynette thinks that if the two of them are always cramped up in some small apartment, they are bound to break up. What she doesn't know is that Preston gives up on the idea of going to college and gets a job as a gutter at a meat-packing company, in order to pay for a three-bedroom apartment. Lynette is appalled by this revelation during dinner, and Irina tells her Preston is doing it so that he can provide for the woman he loves. Her mother-in-law lashes out at them, saying he's not in love, he's hypnotized by a piece of euro-trash, and Irina throws the borscht she was preparing at Lynette, soaking her in red sauce. Later, Irina tries to have a word with Lynette, and tells her the wedding has been moved up to the following week, because their constant fights are weighing too heavily on Preston, but if they get married soon enough, it won't be so hard for him to choose between his mother and his wife. ("My Two Young Men")

Lynette and Irina are at a Russian bridal shop, and the latter is trying on wedding dresses while insulting the owner of the boutique. Lynette tries to apologize to the woman, who shares her pain. Irina's phone rings, and Lynette picks it, but it's some Russian guy and she can't understand what he's saying. She hands the phone to Irina, who apparently argues with the guy. Lynette asks her who it was, but Irina refuses to tell her. However, the store owner can tell Lynette what she overheard her saying. Later, Lynette is at INS headquarters, as apparently Irina told the guy on the phone that it would be to no avail if he called the police, because he would never find her. However, the agent she tells this has no interest in the situation, as there isn't any evidence that she is an actual criminal. Lynette then finds a female middle-aged agent who often feuds with her daughter-in-law too, and realizes she can help her out, since they do have so much in common. Lynette is asked to get Irina's passport number in order to help the INS woman, so she sneaks into her room while she's out with Preston. However, she hears them approaching, and hides behind the closet door. Irina and Preston prepare to have sex, unbeknownst to the fact that Lynette is standing there. She texts Tom, who's teaching Parker how to drive, and they hurry home to save the day. But there's not much time left, so Lynette grabs a baseball nearby and throws it at the window, eventually breaking it, and Preston and Irina rush to the window to understand what happened, as Tom and Parker arrive home. Lynette sneaks away. The wedding day finally arrives, and Lynette is desperately waiting for the INS agent to show up with some news regarding Irina's case. She does so and tells Lynette all about Irina's past.

In the bedroom where she's staying, Irina is confronted by her soon-to-be mother-in-law, who first compliments her dress, and then proceeds to tell her she knows she's still married to some Russian man named Alexei Korsakov, and that she has been married to and had several affairs with men whom she stripped of their money and possessions. She claims that getting married in America while still being married to someone else is a crime. She's going straight to Preston with the info she's got. Irina says it doesn't matter, she will explain it all away, as she usually does, and Preston will fall for it, and they will marry. What she doesn't know is that Preston had been in the doorway, listening to everything. He asks his mother to leave, so he can have a word with his fiancée.

After Irina leaves the house, Eddie Orlofsky, who was Preston's best man, offers her a ride. She is planning to go stay at a hotel, and he offers up his own place for her to sleep in, and offers his company in the meantime, telling her he's okay with letting her use him to get over Preston and what happened to them.

But Irina cruelly mocks him, saying she didn't come to America to wind up with some greasy-haired little man. Eddie becomes infuriated, and drives off into the woods. He appears to be demonically maniac. He looks at her, as she asks him what's wrong, and he then attacks her. Her screams are heard outside of the car. Moments later, Irina lies dead on the ground, as he digs her a hole. ("We All Deserve to Die")

Post-Death
Irina's body is found and Preston is interrogated because of the discovery. However, the police seem to think that whoever killed her is linked to all the other attacks on women, so he's cleared from all suspicion when they clarify his alibi, which was that he was in Europe when all the other attacks occurred. Still, Preston is depressed - he can't help but feel guilty somehow, because if he hadn't brought her to America from Europe, this wouldn't have happened to her. ("The Ballad of Booth")

Trivia

 * Irina's name should have been given as Irina Korsakova, for in Russia women's surnames are changed to the feminine. Her husband was Alexei Korsakov, so "Korsakova" should have been her last name. However, it was given as "Korsakov" in the episode "The Ballad of Booth".
 * Irina became the forth physical character in a timeline to be victimized by the Fairview Strangler, after Ramona (his first victim), Julie Mayer (who lived), Amy Carroll and Emily Portsmith. However, at least one other woman was attacked by Eddie before Irina - and others may have been too, judging by the bulkness of Eddie's scrap book, so it's unknown what Irina's order is in the victims' list.