Angie Bolen

"I don't know how to respond when someone is as candid as you are."

- Bree Van de Kamp

Angela "Angie" Bolen (née de Luca) was one of the main and titular characters of Desperate Housewives during its sixth season.

A smart, brassy and liberal Italian-American woman, Angie is willing to go to great lengths to protect her family and to fight for what she believes in. Angie and her family, husband Nick and teenage son Danny, moved to Wisteria Lane, hoping to adapt to suburban life whilst hiding a dark secret from their past.

Early Life
Angela De Luca lived in New York City with her mother, Rose de Luca. At age eighteen, Angela dropped out of college, where she enrolled as an engineering major, and joined a band of eco-terrorists, led by Patrick Logan, with whom she became romantically involved. Patrick asked her to build a bomb that would be used for the environmental cause they both supported. On November 10, 1991, the eco-terrorist group bombed a building that was supposedly empty; however, they unintentionally killed an innocent man named Shawn. Angela sustained a large scar on her back as a result of the explosion. Consumed with guilt over having killed an innocent man and pregnant with Patrick's child, Angela agreed to run away with a FBI agent, Dominic. He began raising Patrick's son as his own and moved several times with his wife Angie and their son Tyler, living under various aliases, in an attempt to evade both Patrick and other FBI agents. ("A Little Night Music"/"The Ballad of Booth")

Season 6
"Trust me, honey. If there's one thing I know how to do, it's keep things to myself."

Angie moves to Wisteria Lane with her husband, Nick, and son, Danny. She is sold Mary Alice's old house by Lee and accepts it even though a woman died in the living room. She is present at the wedding of Susan and Mike Delfino and later that night, Danny is missing, so she sends Nick out looking for him, it is revealed that she has an old burn on her lower back, it is the night that Julie Mayer is strangled. ("Nice is Different Than Good")

After this event on the Lane, the Bolens seems suspicious to the neighbors as they did not share in this awful tragedy, this prompts Angie to blend in and act like she's there for Mike and Susan. The police suspect Danny is the culprit so she convinces Ana to provide him with an alibi, which Gaby sees through and forces her to come clean, Danny is arrested. ("Being Alive")

Now pretty much everyone in the neighborhood suspects Danny, even when he is released from prison. Susan attempts to crush him with a car to force a confession out of him but Angie gets there in time and tells Susan that if she ever comes near him again, she will kill her. Nick suggests that he and Angie leave but she tells him that they can't run away every time something gets rough, she reveals that they are under aliases, she later tells Danny where the gun is hidden for protection as everyone hates him. Susan later makes amends with Angie by helping clean up the trash that people had thrown onto her lawn. ("Never Judge a Lady by Her Lover")

Danny wonders if he can move schools as everyone thinks that he's the person who attacked Julie, Angie wants to make him happy because when he isn't he says things that he should not say. Angie pays Porter Scavo to throw a party and invite Danny and at the party, Nick is talking with a group of girls and Danny reveals that he knows his secret before Angie pulls Nick out of the party. ("The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues")

Everyone is celebrating that Julie is okay and welcome her home from the hospital, Danny threatens to tell Angie that he was having an affair with Julie but Nick tells him that her finding out that Danny knew about it will hurt her more than then actual news. Katherine gets shot with Angie's gun by Susan as Danny lent it to Julie for protection. To avoid being traced to their real name, Angie fixes up Katherine and tells her that Mike is still crazy about her and that she should take the high road and make Susan seem like the monster. ("Everybody Ought to Have a Maid") Angie tells Katherine that the plan is working. She is caught on her pre-paid phone to her mother by Katherine after telling her that her mother is dead. She tells her that it was in fact Nick's mom. ("Don't Walk on the Grass") Angie has Bree and Orson over for dinner, and Nick asks if Angie could have a place at Bree's catering business, Bree declines and Angie and Nick get into a fight. Bree asks if she can borrow some of Angie's old recipe's for a "burn victim" (a client party) to which Angie accepts. When she learns the truth she confronts Bree and is eventually hired into the company. Angie is told that she is very out in the open by Bree but she assures her that she has secrets. ("Careful the Things You Say")

Julie attempts to make small talk with Angie in line at a cafe but Angie tells her that she knows of the affair between her and Nick. She then makes Julie pay for her coffee as she owes her. She sees a waitress brush crumbs from Nick's neck and tells him that from now on she will be questioning him whenever he talks to a woman. The waitress is later strangled. ("The Coffee Cup")

After Julie declines a date with Danny, he attempts suicide via pills. By doing so he reveals to Mona Clarke that his real name is Tyler and tells her more than she needed to know. Mona tells Angie that she know's everything and wants money from her. ("Would I Think of Suicide?"?) Angie continues to get blackmailed by Mona and gives her an old family heirloom to try and pay for it (a ring) but Mona says that it is not enough and she demands more money as she has already quit her job. Angie tells her that it will all blow up in her face and Mona is hit by a crashing plane a few seconds later. ("Boom Crunch") Angie waits in the hospital for news of Mona, she hopes that she dies. The nurse tells her that her "friend" is a fighter and is merely comatose. Angie imagines what her life would be like if Mona survived and shared her secret with the world. She later is happy to find out that Mona is dead. ("If...")

Angie takes an instant dislike to Ana, Danny's new girlfriend, as she refuses food that she slaved over and she is too fun-loving and not at all serious. She attempts to bond with her over shopping and Ana says that she is not going anywhere for the time-being. ("How About a Friendly Shrink?") Angie has a failed attempt at asking to get Mitzi to recycle. Gaby is shocked to learn that she lets Ana and Danny "be themselves" as she thinks that they should not be having sex. Carlos attacks Danny when he finds him about to have sex with Ana, Angie sees this and breaks up the argument, she threatens Carlos. She had tried to sort out Mitzi's recycling but Mitzi ruins it, causing Angie to kick her garbage cans over and scare Mitzi. Carlos and Gaby later overhear Nick and Angie arguing about their secret. Gaby is suspicious of Angie from that point on. ("The Glamorous Life")

Angie receives a note from Danny saying that he has gone camping with Eddie, much to her dismay, however Nick is perfectly fine with it and helps her come to terms with it. She runs into Eddie at the supermarket and gets out of him that Danny is actually in New York with Ana, Angie fears that Patrick Logan shall find him. ("The Chase") Angie goes to New York with Gaby to retrieve them. whilst there, she sees her mother as that is who Danny has been staying with. It is revealed that Patrick is Danny's birth father. Iris Beckley is later seen making a phonecall saying that she knows where Angie is. ("Chromolume No. 7") Nick is mad at Angie for sharing the information with her. Patrick meets with Iris and after learning Angie's location, he kills her with a scarf, making it look like a break-in. Patrick is seen to be stalking the Bolens. ("My Two Young Men")

Patrick talks to Danny at the Coffee Cup, Danny doesn't know who he is but he shares a story that he's "writing" about a man and a woman who fell in love, had a kid and then she took the kid. This is a reference to his story with Angie. He later shows up at Angie's house, ready to kill her but doesn't, as it would be too easy, so Danny tells him that in the next part of the story he should take the kid, he does not know that he is talking about himself. ("We All Deserve to Die") Patrick runs Nick over and leaves him for dead, he is safe in the hospital. He later shows up at Angie's house and reveals that he has already taken her gun and she has to do as he says to pull off his plan. He says that if she tries to leave, he'll kill Nick. ("A Little Night Music")

Angie is continuing to be held hostage by Patrick, he wants her to build him another bomb. When Gaby comes over with a lasagne she has made, Angie hides a note in it explaining the situation she is in and crying for help, she gives it back to Gaby who later finds the note. Patrick calls Danny over with Angie's cell phone and ties him to a chair. ("The Ballad of Booth")

Angie has now completed the bomb. Gaby visits Nick in the hospital and tells him about the note, he comes with her to Angie's aid. Nick passes out due to his state but Gaby manages to get into the house and free Danny. Patrick hides the bomb somewhere and presses the detonator with Angie in the car with him. She runs off to the house but then turns around with a smirk and says that it's in the detonator, Patrick explodes in the car. Angie and Nick must leave and go on the run but Danny joins Ana in New York. ("I Guess This is Goodbye")

Behind Closed Doors
While developing new characters for the sixth season of Desperate Housewives, series creator Marc Cherry and his writing staff strove to create a housewife who would be different from the other female characters on the series and decided upon an Italian New Yorker. Drea de Matteo, known for her role on The Sopranos, a television series about the Italian-American Mafia, was immediately offered the role. De Matteo did not know the character's name or story line when she accepted the role. The character's name was originally reported to be Angie Vitale, but it was changed to Bolen when Jeffrey Nordling was cast in the role of Angie's husband, Nick. Cherry insisted that Angie was not replacing the deceased Edie Britt character as a main housewife but would instead be the focus of the season's mystery.

In November 2009, rumors that de Matteo was being released from her contract due to budgetary concerns were shot down by Cherry, who insisted that the actor would appear in 20 of the season's 23 episodes. However, de Matteo did depart from the series in May 2010 after one season. Cherry explained, "Part of the deal when we hired Drea was she was only interested in doing one season. She has a baby and is eager to get back to her life in New York."

Both Drea de Matteo's performance as Angie and the character itself received warm critical reception following the sixth season premiere; however, critics noted that the Bolen mystery storyline was moving too slowly. Tanner Stransky of Entertainment Weekly said "it's great to see Drea de Matteo back on screen" and praised the new family for being "very real and very gritty." Four episodes into the season, Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly declared that the Bolen storyline was suffering from the lack of interaction between Angie and the other leading women, similar to the Betty Applewhite (Alfre Woodard) story line of season two. By the middle of the season, Stransky declared that he was "tired of even wondering what's up with the Bolens," as their "who-cares-anyway mystery" storyline continued to move too slowly. However, his interest in the storyline was renewed when John Barrowman joined the appeared as Patrick Logan, stating that the storyline had "finally gotten hotter and, subsequently, better." Stransky praised the "sweet vendiction" of the conclusion to Angie's storyline in the season finale. Following the announcement of de Matteo's departure, Entertainment Weekly writer Michael Ausiello reported that fans had not "warmed to" the Angie character.

Trivia

 * Out of the series' ten titular housewives, Angie is the only one who appeared only in a single season.
 * Angie is one of only six main characters (along with Ana, Ben, Chuck, Dave and Renee) who only appeared in the post-time jump era of the series.
 * Angie's name was originally going to be Sara Vitale. It was changed to Bolen when Jeffrey Nordling was cast in the role of the the husband, as he didn't have Italian-American traits, and the name Vitale later went to a couple who sought Bree's business in episode 6.07.
 * Both De Matteo and creator Marc Cherry have joked that they would love to reveal Angie to be De Matteo's "Sopranos" character Adrianna alive and in witness protection.

Gallery
Gallery of photographic stills released to promote the character.