Season 4, Episode 9 - Something’s Coming

My apprehensions about Lost’s abbreviated season was realized in tonight’s episode of Desperate Housewives. It was painfully obvious that there were many storylines that simply did not have enough time to get started before this blasted strike stepped in.

First of all, what I call the “big” mystery got some “resolution” tonight. We now know why Katherine and Adam were forced to leave his Chicago job…he had an affair with a woman who kinda went off the deep end. That’s it? With the subplots we’ve seen in the past, that just came across a bit lame. And then the mistress, who was just introduced last week was killed off this week. To say it was rushed would be an understatement.

Anyway, Bree and Katherine came to some kind of nutty mutual understanding through the course of things, and it looks like they’re going to be buddy-buddy. Hopefully there’s more in the future…we still don’t know what happened to cause Katherine to leave in the first place. And Nathan Fillion has been grossly underused this season.

On the Mike and Susan front, they get in a fight and she takes a tumble down the stairs, resulting in a quick trip to the hospital. They get all mushy and Susan threatens to take the baby and leave if he doesn’t clean up, which he of course does. I wasn’t a fan of all of this, because it was something that should have been resolved last week.

Edie finds out about Carlos’ money and that he and Gabby are planning to run away to escape Victor’s wrath. Subsequently, because of her, the only instructions on how to access the funds are swept away in the tornado. Now, I’ve spent some time in banking, though I never dealt with Cayman accounts, but surely those papers are not the only way to access the money. Regardless, Edie and Gabby take shelter together, and end up quickly getting back in each others’ good graces. Meanwhile, elsewhere on Wysteria Lane, Victor show up to confront Carlos and Gabby, but only finds Carlos. They struggle, and Victor is randomly killed by flying debris.

Finally, the Lynette storyline. Lynette lays the guilt trip on Ms. McLusky and convinces her to let her family join up with her in her basement, and…blah blah blah…cat…blah blah blah…Tom’s allergic…blah blah blah…Lynette sneaks the cat outside and then goes after it with Ms McLusky. They end up taking refuge from the storm in the Scavo home. When they come out, Lynette sees the McKlusky house, where Tom and the kids were hiding, is leveled, resulting in the gut-wrenching scream we’ve all seen in the previews.

So, I’ll admit, the cliffhanger was great, but it didn’t do anything to make up for the horrendous fifty-eight minutes that preceded it. I’m not exaggerating when I say this was possibly the worst episode of Housewives I’ve ever seen. This is exactly what happens when they rush to complete these hanging subplots. Take The Office, they didn’t go out of their way to set up some elaborate cliffhanger…not that they really had a choice, but still, I’d rather have a season wrap up the way The Office did than how DH was handled. This is exactly what happens when you try to force am ending, and if Lost follows suit, then I am incredibly nervous.

Episode grade: D
Season grade: C-