Season 4, Episode 10 - Welcome to Kanagawa

Tonight saw the final “canned” episode of Desperate Housewives, due to the (everyone say it together now) writers strike. I wrote the review of the last episode, “Something’s Coming”, thinking it was the final episode to air, but my math must have been a bit off.

“Welcome to Kanagawa” deals with the aftermath of the tornado that struck Wysteria Lane. Not entirely surprisingly, Carlos survived the night, though Victor and Ida Greenberg fell victim to the twister. Was anyone really expecting Tom or one of the kids to die?

I was pretty harsh about the last episode, mainly because it seemed too hasty to wrap up loose end storylines that had just appeared in the past couple of episodes. This episode was absolutely an improvement. I actually found myself laughing out loud at parts, a reaction that I haven’t had to the show in quite a while.

I do have a couple of complaints, though. This really seemed like one of those return episodes, where they are back from the Christmas break, and ready to open up some fresh plots. Carlos’ blindness, his newfound “poverty” with Gabby, and the Susan/Bree roomate situation all played as the first chapter in an arc that would end in May. But I think we all realize that’s not going to happen now. That wouldn’t really be a concern if the show was continuing.

My other, oft-repeated complaint deals with the Adam and Katherine “secret”. As has been par for the course all season long, they’ve managed to string us along without so much as a little morsel to nibble on. Tonight, Adam (it’s nice to see Nathan Fillion finally step out of his perpetually morose state that he’s been in on the show) and Dylan finally discover the truth about what Katherine did…but of course we still don’t have any real indication of what that was. In Marc Cherry’s shoes, wouldn’t you want to leave with a substantial cliffhanger if you knew that you would likely not be back for eight months? This subplot has been horrendous, and possibly the worst thing I’ve seen on Desperate Housewives.

But I’ve ranted on long enough about that mess. There was a lot that I liked about the episode. The bonding between Lynette and Ms. McKluskey was really quite beautiful. Gabrielle’s attempt to track down Carlos’ money, though maybe a bit overdone, was pretty entertaining…ditto for Bree trying to pimp out her son. All in all, despite a few flaws, I genuinely felt like it was one of the best episodes of the season.

So long Wysteria Lane. See ya in September (hopefully).

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