Epiphany (Desperate Housewives)
"Epiphany" is the 131st episode of the ABC television series, Desperate Housewives. It is the twentieth episode of the show's sixth season and was aired on April 25, 2010.
| "Epiphany" | |
|---|---|
| Desperate Housewives episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 6 Episode 20 |
| Directed by | David Grossman |
| Written by | Marc Cherry |
| Production code | 620 |
| Original air date | April 25, 2010 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
| |
Plot
The Fairview strangler is revealed as Danny's friend, Eddie (Josh Zuckerman). He has been living among the women of Wisteria Lane since childhood: He once caught Gaby (Eva Longoria) and Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) during an intimate moment as a child after spending time with her as they were both lonely; Bree (Marcia Cross) offered him a job and some dating advice when he was younger, until she found out that he had a crush on her daughter, Danielle (Joy Lauren); Susan (Teri Hatcher) encouraged his passion for art, and eventually pays for an art seminar for him; and Lynette (Felicity Huffman) will show him some kindness and generosity.
Eddie is shown at the beginning of the episode offering to buy his alcoholic mother (Diane Farr) more alcohol when he goes out; making a point of telling her to stay out of his room. Once he leaves, she goes against his wishes and kicks in his door. Instead of finding the alcohol she believes hidden in his room, she finds the scrapbook he keeps of his victims under his mattress.
We flashback to when Eddie was just four, and his father (Kevin Sizemore) left his mother—after loudly proclaiming that he'd never wanted any of this, including Eddie. Mary Alice (Brenda Strong) tries to befriend her, but Barbara isn't interested. Mary Alice stops by one day to give Eddie a teddy bear and finds him home alone while his mom is out drinking. She lectures Barbara about not putting her needs ahead of her son, but the lesson clearly doesn't take. She hugs Eddie and tells him that "It's not your fault you ruined my life."
Gaby first meets Eddie when she moves to Wisteria Lane and finds a lonely Eddie inside her empty house—he'd been sneaking in to play there since the previous owners moved out. He ends up coming over every day because Barbara has a new boyfriend. When he surprises Carlos and Gaby in the tub, Carlos orders Gaby to "cut him loose" and start making friends with other women, not nine-year-old boys. Gaby wants to go talk to Barbara, but Carlos advises her, "We don't want to be known as the nosy neighbors." After Gaby tells him they can't be friends anymore, Eddie grabs a BB gun and shoots a bird.
We next see teenage Eddie doing chores for Bree. He tells her "girls never notice me" and she gives him dating advice and extra money to buy gifts for the girl he likes. Bree goes to talk to Barbara when Eddie's object of affection ends up being Danielle. She returns the necklace Eddie left for Danielle and asks Barbara to "let Eddie down easy." Instead, Barbara tells him that he needs to stop "stalking" Danielle. She goes on to say, "The only girl I ever thought he'd end up with would be blind, deaf or inflatable." Bree tells him Danielle and he can still be friends. Eddie tells Bree, "I don't want a friend. I want somebody to love me." Next, we see Eddie with a prostitute (Jamie Sorrentini). When she laughs at the flowers he has brought her, he strangles her.
Susan meets Eddie at the coffee shop just after Mike starts dating Katherine. She praises Eddie's drawing and pays for him to take art classes. So Eddie is crushed to hear that she and Mike are back together—and getting married! "Don't marry Mike. You could marry me," he offers. Not realizing he's serious she thanks him for the "good laugh." Eddie tears up the drawings he made of her. That night, we see Eddie prowling outside her house and when he sees a woman come out, he attacks her, only then seeing that it's Julie, not Susan. He runs off.
Eddie is playing charades with the Scavos when his mother comes over, demanding to know where he hid her booze. "I don't think you should talk to your son like that," she tells Barbara. Lynette tells Tom, "We know something bad is happening, but we do nothing. I'm tired of being one of the people who does nothing," she says. Tom suggests Eddie's old enough to strike out on his own, but Lynette thinks he's "too damaged."
Meanwhile, Barbara is confronting Eddie about his scrapbook. "Did you have anything to do with hurting those girls?" He nods and she sobs, "I didn't raise you to be like this." "Didn't you?" He asks. "The worst mistake I ever made in my life was having you," she spits out and he hits her with a bottle, then chokes her to death. Just then, Lynette shows up to ask him to move in with them. "You've got to get out of here, Eddie," she tells him. "This isn't a healthy situation." She sees his mother on the floor and assumes she's just passed out. Eddie accepts Lynette's invitation, then disposes of his mother's body.
Mary Alice then concludes in her voice over that "Monsters are often created by other monsters." Referring to Barbara's abusive nature.
International titles
- Polish : Objawienie (Revelation)
- Macedonian : Појава (Epiphany)
- Latvian : "Epipfānija"( Epiphany)
- Estonian : "Ettekuulutus" (Prophecy)
- French : Comment devient-on un monstre ? (How do we become monsters ?)
- Arabic: من هو (Who is it)
- Italian: Mostri ed altri mostri (Monsters and Other Monsters)
- German: Entstehung eines Monsters (Creation of a monster)
- Hungarian: Született szörnyeteg (Natural Born Monster)
Notes
- The title comes from a song in the Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd
- The first flashback episode of season 6, which marks another on-screen return of Brenda Strong as Mary Alice Young. This is her only on-screen appearance in season 6.
- This episode reveals the background of Eddie Orlofsky, The Fairview Strangler. The audience is aware of these facts before the characters in the show.
- This is the 4th episode of the series to be centered on one character. The previous ones were "The Best Thing That Ever Could Have Happened" (Eli Scruggs), "Look Into Their Eyes and You See What They Know" (Edie Britt), and "Lovely" (Robin Gallagher).
- In "Careful the Things You Say", Susan insists that she could be the person that the Strangler wanted to attack. In this episode her theory is confirmed, however Eddie is the Strangler rather than Katherine, who Susan suspected at the time.
- Music used: "All I Wanna Do" - Sheryl Crow
- Although credited, Kyle MacLachlan (Orson Hodge), Dana Delany (Katherine Mayfair), Drea de Matteo (Angie Bolen), Jeffrey Nordling (Nick Bolen), and Madison De La Garza (Juanita Solis) do not appear in this episode. Maiara Walsh (Ana Solis) and Mason Vale Cotton (M.J. Delfino) appear only in archive footage. Additionally, James Denton (Mike Delfino) has no lines. Kathryn Joosten (Karen McCluskey) and Beau Mirchoff (Danny Bolen) are not credited and do not appear.
- Andrea Bowen (Julie Mayer) appears for the first time since episode 12, a seven-episode absence. However, her scenes are newly created flashbacks to when she was strangled outside Susan's house by Eddie and when Eddie visited her while unconscious in the hospital and she has no lines. This is her final appearance of the season and as a main cast member.
- This episode was watched by 11.29 million of viewers.
- The end of the episode is a reference to the (Alfred Hitchcock) film Psycho, in which the main character Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins) kills a woman, wraps her in a shower curtain and puts her in the trunk of a car. In the film, Bates also kills his mother like Eddie.