Bargaining

Season 5, Episode 21, Aired

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Susan is surprised to see that her ex-boyfriend Jackson (guest star Gale Harold) has returned and has a surprise question for her. In the meantime, Karl tries to get his son Evan to be invited to MJ Delfino's sleep-over, Bree sinks to a new low in order to retain the best divorce lawyer in town, and Katherine tries to get Mike to talk about marriage. Meanwhile, Dave plans a fishing trip with Susan, and Gabrielle tries to get her daughter Juanita to understand that vanity is an awful thing, and this leads to them betting they can both do without make-up.moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (13)

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  • Jackson is back :(

    8.0
    "Great"
    By danny7277, Jun 08, 2011
    well this episode would have of been ok if it wasnt for susan incrediable annoying ex boyfriend i was hoping that when susan broke up with him earlier in the season that we would never have to see him agian but to my despair he is back i hope susan dosnt get back together with because i cant stand him
    Lynette had a ok week with all the sex abit of a filler but entertaining
    Gaby had a pretty filler storlyine aswell with out the makeup
    bree had an ok week as she seeks a divorce lawyer
    overall a ok week that sets the scenes for the last few epiesodesmoreless

  • Funny and excellent as usual

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By mobbs456, May 14, 2009
    Yah! This episode marks the return of Jackson! Its also another good episode of the strong season 5. First of all, its nice to see the ladies being social - especially with Katherine. She has become a strong character and good friend - I actually felt sorry for Dana Delany during her talk with Mike.
    Lynette and Tom's marriage is also on a good turn for once - sex for a month was funny stuff! Good lines from Lynette and Tom make this a funny episode.
    Bree tries to ruin Orson's live by grabbing every penny she can - with the help of Richard Burgi! Glad Karl is back - he is an extremely funny character
    Gabby proves she's a good mother for once. But Teri Hatcher and Gale Harold rule this episode - their chemistry is incredible and Susan's emotional confession was, well, emotional. But now it seems their lives are in danger from Psycho Dave...moreless

  • Trading Off Written by David Schladweiler Directed by David Grossman

    8.0
    "Great"
    By shawnlunn2002, May 10, 2009
    Walter: "I thought you saw yourself as a good person?"
    Bree: "Well, clearly I like to think of myself as a rich person even more."

    If you let it, the feeling the dj vu will literally overwhelm you as a viewer when watching this episode. Nearly all of the plots in this episode are overly familiar and as a result some of them fall a little flat because of it.

    Bree's a good example of this. In Season Three, we had Gabby and Carlos embarking on some War Of The Roses type of antics and now Bree is doing the same thing as she finally tries to get Orson out of her life.

    It's hard not to see her side of things though. Orson's stealing has spiralled out of control and because she's well aware that Rose's ramblings could have serious repercussions if someone actually listens to her, Bree might be right to play dirty to protect her assets so to speak.

    The first lawyer she talked to in the episode didn't see things like that. Bree must be about as much welcome in their doors as an envelope containing anthrax. For all of her talk about being a good person though, Bree certainly has the behaviour and track record of the opposite.

    When Susan randomly went on about Karl's legendary ruthlessness, it was clear that Bree would waste no time in employing his services. What Bree didn't bank on was that Karl would use some his scheming to get her to do a little something for him before taking her on as a client.

    Last time someone tried to get Bree to do them a favour, it was Edie and she was ex-communicated from Wisteria Lane. Luckily Karl doesn't have to suffer such a fate and in spite of her protesting, manipulating a child isn't exactly that tasking for someone like Bree.

    Using macaroons as a means of getting MJ to invite Evan to his party after Karl's attempt to bribe Mike failed wasn't the worst thing she's ever done (doesn't mean I condone it either). MJ's goofy response made me laugh, even if it was manipulatively meant to make the audience thinks, "aw, shucks?"

    Bree's line around the end of the episode where she told Karl she'd be willing to play dirty and flat out lie in order to keep Orson from taking half of her business should foreshadow doom and underlying sympathy for Orson but all he did this episode was negotiate sex and further prove to Bree that he needed divorcing.

    As for marriage proposals, both Jackson and Katherine should take lessons in how not to propose to someone. Both of them had selfish motives for wanting to get hitched to their significant others and only one them actually succeeded. Guess which one of them got lucky with that?

    Well, it certainly wasn't Katherine. The damn woman played ball at first by getting MJ to pester Mike relentlessly about popping the question and when she finally decided to ask Mike herself, she certainly didn't like the answer she got, in spite of the fact that she wanted honesty from Mike.

    So, why won't Mike marry Katherine after telling Dave not long ago that he was in love with her? It's not original but not being ready is the best that Mike can come up with. Sometimes it's best not asking and you could tell that Katherine immediately regretted asking Mike the big question.

    As for commitment, Mike's moved in with her, has told her that he loves her (though I'm yet to be convinced). Maybe Katherine should be happy with that. That being said, as plots go, this one was certainly boring to say the least.

    Also boring was Jackson proposing marriage to Susan so he wouldn't get deported (he's Canadian). Susan's hysterical crying of being lonely to wanting to end Jackson's days with a sucker plunge was inappropriately funny but I hated that Susan decided to go through with it.

    These characters can often be living proof that some people don't learn from their mistakes but it's annoyingly clear that every season is doomed to be a finale of weddings and deaths. Jackson's certainly going to have to watch himself now that Dave is upping his plans to wipe out Susan.

    It's funny that Dave spent most of the episode trying to get Susan to come away with him, especially when he should've just gone over there and snatched her and Jackson and have done with it. For someone desperate to get revenge, Dave is sure dragging things out on that score.

    When revenge isn't dominating the thoughts of one man, then having sex is all that Tom can think about doing. Giving him and Lynette this tiresome plot where they vow to screw for a month uninterrupted wasn't the best of ideas.

    Needless to say that Lynette's work commitments and exhaustion were going to put an occasional dampener on things and her falling asleep during one of their sex session certainly gave Tom another thing to whine about. Okay, Tom shut the hell up, get a job and that's it basically.

    Slightly better was the social commentary on natural beauty. Out of the new young kids, Juanita has probably fared fairly well in terms of getting stories. The fact that she'd wear makeup because other kids joked about her being adopted was kind of sad.

    Gabby really should've just sucked it up and stuck to Carlos's plan for her to go without makeup to prove a point to Juanita. Aside from the woman she ended up stealing makeup from, no-one actually cared that Gabby had the natural look. That being said, I did love the poignant scenes between Gabby and Juanita towards the end of the episode and thinking about it, this was probably the strongest plot in the entire episode.

    Also in "Bargaining"

    We saw various bits of bargaining at the start of the episode with Karen and the paper boy, Susan and Bob, Gabby and Carlos, etc.

    Mike (re marriage question): "Can you help me out here?"
    Katherine: "Are you kidding?"

    Both Bree and Katherine manipulated MJ in this episode and both of them did it with food ice cream and macaroons.

    Jackson: "I needed to talk to you."
    Susan: "Why didn't you call?"
    Jackson: "I wanted to surprise you."
    Susan: "Well you did."

    Karen (to Susan/Jackson): "If you two want to keep staring at each other, I can go and lie down on the lawn and die. I don't mind."

    Jackson's visa went out six years ago and it's only now that he's decided to do something about it.

    Carlos: "What's going on, are you alright?"
    Lynette: "Sorry, just had the handyman in here but he's finished. Thank you, handyman."

    Gabrielle (to Carlos): "Once you see this skin without foundation, you may change your mind."

    Is this the first episode that Karl has appeared in without managing to annoy (or even see) Susan?

    Jackson: "Let me in."
    Susan: "Thanks but I've reached my level for maximum allowance of humiliation this week."

    Tom (to Lynette): "I'm a middle aged man and I don't know what I want to do with my life."

    Chronology: A few days since "Rose's Turn".

    Sometimes this show hits the awesome button but "Bargaining" isn't one of those times. It's just that we've had so much better and this episode, while alright just didn't hit the mark for me.moreless

  • Oh my how I blush and cringe for Susan!

    8.0
    "Great"
    By sramv9, May 08, 2009
    This was okay - but somehow unsatisfying in the movement of the major plot, and okay some of the other plots too. actually kind of vacuous now that i think of it.

    Ever since Dave switched his murderous fixation to Susan and MJ - it hasn't been the same. Something about a plot to kill a child -targeting an innocent child for a sick revenge killing is too disturbing to fit with the otherwise slick, ironic, glib, literary, etc etc tone the how has. does that makes sense? Anyway, then the Susan thing - with her blurting out all that still loving Jackson - oh how huMILiating!! Actually it was kind of funny. and it was kind of refreshing the way Susan quickly brushed it off and agreed to marry him for immigration purposes. Kind of implausible too though in my mind that she could get over it so quickly. She certainly is taking the high road a lot lately (e.g., re. Catherine and Mike)! Bree bribing MJ with macaroons to invite a bully to his birthday party so she can obtain the services of Susan's ex the shady divorce lawyer was all a little forced and un-engaging to me - i found the "things i do for macaroons" to be extremely contrived. I dunno - this episode was definitely not my favourite. and sorry but i have to say it, i miss Edie! Oh - and, the Orson plot is kind of odd - it competes with the Dave plot in a lot of ways - they both are like these disturbed murdering stalker type guys, Orson's just not to the extreme of Dave. Creepy watching Bree go into the house with Orson at the end. But, really, how many active morally obtuse stalkers should a soap have in operation at one time!?moreless

  • Probably the worst episode ever. Very out of character.

    1.5
    "Abysmal"
    By Lynell101, May 05, 2009
    They only thing I enjoyed from this episode was Kathryn being sneaky about trying to get a proposal out of Mike. Other then that every character seemed totally off. Gaby: At the beginning of the season Gaby said Juanita was 4 and now she says she is 6. Wow those 2 years went by fast! And the talk Gabby had with her at the end would be way over the head of a 6 year old. Apparently whoever wrote that storyline has no kids. Then she can't go one minuet without makeup? What a terrible message to send to all the women out there. Even if you're as pretty as Gabby you still have to wear makeup or you look like crap? I don't even own makeup but after watching this episode I felt like I shouldn't show my face in public again until I bought some. And now I'm over it.

    Lynette: Excuse me ladies I have to have sex with Tom, I'll be down in 5 minuets. She leaves the poker game and everyone is supposed to wait for her downstairs why they know what she is doing? That was gross! Then having sex on her desk why she is talking to Carlos on speakerphone? That was totally ridiculous and very unlike Lynette. Why would she even answer the phone in the middle of sex? Their storyline is a very boring one. There is so much else they could do, I would like to see Tom's crazy daughter come back. Brie: I don't understand why they are having her and Orson divorce. I liked them together but they turned him into a weirdo.

    Susan: Well it is very obvious now that Jackson is going to get it. How predictable, if fact this whole season has been completely predictable from the start.moreless
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