It's Your Baby
Written by Marc Cherry
Directed by Larry Shaw
8.0
"Great"
Edie: "Gaby, I have to ask what the hell happened to you? Look at you. Your clothes, your hair. Carlos might be blind but the rest of us aren't".
Gabrielle: "I had two children".
Edie: "For what breakfast?"
Last season this show ended by jumping five years into the future and we've had to wait months to see whether or not this particular risk actually paid. To be fair, we'll probably need to see the whole season to really tell but this episode seemed to be a good start.
I'm not really sure which storyline to tackle first so I'll go with the least interesting one, which unfortunately is Lynette's. Last year this woman was battling cancer and trying to get on with mother and raising the antichrist formerly known as Kayla, this season it looks like Porter and Preston are her main woes.
As kids these two were never the brightest of the bunch. Prime example of their stupidity included Kayla being able to trick one of them into jumping off a roof. As teenagers, there's definitely no improvement with them either with twins Max and Charlie Carver not making the twins any less annoying than they used to be.
Of course as teenagers, Porter and Preston have sort of upped their game in driving Lynette to near insanity. Their little act of terror for the premiere involves the two of them using the Scavo restaurant as a place for illegal gambling.
Needless to say, Lynette's pretty furious with the whole thing and tries to get Tom to enforce further discipline on them. I thought it had been more than established that when it comes to this marriage, Lynette was the judge, jury and executioner. Trying to get Tom to actually back her up predictably goes arseways.
Instead of laying down the law, Tom actually finds Porter and Preston's little gambling stunt a source of coolness. Without sounding like a stick in the mud but I did side with Lynette on this one. Not entirely because she's right but mainly because Tom does come across as being a bit sad for trying to see the cool factor in his sons activities.
The cool factor is also something that Lynette herself picked up on and it was also something she royally busted Tom's chops for. So if Tom is thinking that his kids high spirited stunts are something to be admired, does that mean he's going through a mid-life crisis or is he desperate to live through his sons rebellious behaviour?
Then again it could be Lynette overreacting to things, which let's face it, isn't a rarity. Also Lynette might sulk about Tom not backing her up and ungrounding the lads so they can go to their homecoming but she does get her own back by allowing them to use Tom's car, much to his chagrin.
In fact the car became such a sore point that it snapped Tom into grounding Porter and Preston when they returned late from homecoming. Although Tom will always sort of redeem himself in the end by taking Lynette's side, it might be just nice if every once in a while, Lynette didn't have to resort to something in order to get Tom's co-operation.
However on a serious note, I really hope that Lynette's plots this season do not primarily revolve around her kids, seeing as Gabby is now taking that one as well. It would be nice for the writers to explore her and Tom's marriage and hopefully see her get a career outside the Scavo restaurant as well.
Speaking of careers, it's nice that Bree finally decided to get off her ass and actually pursue one. Okay so we really have to thank Katherine's little spot of blackmail last season for that but even still, I like where this arc could go. Last season ended with her scoring a book deal and had Andrew all suited up as her manager.
With this episode the book is out and publicity is the name of the game. Katherine's wry little comment about Bree's posing abilities is dead on the mark. There's nothing more hilarious than seeing Bree trying to suppress her annoyance at a patronising photographer but he's the least of her troubles.
I think when you go into business with someone; it usually pays to give them the credit they deserve. I say this because as irritating as Katherine can be, her fury at Bree is more than justified. It was Katherine after all who forced Bree's hand into the catering business, so Bree really shouldn't piss her off.
However Bree's gratitude towards Katherine only seemed to go as far as mentioning her name in the book and not crediting her for half the recipes she came up with. Now, there is no housewife on this show that can be accused of being a doormat and to be honest, it wouldn't be fun if Katherine didn't try her hand at some form of revenge, now would it?
The revenge in question that Katherine chose was a little public humiliation. Forcing Bree to make a dessert that she knew well Bree couldn't make would've been cruel if Bree hadn't been so smug regarding Katherine's complaints. Bree however did seem to learn a lesson after nearly burning a reporter and even tried to learn to make the recipe from scratch later on.
One thing that has become apparent in the last five years is that Bree has adopted a career comes first mentality and given how single minded Bree can be; this is something that is both good and bad. When Orson mentioned that her catering was her baby, I got the impression that he wasn't entirely thrilled about the idea.
In flashbacks, Danielle made a speedy return to snatch Benjamin away from Bree while Orson was in jail. While Danielle's actions might have seemed cruel, all I kept thinking was 'how did Bree not see this coming?' Danielle displayed doubts when giving up Benjamin in "Now I Know, Don't Be Scared" and her comment about Bree not giving her a choice given the fake pregnancy crap that Bree pulled.
Flashbacks do seem to form a vital part of this opening episode and to be honest; it's obvious that the writers have barely scratched the surface of what happened during the majority of "Free" and what has now come to pass here. After all, what the hell happened that would make Susan and Mike split up?
I was absolutely hoping the writers wouldn't go down the adultery route or even have Mike relapse and clearly they listened. After all, something pretty mega would have to happen for a couple as seemingly meant to be as Susan and Mike to end and a car crash that resulted in the death of Lila and her daughter would just be it.
The crash had to impact Susan and Mike's relationship and weirdly enough, I could see both sides of the story. I don't think Mike is an unfeeling person but I can see why he would rationally think that perhaps Susan shouldn't feel so guilty. Although it doesn't excuse anything, the car crash was a horrible accident.
However Susan laying it on the line about a mother and a child being killed did hit home, mainly because I recently lost my own mother (though nothing to do with car accidents). I often don't credit Teri Hatcher with the dramatic but I have to admit she was pretty good during the flashbacks.
Then there's the present day her and Mike are separated but on the plus side, they're also on civil terms with one another. Maybe Susan is learning a lesson from the way her and Karl used to behave around each other with Julie but more than likely, it's the writers telling us that the two of them aren't done as a couple.
However for the time being they are as while she might not be keen to tell everyone else about her man, she does at least tell Mike. Then again with MJ (a moniker for Maynard) around, perhaps it's wise that Susan told Mike about boy toy Jackson. Plus Mike's reaction was fairly mature as well.
Getting back to the new man, I'll admit that I find Gale Harold pretty cute (though I wasn't a fan of Brian from Queer As Folk US) but Jackson is debatable as boyfriend. He's not drippy like Dr Ron or Ian but at the same time, I'm not entire sold on him either as a character.
The only thing we really seem to know is that he's a painter, madly into Susan and desperate for their relationship to be public knowledge. Susan on the other hand is keener on the friends with benefits dynamics and is trying to deny herself happiness because she still feels rotten about Lila's death. It's noble for Susan to feel the way she does but if I have to hear Jackson do karaoke anymore, I think I'll out their relationship just so my eardrums don't suffer.
On a plus side I've also gone through a season premiere where Gabby's storyline has become interesting. At first I thought the writers were going to rehash Lynette's Season One via Gabby but so far it looks like they're going a slightly different route with this one.
Gabby's oldest daughter Juanita is generating gossip because of her weight and for someone as deeply superficial as Gabby (in spite of her now dowdy appearance); this is a big sting to the ego. Bad enough having shop assistants commenting on your child's weight without the annoying mums at a princess party joining in as well.
It also doesn't help that Carlos is unable to see the serious of it as well. The thing is Gabby actually has a point and child obesity is becoming a serious and more ever present issue nowadays so while I don't condone Gabby's ridiculous car game to get her daughter to exercise, I do think she is in the right about this.
Gabby's descent into looking dowdy may not be something that her friends are commenting on but Edie isn't shy in telling Gabby how crappy she looks. I was absolutely looking forward to the return of Edie in this episode and I wasn't disappointed.
Even better is that her creepy motivational speaker husband Dave seems to be the main mystery this season, which should mean that Edie should get more screen time to boot. I'm not exactly which resident Dave is after but given that he has the psychotic thing down to a tee, it'll be interesting to see which resident on Wisteria Lane messed him around.
Also in "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow"
This was the first episode since the "Pilot" that didn't do a "Previously On" bit.
Photographer (to Bree): "I'd think you'd sell more cookbooks if you don't look like you've just made love to an ice cube".
In flashbacks we got to see both Susan and Lila at different points prior to their fatal crash. Any chance that Dave could've been Lila's former spouse?
Bree: "Andrew do we have a backup pie?"
Andrew: "Yes, yes we do".
Bree: "Good".
Susan (to Jackson): "You're a guy and we just had sex and I didn't force you to cuddle, so go brag to your friends".
Bob and Lee briefly appeared in this episode and the latter took a photo of a semi-naked Jackson.
Edie (re Roger): "He came into some money and decided to move. So we thought, what the heck, let's move back!"
Gabrielle: "We?"
Edie: "Oh, you don't know. I have a husband now".
Susan: "Really? Whose?"
Dave: "Now, shouldn't we offer your friends something to eat?"
Edie: "Oh I baked some muffins".
Lynette (to Dave): "Please don't take this the wrong way, but we love you".
What exactly did Dave say to get Roger to move out of the house? Prior to that it looked like Dave was going to use physical violence to remove the man.
Carlos (re Juanita): "I know she's gotten a little chubby but she'll grow out of it".
Gabrielle: "I hope so with your gene pool running through her veins".
Katherine: "Bree, your book is full of recipes that we developed together and some of them are flat out mine!"
Bree: "Oh, don't be silly. I may have based a few on your recipes but I always change something".
Katherine: "Like what, the font?"
Notably enough, Katherine and Edie are the only housewives not to have gotten flashbacks during the premiere episode.
Carlos (re Juanita): "Even if she's heavy, doesn't she have to feel good about herself?"
Gabrielle: "I am protecting her".
Tom (re his car): "I can't believe you did that to me".
Lynette: "I know that car's your baby. If only I had something to feel that intensely about. Oh wait, my actual kids".
Tom's uncool past reared its head up again. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that Tom was such a nerd in school.
Edie (to Lynette/Susan/Bree/Gabrielle): "You froze me out. You threatened to ruin my business and then you ran me out of town. Now it's taken me five years for me to stop hating you. The least you can do is show some respect".
Bree (re Benjamin): "For God's sake, Orson's is gone, you're all grown up. He's all I have left".
Danielle: "You need to find something else".
It was a bit strange that Karen introduced herself as Edie's best friend to Dave? Edie's only real friend on this show was Martha Huber and she's long dead.
Dave: "I've never been a danger to myself and as for the others, there's only one person who should be worried".
No Julie, Parker, Penny or Dylan in this episode.
"You're Gonna Love Tomorrow" isn't my favourite opening episode that this show has done but I admire its confidence and once again it succeeds in setting up the main mystery and overall tone for the season.moreless
