Mary Alice Young

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Mary-Alice Young
First appearance	Pilot (episode 1.01)
Statistics
Aliases	Angela Forrest (actual name)
Gender	Female
Age	38 at death
Occupation	Housewife nurse (former)
Spouse	Paul Young
Children	Zach Young (adopted son)
Portrayed by	Brenda Strong
Created by	Marc Cherry

Mary Alice Young is the name of a fictional character on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. The character is played by actress Brenda Strong, who also serves as narrator of the series.

[edit] History

Mary Alice is the most mysterious of the housewives because we only know bits and pieces of her story. A loving, doting wife and mother who was generous to her friends, she was the last person any of them expected to shoot herself in the head.

In death, Mary Alice sees things she would not have seen in life: her friends' vulnerabilities, lies and secrets. She doesn't judge them so much as love them more because of their foibles, pitying them for the ways they manipulate and hurt those they care about most.

Perhaps because Mary Alice represents a part of them, the women decide to get to the bottom of her suicide. They can't quite make sense of why her husband and son are so odd, or why this vivacious woman had married a man who seems to be withholding and cold.

After finding a blackmail note in Mary Alice's clothes, the women make a series of discoveries: She was being treated by Dr. Goldfine; she once went by another name, Angela; and she may have had something to do with a baby that disappeared. When Felicia Tilman comes to town and realizes she knew Mary Alice by her former identity, it's only a matter of time before the women learn just how much Mary Alice may have been hiding.

In the second season, Susan finds out from Mike that Mary Alice's son, Zach Young, is actually Mike Delfino's son. Zach's birth name is really Dana. It is explained that Zach's real mother came to Mary Alice's house to get her son back and Mary Alice kills her. Not being able to live with the guilt, Mary Alice kills herself.

In the third season, Lynette Scavo has a series of dreams about the last time she talked to Mary Alice, which happened to be moments before she shot herself. Lynette tormented herself over not trying to save Mary Alice. After a hostage situation in which two people were killed and Lynette was injured, she had one final dream of Mary Alice. This time, however, Lynette tried to prevent something bad from happening by asking to let her help Mary Alice. To which Mary Alice replied that she couldn't, but she could do something. She could enjoy the lovely evening that was at hand. Mary Alice, as the narrator, says that was the last time Lynette would even dream of her, and for her sake, that was a good thing.

Desperate Housewives
Episode list | Official site
General	Original airdates | Characters | Awards and nominations | DVD releases | Music
Main characters	Susan Mayer | Lynette Scavo | Bree Van de Kamp Hodge | Gabrielle Solis Marquez | Edie Britt | Mary Alice Young Carlos Solis | Tom Scavo | Orson Hodge | Mike Delfino | Julie Mayer | Andrew Van De Kamp | Danielle Van De Kamp | Austin Britt