Dress Big

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"Dress Big" is the 63rd episode of the ABC television series, Desperate Housewives. It is also the seventeenth episode of the show's third season. The episode was written by Kevin Etten and Susan Nirah Jaffee and directed by Matthew Diamond. It aired on April 8, 2007.

[edit] Guest Starring

• Dougray Scott as Ian Hainsworth
• Paxton Whitehead as Graham Hainsworth
• Miriam Flynn as Dr. Maggie Berman
• Jake Cherry as Travers McLain
• Challen Cates as Samantha Lang
• John Slattery as Victor Lang
• Lynn Redgrave as Dahlia Hainsworth
• Kylie Sparks as Kim
• John Bobek as Tucker

[edit] Plot

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Gabrielle finds new incentive to date wealthy politician Victor when a plumbing leak ruins her priceless wardrobe. She hasn't fallen for him yet, but she flips over the clothes he's storing for his ex-wife, especially since they're couture and just her size! She begs to borrow a dress but Victor says no. So she sneaks back and steals off with a few. She wears one to an event Victor is speaking at and in the ladies room, runs into a woman who recognizes the designer -- because it's her dress! Victor's ex threatens Gabrielle with pepper spray unless she gives the dress back right now, leaving her hiding in the restroom in her underwear. Victor, sporting a fresh black eye, comes to offer her his coat. He admits that he treated his wife more like his mistress, giving her expensive dresses but not his time or affection. Gabrielle says that, finally, she's getting a glimpse of a man she could care for.

Lynette takes issue with the Scavo Pizzeria uniform, an orange T-shirt, and refuses to wear it. She even tries to get the employees to say how much they hate it too. Tom orders her, as her boss, to wear it, and instead she goes home. When Tom doesn't come home, she assumes he's mad and leaves him several messages. She tells Gabrielle and Susan that maybe it's time she steps back from the job and that Tom should hire a manager to take her place. Finally, she decides to confront him and -- leaving her friends to watch the kids -- storms back to the pizzeria to hash it out. She finds Tom on the floor, unconscious. He has a ruptured ruptured disc and needs surgery, and he needs to take 3 months off from work. So Lynette goes back to work, wearing the hated orange shirt.

Mike is seeing a therapist to try to fill in the missing chunks of his memory. He's particularly bothered that he can't remember the ending to a movie he saw involving the heroine serving raw pancakes to her boyfriend. He admits he probably saw the film with Susan and the therapist, realizing he has unresolved feelings for her, urges him to ask her about it. Susan tells him that wasn't a movie, that was the disastrous breakfast she made for him the night after they first made love. When the therapist asks if Susan could remember the movie, Mike says no, and adds that he's done with therapy.

Susan is meeting Ian's parents for the first time, and, given how klutzy Susan is, Ian is understandably nervous. His fears are well founded when she accidentally sets fire to his mother Dahlia's chiffon dress. Dahlia pooh-poohs the incident, but over dinner, when she finds out that Susan is a divorcée and not a widow, she opines that infidelity is not sufficient grounds for divorce.

After dinner, disaster strikes again when Susan opens a door into Dahlia, spilling red wine over her second outfit of the evening. Ian's mother isn't the only one changing her clothes: Susan finds her father-in-law-to-be modeling her own robe and bra in her bedroom! She agrees to keep his secret. But Dahlia has decided that, like her husband (who she believes is clearly having an affair because of the receipts she's found for lingerie not in her size, whereas they are in fact for him) Susan is not to be trusted. Dahlia insists that she sign a pre-nup. Ian won't hear of it at first, but then he sees her chatting with Mike and changes his mind. Susan agrees, insisting she trusts him, but as the four of them sit down to sign the document, Susan, with a firm eye on Ian's father, states that she won't be the kind to keep secrets. Realizing she's about to let his cross-dressing out of the bag, he declares that Susan is clearly not a gold digger and tears up the pre-nup.

Edie decides that Carlos doesn't just make a great fill-in father for her son, Travers, he'd be a great boyfriend too. She decides the best way to put the moves on him is through his relationship with Travers, so she invites him over to the house and instructs Travers to go to bed early. Carlos is about to go home, so she snaps a piece off a model airplane for him to fix. He quickly realizes she's hitting on him and tells her he's not looking for a party girl -- especially one who uses her son as date bait. The next night, he sends flowers as an apology and when she comes over to thank him, she assures him that Trevor's at a sleepover so, at least for tonight, she's not being a negligent mother. She tells him he was "dead on" in his assessment of her, but that she's getting tired of being the party girl. She says she'd like him to see her for who she really is, under this facade -- as she strips off her clothes. He's moved by her naked vulnerability and hugs her, which leads to her waking up in his bed the next morning.

[edit] Quotes

Edie (to Carlos): Don't say anything. Just...stop seeing the person that I've been and start seeing the person that I could be. Look at me. Not the Edie that I show the world. In fact...let's lose her. Forget the blouse that she wears because she knows it shows off her cleavage. And the skirt that's so short because she knows that guys love long legs. And the heels, the ones that make her legs look even longer. Forget the bra that holds her breasts a little higher than they are on their own these days. And the panties, the ones that hide the scar in my C-section. This is it. Hi, Carlos. I'm Edie. I might not be the woman that you thought I was under all of that, but I'm real. And I'm here. And I'm asking for a chance.

[edit] Notes

• Although credited, Bree Van De Kamp Hodge (Marcia Cross), Julie Mayer (Andrea Bowen), Orson Hodge (Kyle MacLachlan), Danielle Van De Kamp (Joy Lauren), Preston Scavo (Brent Kinsman), Porter Scavo (Shane Kinsman), and Parker Scavo (Zane Huett) do not appear in this episode.
• Josh Henderson (Austin McCann) who was a series regular since the beginning of the season is no longer credited.
• Nicollette Sheridan chose this episode for consideration in the category of “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at the 2007 Emmy Awards.^[1]

[edit] Title reference

• This episode had 15.7 million viewers on its original airing, and is the lowest rated original airing of an episode from the entire series.
• The episode title, Dress Big is a song taken from the Stephen Sondheim musical, The Frogs.

[edit] International Titles

• German: Kleider machen Leute (Clothes Make the Man)
• Italian: Dietro il vestito (Behind the Dress)
• Español: Vistete Bien (Dress Well)
• French: La planète des fringues (Planet of the clobber)
• Hungarian: Ruha teszi az embert! (Clothes Make the Man)
• Polish: Prosto z szafy (Just From Wardrobe)

[edit] References