Now You Know (Desperate Housewives)

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“Now You Know”
Desperate Housewives episode

Katherine Mayfair arrives on Wisteria Lane, again.
Episode no. Season 4
Episode 1
Written by Marc Cherry
Directed by Larry Shaw
Production no. 401
Original airdate September 30, 2007
Episode chronology
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"Getting Married Today" "Smiles of a Summer Night"
List of Desperate Housewives episodes

“Now You Know” is the 70th episode of the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. It was the season premiere of the show’s fourth season. It was written by Marc Cherry and directed by Larry Shaw.[1] It aired on September 30, 2007.[1]

Contents

[edit] Cast

[edit] Guest Starring

[edit] Co-Starring

[edit] Episode Summary

Season four begins immediately at the conclusion of the previous season. Edie Britt’s suicide attempt is revealed to be a clever hoax to gain Carlos’s attention. She plans to hold on to the beam she’s hanging from and let go just when Carlos is about to come in the room. This would prompt Carlos to cut the scarf using the scissors that Edie left out. Carlos is only seconds away from the door and Edie lets go — and the doorbell rings! It is Mrs. McCluskey. After Carlos is done with her, he comes to the room in just enough time to save Edie, who is rushed to the Hospital where the other housewives of Wisteria Lane, except Gabrielle, arrive. In a flashback the viewer gets to know that after Carlos and Gabrielle’s one-night-stand, her husband Victor Lang almost catches the two together, but Carlos manages to hide under Gabrielle’s wedding dress. Carlos and Gabrielle agree to run away together, but after Edie’s fake suicide attempt, Carlos tells Gabrielle that he cannot leave with her because he has to be there for Edie. Gabrielle restates her desire to run away together but Carlos remains adamant with the argument that Edie needs him, otherwise she could hurt herself again. When Carlos wakes on Edie’s lounge, she comes down the stairs and discusses the trust in their relationship. Edie reveals to Carlos that she has discovered his bank account in the Cayman Islands worth $10 million.

During new neighbour Katherine’s barbecue party, Gabrielle approaches Carlos and discusses their future together. A few nights later, Gabrielle confronts Victor over their relationship. During the conversation Gabrielle realizes that he will almost never have time for her. The same night, Carlos and Gabrielle rendezvous at Gabrielle’s house on Wisteria Lane to continue their affair.

Bree Hodge and her son Andrew are shown arguing over Bree and her husband's Orson plot to disguise Danielle’s child as their own. During new neighbour Katherine's barbecue, Bree’s cushioned stomach is accidentally stabbed by a barbecue fork. Hysterical neighbour Ida Greenberg mistakes it for an actual accident, making Adam Mayfair, the gynecologist, rush to see if Bree is okay. Bree and Orson cover it up as a prank with a pair of fake forks.

Lynette Scavo has not yet told anybody about her cancer, including her children, for fear of worrying them too much. She wears a wig to hide being bald from the chemotherapy. Lynette has a confrontation with a woman, Muriel, regarding the organisation of several schooling activities for her sons. While she has been covering up her illness to seem and feel normal, the curt and insisting woman becomes too much for Lynette to bear. As the woman scolds her about being tired and cites her own migraine, Lynette stares at her, then removes her wig and reveals her cancer. The woman is speechless and walks away. Meanwhile, Susan, Gabrielle and Bree all see Lynette removing her wig.

Susan Mayer and Mike are discussing their new married life. Susan visits the gynecologist, but finds out her regular doctor is out. As a substitute, Adam Mayfair, Katherine’s husband, arrives. Susan is hesitant about the situation but lets Adam check her. Adam tells Susan she may be in the beginning stages of menopause, which insults Susan. She does not think she is old enough to be going through this and is embarrassed that he may be right. At first she tries to keep the news from her husband but later she seeks comfort from Mike. He assures her that everything will be okay and lies about not wanting children anyway. At home later, Susan is visited by Adam who apologizes for his error and informs her that she is pregnant. Mike walks in at this exact moment and the couple is overjoyed by the news. However, it is still unclear whether the father of the baby is Mike or Ian.

While talking, Susan, Bree and Gabrielle tell Lynette how disappointed they were that she did not tell them of her cancer. The four women then make a pact to tell each other all of their secrets and to hide nothing from each other ever again, obviously not stating the truth as Bree is pretending to be pregnant, Gabrielle is having an affair with Carlos and Susan is secretly married to Mike.

One month after Edie’s fake suicide attempt, a new family moves into Mike’s old house. The new resident of the street is a former resident; Katherine Mayfair, moves in with her new husband Adam and daughter Dylan who was supposedly Julie Mayer’s childhood best friend. Tension between Katherine and Bree flares up as Katherine nervily tells Bree that she has to cut down her beloved tree in her back yard, to which Bree replies that she will do no such thing. Dylan approaches but does not remember Susan or Julie from when she originally lived on Wisteria Lane. A few days later, Katherine holds a barbecue for the entire street in order to reintroduce herself to everyone. During the party, Edie returns to the street with Carlos and mistakes Katherine’s party for her own welcome home party. Julie meets Dylan again, but Dylan does not remember Julie or their old friends. Later, Julie is talking with Dylan when Dylan reveals that she can remember nothing about Wisteria Lane. Dylan tells Julie about her earliest memory. In it, she remembers herself as a little girl and a man tries to grab her. As the episode concludes, Julie tells Susan that the Dylan that has moved to Wisteria Lane is not the real Dylan; that she is not the same girl Julie knew when she was a child. In the Mayfair house, Katherine and Adam discuss a room. Adam asks Katherine if that was the room where “it” happened. Katherine tells him it is, and that Dylan was asking if she could move into that room. Adam then asks her if it was the right thing to return to Wisteria Lane. Katherine replies that they did not have a choice.

[edit] Reception and ratings

On its premiere night in the United States, “Now You Know” scored a 12.2/18 in the household Nielsen Ratings,[2] with a total of 19.317 million viewers.[3]

This episode had 14.55 Million viewers in the UL and was the 5th most-watcedh broadcast in the week 0ctober 1-0ctober 6. On it's cable debuted the episode had 6.34 Million.

On it's two debuts in the UK on 26 March (terrestrial television) and 30 March (satellite and digital television), the series had achieved both a respectable #1st place on Channel 4's ratings that week with an impressive 3.4 million viewers, but however in comparison to the season three finale Getting Married Today, ratings had fell by almost 200,000 viewers, which is equivalent to 9% of the viewers who had watched that episode . On it's cable airing, the episode's encore had acheived 9th place with 353,000 viewers.

[edit] Notes

[edit] Trivia

The beginning of the episode refers to Edie not actually intending to die. The chair is shown to fall on the carpet and Edie is holding onto the beam of her ceiling, waiting until Carlos returns to let go. However, in the season 3 finale you can see by the reflection on the table that the chair falls on the wooden floor, not the carpet, and Edie's arms are by her sides.

[edit] Critical reviews

Entertainment Weekly television critic Tim Stack gave Now You Know a slightly negative review. He lauded both Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman's portrayals of Bree and Lynette, respectively, but was indifferent to Edie’s feigned suicide and Susan’s pregnancy while noting a significant absence of Gabrielle from the episode.[4] On the other hand, Blogcritic’s Chris Evans was quite pleased with the premiere, stating that he felt that Marc Cherry had brought back the original “dark dramedy” that was Desperate Housewives’ mainstay as a television programme. Along with Stack, Evans was also impressed by Cross’ acting, citing it as one of the highlights of the episode.[5]

[edit] Filipino controversy

The episode was chidden by Filipinos, especially those in the medical community, both in the United States and at their home country, including the Philippine government, for an alleged racial slur uttered by Susan. In the episode, when Dr. Mayfair says that Susan may be going through menopause, she asks if she can check the validity of Adam’s diplomas because she wants to make sure that they’re not from “some med school in the Philippines”. The Philippines demanded an apology from ABC and everyone involved in the show.[6] ABC responded by offering its apologies, saying, “There was no intent to disparage the integrity of any aspect of the medical community in the Philippines.” Some Philippine legislators and other viewers, however, did not find the apology satisfactory, asking for a more substantial gesture.[7][8] Protests against the entire program continue even as producers deleted the line for future airings of the episode.[9]

[edit] Title reference

[edit] International Titles

  • Polish: Teraz już wiecie (Now You Know)
  • Italian: Ora Sapete (Now You Know)
  • German: Alles kommt ans Licht (Everything Is Revealed (figuratively); Everything Comes to the Light (literally))
  • Hungarian: Most már tudod! (Now You Know)
  • Croatian: Sada znaš (Now You Know

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b ABC Press release: A NEW FAMILY MOVES TO WISTERIA LANE, ON THE SEASON PREMIERE OF ABC'S "DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES", ABC MediaNet, September 17, 2007
  2. ^ Premieres carry ABC Sunday Zap2it Retrieved 2007-10-02
  3. ^ Weekly ratings for 9/24/07 to 9/30/07 Zap2it Retrieved 2007-10-02
  4. ^ The Menopause Button Entertainment Weekly Retrieved 2007-10-06
  5. ^ Desperate Housewives gets off to a good start Blogcritics Magazine Retrieved 2007-10-08
  6. ^ "Desperate Housewives racial slur: Philippines wants apology", Agence France Presse (through Yahoo! News), 2007-10-03. Retrieved on 2007-10-03. 
  7. ^ "'Desperate' apology over Philippines slur", Agence France Presse (through Yahoo! News), 2007-10-04. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  8. ^ "‘Housewives’ Filipino joke draws ire", Associated Press (through Yahoo! News), 2007-10-04. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  9. ^ Rueda, Nimfa U.; Nepales, Ruben V. "‘Desperate’ slur deleted; Filipino-Americans not satisfied", Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2007-10-06, pp. A1 & A6. 
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