One Wonderful Day

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"One Wonderful Day" is the 23rd episode of the ABC television series, Desperate Housewives. This episode was the season finale for the show's first season. The episode was written by Marc Cherry, John Pardee, Joey Murphy, Tom Spezialy and Kevin Murphy and was directed by Larry Shaw. It originally aired on Sunday May 22, 2005. On its initial airing, "One Wonderful Day" became the most-watched episode in Desperate Housewives history, with a total of over 30.03m viewers (20.4/29 rating).^[1] The previous holder was the eighth episode, "Guilty," which was viewed by over 27m people. Season two's premiere, "Next" became the second-highest rated episode with over 28m viewers (19.2/26 rating).^[2] No other episodes have ever reached those three records.

[edit] Guest stars

• Doug Savant as Tom Scavo
• Harriet Sansom Harris as Felicia Tilman
• Richard Burgi as Karl Mayer
• Mehcad Brooks as Matthew Applewhite
• Jolie Jenkins as Dierdre Taylor
• Terry Bozeman as Dr. Lee Craig
• Ryan Carnes as Justin
• John Newton as Jonathan Lithgow
• Brent Kinsman as Preston Scavo
• Shane Kinsman as Porter Scavo

[edit] Special Guest Star

• Alfre Woodard as Betty Applewhite

[edit] Co-Starring

• Zane Huett as Parker Scavo
• Steve Tom as Judge
• Gregory Wagrowski as Prosecutor
• Tanner Maguire as 4-year-old Zach
• William Dennis Hunt as Realtor
• Kevin E. West as Cop
• Shirley Jordan as Nurse
• Lee Whitaker as Box Boy

[edit] Plot

At 5 am on Wisteria Lane, each of the women receives a phone call that Rex Van de Kamp had been admitted to the hospital courtesy of Danielle. Each of the wives leaves for the hospital to support Bree in her time of need but quickly return home when Bree needs some "alone time". While there Susan slips out that it looks as if Mrs. Huber was blackmailing Mary Alice leading to her suicide.

Meanwhile, Zach Young is curious of his father's whereabouts after he hears an obviously bogus story from Felicia who is trying to protect him from the truth. Zach soon leaves to go back home but Felicia runs after him begging him to come back to her house. Zach then picks up a nearby hockey stick and beats Felicia with it until she provides him with answers. Felicia is later hospitalized and her fate is left unknown for the remainder of the episode.

Edie welcomes new neighbor Betty Applewhite to the neighborhood. She becomes a little curious when Betty and her son Matthew appear to be standoffish when she asks to give them a tour of the house due to the fact that they purchased it sight unseen. Betty tells Edie that everything is fine and she walks off as the mysterious Applewhites look on.

Susan continues to prepare for her move-in with Mike. However, when she cannot get in contact with him, she worries. After three phone calls to his cell phone, Mike finally returns her calls informing her that he is okay and that he has business to take care of. He then asks Susan to go over to his house to feed his dog Bongo. When she arrives at Mike's home, she is surprisingly held at gunpoint by Zach. Zach explains that Felicia told him that Mike killed Paul and when he arrived home, he would return the favor by killing him. Susan tries to escape but Zach insists that she stay. The ordeal would last for several hours until Mike arrives home.

Rex's doctor informs Bree that Rex must undergo surgery or the end result would be fatal. When the doctor notices Rex's high potassium intake, he questions Rex on who prepares his and the family's meals. He tells the doctor that Bree prepares the meals. Dr. Craig then asks Rex if they are still having marital problems. Rex immediately assumes that Bree has poisoned him and soon after dies leaving Bree a note of forgiveness.

Gabrielle testifies at Carlos's hate crime hearing in order to save him from eight long years of prison. She tells the jury that her husband is a very jealous man and that whenever she would go out, he would worry. Gabrielle then tells the jury that because of Carlos's ongoing jealousy she made him think that she was having an affair when in reality she was not. The judge then decides that the case is simply a misunderstanding and not a hate crime as the court had originally thought. However, when John shows up in court, he whispers in Carlos's ear that he was the man Gabrielle was cheating with. Several seconds later, Carlos jumps out of his chair and onto Justin, who was the man he attacked. The judge calls for order and Carlos is restrained by court officers, screaming "I am going to kill you!" to John.

Lynette discovers that Tom has quit his job after catching him in an arcade playing with children. Later, Tom confronts Lynette on convincing the boss' wife to pass on his promotion. Lynette tries to reason with him by telling him that he would be away from home more than he already is. Tom then delivers his ultimatum: that Lynette will return to work and that he will be the stay-at-home dad. Lynette objects for the moment but decides that maybe it is the best decision.

In the desert where Mike takes Paul Young, he asks Paul (at gunpoint) why he murdered Dierdre. Paul then goes on to tell his account of what happened. In March of 1990, Dierdre arrived on Angela and Paul Forrest's door for money, drugs, and food. Angela, being the good woman she was, offered to help support Dierdre since she had a very young child. Dierdre then offered Angela her baby, Dana, for money. Angela ponders the offer but soon after Dierdre is admitted to the clinic after an overdose. Angela sees this as a way to take the baby and soon after she, Paul and baby Dana move to Fairview (an idea brought to her by Felicia's calendar stating she had "family" there). With quick name changes for Angela and Dana, the 3 become the Young family and move to quiet, suburban Wisteria Lane. Three years later in 1993, Mary Alice is visited once again by Dierdre who asks for her son Dana (who was renamed Zach) back. Mary Alice objects and soon after a fight ensues. Dierdre fights Paul off by swinging a fireplace poker at him, knocking him down. Dierdre makes a run for the stairs to grab Zach. However, Mary Alice quickly picks up a knife and stabs Dierdre in the stomach. Dierdre dies soon after. Mary Alice then runs to Zach's room where she takes his toy chest, which she and Paul will later use to place Dierdre's body in. Shortly after, Zach wakes up and sees his two parents dismember Dierdre's body. Mary Alice and Paul bury Dierdre's body in the backyard and the following day have the yard filled with cement where the pool will soon go. Paul ends his story by telling Mike that this was the reason that Mary Alice killed herself. The guilt had truly gotten to her after all those years.

Mike prepares to kill him but backs out at the last minute and decides to let Paul go. Mike then comes to the conclusion that Zach Young is actually his son since Dierdre had gotten pregnant before Mike had gone to prison. When he returns on Wisteria Lane, he parks his car and slowly walks into his home only to find out there is a surprise behind the door.

[edit] Notes

• This episode had 30 million viewers on its original airing.
• Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) is seen in this episode.
• This is the last episode featuring Rex Van De Kamp (Steven Culp) and John Rowland (Jesse Metcalfe) with regular roles on the show. They will only be seen as guest stars hereafter.
• The cliffhanger of this episode was well received by critics and audiences and praised for not including a cliched gun shot sound effect. Coincidentally, Marc Cherry debated for a while on whether to include a gun shot but then decided against it.
• Rex Van De Kamp is not seen again until a flashback in the finale of Season 2 (with the exception of in Next, a plastic model of him is shown in the casket) until the season 2 finale, Remember.
• The opening credits were cut for time as seen in a similar fashion to the Pilot.

[edit] Title reference

The episode title One Wonderful Day is the Act I finale in the Stephen Sondheim musical, Saturday Night.

[edit] International Titles

• French Canadian: Quatre voisines et un autre enterrement (Four Neighbors and Another Funeral)
• German: Alles ist wunderbar (Everything Is Wonderful)
• Hungarian: Egy szép napon... (One Wonderful Day)
• Italian: Un giorno meraviglioso (One wonderful day)