Guilty (Desperate Housewives)

"Guilty" is the eighth episode of the ABC television series, Desperate Housewives. The episode was the eighth episode for the show's first season. The episode was written by Kevin Murphy and was directed by Fred Gerber. It originally aired on Sunday, November 28, 2004.

Plot

Shortly after Juanita's car accident (due to Andrew's drunk driving), Bree Van de Kamp tries to find a solution in order to save her son from life in prison and Mama is left in a coma. Gabrielle Solis confesses to the priest and he tells her that she should regret what she had done, but she says she doesn’t because all she wants is to be happy. The priest tells her that, that is a selfish answer. She says that she already knows that and she leaves. As a small act of contrition, Gabrielle Solis quietly helps Carlos give Mama a sponge bath. Lynette tries to get her sleep cycle back on track with some acupuncture, but to no avail. When she has to help her sons' boy scout troupe right as she is falling asleep, she starts to lose it. Lynette dreams of killing herself with the help of Mary Alice and her gun. Mr. Shaw decides to execute Paul's wishes but when he finds out from Edie that the stationary was not hers but Mrs. Huber's, the story changes completely. Paul asks Mrs. Huber for an explanation of the blackmail note she wrote. She says that she needed money and she had thought of getting it from a bad person, Mary Alice, and she sometimes prays for her. Paul asks her if she regrets it, because it caused Mary Alice to committed suicide. She says that Mary Alice Young was a bad person and says that a terrible thing happened because of what she did to that kid. A furious Paul kills her. Meanwhile Susan and Mike make peace by having sex for the first time.

Series continuity

Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) is seen in this episode.

Development

"The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" by Harpers Bizarre and Simon & Garfunkel is played during Lynette's disturbing dream. Originally the dream was to have Lynette driving through the country with her kids who were in the backseat and then proceeding to drive the car into a lake, drowning her kids, à la Susan Smith who did this very thing in South Carolina. ABC Execs were against the idea of Lynette killing her kids and Marc Cherry changed the dream to being one about suicide, thus Mary Alice was shown. Stated on the commentary for this episode on the season one DVD.

Title reference

• The episode title Guilty is taken from a song by Randy Newman of the same name.

International titles

• Finnish: Syyllinen (Guilty)
• French: Nous sommes tous des pêcheurs (We are all sinners)
• German: Schuldig (Guilty)
• Hungarian: Bűnös (Guilty)
• Italian: Sensi di colpa (Guilt-feelings)
• Spanish: Culpable (Guilty)
• Croatian: Krivica (Guilty)