(Season 5, Episode 13 – “The Best Thing That Ever Could Have Happened” 
)
We really don’t see enough of Beau Bridges. He needs a regular gig somewhere — more than Earl’s dad — and that was made clearly evident in tonight’s episode of Desperate Housewives, in which he played a handyman who keels over from a heart attack while fixing Susan’s roof.
Like most unsung heroes of neighborhoods across the country, Beau’s character, Eli Scruggs, is an important guy on Wisteria Lane. And he’s connected to everyone on the street in one way or another. It was a flashback episode….
Gaby was just a young spoiled model when Carlos brought home a pair of Jimmy Choos to appease her while he jetted off on a business trip. What a stuck-up site she made while making an entrance to her first poker party with the girls. But how sweet the story turned when she dropped the rich girl facade and plied the housewives with muffins to give her another chance, saying that her husband is gone all the time, she misses the city, and she could really use some friends. “Now that’s how to make an entrance,” says Bree. And that’s how to make a storyline, says Jane.
My, how the hairstyles have changed since she first moved into the neighborhood. She had long flowing model-hair. Lynette had frazzled mom hair. And Bree had that ’50s flip going.
Anyway, Bree harked back to the time when her dream was to write a cookbook, but Rex didn’t like the idea and sort of lorded things over her. But after Rex died, Eli encouraged her to pursue it. He even gave her the half-finished cookbook he fished out of the trashcan, where Bree threw it after Rex killed her dreams. And what does Bree end up making for Eli’s funeral? The recipe he loved so well, the one he found in the cookbook while it was in his possession.
Eli held a special meaning for Edie, because he managed to satisfy her out-of-control libido after her divorce, while at the same time testing the mirror he installed over her bed. And where does Nicolette Sheridan get off having such a killer body?
Lynette’s flashback was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. The pregnant housewife’s water breaks, but instead of rushing off to the hospital, she’s on the phone trying to land her dream job. Later, after the baby is born and a frazzled Lynette leaves her baby in a hot car, Eli gently delivers the child to her mother, saying she has a lot to juggle and it’s OK. I want an Eli in my life. Where’s my Eli?
The handyman saw Susan through divorces from Carl and Mike and the split from Jackson, and he gave her something to hold onto in the process. As Susan said, Eli was the most consistent and reliable male relationship in her life.
And we get to see Mary Alice, instead of just hear her voice week after week. She may have had the biggest impact on Eli, getting him established in the neighborhood and giving him work when he really needed it. And the fact is, he’s the last person she saw before she died.
This episode was probably the best episode of this season, which says something, seeing as it had nothing to do with the stupid Dave mystery and dumb Susan and Jackson story. These were truly emotional stories that dug deep into the characters we know and love. It was a really sweet story that occurred in between all the other stories we’ve seen over the years.
What about you? Did this episode of Desperate Housewives touch you, too?
Clacked by Jane Boursaw 
on Jan 20, 2009 @ 11:30 EST5EDT
