DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES - The Mayfair Mystery

Man, I knew Katherine Mayfair was mean, but in this week’s brand new Desperate Housewives episode we learn that she is not only evil, but… icky.

Susan catches her hunky cousin Tim in bed with Katherine – initially she and everybody else assume Tim’s in the sack with Katherine’s under-age daughter Dylan.  Tim explains to Susan that this is not his first roll in the hay with Katherine – they had previously slept together when he was 16 years old.

Ewww.

The Mayfair Mystery plot unfolded further this week as Tim also tells Susan that after his first encounter with Katherine at age 16 he showed up at her house bearing flowers and his libido.  In a flashback scene, Young Tim hears some fighting inside the house.  He peeks through the window just in time to see Katherine brain her abusive ex-husband Wade with a ten pound candlestick.  The neurons in poor Susan’s overworked brain are firing as fast as they can:  OMG, did Katherine kill her ex-husband?  Is that why the Mayfairs suddenly fled Wisteria Lane twelve years ago?

Dylan is having some doubts of her own about her mother.  That pesky note her dead auntie left behind has cast some serious suspicion on Katherine.  Whatever it said it was bad enough that Adam left Katherine.  Dylan is confused and upset about these memories that she should have but doesn’t as well as her mother’s role in her father’s presumed demise.  Having found suspicious fragments of the burned note – with keywords like “husband” and “murdered” – Dylan has to know.  She asks Adam for the truth and he tells her that Katherine didn’t kill Wade.

Here’s my theory:  Adam is telling the truth, but not the whole truth.  Katherine is responsible for the death of her daughter, probably accidentally during a fight with Wade.  They buried Katherine’s dead daughter behind the house – that’s the makeshift gravesite that Katherine was weeping over at the beginning of the show.  They took off from Wisteria Lane the next day, leaving behind Katherine’s aunt Mrs. Sims, who knew the truth – Dylan isn’t really Katherine’s daughter.  That would explain why Katherine was so opposed to letting the dying Mrs. Sims speak to Dylan, why she destroyed her aunt’s note, and Dylan’s confusing lack of memory about her childhood on Wisteria Lane.  Plus!  Wade Davis is played by Gary Cole, who is awesome, and you don’t cast Gary Cole on your show unless you’re going to use him.  We’ll see Wade again this season.

I’m still a little sketchy on the details, but that’s my theory.  I’m sure I’m not the first DH viewer to come to this conclusion.  What do you think, am I way off base here?  Feel free to blow holes in my theory, which is admittedly half-baked.

Next week:  Orson.  Nude.  In Susan’s kitchen.  I’m there.

--Dave Campbell

Comments

[Danielle]

I think you are right on track... I've been thinking the same thing the whole time. However, I wonder why Adam would know the truth.

[orange_elboracho@yahoo.com]

i really enjoyed your commentary,hope you continue.

[andrew]

the problem i have with that theory, though i do think it's mostly right, is the explanation of Dylan's missing memory. Not only does she fail to remember her childhood on Wisteria Lane, but she can't seem to remember anything about her childhood at all. When the Mayfairs left Wisteria Lane, Dylan would have been 6 years old. Surely, if they had gotten a new child to replace the dead one, the impostor would remember something, anything, from her 6 years living with someone else. I just don't get it!!

[sanchari]

repression can explain missing memory. what was so horrifying that she repressed all of her memory?!

[sanchari]

repression can explain missing memory. what was so horrifying that she repressed all of her memory?!

[sanchari]

repression can explain missing memory. what was so horrifying that she repressed all of her memory?!

[sanchari]

repression can explain missing memory. what was so horrifying that she repressed all of her memory?!

[Elle]

Well, now we know the truth :)