"Desperate Housewives": The Future Is Now

I promised you a twist…

Warning: If you have not seen last night’s episode of “Desperate Housewives,” stop reading now…

I had actually heard about the show’s time jump a few months ago. But that’s when creator Marc Cherry was still debating on whether to move forward or go backward to a time when Mary Alice was still alive.

But the ABC promos (“a glimpse into the future”) and a “USA Today” article posted Friday cleared things up to the point where I was not surprised by the “five years later” bit.
In fact, I was disappointed. The show makes a bold move like this and the only thing to signal it is a lousy graphic?

But then the revelations started occurring…

At the end of the episode, my fiance--who was sweet enough to watch with me--said, “Who’s that guy?” And I, of course, answered, “I have no idea”…

But as important as the question of that guy’s identity is, there’s an equally important question that must be asked. Will this be where the show is from now on or was this just a “Lost”-style flashforward where we see the future and then we’ll spend the rest of the show’s life trying to get to that point?

That one I can actually answer. For Wisteria Lane, the future is now.

According to an article posted today on USAToday.com, when next season premieres, we will be in the future we saw at the end of last night’s episode.

So were does that leave Mike? James Denton, who plays Mike, told USAToday.com that he won’t find out whether he still has a job until mid-June. “My agents are fielding offers. If anyone needs my services, they should give us a call.”

I do not like the sound of that…

The people we know are definitely gone, according to the article, are Joy Lauren (Danielle), Andrea Bowen (Julie), Lyndsy Fonseca (Dylan) and the children who played Tom and Lynette’s kids.

Doug Savant (Tom) told USAToday.com that he was “devastated for the kids.” Teen actors will be cast during the summer to replace the boys.

So why the move? Cherry said it offers “cleanliness.” He said in the article that he learned after the debacle of season two that “you have to go back to square one to build up the tension again.”
So, he decided this year to “really mix it up.”

Cherry plans to end the series in 2011 and is still considering making a leap backward--possibly for the final season…

You have to give Cherry credit. His twist did totally obliterate any lingering thoughts on the whole Dylan mystery--which is a good thing since its resolution was a bit disappointing and didn’t completely make sense.

And what was the point of the whole Ellie story? To get Carlos and Gaby some money?

But I LOVED the resolution of the Kayla story. I actually clapped when Tom picked up that phone.

And I really hope that Katherine has the good sense to beg Adam for forgiveness and get him back. He did save her life after all (Note to makeup people: It is just wrong to mess up a pretty face like that.).

But it’s that Susan question that dominates my thoughts on the episode. Who is that guy? And where’s Mike? Could it be, as EW.com suggests, that Mike’s “I want him to have someone to live up to” speech was a foreshadowing of Mike’s death?

When they showed only the back of the head of the man Susan was talking to, I knew it was going to be someone else. But I was guessing someone we already knew like her ex-husband, Karl, or even Adam. Someone we don’t know, though? I don’t know if I like that or not…

I guess I’ll Stay Tuned…