Any Moment

"Any Moment" is the 175th episode of the ABC television series, Desperate Housewives. It is the eighteenth episode of the show's eighth season and was broadcast on March 25, 2012.^[1]

Plot

Julie is concerned about M.J. taking advantage of Susan when he begins to do whatever he wants by eating ice cream for breakfast and playing video games during the middle of the night. Julie tries to tell Susan that he can't keep acting up, but Susan is reluctant to discipline him because of what he must be going through now that Mike's dead. When M.J. assaults his teacher Susan realizes that she must show M.J. different ways to deal with his pain. The two of them decide to smash jam jars against the wall as a way to get their anger out. After smashing a few jars, M.J. and Susan both begin to cry and comfort one another.

Carlos is impressed when Gabrielle tells him that she wants to get a job and work her way up in business so that the family can afford to keep up their lifestyle. Gabrielle's later disheartened when she discovers that she has no chance of finding a decent job due to her previous work which causes her to go and spend lots of money at one of her favorite stores. Gabrielle is unaware that she impresses customers and store workers with her sense of what to buy and how to match clothes. She later returns to the same store, after Carlos forces her to return everything, only to be offered a job as personal shopper, she accepts the job and begins immediately.

After deciding that she needs to win Tom back and save her marriage, Lynette recruits Penny to help her. The pair pretend to fall out over Lynette not wanting to take Penny to a Taylor Swift concert which leads to Jane offering to take Penny herself. During the concert, Lynette pretends to be having a problem with the electricity in the house and calls Tom over to in an attempt to win him back and remind him of the good times during their marriage. The pair eventually begin to bond while looking back over photos of their past, but as they're seemingly about to kiss, Tom's shirt sets on fire. Lynette absent mindedly turns on the lights to check on Tom's burn which makes him realize that she staged the whole thing to try and seduce him. Lynette explains that she just wants to save her marriage, but Tom decides to leave. However, it appears that it may have worked as Tom lies to Jane about how he burned himself and he turns down an offer for sex, instead pretending that he has work to be getting on with.

Bree is thrilled when Andrew comes to visit and he apologizes for not calling to let her know that he's OK after he lost his job. Andrew then introduces her to his new partner; however, Bree is shocked when it turns out to be a woman called Mary Beth, and that they're engaged. Andrew tells Bree that he was never gay and that it was just a phase; however, Bree remains unconvinced. During dinner Bree is shocked to find out that Mary Beth's parents are billionaires which makes her realize that Andrew is only marrying her to get to her money. She later decides to invite over some of Andrew's gay friends, but Bree is shocked when Mary Beth admits she knows that Andrew's gay, and that they've never even had sex, she just wants to marry him because no man has ever wanted to be with her before. Bree tells Mary Beth that she shouldn't have to settle and that the perfect man is out there somewhere, which leads her to realize she can't marry him, so she calls off the wedding. Bree and Andrew later have a heart to heart and she manages to convince him to stay with her until he can find his own place and get back on his feet.

Renee becomes irritated when Ben doesn't propose to her despite many opportunities to do so. When he eventually gets round to doing so, the police turn up to take Ben to the station to question him regarding the body of Alejandro that was found at his work site. Renee accepts his proposal before he goes. Renee later shares the news with all her friends and Ben tells Bree that the body was found. Renee later tells Bree during the wedding planning that the police don't believe Ben knew about the body being there. Bree later calls Ben and thanks him for keeping their secret; he tells her he was never going to tell the police the truth. The pair of them are completely unaware that the police are listening in on their phone call and have heard everything they said.

Reception

Ratings

According to Nielsen ratings, "Any Moment" was watched by 8.82 million viewers and held 2.6/7 rating between 18 and 49 years of age.^[2] The episode was competing against The Good Wife on CBS, which was watched by 9.77 million viewers and held a 1.8/5 rating, and Celebrity Apprentice on NBC, which averaged 6.04 million viewers and held a 1.8/5 rating in the 18-49 demographic. The episode gained an additional 2.0 million viewers and 0.9 rating in the week following the original broadcast due to DVR recordings.^[3]

Critical reception

This episode received mixed reviews from critics. Christina Trann from TVFanatic.com complimented the scene involving Susan and M.J., writing that "Though strangely a bit violent, the scene with Susan and MJ taking out their anger by smashing jars of jams left me teary-eyed once again. When MJ dropped the last jar on the ground and finally broke down in his mother’s arms, I could feel their pain, anger and devastation. It was truly a heartbreaking scene". Trann did however criticise the characters of Ben and Renee, stating "I found it hard to care too much about either of these characters. It’s honestly been quite some time since Renee has had much of a storyline on her own (what a waste of the incredible Vanessa Williams)" and "My lack of empathy for Ben also might be blamed on the fact that he’s shown absolutely no remorse for what happened to Mike. I can't help but blame him the most for Mike's death". Overall Trann commented that "'Any Moment' did not feel adequate in pace with less than a handful of hours remaining in the series. Still, it was a strong installment, just simply was not as epic in nature as last week’s... which was quite possibly the best Desperate Housewives episode ever".^[4]

Daniel Sperling of Digital Spy was more critical of the episode. He praised the Susan and M.J jam jar scene and complimented the writers regarding the Tom and Lynette story by writing "I can't believe they have stretched the whole Lynette/Tom split out to an entire season and still made it this tense. Really fine work". Sperling did however criticise the Gabrielle story and the overuse of humour in the episode by stating "this is where I think Housewives went overboard trying to lift the mood. The show has always had plenty of light and fluffy stories, but this one ends up tasting a little too sickly. But I am intrigued to see whether Gaby will excel in the workplace". Sperling summarized the episode by saying "it seems that next week the housewives' body saga will return to the fore. Hopefully it won't completely bury the goings-on of the Delfino household, as this week really highlighted the need for the effects of Mike's death to be fully explored. But to be honest, we won't mind if some of the more sugary stuff that populated this episode gets cut".^[5]

Notes

• Although credited, James Denton (Mike Delfino) does not appear in this episode.
• Madison De La Garza (Juanita Solis) does not appear and is not credited.
• Shawn Pyfrom (Andrew Van De Kamp) returns to the series for the first and final time this season. His character was absent for 22 episodes.

International titles

• Polish: W każdej chwili (At any time)
• German: Die richtige Gelegenheit (The right opportunity)

References