Thank You So Much (Desperate Housewives)

"Thank You So Much" is the 38th episode of the ABC television series, Desperate Housewives. The episode was the 15th episode for the show's second season. The episode was written by Dahvi Waller and was directed by David Grossman. It originally aired on Sunday, February 19, 2006.

Plot

On the day before Valentine's Day, Bree enjoys a quiet dinner in an Italian restaurant. After the meal, she listens to the opera music provided and gets emotional when the waiter asks her if everything is all right. Bree continues to order wine in the hopes of becoming very drunk. When she is ready to leave, the waiter offers to call her a cab since she should not drive in the state she is. When she arrives home, Bree collapses on the front lawn and falls asleep only to be discovered by Mrs. McCluskey the following morning. Andrew then wakes his mother up by turning on the sprinkler system. Bree wakes up instantly and has a hangover from the evening before.

Meanwhile, Susan is planning her secret wedding to Karl. During breakfast, Karl warns her and Julie that they cannot tell anyone that they are getting married since they are committing insurance fraud. When Karl asks where Susan's wedding ring is, Susan tells him that she threw it out of her car on a dirt road not knowing that it was a family heirloom. Karl then makes Susan go searching through Route 7 until they find the ring. Later, Edie finds a pre-nup and Susan's ring in Karl's briefcase. Edie takes this as proof that Karl is going to propose that evening. At the restaurant, Edie thinks Karl ordering souffle is proof of the proposal since he could put the ring in the cake. Edie then spots Susan and Dr. Ron eating at another table and drags Susan into the restroom with her. She tells Susan that she may be getting engaged and Susan tries to talk her down which causes Edie to leave the restroom still hopeful about what she thinks will happen. As the souffles arrive, Edie sticks her hand in it and Karl asks her what she is doing. Edie finds no ring in the cake and leaves the restaurant in an angry mood. That evening, Susan meets Karl on the street where she starts to reconsider their deal since she doesn't want anyone to get hurt. Karl assures her that everything will be fine but that he still plans to marry Edie. The following day, Karl and Susan are married (for the second time) at the courthouse.

As this is going on, Mike Delfino visits Paul Young and warns Paul and Zach to leave town since Detective Sullivan will be arriving shortly to get Zach. Paul warns Mike that if they leave it is permanent and that he will never see his boy again. Zach listens happily to this after discovering that Mike is his biological father.

Gabrielle arrives home to find her mother Lucia and Carlos standing next to each other in her bedroom. While Lucia gets settled, Gabrielle asks her mother about her sudden visit. Lucia then explains to Gabrielle that her boyfriend left her and she needed a place to stay. When Gabrielle finds out that she may not be able to get pregnant, Lucia happily agrees to be their surrogate. Immediately, Gabrielle feels very uncomfortable with the idea, while Carlos believes it is a wonderful suggestion. Later, Gabrielle tells her mother she would be happy to have her as the surrogate and the two go out for a lunch at a nearby hotel. As they approach the hotel, Gabrielle kicks Lucia out of the car, telling her to get a room and to leave her alone and drives off. At home, Carlos tells Gabrielle that it wasn't a smart idea to do that. Gabrielle insists that because there has been awkwardness since Gabrielle ran away from home some 15 years ago that her mother would not understand. Carlos then tries to smooth things over by going to Lucia's hotel room to tell her that she can still be the surrogate but that she needs to understand why Gabrielle left. Lucia says that she knows Gabrielle left because she purposely slept with Alejandro, her second husband to get her jealous and that she has forgiven her. Carlos does not believe this and hands Lucia her luggage. Carlos then goes home and suggests to Gabrielle that they adopt. Seeing as she has sabotaged her visit with her daughter, Lucia decides to phone her Aunt Inez who is recovering from an illness and "is willing to stay for however long it takes".

As Bree tries to get her bearings, Lynette arrives asking her to babysit the twins and Penny. Bree hesitantly accepts and soon begins drinking again when the twins become out of control. She falls asleep which causes the twins to pack up Penny and go searching for their parents' office. When she wakes up, Bree begins looking frantically for the children but they have already left. Lynette then receives a phone call from a beauty shop owner claiming she has their children there. Lynette and Tom rush over where the beauty shop owner scolds them for abandoning their children with a bad babysitter. Lynette thanks the woman for finding her kids and leaves. When they arrive home, Lynette asks Bree what happened and Bree lies saying the children left without her knowing. The twins say she is lying which causes Lynette to punish them. Later, Mrs. McCluskey tells Lynette she saw Bree drunk and that if she was the babysitter she would never be drunk while watching someone else's children. Lynette refuses to believe this but goes to talk to Bree about it, just in case. Bree tries to brush off the accusations, once again denying that she was drunk. However, Lynette hears a clinking sound when Bree puts down her garbage bags. Lynette asks Bree if she has a drinking problem, which Bree denies. After Bree leaves, Lynette opens Bree's garbage bags, looking for bottles of alcohol. When Bree comes out, she finds a neatly stacked line of 12 wine bottles on her porch. A scrolled message lies on top of one of the bottles, reading: "Do you still think you don't have a problem?" Bree and Lynette stare at each other, neither one of them saying a word.

Notes

• Although credited, Betty Applewhite (Alfre Woodard), Matthew Applewhite (Mehcad Brooks), Parker Scavo (Zane Huett), and Caleb Applewhite (NaShawn Kearse) do not appear in this episode.
• Due to time constraints, the opening credits were cut.

Title reference

The episode title is that of the song "Thank You So Much", which is sung by Leona and Renato in the Richard Rodgers / Stephen Sondheim musical Do I Hear A Waltz?.

International titles

• French: Une nounou pas franchement d'enfer (A Baby-sitter not really great)
• German: Ein kleiner Gefallen (A Little Favor)
• Italian: Grazie Tante (Thank You So Much)
• Hungarian: Egy apró szívesség (A Little Favor)
• Polish: Mała przysługa (A Little Favor)