Orson Hodge is a fictional character on the ABC television series, Desperate Housewives. The character is played by Kyle MacLachlan.
| Orson Hodge | |
|---|---|
 Kyle MacLachlan as Orson Hodge | |
| First appearance | Don't Look at Me (episode 2.19) |
| Created by | Marc Cherry |
| Portrayed by | Kyle MacLachlan |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Dentist |
| Family | Edwin Hodge (father; deceased) Gloria Hodge (mother) |
| Spouse | Alma Hodge (ex-wife; deceased) Monique Pollier (ex-mistress; deceased) Bree Hodge (wife) |
| Children | Danielle Van De Kamp (step-daughter) Andrew Van De Kamp (step-son) |
| Relatives | Henry Mason (father-in-law) Eleanor Mason (step-mother-in-law) |
Character history
His wife goes missing, then his mistress turns up dead ?
Pre-show
Early years
Orson Hodge, born on June 28, 1964, grew up in a very religious household.
When he was sixteen, his father had an affair with another woman. When the truth came out it caused a scandal at their church and he became depressed, drinking heavily. Orson's mother, Gloria, became concerned and didn't like leaving him alone. One day she asked Orson to stay with him, saying she had to visit a sick friend. Orson agreed, but later left because he had plans with his friends. When he returned, he discovered his father's corpse lying in the bathtub with his wrists slashed, apparently a suicide. When asked by a psychiatrist if he blamed himself for his father's death, Orson said, "I didn't need to. Mother blamed me enough for both of us." Orson would also tell Bree that, "After my father died, [Gloria] was all I had. His death caused me so much pain...I would've done anything for her. She saw that weakness, and she ran with it."
Orson would later spend time at a mental hospital for psychological depression.
Marriage and adultery
By the time he was an adult, Orson had become a dentist.
Orson would later get married to a woman named Alma after getting her pregnant. The details of this are uncertain; Orson would later tell Bree that Gloria pushed them together and he "was stupid enough to get her pregnant," while the show's narrator Mary Alice Young said that Alma had "tricked [Orson] into marriage by getting pregnant," hoping Orson would come to love her after they had children. However, none of this would happen as Alma suffered a miscarriage a month after their wedding. Orson wanted to divorce her, but Gloria wouldn't let him, as their church didn't believe in divorce.
Despite Alma's wishes, Orson never came to love her, and their marriage was an unhappy one. At one point, she filed a report against him, saying he had hit her and showing bruises, contusions, and a broken wrist. Orson would later tell Bree it was in self-defense, saying they had gotten into an argument when he pointed out how she was cleaning up a red wine spill the wrong way, and that she striked him repeatedly with a sauté pan after before he pushed her and she fell. It is not known for sure who was telling the truth, but the police would later drop the charges.
He later met and fell in love with a sexually promiscuous woman named Monique Polier, and the two had an affair. When Alma discovered the affair she decided to leave, hoping her absence would make Orson miss her. When Orson walked in on her packing her things and she told him she knew about his affair, she was shocked that he didn't seem to care, hoping he would have been begging her to stay. Angry, she decided to punish Orson by leaving abruptly without her things and without telling anyone (including her family), making it look like she had just disappeared. She also believed that if she disappeared, Orson's mistress would get scared and leave him as well. The police later came and searched the house, but because Orson had scrubbed the place clean with bleach (Orson would later tell Bree that he cleans when he gets upset) they found nothing.
Orson was later granted a divorce on grounds of abandonment.
Murder
Gloria discovered that Orson had been having an affair (it is uncertain if Alma had told her). Worried about what would happen to his soul if he broke the "vow [he made] to [Alma] before God", and not wanting him to become "his father's son," she went to Monique's house and killed her.
When Orson arrived to see Monique, he discovered his mother standing over her corpse, wiping a bloody wrench. Gloria told him it was in self-defense (saying she had told Monique to stay away from him and Monique had attacked her) and convinced him to help her get rid of the body.
While they were doing so, Mike Delfino, a plumber who had been over early to fix Monique's sink and who had left to get some supplies, returned. Orson got Mike to leave, saying that he was Monique's boyfriend and she was lying down upstairs not feeling good, and he would fix her sink since it was getting late. Before Mike left, Orson gave him back the wrench he had left from before; the wrench that Gloria had used to kill Monique.
Later, while Orson was digging a hole in the Fairview Country Club's construction site to bury Monique's body, Gloria was removing her teeth so she wouldn't be identifiable by her dental records. Accusing her of desecrating Monique's body, Orson tried pulling her away from the body and she accidentally fell into the hole, breaking her hip. After getting her out, he finished burying Monique.
Afterwards Orson had Gloria put in a nursing home, telling her she'd be able to leave when her hip was better and she was strong enough. However, he secretly sold her house and all of her belongings instead, and when asked about her he would say that she was in the "final stages of dementia."
Second season
Meeting Bree, running into Mike
Orson would later encounter Mike at a movie theatre, when his ex-girlfriend Susan Mayer asked Orson to pretend to be her boyfriend, because Mike was with another woman and she didn't want him to see her alone. When Susan left her wallet at the theatre, Orson returned it to her and she talked to him about her romantic troubles. Later, after her house was burnt down, he was one of the people who helped clean up the mess. It was there that he met Bree Van De Kamp, one of Susan's neighbors.
Later, Bree, fearing she was about to have a nervous breakdown (having gone through several traumatic experiences in a short period of time, such as her husband being murdered, disowning her son, and her daughter running away) had herself admitted to a psychiatric hospital for observation.
Orsan ran into her while visiting a woman who he said he visited "three or four times a week." When Bree asked him not to tell Susan how she was there, saying she had told her friends at a spa, Orson agreed to keep her secret. Bree would later ask another patient about the woman Orson visited, who told Bree that, "She hasn't spoken a word since she got here. She just sits there all day long waiting for your friend to come and visit. He talks to her for hours, but I don't even think she can hear him."
Around the same time, Mike had gotten his tooth chipped and Susan recommended he see Orson. While Orson was checking out Mike's teeth, Mike told Orson that he thought they had met before, but Orson told him they hadn't. Later, Orson was visiting his friend at the hospital again when Bree, having learned her daughter was in danger, tried escaping. They notice each other, but Orson stays quiet and lets her escape.
That night, fearing that Mike might remember him or connect him to Monique's murder, Orson followed Mike from his house and ran him over. The following day, he visited Bree to see how she was doing and gives her some flowers, and she asks him to come in.
Third season
Marrying Bree, a new family
Bree and Orson would soon start dating, and six months later they became engaged. At their engagement party, Alma's friend Carolyn Bigsby arrived and confronted Orson in front of everybody, accusing him of killing Alma. While her friends were worried for her, Bree tried to not believe Orson was capable of murder.
At their wedding party, Detective Ridley arrived; Monique's body had been discovered, and thinking that it was Alma's they wanted Orson to identify it. At the morgue, Orson pretended not to know who's body it was; Carolyn was also there to identify the body, but even after realizing it wasn't Alma's she was still convinced Orson was a "cold-blooded killer."
Orson planned for the two to go Bermuda for their honeymoon, but while at the airport Bree saw her son Andrew on a report on homeless teenagers. Feeling guilty, she decided to cancel the honeymoon and go find him. After finding out what neighborhood he was in, Bree managed to find Andrew and tried getting him to come back home, but he was unwilling to forgive her and ran off.
Orson later found Andrew and talked to him, guessing that the reason why he was unwilling to back is because he wanted to hurt Bree for leaving him. When Andrew told him not to pretend he cared, Orson told him, "I do care about you, because Bree cares about you. Because we're more alike than you think. I know about rage. I know how it eats you up. But rage goes away and when it does, you're just left with the mess you've made." After thinking it over, Andrew returned home.
Around this time, Mike awoke from the coma he had been in since Orson ran him over, though he was left suffering from retrograde amnesia and couldn't remember the past two years. He became a suspect in Monique's murder, because his phone number had been written on her hand.
Later, Bree's daughter Danielle half-heartedly attempted suicide (taking three sedatives and trying to slit her wrists with a spoon) after Bree discovered she was having sex with her teacher and made them break up. At the hospital, when Andrew said it was just a bid for attention and joked about it, Orson yelled that, "Suicide is the worst thing that can happen to a family! I will not have it made light of!"
Carolyn's accusations
Subsequently, Carolyn Bigsby and her husband Harvey, who Orson had been friends with, came to apologise for Carolyn's accusations. After Carolyn apologises, Harvey offers that the four have dinner together at the Fairview Country Club. At the club, Carolyn gets Bree to go into the bathroom with her so they can powder their noses, and Carolyn shows her the police report Alma filed after Orson hit her. Meanwhile, Harvey confesses to Orson how he had an affair with Monique (not realizing Orson also knew her).
Bree later confronted Orson about Alma's report, and Orson told her his side of the story. When Bree told him it was Carolyn who told her about it, he mentioned how Harvey was cheating on her. Later, when Carolyn asked Bree if she had "told the wife-beater [she was] leaving him yet" and saying that Bree was living in a "fool's paradise" for believing Orson, Bree told Carolyn about Harvey's affair with Monique. Hearing this, Carolyn snapped and tried killing Harvey, holding the supermarket he worked at hostage, and killing one of the hostages before being killed herself. Both Orson and Bree felt a little guilty for being indirectly responsible for what happened.
Gloria's return
In late November, Bree was doing her Christmas cards early. She asked Orson for the address of Gloria's nursing home, but Orson protested, saying she was completely senile. Bree persisted, and Orson gave her the address. When Bree was surprised that the nursing home was only thirty minutes from where they lived and wondering why he never visited her, Orson snapped and told her he refused to "sit in a room that smells of disinfectant and lime Jell-O, making small talk with a woman who doesn't remember me" and telling her to let it go.
Curious, Bree visited the nursing home and was surprised that Gloria was perfectly cognizant. Gloria told Bree that they had a complicated relationship and that he was "utterly incapable of letting go of the past," but that she wanted her to tell Orson that she was sorry and that she still loved him. Bree decided to have Gloria come over for dinner so the two could try making up. Back at the house, when Bree confronted Orson for lying to her about Gloria's condition, Orson told her that he had done so to "spare [them] the misery of her company," and that she was a "loathsome woman."
At the dinner, Glora tried being polite before revealing that she wanted get out of the nursing home and go back to her house because her hip had recovered enough. When Orson revealed he had sold everything to pay for her stay at the home, Gloria yelled that he had no right and that she "should have smothered [him] in [his] crib when [she] had the chance."
Seeing as how Gloria didn't want to return to the nursing home, Bree offered later that she stay with them until she could find a new place to live. Orson was against it until Gloria threatened him, saying that they were going to end their quarrel or she would tell Bree what it was about.
Gloria soon came to clash with Bree, who insisted on enforcing the dietary restrictions Gloria's doctor had set out for her. She would also raid the family's liquor cabinet, and when Bree had it locked she managed to get some from Andrew after paying him. At one point when Bree and Orson came in on Gloria drinking, she revealed to Bree how he had cheated on Alma with Monique.
Horrified, Bree kicked Orson out of the house, telling him, "There were two women in your life before me. One vanished and the other was killed. That's all I need to understand. I've packed some of your things. I want you out of the house. Now." Gloria later telled Bree that she should get a divorce, saying she deserved a divorce and that "If you give him a chance, he'll draw you back in. It's what he does. Just walk away."
Meanwhile, Mike had been having flashes of memories of Monique. Uncertain if he had killed her, he tried burying the toolbox with the bloody wrench. He was caught by the police in the act and arrested. When the news spread about his arrest, Bree was elated, thinking this meant Orson was innocent. She went to Orson and told him she wanted him to come back, but before he could she wanted an explanation about everything. Orson agreed and told her about his relationship with his mother, his loveless marriage to Alma, and his affair with Monique; the only thing being left out being the details of Monique's murder. Satisfied with Orson's explanation, Bree had him come home. There, she told Gloria to leave, telling her that she had "rented her] a condo in a lovely retirement community."
When Bree left, Orson told Gloria how he "told her everything." Gloria didn't believe him, saying how he still had secrets, but Orson threatened her back, saying that she also had secrets, and that if she wanted them kept she would keep his.
Alma's return
Gloria later arranged a meeting with Alma; telling her, "I have some bad news. She's taking him back. Meet me on the corner in an hour. We need to deal with this." It is uncertain how long the two were working togther, but it was revealed that Gloria had wanted to break Orson up with Bree so she could get him back with Alma, as their church didn't accept divorce and Gloria believed Orson being with Bree was adultery. The two also thought if Alma had a child with him he wouldn't leave her. By this time, Alma had been injecting herself with hormones to improve her chances of being pregnable.
Alma returned, going to see Bree. Bree was shocked that she was still alive, but also thrilled; this proved Orson hadn't killed her. Alma told Bree that she had returned after seeing a therapist who told her that holding on to her anger over Orson's affair was only hurting herself, and that she wanted to make ammends to Orson for making everyone think he had killed her. Orson was angry with her for setting him up, but Alma stated that she just wanted closure.
Bree decided to invite the neighborhood over for a dinner party, where she revealed to everyone how Alma was still alive. Afterwards, Alma decided to move in to Wisteria Lane, buying the house across the street. Furious about his ex-wife moving in, Bree told Orson she wanted him to get Alma to leave.
When Orson confronted Alma about why she was moving in, Alma told him how she had changed and wanted to be with him again. When Orson told her how he was with Bree, Alma said she wouldn't still love him if she knew what he did to Monique or how he ran over Mike. Alma told Orson she wouldn't tell Bree because Bree might go to the police and she didn't want Orson to go to jail, but that if she thought there was no chance the two would get back together she would tell Bree. Orson later told Bree that Alma refused to leave and that they would have to make the most of it.
Bree later goes to see Alma, who pretends that Orson had no problem with her staying. Alma also leaves a bag containing Monique's teeth for Bree to find; it is uncertain if Alma's intentions were to make her think Orson had killed Monique, but instead Bree thinks it was Alma who killed her.
Bree tells Orson how she thinks Alma killed Monique and that they should go to the police. Orson said that there would be no way to prove to the police that it was Alma who had the teeth, and wanted to put them back in her house before calling. Instead, he threatens Alma to leave him alone, saying how she couldn't threaten him with the police anymore because he hid the teeth somewhere in her house and if she called them he'd tell them where they were.
Subsequently, Alma made it look like she had killed herself and Gloria called Orson over to help. Reminded of how his father died, Orson was angry and distraught. Pretending to comfort him, Gloria gave him a drink laced with a PDE5 inhibitor and a sedative. Alma revealed herself to be okay, and the two dragged the drugged Orson over to her bed. Gloria then left, deciding to give the two "some privacy," while Alma proceeded to rape Orson, telling him not to struggle as she wanted "this baby to be born of love," and that "this [was] gonna fix everything.
When Bree discovered that Orson wasn't home and Andrew told her he had been at Alma's for a few hours, she stormed over to Alma's house and discovered her in bed with an unconscious Orson. At first thinking he had been cheating on her, Bree soon discovered he had been drugged. When Bree cried out that Alma had raped him, Alma replied that they made love, and that he would return to her when their baby was born. Bree punched Alma out and got Orson home.
The next day, when Orson had woken up, Bree told him what happened and said they should go the police. Orson refused to go to the police, and when Bree persisted he told her how Gloria had killed Monique and how he helped cover it up. Bree was angry with him, and wanted him to exonerate Mike.
Later, Orson visited Alma and Gloria to 'thank' them, explaining how Bree wanting to go the police forced him to tell her about Monique's death. "I faced my worst fear, the moment I felt sure would end my marriage, and guess what? It didn't." When Alma tried to stop him from leaving, saying she could be carrying his child, he said he didn't care, and that he was sticking with Bree.
Gloria's final plan
Now convinced that Orson would never love her, Alma decided to call the police. After failing to convince her that she could turn Orson around, Gloria locked Alma in her attic to prevent her from doing anything.
Gloria arranged for Bree to have an accident by leaving a ladder leaning against Bree's house, with a bag resembling the one containing Monique's teeth hanging hanging from one of the top rungs. Gloria sawed through one of the lower rungs, so when Bree attempted to get the bag she lost her footing and fell backwards, suffering a slight concussion. Orson called the cops and Bree was taken to a hospital.
Meanwhile, Mike had been going through hypnotherapy to remember what he knew about Monique, and remembered seeing Orson at her house the night she died. When Orson went to the hospital's parking garage roof after visiting Bree, Mike confronted him and told him that he remembered. The two fight, and in the ensuing chaos Orson loses his balance and falls over the railing. His several-story fall is broken by some trees before he hits the ground. With two paramedics and an ambulance nearby, he is quickly hospitalized.
Meanwhile, Bree had gone back home to recuperate. When Gloria discovered that Orson was in the hospital, she asked the doctors to keep him there overnight and went over to the Hodge's home to kill Bree. Danielle, who had been looking after Bree, went to the grand opening of the Pizzeria Scavo after Gloria told her she could look after Bree, but not before convincing Danielle to give Bree some soup she had laced with sedatives. With Danielle gone, Gloria planned to kill Bree and make her death look like a suicide; in the bathtub with her wrists slit, just like Gloria's husband and Orson's father. Meanwhile, upon hearing how Gloria wanted him to stay overnight, a worried Orson tries calling the house. Hearing no response, he escapes from the hospital and gets a taxi to drive him back to the house.
As Gloria is preparing the faux suicide, Andrew, having learned that Danielle had left Bree alone with Gloria, arrives. Before he can do anything, Gloria knocks him down the stairs. Orson runs in, and after checking to see that his step son is alive, runs into the bathroom where he discovers Gloria preparing to slit Bree's wrists. Flashbacking to his father's death, he asks her "You've done this before, haven't you?" The two struggle with the knife while the rising bathwater threatens to drown Bree. Orson finally manages to knock his mother down, before taking Bree out of the tub and laying her on their bed. Andrew comes in and Orson tells him to get some blankets and some dry clothes.
Meanwhile, the fight has caused Gloria to suffer a stroke. Telling Andrew he doesn't "want her dying in our house," Orson carries Gloria's body over to Alma's house, only to discover her corpse; she had died after climbing out of the attic Gloria had locked her in, only to fall off the roof. Orson sets Gloria's semi-conscious body next to Alma's lifeless one. Then, he went inside and arranged it so when the police would investigate the house the next day after a neighbor discovered the bodies they'd discover her faux-suicide note, along with the bag containing Alma's teeth. This leads the police to believe that Alma had killed Monique, and after killing herself Gloria discovered her body, causing her to have the stroke.
The paramedics were able to save Gloria's life, but the stroke had left her body completely paralyzed, though her brain was still functioning normally. At the hospital, Orson visited her and told her that her being unable to speak would mean their "secrets [would] be safe forever," and that this would be the last time she would ever see him.
Trivia
- When Susan was in Orson's dental office snooping through papers, she saw that Orson was born in 1964, but when she found a report card from his 8th grade school year, it said it was typed in 1972, meaning that Orson was in 8th grade when he was 8 years old. This is likely just a continuity error.
- Alma, Monique and Bree, Orson's lovers, are all redheads. Alma actually commented on this after meeting Bree, asking Orson in No Fits, No Fights, No Feuds "What is it with you and redheads?"