One Wonderful Day

Template:Desperate Housewives episode "One Wonderful Day" is the 23rd episode of the ABC television series, Desperate Housewives. The episode was also the season finale for the show's first season. The episode was written by Marc Cherry, John Pardee, Joey Murphy, Tom Spezialy and Kevin Murphy and was directed by Larry Shaw. It originally aired on Sunday May 22, 2005.

Guest Starring and Co-Starring

• Doug Savant as Tom Scavo
• Harriet Sansom Harris as Felicia Tilman
• Richard Burgi as Karl Mayer
• Mehcad Brooks as Matthew Applewhite
• Jolie Jenkins as Dierdre Taylor
• Ryan Carnes as Justin
• Zane Huett as Parker Scavo
• Brent Kinsman as Preston Scavo
• Shane Kinsman as Porter Scavo

Special Guest Star

• Alfre Woodard as Betty Applewhite

Episode recap

At 5am on Wisteria Lane, each of the women receive a phone call that Rex Van De Kamp has been admitted to the hospital courtesy of Danielle. Each of the wives leaves for the hospital to support Bree in her time of need but quickly return home when Bree needs some "alone time". While there Susan slips out that it looks as if Mrs. Huber was blackmailing Mary Alice leading to her suicide.

Meanwhile Zach Young is curious of his father's whereabouts after he hears an obviously bogus story from Felicia who is trying to protect him from the truth. Zach soon leaves to go back home but Felicia runs after him who asks that he come back to her house. Zach then picks up a nearby hockey stick and begins to bash Felicia with it until she provides him with answers. Felicia is later hospitalized and her fate unknown for the remainder of the episode.

Susan continues to prepare for her move-in with Mike however when she cannot get in contact with him she worries. After three phone calls to his cell phone, Mike finally returns her calls informing her that he is alright and that he has business to take care of. He then asks Susan to go over to his house to feed Bongo, his dog. When she arrives at Mike's home, she is surprisingly held at gunpoint by Zach. Zach explains to Susan that Felicia told him that Mike killed Paul and when he arrived home, he would return the favor by killing him. Susan tries to escape but Zach insists that she stay. The ordeal will last for several hours until Mike arrives home.

Rex's doctor informs Bree that Rex must go under surgery or the end result will be fatal. When the doctor notices Rex's high potassium intake he questions Rex on who prepares his and the family's meals. He tells the doctor that Bree prepares the meals. Dr. Craig then asks Rex if they are still having marital problems. Rex immediately assumes that Bree has poisened him and soon after dies leaving Bree a note of forgiveness.

Gabrielle testifies at Carlos' hate crime hearing in order to save him from eight long years of prison. She tells the jury that her husband is a very jealous man and that whenever she would go out, he would worry. Gabrielle then tells the jury that because of Carlos' ongoing jealousy, she made him think that she was having an affair when in reality she was not. The judge then decides that the case is simply a misunderstanding and not a hate crime as the court had originally thought. However when John shows up in court, he whispers in Carlos' ear that he was the man Gabrielle was cheating with. Several seconds later, Carlos jumps out of his chair and onto to Justin, who was the man he attacked. The judge asks for order and Carlos attempts going after John yelling "I will kill you!"

Lynette discovers that Tom has quit his job after catching him in an arcade playing with other children. Later, Tom confronts Lynette on convincing the boss' wife to pass on his promotion. Lynette tries to reason with him by telling him that he would be away from home more than he already is. Tom then delivers his ultimatum: that Lynette will return to work and that he will be the stay-at-home dad. Lynette objects for the moment but decides that maybe it is the best decision.

In the desert where Mike takes Paul Young, he asks Paul (at gunpoint) why he murdered Dierdre. Paul then goes on to tell his account of what happened. In March of 1990, Dierdre arrived on Angela and Paul Forrest's door for money for drugs and food. Angela, being the good woman she was offered to help support Dierdre since she had a very young child. Dierdre then offered Angela her baby, Dana for money. Angela ponders the offer but soon after Dierdre is admitted to the clinic after an overdose. Angela sees this as a way to take the baby and soon after she, Paul and baby Dana move to Fairview (an idea brought to her by Felicia's calendar stating she had "family" there). With quick name changes for Angela and Dana, the 3 become the Young family and move to quiet, suburban Wisteria Lane. Three years later in 1993, Mary Alice is visited once again by Dierdre who asks for her son Dana back. Mary Alice objects and soon after a fight ensues. Dierdre fights Paul off by swinging a chimney stick at him. Paul soon falls down and Dierdre runs up the stairs to grab Zach. However Mary Alice quickly picks up a knife and stabs Dierdre in the chest. Dierdre dies soon after. Mary Alice then runs to Zach's room where she takes his toy chest which she and Paul will use to place Dierdre's body in. Zach wakes up soon after and sees the two dismember Dierdre's body. Mary Alice and Paul bury Dierdre's body in the backyard and the following day have the yard filled with cement where the pool will soon go. Paul ends his story by telling Mike that this was the reason that Mary Alice killed herself. The guilt had truly gotten to her after all those years.

Mike prepares to kill him but backs out at the last minute and decides to let Paul go. Mike then comes the conclusion that Zach Young is actually his son since Dierdre had gotten pregnant before Mike had gone to prison. When he returns on Wisteria Lane, he parks his car and slowly walks into his home only to find out there is a surprise behind the door.

Opening Credits

• To finish the season off the way it started, the opening credits were cut.

Title reference

The episode title One Wonderful Day is the Act I finale in the Stephen Sondheim musical, Saturday Night.