Chromolume No. 7

"Chromolume No. 7", also stylized as "Chromolume #7", is the 128th episode of Desperate Housewives.
==Plot==
===Susan===
Mike comes down for breakfast and notices that his wife is wearing a seemingly very expensive dress. She lets him know she finally received the money from selling the strip club, and intends on taking him to a fancy restaurant. However, Mike tells her they can’t, as he’s still in debt, but Susan says they no longer are, because she paid everything off. Mike becomes clearly upset by this, as he wanted to take care of his financial situations on his own. Susan doesn’t understand what his problem his. 
Later, as they are preparing to go to bed, Susan is telling Mike about Katherine’s newfound lesbianism. Mike is a little freaked out by this, as he can’t seem to understand how Katherine went from being with him to being with women. Susan says she was probably leaning towards that direction anyhow, and he was perhaps a good transition. Mike takes this as an offense. His wife just means that he is sensitive and romantic, and knows how to please a woman, but he feels his macho pride is being hurt by it all. The following night, Mike is reluctant to go to bed, and Susan insists that he does so. He then throws her onto the kitchen counter, attempting to prove her that he doesn’t need to be in a bedroom in order to make passionate love to her, and tries to rip off her shirt, but is unable to do so. Susan is uncomfortably lying on an object, and tries to get him off of her, and he falls to the floor. He then lies there, as she asks him what’s going on, and Mike reveals to her that when she paid off the loan he felt like he wasn’t man enough to provide for his family, which is something he always promised himself he’d be, particularly since his own father never was. Susan finally understands, and promises him she’ll call off the check the following day, giving him a chance to step up and pay the bills. The two of them then lie together on the floor.
===Lynette===
The Scavo family is preparing to welcome home Preston, who's been in Europe for the past months. He arrives, accompanied by his twin brother Porter, who picked him up, and everyone is happy to see him. Preston then introduces them to his Russian fiancée, a beautiful woman named Irina. Lynette enters a state of shock. 
During dinner, Lynette and Tom discover that while in France, Preston bought Irina several gifts, and they start to wonder what the woman's true intentions are, and what she expects to get out of this relationship. Lynette becomes even more concerned once she realizes Preston has told her about his college fund. She is pretty sure Irina is a gold-digger. 
Later that night, Lynette is telling Tom that sooner or later her son will realize his fiancée is no good. However, Preston walks in to announce that he has asked Irina to marry him, and she said "yes". His parents become horrified, and when Lynette tells him she doesn't think Irina's right for him, Preston becomes angry. It is soon revealed that he is planning on giving Irina his grandmother's wedding ring, because Lynette promised it to him. The latter comes up with a plan: to give Irina a fake ring, because she knows right away that she'll have it evaluated, and once she realizes it's a fake, she'll dump Preston. She does so, but it all backfires when Irina comes home for dinner and tells the Scavos she can't just accept a treasured family heirloom, and they should save the ring for Penny instead. Lynette can tell her soon-to-be daughter-in-law was charming her way out of the scam that was set up for her, but there's nothing she can do.
===Bree===
Bree has decided to promote Sam to vice president, which also happens to be Andrew’s position at the firm. Andrew is very displeased with this, as he feels he doesn’t need any help, but Bree won’t change her mind. A jealous and angry Andrew goes on a bender, and during the time of Sam’s speech towards his colleagues (taking place in the announcing of his promotion), Andrew shows up yielding a liquor bottle, and visibly drunk. Sam tries to calm him down, but he pushes him away, literally. Sam winds up on the floor, and Bree is horrified. He then asks her to let him take the day off, to which Andrew replies that he knew he was a “slacker”. 
Bree later goes to Sam’s home, which she finds out is a trailer, in order to apologize for Andrew’s behavior. He’s out, but the neighbor says the trailer is unlocked, so she lets herself in and puts down the pastries she brought him. She decides to snoop around for a while and checks out the pictures on his wall. She is appalled to see a photograph of a younger Sam accompanied by her late first husband, Rex. Sam walks in and finds Bree holding the picture. She asks him what it’s all about, and Sam reveals to her that Rex was his father, and that he never intended for Bree to find out this way. She hurries outside and drives away, shaken by this piece of news. 
At her house, she has a talk with Orson, about what Sam said, and about the fact that he’s been standing outside on the street, looking at their house. Bree wonders what he wants from her, and Orson says she should go out and find out for herself. Bree does so, and gives Sam an opportunity to explain. He tells her that his mother met Rex before he had even met Bree, and she became pregnant with his child. By the time Sam was born, Rex had already married Bree. Bree is surprised by all this. He then says he’s been on the street several times before, watching the Van de Kamps interact with one another inside that house, trying to understand why his father would choose them all over him, and he did: they were all so perfect. Bree lets out a smothered laugh because she knows very well that they were quite the opposite. She then tearfully tells him he should come inside and she would prepare him some hot chocolate. They hug and Andrew watches them from his house.
===Gabrielle and Angie===
Ana is being photographed for a gardening-themed calendar, and Danny finds her, comes up to her and tells her of her aunt’s scheme to break them up, which is the real reason behind the Solises sending Ana off to New York. Ana quits her gig, and goes with Danny. Back in Fairview, Angie comes up to Gabrielle and asks for Ana’s address in New York, because her son has gone off to find her. Gaby lets her know that once Danny tracks her down, Ana is gonna send him packing, and Angie could ask her herself. She calls Ana over her cell phone, but the voice mail picks it up and the message clearly states that Ana knows what Gaby has done. She then tells Angie to hold the cab because she’s going with her. 
The two head to the modeling agency where Gaby used to work, and sit in the waiting room. Angie learns that Gaby used to be a model, who was even on the cover of Vogue magazine. She spots Heidi Klum, and Gaby decides to introduce her to the supermodel, who she claims used to be a close friend of hers. However, Heidi is less than happy to see Gaby again, as she once glued toilet paper to her shoes and laughed as she walked the runway in them. Gaby says it was a fun practical joke, but Klum is pissed because, thanks to that prank, she didn’t get to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Heidi then walks away, and Gaby sees her former agent, Luke Rayfield, who is happy to see her, but tells her that Ana is a spoiled diva who needs to work on her attitude. He also says she walked out of her latest job with her boyfriend. Gaby asks where they are, but he has no idea, only says they went out looking to stay with someone from Danny’s family. Gaby asks if Angie has any family in New York, and Angie says there’s only one person. 
Before that, Danny and Ana had headed to his grandmother’s house, and she was more than happy to see her grandson “Tyler”. 
Later that night, at a restaurant, Gaby and Angie are discussing their situation and Luke shows up with Paulina Porizkova, another former colleague of Gabrielle’s, and Gaby introduces Angie to her and tries to get Paulina to hug her, but the latter asks why should she hug her. Gaby says they were friends, but Paulina only remembers helping her get on her feet while she was starting out as a model, and she repaid her by being bitchy to her and the modeling crew. Angie says she doesn’t need to meet anymore of Gaby’s model “friends”, and goes off to call Nick. Gaby admits to Luke she was a little bitchy, but not any more than the other girls, but he lets her know she was the queen, no one was as bad as she was, which is why she went down so fast. Gaby says nothing of the sort ever happened, her career ended because she decided to marry Carlos and move to the suburbs, but Luke says she only did that because she knew very well she was done for. Otherwise, she would have never left. 
Angie goes to see her mother, trying to look “incognito”, but a neighbor spots her. Rose is also happy to see her child. However, she slaps Angie for being away for 18 years without ever coming to see her mother. Angie explains it was the only way they were safe from Patrick. Rose is reluctant to let Danny go because she wasn’t able to be with her grandson for such a long time, and now that he was there with her she wasn’t going to give him up so easily. 
Gaby finds Ana and admits that she only sent him to New York to be away from Danny, and Luke was doing her a favor, but it also turned out she did him a favor because he believes Ana has a lot of potential. However, she needs to let go of her snarky attitude, because that was the reason for Gaby’s downfall, and she doesn’t want the same thing to happen to her niece. 
Inside the house, Angie tells her mother the whole truth about why Danny can’t stay with her. He comes home, and sees his mother there, but tells her he isn’t going back, particularly because Rose wants him there. However, she claims she doesn’t: he should go back with his mother because she knows what’s best for him. Danny is devastated, but Rose reassures him they have a relationship and they will talk with each other all the time. 
Outside, as Angie says goodbye to her mother, and Danny and Ana part as well, Gaby is intercepted by the neighbor, Iris, who asks her who the woman with Rose is. Gaby says it’s her daughter Angie, who’s come to visit from Fairview. 
On the plane ride home, Danny is tired and goes to sleep in some empty seats on the back. Gaby takes the opportunity to tell Angie she’s had some secrets in her past too and she knows how lonely it gets, and if Angie needs someone to talk to, she’s got her. Angie really needs to vent, so she tells Gaby the truth about her past: she got involved with a really bad guy whilst trying to save the world, through eco-terrorism, and someone got killed by accident (and, presumably, negligence). Gaby thinks the bad guy might be Nick, but Angie reassures her he’s the one who helped her escape. The bad guy is her ex-lover… who is also Danny’s real father. 
Back in New York, the neighbor, Iris, calls Patrick over the phone, telling him she knows where Angie is, but she won’t tell him until she gets the thousand dollars he promised her.
===Katherine===
Katherine wakes up after a night of sleeping with Robin, and is feeling terribly confused. There is a knock at her door, and she goes to open it up. It's Susan, who wants to go out shopping with Katherine. However, the latter becomes evasive, which concerns Susan, because she wants them to go back to being the good friends they used to be. Immediately afterwards, Robin shows up, greets Susan, and tells Katherine she's going to prepare some coffee, before kissing her on the lips. Katherine is nervous. Susan realizes something is going on, and asks Katherine if there's anything she would like to share with her. 
Later that day, Katherine is over at Bob and Lee's, trying to figure out (with their assistance) whether she's gay or not. Bob explains to her that he used to date girls, but the first time he slept with a guy he knew that was it. His point is that if Katherine isn't so sure about being gay, even after being with Robin, then she probably isn't. However, he does point out that maybe she should try to get to know her better. The following day, Robin comes home from her cousin's wedding, and kisses Katherine, who tries to avoid her kiss. Robin realizes they are in for a talk, and Katherine explains to her that even though they had sex with each other two nights prior, that doesn't mean anything. Robin becomes emotional, and lets her know that she is well aware of how passionately Katherine acted towards her, and that it counted. It meant something. Katherine gives in, admitting it did, and they kiss.
==Notes==
*Although credited, Ricardo Antonio Chavira (Carlos Solis), Jeffrey Nordling (Nick Bolen) and Madison De La Garza (Juanita Solis) are absent from this episode. Andrea Bowen (Julie Mayer) and Kathryn Joosten (Karen McCluskey) are too absent, and therefore are not credited.
:*This is the last episode of the season to feature Maiara Walsh (Ana Solis). However, she is billed under “starring” for the remaining six episodes.
:*Former series regular Max Carver (Preston Scavo) returns on a recurring status in this episode, after being entirely absent from the first 16 episodes of this season, with the given explanation that his character had gone off to Europe. The producers decided to get rid of him for a while because they felt the show had too many characters. However, the number of series regulars increased from season five to season six.
*Actor Tracy Fraim, who portrays the photographer working with Ana in this episode, played the narrator in the very first special recap episode of the show, “Sorting Out the Dirty Laundry”.
*The title of this episode comes from a song in the Stephen Sondheim musical, Sunday in the Park with George.
*This episode received 12.01 million viewers in its original broadcast. TV Ratings Top 25
==International Titles==
*Polish : Przypadkowe spotkanie (Accidental Encounter)
*Italian: Rivelazioni (Revelations)
*French : Les fils préférés (The favorite sons)
==Reception==
Tanner Stransky, of EW.com, was annoyed by the "uneventful" trip to New York, and disgusted by Susan and Mike’s sex scenes, saying “Well, so I suppose that we did get a little something — not that it was earth-shattering or even enough to make me give a hoot about the Bolen drama, one of Desperate Housewives' most boring mysteries ever”Stransky recap, page 1 and "The scene couldn't have been more awkward, and unfortunately it's now burned in my brain. I'm not too big of a fan of any of the sex scenes on Desperate Housewives". Stransky recap, page 3.
==References==
Category:Episodes
Category:Season 6