Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Shrinkage
By DeAnn Welker | Season 6 | Episode 13 | Aired on 01.17.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Bob and Lee have Tom and Lynette over for a dinner party (though, is it actually a dinner party if it's only two couples? Isn't that just dinner, not so much a party?), and casually mention their therapy sessions, causing Tom to just as casually tell Lynette he thinks they could stand for some. She not so casually says therapy is for sissies, and, um, no, she's not one. Tom starts going anyway, though, and keeps a journal about the baby dying, but also about Lynette. She eventually goes to his therapist's office to defend herself, because she's not always a total bitch. But she ends up in therapy herself, and keeping her own feelings journal. And with Frasier's Jane Leeves in the tiny role of therapist, I'm thinking this storyline's not over yet.
Speaking of therapy, Katherine's seeing her own shrink in whatever mental institution she's living in. She cries and faces reality, which basically sucks because she now knows all the things she did wrong to everyone else without that oh-so-glorious thing called la-la land she was living in before. Mrs. McCluskey pays her a visit and asks her to come home, but Katherine can't face the people she's wronged (Bree, Susan, and Mike, mostly), so Mrs. McC brings them to Katherine. Even Susan, who greets her sweetly despite the fact that Katherine was trying to ruin her marriage and her life.
Speaking of ruined lives, Bree and Orson, the poster children for ruining each other's, are still not getting along. He's still treating her like a servant, and she's still begrudgingly doing whatever he asks, even though he won't shower or say please. Eventually, though, she gets fed up and puts a plate of waffles out of his reach when he won't say please. He tells his physical therapist on her, and the physical therapist lectures Bree that she has to be patient with Orson or else she'll have to report her to the proper authorities. It doesn't really help, though, because Orson still won't shower. When he doesn't want Bree to open the door to air out his stench, he calls her a whore, prompting her to wheel him outside and hose him down until he begs her to please stop. She does, and then he tells her how emasculating it is that he has to ask her for everything forever, when he'd really just like to get his ass up and make a cup of tea. She feels bad, and asks his forgiveness. Let's hope they can keep up this liking each other for more than one episode.
Elsewhere, Susan and Gaby, now that their kids are in the same school, are competing over whose child is the smartest. It's very ugly and petty, mostly on Susan's part, but what we learn is that Juanita's better at math, and Susan and Gaby love each other. Until they broach the subject of reading, which is leading nowhere good when the episode ends. And Danny's officially dating Ana now, which Angie doesn't like. She tells Ana as much, and asks her not to break his heart. Ana's not making any guarantees or anything, and basically tells Angie to shove it.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: Juanita got into the same private school that MJ goes to (and where Susan works). Danny decided he liked Ana. Bree begged Orson to help her get into heaven. Katherine went nuts and was committed. Tom and Lynette lost a baby, but she wouldn't talk to him about it. Mary Alice Voiceover tells us how to host a dinner party, as Bob and Lee prepare for one: Polish the good silver, keep the music at a low volume, serve the wine the guests bring, and make a toast. Tom and Lynette show up with wine, and then Tom toasts Bob and Lee for the dinner, but Lee says it's not over yet. It's time for his so-sweet-it'll-kill-you fruit tart (my favorite kind). Bob forgot to buy whipped cream, so Bob and Lee bicker about that and then about their jobs. Lee gets out a book to write, and they explain to Tom and Lynette that it's his feelings journal from therapy, where they write down negative feelings. Bob says Lee wrote an entire chapter about him forgetting to put down the toilet seat. Lynette thought that would be an advantage of two guys living together. Bob: "You'd think." Lee keeps writing. Tom tells Lynette they should think about seeing someone, but she'd rather talk about it later. Only Tom says she won't, because she never does. Lynette: "You know how I feel about therapy. It's for weak, indulgent..." Then she remembers where she is, and finishes "... straight people. You guys totally make it work." She tells Tom to drop it, and MAVO finishes that the number one rule of a successful dinner party: "Keep discussion of your marriage to an absolute minimum." Opening titles.
MAVO introduces us to the Fairview Health Center's psychologist, who spends his days treating everyone: antisocial adolescents, delusional dowagers, and bipolar businessmen. But lately his most interesting patient was a housewife who had a nervous breakdown. Of course, it's Katherine, who explains to the therapist how lonely she was before Mike came along and made her laugh and gave her hope again. So when he turned out to be in love with someone else, she went back to being lonely, but worse because he and Susan lived right across the street. So one day she pretended that it wasn't Susan's hand he was holding, but hers. Her therapist asks if that's how the fantasies started. Katherine cries as she says she'd let herself imagine he was there when she was hurting, but then she let those moments take over because she preferred them to reality. Therapist asks if the medication's helping, and she says she has a firmer grasp on reality and can see things clearly for the first time in a long while. The therapist thinks it's great, but Katherine says not really, because now she can see that she's ruined her life. Dana Delany is great in this scene, with just the right amount of crying without going over the top into sentimentality.