Desperate Housewives Series Finale Spoiler Post

Okay, I know UK viewers are due to get the last ever episode of Desperate Housewives on Sunday but as an Irish viewer, we got the finale first and here are my overall thoughts on the episode, Season Eight and the series as a whole.

First thing is first - the plotline that dominated all season was nicely resolved in the penultimate episode, Give Me The Blame with Karen McClusky pretending that she murdered Alejandro and getting off free due to her deteriorating health. I think it was obvious that there was going to be a loophole that would prevent Bree and the rest of the girls winding up in the slammer and I guess this had to be it. I'm not complaining mind.

And moving onto the series finale, Finishing The Hat, well after eight seasons and 180 episodes, this was actually a wonderful way of ending the series in my opinion. There was a lot of light comedy with the clashing of Renee and Ben's wedding along with Julie giving birth to a little girl. Of course Renee wouldn't enjoy being upstaged but it worked out well for her in the end now that she has her husband. Of course with some joy came some sadness as well.

Hands up who's been the best character on the show more than our main housewives? Why, it's been Karen McClusky of course and when she wasn't arranging for Bree to give Tripp a chance once again, she sadly passed away with Johnny Mathis's Wonderful, Wonderful playing in the background. Unfortunately this scene is even more poignant now given that Kathryn Joosten who played Karen was battling cancer in real life whilst filming this episode and sadly passed away a few days ago. I won't lie, I did tear up during these scenes more than anything else.

With a poignant death and a birth, there were also several returns in this episode as well. Namely, Katherine resurfaced for about three scenes and long enough to tell us that her and Robin broke up, that she's selling frozen pastry to the French and that she wants Lynette to go to New York to head up the US part of her business. There was a bit of a missed opportunity here with Katherine and Renee not interacting with each other. I would've liked to have seen the both of them trade barbs at each other.

And then when we weren't getting direct echoes back to the pilot episode (the reversal of Gabby/Carlos's career roles, complete with new gardner, Lynette encountering that woman in the supermarket), it was nice having the ladies playing a final poker game and vowing to stay in touch, even though they were destined to go their seperate ways. Maybe it's the Six Feet Under trope, but I enjoyed the flashforwards of Susan leaving the lane to go live with Julie and her grandchild, Bree marrying Tripp and entering politics in Kentucky, Gabby and Carlos getting a TV show and moving to California and Lynette reuniting with Tom, accepting Katherine's offer and moving to New York but after spending most of their lives in the most dangerous part of suburbia, you can't blame each and every single one of them for moving away, can you?

I also liked the plethora of ghosts we got to see as Susan was driving out of Wisteria Lane as well. Seeing both Mike and Mary Alice for the last time felt right (as well as the first time in flashback as to when Mary Alice moved to the lane) but if real life circumstances didn't dictate matters, I would've loved to have seen Edie as well. Also, when you're watching this episode, see if you can spot creator Marc Cherry in it and the final scene with the woman moving into Susan's house with a mystery box proves that proves that this lane will never be secret free. For a final episode, this was a perfect way to end a series that maybe ran two or three seasons longer than it needed to but overall, this show has been a joy. I don't know what is going to succeed this show though in terms of soapy madness and cultural impact. Maybe Revenge, maybe something else. I guess we'll know at some point but for the last eight years, this show mostly delivered so I guess I will miss it, though it's right for it to end.

Wonderful Wonderful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH0_XfxnXWI 

The last episode of Desperate Housewives airs on E4, Sunday at 10pm and then next Wednesday at 12am on Channel 4. Season 8 will be out on DVD later in 2012.