Mary Alice Young

Welcome to Mary Alice, What Did You Do? We are a Desperate Housewives recap podcast with me, Erin McGee.

And me, Jakob Tansey.

Two best friends breaking down each episode until we answer the ultimate question, Mary Alice, what did you do?

Unless, of course, we have finished season one.

In which case, insert new mystery here.

M-A-W-D-Y-D.

Now, back to the episode.

Mary Alice voice over tells us about how sensitive brides are and how aware bridesmaids are of this fact.

Well, because, you know, I'm a huge Desperate Housewives fan.

So I mean, and that was honestly like one of the biggest things she was known for was playing Mary Alice Young on Desperate Housewives.

Like she's so recognizable.

And it's funny because like if you're familiar with that show, she yes she's in the show she kind of kicks off the the inciting incident of that show um but she's mostly the narrator of that show her voice is so distinct

Yeah.

guess so.

But she was nominated for two Emmy Awards for her role as Mary Alice Young in Desperate Housewives.

Good for her.

Welcome to Mary Alice, What Did You

Do?

We are a Desperate Housewives recap podcast with me, Erin McGee.

And me, Jakob Tansey.

Two best friends breaking down each episode until we answer the ultimate question, Mary Alice, what did you do?

Unless, of course, we have finished season one.

In which case, insert new mystery here.

I was trying to do rain, but I realized I don't know how to do that.

Rose, unfortunately, she lets go.

And another big thing that happens in Desperate Housewives, Mary Alice dies as well.

At the beginning.

No, I'm all over that one.

parallels there.

I'm like, they're either repeating themselves, which I hope is not the case, or there is some subliminal message being made there, especially because Catherine does stay and she becomes... you know and she has links to mary alice is this meant to be like the

what could have been with mary alice if she'd come clean to the housewives yeah i guess there could be some of that it could be easily the writers being like season one works so well let's go back to what we know um yeah i'm not really sure i've not seen any rhetoric regarding that um but i do like the idea of you know we can see as an audience and the girls can see as a community like how i mean i feel like the whole theme of this season is secrets are better out in the open which is the opposite from season one

and thinking about it mary alice would have been in my runners-up for worst side characters because she is the reason that dylan is og dylan is dead

that's not true but

she's like i just let in your husband

Yeah, I mean, for someone who's so paranoid herself about people from the past coming back, that's a low blow, Mary Alice.

I think she's like,

Our main lady of the mystery lady.

Are you trying to say Mary Alice right now?

No.

Catherine?

And the guy just walks off saying he'll look into it.

So yeah, Catherine doesn't even bother doing the paperwork because she knows this is exactly the same as last time.

Mary Alice narrates that in that moment, Catherine knew what had to be done.

Again.

The show moves around in time, too.

Mary Alice, the show's narrator, is already gone when the series begins, but flashbacks gradually fill in pieces of what happened before we got there, so there's a sense of storytelling out of sequence.

Wisteria Lane gives us a really useful way to picture what Taylor might be doing, taking the feelings left behind by a relationship and turning them into this exaggerated suburban melodrama.

Let's keep these Desperate Housewives in mind as we go.

No.

And then we have our end of episode montage, and it's kind of Mary Alice saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover," is the theme she's going for here.

And we see Susan painting Maynard's nursery as Mike holds him in a rocking chair.

Uh, can we point out the key detail here is that Mike is looking all smug because he can't believe that his lie actually worked-

Yeah.

And so we look forward to watching the next story chapter of Wisteria Lane with you all next week.

Until then, remember, as Mary Alice says, "Most of what's visible by the dead could also be seen by the living-

If only we took the time to look.

Gabby and Carlos almost killed Victor, but Victor turned up alive, and he remembers everything.

We open up with Mary Alice saying, "It was supposed to be a beautiful day," and that's already ominous enough, right? I love the beginning of this episode, and it, you know, it's showing the neighborhood where kids are supposed to be playing or, like, people are supposed to be outside doing chores or working in their garden, and you start to see the wind is picking up in the neighborhood.

And then she says, "At 2:26 that afternoon, a tornado came to Wisteria Lane and brought with it unbelievable destruction," especially because the day had started out pretty nice.

I mean, it's a little windy, and, uh, you can tell, like, something's coming, like a little storm.

We're just trying to do, like, our normal everyday things," when something devastating happens, something that, like, you don't expect to really fuck your day up, right? [laughs] It's just very realistic.

I know it sounds dumb, but it is.

So they have to cut their goodbye short so everybody can start getting ready, so they all hug her and they're like, "We're gonna see you real soon." And y- Bree even says, "And when we do, everything will be exactly the way it was." And Mary Alice comes to say, "Unfortunately, it wouldn't be because in four short hours, one of these women would lose a husband, and all of them would lose a friend." When I saw this episode for the first time, I was like, "Who's, who's gonna...

Whose husband is gonna die? What is this?" This was, like, one of the greatest mysteries to me.