Move On (Desperate Housewives)

"Move On" is the 11th episode of the ABC television series, Desperate Housewives. The episode was the 11th episode for the show's first season. The episode was written by David Schnuler and was directed by John David Coles. It originally aired on Sunday January 9, 2005.

Plot

Mrs. Huber’s sister, Felicia Tilman, arrives, psychically sure her sister is dead and none too unhappy about it either.^[1] Edie soon finds that the two sisters bear a striking character trait in common, the ability to say the nastiest things about other people with a cheerful smile.^[2]

Tom accidentally catches Claire running through the house butt naked late at night after putting all her clothes in the washing machine, and begins to become distracted by her charms.^[3] After a talk with Lynette,^[4] he fires Claire and Lynette begins a search for a new, unattractive nanny.

Mike tells Susan that he loves her but they are interrupted by Susan’s ex-husband, Karl, whose girlfriend Brandi has left him.^[5] Karl gets invited to Julie’s birthday party by Susan.^[6] He brings Edie as a date^[7] and Susan finds out that he had also cheated on her with Edie while they were married and causes a scene.^[8] Karl apologises later and tries to win Susan back.^[9] Susan is delighted that she feels nothing for Karl and runs to tell Mike that she loves him.

Bree is “emotionally blackmailed” by her son to take Rex in while he recovers from the heart attack he suffered in the previous episode, "Come Back to Me."^[10] While picking up Rex’s medicine, she asks the pharmacist, George Williams, out on a date and he accepts.^[11] Sitting beside Rex on the couch waiting for Bree, Rex continually ridicules Bree and even refers to her as his wife.^[12] When her son Andrew finds out he is furious with her^[13] but when he later realizes his father cheated on her first he urges her to kick him out.^[14] Bree refuses and defends Rex, showing a lot of emotion, which Rex overhears.^[15]

Gabrielle finds that she has no more money and turns to her old career, modeling, but she cannot command as high a price as she used to.^[16] She is informed by Carlos’ lawyer that the government will probably release, for living expenses, some of the money it seized if Carlos presents his passport and pays bail.^[17] At her job at the mall modeling a car, Gaby reluctantly runs into Tom and Lynette and tries to avoid mention that it is her job for fear of embarrassment.^[18] When her electricity is shut off, she “finds” the somewhat charred passport she'd thrown on the fire in the last episode.

With the police and neighbors searching for Mrs. Huber, Paul decides to frame another, in order to cast suspicion away from himself.^[19] He chooses Mike Delfino, whom he believes is the most vulnerable as he is the newest neighbor on Wisteria Lane. He digs Mrs. Huber up, removes some jewelry from her person,^[20] reburies her and plants the jewelry in Mike’s house.^[21] The police are questioning Mike when Susan rings his doorbell to tell him she loves him, although Mike does not seem upset by their presence and they wait patiently and politely for Susan to finish kissing Mike, the viewer is left wondering why they are there.

In the final scene, a jogger finds Mrs. Huber’s body when his dog starts digging her up.

Title reference

The episode title Move On comes from the Stephen Sondheim musical, Sunday in the Park with George.

International titles

• Finnish: Eteenpäin (Forward)
• French: Un air de famille (Family Likeness)
• German: Die große Suche (The Great Search)
• Hungarian: Lépj tovább! (Move On)
• Italian: Muoviti (Move on)
• Spanish: Continúa (Move on)

References