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The story lines on Desperate Housewives are usually pretty bizarre. After all it is essentially a soap opera.
There was one story line that was kind of rubbing me the wrong way, until Sunday night’s episode. Warning: If you haven’t watched the episode yet and don’t want to know what happens, stop reading until you have watched it.
The character of Bree, played by Marcia Cross, was faking a pregnancy. Her daughter Danielle, played by Joy Lauren, was pregnant and Bree was planning to pass her grandchild off as her child since she didn’t want the scandal of a pregnant, unwed, teenager. It just smacked of the “old time” secrecy of adoption.
Bree and Danielle have a dysfunctional relationship, to put it lightly. However, early in the episode, Bree sat down and told Danielle that “giving up” her child might be harder than she thought. Danielle blew it off as no big deal saying that she hated the baby and couldn’t wait to get rid of it.
Fast forward to almost the end of the episode and the baby has been born. The ensuing scene with Bree, Danielle and the new baby was beautiful. These two talented actresses showed the pain of a young woman surrendering her child and the confusion of the new mother (in this case the biological grandmother) as to how to handle things between the child and the birth mother.
Bree asked Danielle whether she wanted to hold her child or not. At first she said no, but then decided to. As tears flowed down her face while holding her newborn child, as an adoptive mom I was cheering the scene. To show that placing a child is not an easy decision, and that even a teenage girl can not simply blow it off without feeling something. The statement that Danielle made was simple, but very appropriate. She simply said:
“You’re right. This sucks.”
Enough said.
She then handed the baby back to her mother and said that she was doing the right thing, and that she could not raise this baby. The ending shot was simply of a confused, heartbroken young girl sitting in her bed with tears streaming down her face and her mouth quivering.
I was glad to see that the reality of adoption was shown despite the other aspects of the story. That the silliness of fake bellies and trying to hide a pregnancy could be put aside to show this emotional and very real side.
Kudos to the writers of this episode.
I thought it was touching, too. I was irked about Danielle’s attitude before the baby was born, but I found the scene you described to be very powerful.
- Faith
I saw it too, and was very impressed with how the scene was handled!
I was hoping someone would post about this! I thought it was perfectly portrayed. The confusion, the pain, the not-knowing. For a generally flakey show (which I happen to love) I thought they did a great job with reality on this one.
Joy Lauren played the scene beautifully. I hope she receives some kind of credit or award for it. She said more in facial expressions and body language than she did with words. What a talented young woman.
Wow.
I really should catch up on this show.
I loooooooove this show and haven’t watched it in ages.