Art Isn't Easy

"Art Isn't Easy"
Desperate Housewives episode
The women look at Bob and Lee’s sculpture.
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 5
Directed by	David Grossman
Written by	Jason Ganzel
Production code	405
Original air date	October 28, 2007 (2007-10-28)
Guest appearances
Nathan Fillion as Adam Mayfair Kathryn Joosten as Karen McCluskey Tuc Watkins as Bob Hunter Kevin Rahm as Lee McDermott Shirley Knight as Phyllis Van De Kamp Jesse Metcalfe as John Rowland Michelle Pierce as Tammy Sinclair-Rowland Pat Crawford Brown as Ida Greenberg as Investigator as Brett
Episode chronology
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Desperate Housewives (season 4)
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“Art Isn't Easy” is the 75th episode of the ABC television series, Desperate Housewives. It is the fifth episode of the show’s fourth season and aired on October 28, 2007, in the United States.

Plot[]

The new neighbors of Wisteria Lane, Bob and Lee, install a sculpture in their front yard and the rest of the neighbors declare it an eyesore except for Susan, who is still trying to get on their good side.^[1] But even she has to object when its true function is revealed early the next morning: It is a water fountain, and a noisy one at that.^[2] She asks them to move it to the backyard and they refuse, claiming they need it to cover all the noise coming from her house.^[3]

Katherine Mayfair decides to run for president of the homeowner’s association, which has languished since the death of its former president, Mary Alice Young. Bob and Lee try to get Lynette Scavo on their side and she only agrees after they convince her that Katherine will object to her kids’ treehouse. When Katherine will not promise her that the treehouse will be spared, Lynette decides to run against her. Lynette expects Susan to vote for her, but she remains firmly anti-fountain. The vote comes down to a tie (as Susan voted for both Katherine and Lynette), but Edie Britt points out that Susan voted twice. Susan reluctantly puts in her vote for Katherine. A triumphant Katherine informs Bob and Lee, and Lynette, that she will be in touch regarding their infractions. Her husband Adam though refuses to congratulate Katherine on her victory, reminding her that she has not exactly made any friends since they moved to Wisteria Lane, and that if she remembers what “incident” happened in Chicago, friends can be very handy.

Bree Hodge is furious when she finds out that her husband’s mother Phyllis Van De Kamp has taken Danielle out of the convent. Danielle refuses to go back – she wants to deliver the baby at her grandmother’s retirement village. Bree is certain Phyllis has had a hand in helping Danielle with her decision to raise the baby herself. Bree admits defeat, convinced it is just Danielle’s maternal instinct finally kicking in, until her son Andrew points out that his grandmother is giving Danielle a cushier life than Bree’s plan of making her attend community college. He tells Bree she is going to have to outbid Phyllis if she wants the baby. Bree and her husband Orson tell Danielle how proud they are that she is raising the baby on her own, instead of going to that “party school” in Florida, the one they no longer have any objections to her attending. Once they mention the convertible they were going to give her, and how Phyllis is not in the best health, Danielle agrees to let Bree raise the baby after all. Bree promises a heartbroken Phyllis that she will ask her to babysit.

Carlos Solis tells his fiancée Edie, he is going off on a golfing weekend with the guys when he is really sneaking away to meet his ex-wife Gabrielle. Gabrielle is just about to leave her home when she notices that a cable van has been parked across the street for an unusually long time. Guessing that her husband Victor Lang has hired someone to tail her, she sneaks out of her house in disguise.

She arrives at the hotel for her rendezvous with Carlos and runs into her former gardener John Rowland, with whom she had a secret affair during her marriage with Carlos, and his hotel heiress wife, who is pregnant and puts John down at every turn. Carlos is less than pleased when John comes knocking on Gabrielle’s hotel room door that night, but she convinces him to hide, since John’s father-in-law is a friend of Victor’s. John tells her he wants to restart their affair. With Carlos listening to every word, John reminds her of the time she faked an orgasm with Carlos when John was hiding in the closet. She firmly tells John she is not interested and sees him out the door. Carlos is furious but Gabrielle points out that he is the man hiding in the closet now. Carlos tells Gabrielle it is time they ended the affair. He wants them to do this right by breaking up with their respective partners before getting back together. She agrees, and gives him a kiss to last for the next six months. Unfortunately, that is the kiss that is photographed by the man tailing her.

Susan promises Lynette that she will chain herself to the treehouse rather than let Katherine knock it down and Lynette confesses why it means so much: It is the one place her boys can be children and not have to hear about her cancer. Just then Katherine comes over and tells her the treehouse can stay. Lynette is puzzled, but happy. When Katherine tells Bob and Lee the fountain has got to go, they counter by telling they know “all about Chicago”, hinting at the scandal that forced her and Adam to leave town.

Edie is shown admitting to someone offscreen that she had always avoided falling in love, and now that she has, she has been hurt. The screen pulls back to show the agent, revealing the man was not working for Victor, but for Edie.

Notes[]

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• This episode attracted 18.28 million viewers in its original US airing.
• Although credited, Julie Mayer (Andrea Bowen) and Dylan Mayfair (Lyndsy Fonseca) do not appear in this episode.
• A total of 13.7 million viewers tuned into this episode in the UL finishing 6th in weekly ratings.
• A total of 2.5 million viewers tuned into this episode on its broadcast on Channel 4 positioning it in 5th place. This is a rise of 12,000 viewers since last week. The second time viewing figures have risen this season. The date this episode went out was 23 April 2008. Figures had risen 5% from the previous episode.

Awards notes[]

• Kevin Rahm and Tuc Watkins submitted this episode for consideration of their work for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards.^[4]

Title reference[]

• The episode title “Art Isn't Easy” is taken from the song "Putting It Together" from Stephen Sondheim's musical Sunday in the Park with George.

References[]