The Thing That Counts Is What's Inside

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"The Thing That Counts Is What's Inside" is the 138th episode of the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. It is the fourth episode of the show's seventh season and was broadcast on October 17, 2010.

Plot[]

Carlos and Gaby meet the family who raised their biological daughter Grace. Their personalities and looks are astonishingly similar. Both families agree not to tell the girls about what happened and agree on making monthly family visits. We see that Grace is very well taught on how to behave, but Juanita is not. Grace falls in love with Gaby's Chanel purse, so Gaby wants to give her one, but Juanita's real mother, Carmen Sanchez, doesn't accept it. She tells Gaby that Grace is not spoiled and is a modest child. Gaby opens up to Carlos about her argument with Carmen, during which he tells Gaby that she better not drive their daughter's family away because they might take her and never come back. A few days later, when the Sanchez family is at the Solis home, Gaby gives Grace a necklace that she bought at the beginning of her modeling years. The mother and daughter agree to keep that as a secret.

Maxine tells Susan that she has sold her business, and the new investors' plan for expansion is heavy marketing in the United States. She tells Susan she has about a month left before their adverstising campaign begins and her activities could be exposed to friends and family. However, the next day while driving, Susan sees that a "Va-Va-Va-Broom!" billboard is being hung with a screen-capture of her on it. Panicked, she managed to rip down the segment with her face and goes crying to Maxine. Maxine makes a phone call to her new business partners just to find out that Susan must pay them $9,000 for the cost of the billboards if she doesn't want them displayed. Susan is very worried, but Maxine comforts her with telling that "Va-Va-Va-Broom!" also offers jobs that cross Susan's boundaries, meaning that they involve nudity and maybe pornography. Desperate for help, Susan accepts her offer. Later, a mysterious man, whose face isn't shown, is seen taking the ripped billboard out of the trash and leaving.

Penny offers to take care of Paige after seeing that Lynette is very busy and needs help. Lynette takes advantage of Penny's help and one day she goes jogging while she leaves Paige to Penny even though Penny told her that she has a test that day and must hurry to catch the school bus. Later, Lynette arrives at home and finds no one in it, so she hurries to Penny's school where she is called to the principal. The principal tells her that Penny even took the baby monitor before she went to sleep and got up earlier to feed her baby sister, and as a result she is exhausted. Lynette talks to Penny and finds out that she loves it when Lynette spends more time with her, so she tells Tom to hire a nanny so she can be the mom she used to be.

Renee ruins Bree's date with Keith by calling Danielle with her son Benjamin, Bree's grandson, to come visit Bree, just so Keith would find out that Bree is a grandmother. Anxious to take her revenge, she discovers from Lynette that Renee is terrified of little people after a circus incident in her childhood. While Renee is on her date with Keith in a fancy restaurant, Bree hires her friend from church, who is a dwarf, to get closer to Renee, and when he does, she gets hysterical. Bree is in the restaurant, and after hearing Renee's scream, she is satisfied. After another argument, Renee lets go of Keith and tells Bree that she can have him. To show her appreciation, Bree buys her a little gift.

Paul Young buys his old house on Wisteria Lane, in which he used to live with Mary Alice Young, his ex-wife, and their adopted son, Zach Young. He also shows interest in buying Karen McCluskey's house, telling her that she is old and may die soon, so she'd better sell her house now. Karen is angry at him and tells Beth about it. Beth, who agreed with Paul that there would not be anymore secrets between them, asks Paul if he talked to any of the neighbors and his answer is negative. Confused, Beth wonders what Paul is doing.

Reception[]

On its original broadcast on ABC, the episode scored 12.669 million of viewers and achieved a 3.9 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic.^[1] With the DVR Rating, this episode is up 1.8 in million of viewers (rising to a total of 14.5 million of viewers) and it's up 0.9 in the adults 18-49 demographic (rising to a total of a 4.8 rating).^[2]

Notes[]

• The title comes from the lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim for the song "Ah, But Underneath" which is in the musical Follies.
• Tuc Watkins (Bob Hunter), Charlie Carver (Porter Scavo), Joshua Logan Moore (Parker Scavo), and Mason Vale Cotton (M.J. Delfino) do not appear and are not credited.

International titles[]

• Arabic: الأشياء داخل (Things that are Inside)
• Finnish: Käsilaukun lumo (The Glory of a Handbag)
• German: Die Handtasche einer Frau (The handbag of a woman)
• Italian: La borsa dei desideri (The purse of desires)
• Spanish: Lo que cuenta es lo que esta adentro (The thing that counts is what's inside)
• French: Le sac à main (The handbag)
• Japanese:二人の娘 (Daughters)

References[]