You Gotta Get a Gimmick

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"You Gotta Get a Gimmick" is the 123rd episode of the ABC television series, Desperate Housewives. It is the twelfth episode of the show's sixth season and aired on January 10, 2010.

Plot[]

After his death, Karl leaves an interest in a strip club to Susan and she's astonished to find that Mike is a regular customer. Even though he is only there to work on the plumbing, she forbids him from ever going back. He bristles at being told what to do, so Susan decides to do her own strip routine after summoning Mike to the club for a bogus job. When he sees other men trying to slip dollars into her bra, he gets her point.

Gabrielle and Carlos can't thank Lynette enough for saving Celia's life. Since they're going to keep paying Lynette her salary until after she has the baby, Tom suggests that he fill in for Lynette. Lynette hates the idea. She is even more upset when Tom does a spectacular job and when she learns that he expects her to stay home with the baby when it comes. Tom honestly thought that was what she would want because they had lost the other twin, making this baby all the more precious. Lynette admits that the thought of only seeing one when there should be two terrifies her and she will need to go back to work. He tries to get her to talk about their loss but she says that just make things worse. Tom finally agrees to step down after the baby is born and takes a bottle of wine and drinks it on the porch alone.

Bree is trying to atone for her sins, so her priest tells her to take Orson back in, now that he's paralyzed. Orson's response: "I'd rather be helped by a flatulent helper monkey." Bree whisks Orson back home anyway. He refuses to talk to her at first but then he realizes he can get his revenge by making her wait on him hand and foot, including an indulgent dessert he knows will take Bree over an hour to make. When Bree protests he simply wheels himself out slightly and comments that he cannot do it himself. Bree makes the crème brulée without further comment.

Julie plans to leave town, as Karl has left her a substantial amount of money in his will, and she wants to visit with cousins on the East coast, "Until they catch the guy who attacked me, I just don't feel safe here," she tells Danny. She asks Danny about his suicide attempt and he assures her, "I'm better now." Ana convinces her she's serious about Danny, so Julie helps try to get them together. Danny shows no interest until Ana bluntly refers to his overdose as a "stupid stunt." He tells her he likes her better when she's blunt.

Gabrielle is thrilled when Juanita is accepted into the prestigious private school where Susan works. The director says he's happy to have a Mexican student. Juanita blurts out, 'I'm Mexican? So we're like those people who sell oranges on the side of the road?" Carlos decides it's time to instill some ethnic pride and votes for Juanita to go to a public school with more Latinos. Gaby doesn't want her going to school with "those people" and Carlos accuses Gabrielle of being ashamed of being Mexican. She admits that, because of her upbringing, she equated being Mexican with being poor. Gaby explains her father worked hard and always promised them a better house but died trying, and she does not want her daughters to know that she used to live like that. As they gaze at a photo of her with her proud papa, Carlos tells her, "Whatever dreams my kids achieve, they should know it started on the shoulders of a strong, proud, Mexican man."

Notes[]

• Although credited, Dana Delany (Katherine Mayfair), Drea de Matteo (Angie Bolen), Jeffrey Nordling (Nick Bolen), Kendall Applegate (Penny Scavo), Mason Vale Cotton (M.J. Delfino), and Daniella Baltodano (Celia Solis) do not appear in this episode.
• Maiara Walsh (Ana Solis) returns in this episode, with the introduction of a new storyline after 7 episodes without one. After "The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues", she was absent for 4 episodes, appeared very briefly in "Would I Think of Suicide?", and was absent for two more episodes after that.
• Shawn Pyfrom (Andrew Van de Kamp) makes his second guest appearance for Season Six, although it is a non-speaking cameo.
• Karl's son, Evan, was not there when his will was being read, nor was he there at the funeral or even mentioned either time.
• Karl's second ex-wife Marissa is there and not mentioned at all as well. It is most likely because Marissa left Karl and they never spoke again. Now with Karl dead, Evan was probably sent to live with his mother Marissa or a relative.
• The episode's title takes its name from Stephen Sondheim and Jule Styne's hit song of the same name which features in the Broadway musical Gypsy.
• The scene of Teri Hatcher stripping in the strip club was shot on December 8, 2009, Hatcher's 45th birthday. The shoot took place at Spearmint Rhino strip club. Hatcher said that she was comfortable with the outfit she wore, part of which came from Trashy Lingerie. Hatcher asked her former teacher, Sheila Kelley, to help her choreograph the routine. Shelia runs a company called, "S Factor", which is a business that trains women the art of stripping for exercise purposes. Hatcher said that it has been four years since she took classes from Sheila.
• While Hatcher was filming her stripping scene she broke a rib she had previously injured in a fall: "We were rehearsing and I injured my rib under my breast. Two weeks earlier I'd fallen off a ladder while I was building a set for my daughter's birthday party... I fell off the ladder and I really hurt myself but I hurt other areas of myself more than I realised I'd hurt my rib, so then two weeks later when I went to go do this pole move, we were shooting it and went to pull myself upside down on this pole and my rib actually cracked (and) broke. And then we had to keep shooting for another six hours. (But) I'm all healed now".
• During Lynette and Tom's fight, it is revealed that their unborn baby will be female.
• The picture Gabrielle looks at suggests that she has siblings. A brother and a sister. The photograph also gives us our first glimpse of Gabrielle's late father.

International titles[]

• Italian: Maschere (Masks)
• German: Alles Fassade (All facade)
• French: Le strip-tease (Strip-tease)
• Arabic: أسوأ أعمال (Worst Acts)
• Hungarian: A látszat csal (Impressions Lie)