Season One — The Wisteria Lane Companion

All 23 Episodes

The Episode Guide

The Season Ledger

We keep a tidy tally, the way any good neighbor would. Here's what the season cost Wisteria Lane by the time the credits rolled.

Bodies dropped

Secrets spilled

3.5

Avg. casseroles

Pilot

Most scandalous

The Sondheim Scavenger Hunt

Marc Cherry named nearly every episode after a Stephen Sondheim song — with a few sneaky ringers from Cash, U2, Elvis and friends. Filter the season, or flip on guessing mode: each card hides its source and asks you to call it — Sondheim, ringer, or original — then tells you if you nailed it.

Mary Alice glides through a flawless final morning, then turns a gun on herself; at her wake, her four closest friends find a threatening note among her things, and Susan clocks the new plumber across the street.
“My name is Mary Alice Young. By the time you finish your coffee, I'll already be gone — and my neighbors will be very, very busy.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
Behind the Scenes: The slinky pink gown Gaby wears to mow her lawn became real-life legend — a teenage fan wrote in asking where to buy a knockoff for prom, so the show mailed her the actual dress. Listen closely, too: Ricardo Chavira played this entire pilot giving Carlos a Spanish accent, then re-recorded the lines in his own voice after his agent warned it'd be murder to sustain for years. (Catch the $15,000-necklace line — peak Carlos.)
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count1to date+1 here
Secrets spilled2to date+2 here
Casserole ratingCall the coroner
Gabrielle goes to elaborate lengths to hide her affair with John, Lynette tries tough love on her feral twins, Bree and Rex begin (disastrous) marriage counseling — and Susan's jealousy of Edie ends with a house on fire.
“Every woman on Wisteria Lane keeps a secret. The trick is never hiding it — it's smiling while you do.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: The title is a Sondheim number from Follies about the glittering surface and the mess just beneath it — the entire series in three words.
Spot the Guest: Watch for: John bolts out the Solises' living-room window and forgets his pants; moments later Carlos cheerfully waves at him trimming the hedges, none the wiser.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count1to date
Secrets spilled3to date+1 here
Casserole ratingFull-blown scandal
The women band together to throw the dinner party Mary Alice never got to host — and behind the smiles, Gaby gets blackmailed by a nosy nine-year-old, Bree nudges Rex toward marriage counseling, and Paul quietly hauls a mysterious toy chest out from under his pool.
“A perfect dinner party requires the right wine, the right china, and the absolute certainty that no one will say what they're really thinking.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: A sunny, deceptively cheerful tune from Sondheim's Forum — the perfect ironic gloss on a night of barely-contained catastrophe.
Spot the Guest: Susan's smarmy ex-husband Karl turns up to renegotiate the divorce terms — he's Richard Burgi, the lead on The Sentinel.
Behind the Scenes: Home to Susan's mortifying nude scene: locked out and stranded on the front lawn, she's forced to cover herself with nothing but a potted plant.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count1to date
Secrets spilled4to date+1 here
Casserole ratingTongues wagging
Mrs. Huber, having found Susan's melted measuring cup in the ashes of Edie's house, ramps up her blackmail; a suspicious Carlos, convinced Gaby is cheating, fingers the wrong man entirely — the cable guy.
“We spend our lives perfecting our reflections — and never notice the woman we used to be, waving back from the mirror.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: In Follies, “Who's That Woman?” is the famous “mirror number,” faded showgirls dancing opposite their younger selves — a neat echo of an episode steeped in looking back.
Behind the Scenes: A famous continuity slip: Mary Alice's blackmail note is badly crumpled in episode 2, but arrives smooth with a single neat crease when the women show it to Paul here. (It's also home to Bree's withering strip-club lecture to Andrew about “someone's little girl.”)
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count1to date
Secrets spilled5to date+1 here
Casserole ratingA little gossip
A break-in leaves the Lane rattled; a flustered Susan, feeling ignored by Mike, reluctantly accepts a date with a persistent cop, while Bree — kids away with Rex for the weekend — finds herself unexpectedly bonding with Zach.
“The most dangerous people are the ones who move in quietly. They always have the very best manners.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: One of the season's non-Sondheim titles (it's Johnny Cash), and it aired on Halloween night — fitting for the creepiest hour yet.
Spot the Guest: The Van de Kamps' deadpan marriage counselor, Dr. Goldfine, is Sam Lloyd — better known as Ted, the perpetually defeated a cappella lawyer on Scrubs.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count1to date
Secrets spilled6to date+1 here
Casserole ratingTongues wagging
Lynette goes to war with control-freak supermom Maisy Gibbons (Sharon Lawrence) over a “politically correct” school staging of Little Red Riding Hood; Susan digs into Zach's disappearance and discovers Paul has committed him to a mental institution; and Bree, mortified when Rex suggests hiring a sex surrogate, turns up at his hotel in a fur coat and little else.
“Mothers will fight any war for their children — especially the ones no one else can see.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: Another sneaky non-Sondheim title, this one borrowed from U2's The Joshua Tree.
Spot the Guest: The control-freak supermom Maisy Gibbons is Sharon Lawrence, best known from NYPD Blue.
Behind the Scenes: Bree's fur-coat-over-lingerie hotel ambush of Rex became one of Season 1's signature images.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count1to date
Secrets spilled7to date+1 here
Casserole ratingA little gossip
Mike's glamorous houseguest Kendra forces him to postpone the first date (Susan and Edie promptly tail them); meanwhile a drunk Andrew runs down Carlos's mother, Juanita, in a hit-and-run — moments after she snaps photos of Gaby and John.
“Competition is healthy, my neighbors believed — right up until someone ended up in the road.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: The title's a brassy Irving Berlin duet — jarringly chipper against one of the season's darkest turns, which is exactly the joke.
Spot the Guest: Mike's glamorous houseguest Kendra is played by Heather Stephens.
Behind the Scenes: Pure dark-comedy Wisteria: when a jogger collapses on Mrs. Huber's lawn, she drags him onto Bree's so the paramedics will trample Bree's grass instead.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count1to date
Secrets spilled8to date+1 here
Casserole ratingFull-blown scandal
As the Lane reels from the accident, Bree and Rex quietly cover for Andrew and Susan grows suspicious of Mike's real reason for moving in — while Paul, learning Martha Huber was the blackmailer who pushed his wife over the edge, kills her.
“Guilt is a stubborn houseguest. It never leaves quietly, and it always remembers where you buried things.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: Not Sondheim at all — “Guilty” is the Barry Gibb song made famous by Barbra Streisand's 1980 hit, another ringer hiding among the show tunes.
Spot the Guest: Easter egg: Mama Solis's hospital door reads “Sacred Heart” — the same fictional hospital as Scrubs, a sly nod to the Dr. Goldfine / Sam Lloyd cameo three episodes earlier.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count2to date+1 here
Secrets spilled10to date+2 here
Casserole ratingCall the coroner
Gabrielle stages a glamorous charity fashion show, Bree and Rex clash over how to punish Andrew, and Lynette spirals on the twins' ADHD medication — all while the police fish a toy chest with a skeleton inside out of the river, inching toward Paul's secret.
“Every mother reaches her breaking point. Some of us just find more creative ways to get there.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: Yes, that's the Elvis classic, not Sondheim.
Spot the Guest: Another Scrubs wink: Gaby's charity fashion show benefits “Sacred Heart,” the same fictional hospital from Mama Solis's door three episodes back.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count2to date
Secrets spilled11to date+1 here
Casserole ratingTongues wagging
Susan and Mike keep getting interrupted — partly because Julie is secretly harboring runaway Zach, and a spooked Susan brains Mike with a Thighmaster over the noises; Mike finds Zach and returns him to Paul, then tells Susan she can lean on him; meanwhile a wary Lynette nanny-cams her suspiciously perfect new sitter, Claire.
“A woman in love hears burglars in every floorboard. Sometimes the intruder is only the man who wants to take care of her.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: A rare non-Sondheim ringer: “Come Back to Me” is the brisk standard from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner — not Sondheim, despite the company it keeps here.
Behind the Scenes: Lynette installs a hidden nanny-cam on her suspiciously perfect new sitter, Claire — and is unnerved to find Claire is simply a better mother than she is.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count2to date
Secrets spilled12to date+1 here
Casserole ratingTongues wagging
Bree discovers Rex has been cheating — and he suffers a heart attack mid-affair; Mike tells Susan he loves her (cue overthinking); a suspicious Lynette secretly videotapes her nanny; and Martha Huber's abandoned car turns up in the woods, sending a search party in after her.
“We tell ourselves to move on. But the heart, like a good casserole, holds its shape long after it has gone cold.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: A Sondheim anthem about forcing yourself forward when you're stuck — from the same musical that lends its name to a later episode this very season.
Spot the Guest: First appearance of pharmacist George Williams — Roger Bart, a Tony winner for The Producers — who hands Bree Rex's medication and never quite leaves her orbit again.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count2to date
Secrets spilled14to date+2 here
Casserole ratingFull-blown scandal
Edie rallies the neighborhood to search for the vanished Mrs. Huber — just as Martha's flinty sister, Felicia Tilman, arrives on Wisteria Lane asking exactly the wrong questions.
“When a neighbor goes missing, we organize the search party. We rarely admit how curious we are about what she left behind.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: A bruising Sondheim ballad about quiet private heartbreak.
Spot the Guest: Martha's eagle-eyed sister Felicia is Harriet Sansom Harris — Frasier's gloriously scheming agent, Bebe Glazer.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count2to date
Secrets spilled15to date+1 here
Casserole ratingFull-blown scandal
Lynette's visiting father-in-law, Rodney (guest star Ryan O'Neal), lets slip that he's a serial cheater, leaving her sitting on a family secret; Rex angles to win Bree back while she plays hard to get, Susan frets over Julie's deepening crush on Zach, and John's parents beg Gabrielle to talk their newly-18 son into coming home.
“Children inherit more than their mothers' eyes. They inherit their mistakes — and the lies told to bury them.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: In Into the Woods, “Your Fault” is a frantic round of finger-pointing — a sly match for an episode where blame starts changing hands.
Spot the Guest: Lynette's philandering father-in-law Rodney is Ryan O'Neal of Love Story; John's parents are Kathryn Harrold and Mark Harelik.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count2to date
Secrets spilled16to date+1 here
Casserole ratingTongues wagging
It's Valentine's on the Lane, and Susan's romantic dinner with Mike goes sideways when he collapses from a gunshot wound he'd been hiding — a glaring crack in the secret life he keeps.
“Love arrives with flowers and chocolates. It rarely warns you about everything it is hiding in its coat.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
Also catalogued as: What I Did for Love (A Chorus Line)
From the Songbook: A delicious tangle: the broadcast title matches a John Paul Young disco hit, yet “Love Is in the Air” was also a Sondheim number cut from Forum (in favor of “Comedy Tonight”), while the alternate title borrows “What I Did for Love” from A Chorus Line.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count2to date
Secrets spilled17to date+1 here
Casserole ratingTongues wagging
Mike is arrested in the Huber case; Susan gives him a false alibi, then learns at the station that he's an ex-con who served five and a half years; John's friend Justin (Ryan Carnes) blackmails Gaby and installs himself as the new gardener; and Zach throws a pool party, chillingly telling Julie he knows where his mom kept her gun.
“We forgive the people we love their little lies. It's the big ones — the kind with prison sentences attached — that test us.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: Title fix: “Impossible” is a Sondheim song from Forum — the same show as episode 3 — not the Rodgers & Hammerstein Cinderella number it's often mistaken for.
Spot the Guest: John's blackmailing friend Justin, who installs himself as the new gardener, is Ryan Carnes — later of General Hospital and Doctor Who.
Behind the Scenes: Watch Zach's chilling finger-gun gesture and his line about knowing where his mom kept her gun — the seed planted here pays off in the finale's basement cliffhanger.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count2to date
Secrets spilled19to date+2 here
Casserole ratingFull-blown scandal
Maisy Gibbons is arrested for running a prostitution ring, and her little black book of clients — Rex included — threatens to torch reputations up and down the Lane; Carlos comes home under house arrest; and Felicia, spotting a photo, tells Paul she knew his wife back when she went by “Angela.”
“We lunch, we gossip, we confess. And somewhere over dessert, we decide which of us to forgive.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: Sondheim's acid toast to bored, boozy society wives — immortalized by Elaine Stritch — and a title that could double as the show's mission statement.
Spot the Guest: The newspaper-stealing busybody Ida Greenberg is veteran character actress Pat Crawford Brown.
Behind the Scenes: The last episode in which Mary Alice appears alive in the present-day timeline — from here on she's confined to flashbacks and dreams.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count2to date
Secrets spilled21to date+2 here
Casserole ratingFull-blown scandal
Mama Solis finally wakes from her five-month coma, desperate to expose Gaby's affair — only to die in a staircase fall after a headphone-wearing nurse can't hear her warning; Carlos stages a lavish funeral (horse-drawn carriage, marble crypt) that Gaby resents, while an expelled Andrew gets shipped off to deprogramming camp.
“A secret held until the very last breath is the safest kind of all. The grave keeps better confidences than any friend.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: A cut-then-restored gem from Anyone Can Whistle, one of Sondheim's legendary Broadway flops and a hardcore fan favorite — exactly the kind of deep pull Cherry loved.
Spot the Guest: Easter egg: when Bree orders Andrew to take out the trash, he's slumped in front of the TV watching the pilot of Lost.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count3to date+1 here
Secrets spilled22to date+1 here
Casserole ratingFull-blown scandal
Susan's needy, neurotic mother, Sophie, descends after splitting with her boyfriend; Gaby weathers Carlos's wrath over a hidden hospital settlement and refuses to redo their prenup; Bree babysits and spanks Lynette's son, straining the friendship; and Felicia lures Zach with banana bread, revealing he was born “Dana.”
“Be careful what you say in a quiet house. Children are always listening — and they never forget.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: The haunting Into the Woods warning about everything kids quietly absorb from the adults around them.
Spot the Guest: Sophie is Lesley Ann Warren, and her on-again-off-again beau Morty is Bob Newhart.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count3to date
Secrets spilled24to date+2 here
Casserole ratingTongues wagging
Lynette's good deed backfires when she revives her collapsed nemesis Mrs. McCluskey and gets saddled with the old woman's prickly “gratitude”; Sophie tries to jump-start both her and Susan's love lives; and Bree drags her newly-out son Andrew to a conversion-minded reverend — a dinner that detonates when she announces Rex's S&M habits at the table.
“Loneliness is a house with too many rooms. Some women fill them with hobbies; others fill them with strangers.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: The title is a Sondheim song from the Dick Tracy (1990) film score — an easy one to mistake for a non-show-tune ringer.
Spot the Guest: A big Mrs. McCluskey hour for Kathryn Joosten, who'd win an Emmy for the role — and who'd already played Mrs. Landingham on The West Wing.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count3to date
Secrets spilled25to date+1 here
Casserole ratingTongues wagging
Gabrielle throws a farewell bash before Carlos begins an eight-month prison term — then learns she's pregnant after he tampered with her birth control; pharmacist George (Roger Bart) wedges between Bree and Rex; Tom's old flame Annabel turns up at his firm; and a fire in Susan's kitchen (secretly set by an unraveling Zach) sends her to private eye Mr. Shaw.
“We build our lives like fortresses, then wonder why we feel like prisoners inside them.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: A genuine Sondheim deep cut — from The Frogs, with lyrics adapted from Shakespeare's Cymbeline, first staged, literally, in a Yale swimming pool.
Spot the Guest: The private eye Susan hires, Mr. Shaw, is Richard Roundtree — the original Shaft.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count3to date
Secrets spilled27to date+2 here
Casserole ratingTongues wagging
George worms deeper into Bree's life and she starts to feel guilty; Mr. Shaw lies to Susan about the Youngs but confirms Mike isn't the villain his file suggests; and Felicia makes her move against Paul.
“Obsession always looks a great deal like devotion — until you notice it never blinks.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: Named outright for Sondheim's Pulitzer Prize–winning musical about an artist and the price of his obsession.
Behind the Scenes: The only Season 1 title to name a whole Sondheim musical rather than a single song — and that musical's number “Finishing the Hat” would later become the title of the series finale. Richard Roundtree's Mr. Shaw recurs here.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count3to date
Secrets spilled28to date+1 here
Casserole ratingTongues wagging
Susan and Mike decide to move in together, to Edie's fury — she schemes to split them using Susan's own friends; Lynette's maneuvering to keep Tom's old flame at bay backfires and costs Tom his job; and Martha Huber's journal lands in Susan and Julie's hands.
“Goodbyes on Wisteria Lane are never simple. We are far too good at pretending we'll see each other again.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
From the Songbook: A rare Sondheim film song, written for Warren Beatty's 1981 epic Reds.
Spot the Guest: Tom's resurfaced old flame Annabel Foster is Melinda McGraw — Mad Men's Bobbie Barrett.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count3to date
Secrets spilled30to date+2 here
Casserole ratingFull-blown scandal
Rex dies of a heart attack still believing Bree poisoned him (it was the pharmacist's doing); Carlos learns of the affair and vows revenge as he's hauled to prison; and Mike drives Paul to a desert quarry to kill him for Deirdre's death — only to hear the whole truth, spare him, and come home to find Zach holding Susan at gunpoint.
“In the end, every secret on this street came home. Mine had been waiting in a toy chest all along.”
Mary Alice Young — narrating from beyond
Behind the Scenes: More than 30 million people tuned in — the season's largest audience and the highest-rated episode the series would ever air. The big reveal: fifteen years earlier, a woman calling herself “Angela Forrest” bought ten-month-old baby Dana from a desperate young addict named Deirdre, then renamed her whole family and vanished to Fairview as Mary Alice Young.
The Wisteria Lane Ledger
Body count4to date+1 here
Secrets spilled33to date+3 here
Casserole ratingCall the coroner