When neighbourhood handyman, Eli Scruggs (guest star Beau Bridges), passes away, the residents of Wisteria Lane come to realize just how much he affected their lives. Gaby recalls how Eli helped her make new friends when she moved in. Lynette remembers how he came to her aide when she was overwhelmed and neglected Penny. Susan reflects on how he was always there for her as a shoulder to cry on each time a man walked out of her life. Edie looks back on their special friendship. And Bree thinks fondly of how a small gesture he once made helped get her to where she is today.
Narrative
The narrative for this episode is very interesting because it is mostly flashbacks. The residents of Wisteria Lane learn of the death of their handyman, and they spend the day planning his funeral. While they are doing this, we are shown flashbacks of how he affected each of their lives, and this affects how they react when planning his funeral. For example, the girls ask Bree what she is going to make (foodwise) for the funeral, and at first she can't think of what to choose from her cookbook, but then she remembers Eli saving her recipes and saying the Cajun Chicken recipe was his favourite meal ever, and then it flashes back to Bree smiling to herself, saying "I know exactly what I'm going to make".
This episode was really sweet and made me cry TWICE! In terms of the general narrative, it could have been positioned anywhere in the series, but since it was the 100th episode, they decided to schedule it here. This episode is an anomaly in terms of narrative because its storyline doesn't really relate to the rest of the series, but it is a nice ornament. It uses Todorov's classic narrative pattern; it starts with an equilibrium, normal day, Susan gets Eli to fix her roof. Then there is the disruption: Eli has a heart attack on the roof and dies, and the women try to organise his funeral. The solution comes in the flashbacks, showing how Eli's help and advice gave them the answers as to what to do for his funeral. The end of his funeral brings a new equilibrium as Eli sits in heaven "smiling" down on everyone, as said by Mary Alice (narrator).
Levi-Strauss's theory of binary opposites is quite apparent in Desperate Housewives as a whole, with Dave being the evil one, and the others being good (mostly), however in this episode there are some subtler opposites. Eli is the helper of the suburb, and the women are the helpees (they need help), so the two fit together quite nicely, but are different. There is lots of police intervention, especially recently with Porter getting arrested, and they represent the good, with Porter being the bad, however because we have watched Porter grow up, we see him as the good, and the police as the bad. Porter didn't actually commit the crime, however he was intending on killing the guy anyway...
Propp's theory isn't really used because there are too many characters that are quite similar, and not very distinct character types.
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