Desperate Housewives: The Complete Fifth Season starts off with five years having passed since we last saw the ladies of Wisteria Lane. Gabby (Eva Longoria), the once glamorous former model, has transformed into a dumpy housewife with two portly little girls. She and Carlos have fallen on hard times since he went blind last season and Gabby has done everything she can to keep the house and stay afloat. However, the pair has some interesting experiences as Carlos' "magic hands" gain him a position as the masseur at the country club. When one older client gets a little too possessive, Gabby has to put a stop to it. Fortunately, Carlos eventually regains his sight and also his old job, and he and Gabby are soon rich once again. But when Gabby spots his boss in an affair and is able to use this info for more money and leverage, it turns out to be more than she bargained for.

Bree Van de Kamp (Marcia Cross) now has a hugely successful catering business and has become a published author, with her cookbook getting rave reviews. Her business partner, Katherine Mayfair (Dana Delany), is treated more like an employee by Bree and she has great resentment over Bree's success and subsequent disregard for her position. As Bree's success grows, Orson (Kyle MacLachlan) feels like less of a man because he can't find a job, being an ex-con. He soon insists that Bree fire Katherine and make him her partner, but they come to an amicable agreement and he becomes part of the business while Katherine remains as well. Sadly, Bree remains as demanding as ever and the only control Orson feels he has comes in the form of kleptomania, which is hysterical to see as Bree scrambles to return her friends' trinkets. Eventually, Bree seeks the legal advice of Susan's ex-husband, Evan Mayer, so that she can divorce Orson and screw him out of everything. She even resorts to robbing her own home, which comes back to bite her later.

Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher) has found love in the form of her handsome house painter, Jackson Braddock (Gale Harold). But for Susan, love is always elusive and as Jackson wants to turn things permanent, she gets scared of the commitment. They are on-again/off-again throughout the season until he drops a bombshell on her in the form of a wedding proposal... to save himself from being deported. Mike Delfino (James Denton), her ex-husband, finds a little romance of his own as he and Katherine embark on a relationship, but is he still hung up on Susan? When Susan and Jackson decide to get married (but keep the "fake" part of the marriage a secret), Mike proposes to Katherine. But fate always steps in.

Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan) is back with a vengeance and returns to Wisteria with her new husband, Dave Williams (Neal McDonough). He becomes the "perfect" neighbor and friend, helpful to all. But what the folks of Wisteria Lane don't realize is that Dave has a secret agenda that becomes the focal point of the entire season. It seems he is out for revenge for the murder of his wife and child by Mike Delfino in a fateful car crash that happened three years before and was the main cause of Susan and Mike's split. Dave spends a lot of time getting close to Mike, even going so far as to put together a garage band with the addition of Carlos and Tom. Of course, Dave is only one step ahead of his psychiatrist, who tracks him down forcing Dave to strike out by causing a deadly fire in a club as the band is playing. Nosy neighbor Karen McCluskey (Kathryn Joosten) suspects Dave as being a little too perfect from the start and she and Dave have constant verbal spars. She enlists the aid of her drunken sister Roberta (played hilariously by Lily Tomlin) to help her dig up the dirt on Dave. As Dave's web of lies slowly closes in on him and Edie gets closer to discovering the truth, his plans are foiled and then reinvented over and over. In the end, his revenge ends up costing someone on Wisteria Lane their life and I was really surprised by who it was.

Finally, Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman) and husband Tom (Doug Savant) are struggling with financial hardships as the economic downturn has greatly affected their business. However, it's interesting to see her kids as pre-teens and teens instead of the youngsters we've grown accustomed to seeing. Boy, have the twins grown up. Porter (Charles Carver) is so grown up that he is having an affair with his best friend's hot mom! Unfortunately, wires get crossed and Lynette thinks Tom is having the affair. Sparks fly. Porter is later arrested for the fire Dave starts and this throws Lynette and Tom into further economic catastrophe, forcing the closure of Scavo's Pizza. But that's okay because Lynette goes back to work in marketing at Carlos' company - mainly so Gabby can have her spy on an old flame of Carlos' that is now his right-hand man. Things are going just fine until Lynette starts to feel sick again and fears that the cancer is back. Well, let's just say that her "condition" isn't fatal, but she almost wishes it were.

The most touching episode in the whole season happens to be the 100th episode and this is no coincidence. Here, we meet the Wisteria Lane handyman, Eli Scruggs (Beau Bridges), who announces his retirement and dies the same day, on Susan's roof. As the girls mourn Eli in their own way, they reflect on what he meant to them and it's a great way to see some backstory on everyone, since I only came into the show starting with Season 4. I really enjoyed this episode because it had a decent amount of screen time for Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong), the voice of Desperate Housewives. It's good stuff.

Lastly, there are a nice selection of special features including deleted scenes, bloopers, a featurette on Marc Cherry's (the director) favorite scenes, a featurette on Teri Hatcher, audio commentaries, and one on a typical table read. I really liked the featurette on the 100th episode because it brought old and new actors from the show together to celebrate. What I found odd is that Nicollette Sheridan didn't provide any snippets in any of the featurettes and I think she was even blurred out at the table read. Odd indeed.

If you are a fan of the show, you'll want to continue to see how the lives of these complicated, devious and funny ladies play out. While I don't think that this season is quite as strong as last season, it's still quite enjoyable and fun and the acting is as great as ever. Recommended.

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