Review: Desperate Housewives S06E16 - The Chase

With this episode, Desperate Housewives continued with it's new storylines and kept it's pace while also finding the time to give recurring roles some well deserved attention.

This week, the housewives are confronted with children who run away, feelings they have to act upon and new arrivals on the lane that have ulterior motives. Whereas last week focused on newbie Robin and her place in the group, this week added Sam, a big shot from the business world who can mean no good for Bree and her company. Are we looking at a possible new stalker? And exactly what does Robin want with Katherine? For that question, the episode gives a lot of answers, none of which are satisfying. Sure, Katherine herself doesn't shy away from asking questions about sexuality, but it doesn't mean the viewer is as accepting as she is. Do we really have to buy into this new relationship?

As for character development for sidecharacters, the episode gave some long awaited depth to the gay-couple on the street, who's names still aren't in this fan's memory, even though the storyline focused on Gaby who relived her party days. It's always a pleasure to see her this way, since this was the Gaby we once fell for. But after so many years, does it really take two neighbors before she realizes what she got is what she really wants?

In that fashion, this week's storylines continued. Nothing new, nothing original, but all entertaining in some way. Lynette and Tom forgot Polly's, I mean, Penny's birthday and the little girl sees the most attention in one episode since her baby-days. Meanwhile, Susan pries in on Karen and her relationship with Roy, which gives Karen an unexpected storyline that quickly becomes very, very interesting.

All in all the episode is as funny and developing as any, but it can't avoid feeling like a filler. The little progress we got on the Bolen's is barely enough to feed from, and even though secondary characters got stories and background, there is a huge chance these won't get any following until next month. But better to have some, than none at all...