The Ballad of Booth (Desperate Housewives)

"The Ballad of Booth" is the 133rd episode of the ABC television series, Desperate Housewives. It is the twenty-second episode of the show's sixth season and aired on May 9, 2010.

Plot

Angie's past continues to unravel as Patrick Logan holds her hostage in her own home. Patrick is keeping Angie handcuffed to her bed, and each night she dreams of her past. As a young woman she dropped out of college and joined a group of eco-terrorists, of whom Patrick was the leader. Angie fell in love with Patrick, and he used this to his advantage in order to get her to build a bomb. It is revealed that this is the bomb that killed the man Angie feels so guilty about, and also how she sustained the burns to her back. Now, Patrick wants her to build him another bomb. Gaby shows up at Angie’s wanting a recipe for lasagna and meets Patrick who introduces himself as Angie’s brother. Later, Patrick tricks Danny into returning home by sending him a message from Angie's phone. Patrick ties him up and tells him he wants to have a father/son relationship. He also uses the threat of killing Danny to get Angie to build the bomb. While she’s building the bomb, Gaby shows up with a pan of lasagna that she wants Angie to try. Angie takes it to get a piece and hides a note inside the pan. Gaby takes it back and throws it in the trash without finding the note. Gaby gets up in the middle of the night and finds Juanita and Celia eating the lasagna out of the trash and Celia spits out the note, which is actually still legible: "Danny and I held hostage. No cops. Get Nick".

Susan continues on her mission to sort out Mike's finances. She discovers that almost half of his clients haven’t settled their bills, so she decides she’s going to get them to pay up. At first Susan attempts to get the clients to pay up by making them feel sorry for her. However, when this doesn't work, Susan begins to threaten the clients into paying up, taking not only money, but possessions as payment for Mike's work. She gets the money but there’s more bad news – the IRS is knocking on the door. Susan tries to bully the IRS agent, but gets more penalties instead of an extension. They decide to leave Wisteria Lane and rent out their house.

Orson, Bree and Andrew are brainstorming ways to get rid of Sam. Orson suggests that Andrew should seduce him. Since Orson feels he’d be useless in a fight, he suggests they pay Sam off. Bree gives him the check, but Sam tears it up when she tells him he’s not really part of the family. He also vaguely threatens her. In retaliation, Bree brings in a couple of retired police officers – big retired police officers to intimidate him, while having tea and scones. Sam tucks his tail and runs. Bree is quite proud of herself, but Sam’s not quite finished with her. He returns and tells Bree that at the dinner party Bree threw for Sam, apparently Danielle spilled the beans about how Andrew ran down Carlos’s mother, Juanita "Mama" Solis. Now Sam wants Bree to turn over her entire company to him or he’s going to tell his cop friends.

The police show up at the Scavo’s to tell them that Irina is dead. They want to talk to Preston about it and Eddie overhears from upstairs. Eddie decides to move out, telling Lynette he needs to be at home when his mom gets back from her “bender.” Lynette tells him how lucky his mom is to have a son like him. She hugs him and he laments about how different he might have been if she had been his mom. Preston is cleared by the police. While leaving the police station, Lynette overhears that the police found the body of Eddie's mother. Lynette goes to Eddie's house and Eddie tells her he just spoke to his mom. Lynette believes him at first, but then she figures it out. Eddie locks the door, holding Lynette as a hostage.

International titles

• Arabic: خفي (Covert)
• Macedonian: Балада за Бут
• Italian: Scelte sbagliate (Wrong choices)
• French: De très mauvais choix (Some bad choices)
• German: Entscheidungen (Decisions)

Notes

• Although credited, Dana Delany (Katherine Mayfair), Maiara Walsh (Ana Solis), Jeffrey Nordling (Nick Bolen), Joshua Logan Moore (Parker Scavo), Kendall Applegate (Penny Scavo), and Mason Vale Cotton (M.J. Delfino) do not appear in this episode. Andrea Bowen (Julie Mayer) and Kathryn Joosten (Karen McCluskey) are not credited and do not appear.
• The title of the episode is the title of a song from the Stephen Sondheim musical "Assassins".
• This is the third episode of the series to end with "To Be Continued..." The others were "I Remember That" and "A Spark. To Pierce the Dark.".
• This episode was watched by 11.36 million viewers. The ratings decreased because it was Mother's Day, and Desperate Housewives usually drops from the previous episode on Mother's Day.
• This is the third time someone has found out that Andrew ran over Carlos's mother and used it against Bree. The first was Betty Applewhite in "There's Something About a War". It is also the second time, the person obtained it either from or through Danielle as the second time she mentioned it to Bree's father and stepmother during the family quarrel in the episode "Don't Look at Me".
• In this episode Mary Alice talks about people who have no choices left.

References