- Local handyman Eli Scruggs dies from a heart attack on his last day of work and the housewives remember moments when he affected their lives.
- When a neighborhood handyman, named Eli Scruggs, suddenly passes from a heart attack away one day before his retirement, the residents of Wisteria Lane come to realize just how much he affected their lives. Gabrielle recalls how Eli helped her make new friends when she first moved in, including her friendship with the late Mary Alice Young. Lynette remembers how Eli came to her aide when she was overwhelmed in raising her four wild kids, and as a result, neglected Penny. Susan remembers on how he repeatably helped her stay sane and was always there for her as a shoulder to cry on each time a man walked out of her life and was the only man who accepted her slightly-insane and neurotic personalty. Edie looks back on their "special friendship" she had with Eli at numerous times. Finally, Bree thinks fondly of how a small gesture Eli once made that helped get her to where she is today.—matt-282
- "Desperate Housewives" - "The Best Thing That Ever Could Have Happened" - Jan. 18, 2009
Mary Alice tells us about Eli Scruggs the local handyman as we see him onscreen get out of his truck and fix things in various homes around Wisteria Lane. (He's played by Beau Bridges.) McCluskey approaches him as he climbs a ladder. She's mad he's retiring. Once he's done fixing Susan's roof he's going to Hawaii he says. McCluskey yells at him and wonders who will fix up things in her house now. She wants to throw him a goodbye party and says that others would want to too. He declines saying he wants to go quietly but accepts her praise graciously. He then climbs Susan's roof, finishes the job, and has a heart attack and dies.
Mary Alice tells us it took an hour to find the body and it was found by Juanita. Susan comes home to see emergency vehicles and neighbors near her house. The EMTs can't figure out how to bring the body down. Mary Alice then tells us it took two days for the ladies to realize the tragedy affected them more than they realized.
At a poker game they talk about Eli's funeral and to make sure he's got flowers since he didn't have much family.
Gaby goes into a flashback where she's getting Jimmy Choo shoes from Carlos. (Eli is working in the background on the sink). Carlos is bribing her because he's going on another business trip. They argue. He asks if they can't argue in front of the handyman. She says he has a name and then asks it and then complains Carlos has brought her to a place where people are named Eli Scruggs. She says she's bored and that the neighbors are boring. He says fine he'll give up his job and everything that comes with it and tries to grab the shoes back. Gaby relents and Carlos leaves.
Eli approaches Gaby saying although it's none of his business, the ladies in the neighborhood are actually very nice. He says he can talk to them about letting Gaby host their weekly poker game.
The ladies- Susan, Lynette, Mary Alice, and Bree - arrive for the game. Gaby makes a grand entrance in couture and proceeds to spend the game bragging about her model escapades - yachting with Bon Jovi, vodka shots with Kate Moss. She says she's lived inf Fairview in a month and wants to put her gun to her head since there's nothing to do. Lynette offers kids' soccer, Mary Alice the drama club, Bree, church, at which Gaby laughs. Susan says it is quiet but that Gaby will find a real charm to the place. But, Gaby says, she was a top tier fashion model and going from vodka shots with Kate Moss to international coffee with this group might not cut it. The ladies are not impressed.
Eli comes by the Solis house with a bill and to inform her that the ladies thought she was a stuck-up, obnoxious bitch. He wonders why she didn't ask about their lives. She says their lives are boring. He tells her she's hard to like and will be lonely in this big house if she doesn't drop the attitude.
We cut to Gaby bringing muffins to Lynette, where the poker game is going on without her. She apologizes for her horrible first impression. She explains herself better this time and basically teafully asks for friends. Bree says "now that's how you make an entrance." We cut back to a meditative Gaby at the current poker game saying she will buy the flowers for the funeral.
The game continues and they start talking about the kind of food they should have after Eli's funeral, which means Bree of course. Bree asks Gaby for her copy of Bree's cookbook. The cookbook is being used to balance her table to Bree's consternation. Bree looks at her cookbook and goes into flashback.
She's eating breakfast with Rex, Lynette, and Tom. She fights with Rex about getting a new stove. He suggests Bree get a job. Bree says she has a job as a homemaker and he underestimates how difficult that is. (Lynette is pregnant and miserable and she and Tom back and forth about her lack of cooking skills and his lack of ability to keep from getting her pregnant).
A little while later in the Van de Kamp kitchen, where Eli is working under the sink, Rex asks Bree to make dinner. She tells him to warm up some leftovers. He wonders since when they have leftovers. She replies since she started working on a cookbook. He suggests that's what all bored housewives too. She says it will be more than a cookbook but include tips and her take on traditional values. He essentially calls it rubbish in response to his "ribbing" her the other day and that he will get her a new stove. He tells her to stop this foolishness and make him dinner and walks out. Bree rises and dumps her notebook in the trash as Eli looks on.
Cut to a few years later after Rex's funeral. Eli says goodbye to a black-shrouded Bree in the kitchen compliments the funeral service. Bree is pleased he was there to say goodbye to Rex. He asks about what she's going to do now. She says she doesn't know. He says he's been meaning to give something to her for a while but couldn't find the right moment. He hands her the notebook. He fished it out of the trash and kept it for her in case she might need it some day. He says he made her Cajun meatloaf and it was his favorite meal ever. She's pleased and touched but says she isn't sure if she's up for writing a cookbook right now. Someday, then, he says.
We cut back to current Bree holding her cookbook at the poker table. Susan says she knows what she can make, breaded shrimp. But Bree says she knows what she's going to make.
Over at the Williams house Dave and Edie have just returned from a trip to the Bahamas. Dave informs her that Eli died. She's upset.
We see her flashback to a fight- in which she's wearing a red lace bra, underwear and high heels- with someone named Umberto. They haven't had sex in two weeks and she feels like she's 15 again. He's not interested and basically calls her a nympho and stalks out. She lays down woefully on her bed when Eli emerges from the bathroom where she forgot he was fixng the sink. Feeling blue she asks what he thinks of her ass. He gives it a ten. The boobs? He likes those two. She explains she's upset her husband won't have sex with her, and wants to make sure it's not her. Eli assures her it's not her. (He used to work in construction and the guys would've gone crazy for her. He offers catcalls and she loves it.)
Some time later he arrives to paint something and Edie is drunk on her bed. She's celebrating because she's no longer married to Umberto. Who was gay. Eli points out that at least Edie now knows it "wasn't her." Umberto actually said it was being married Edie that convinced him he was gay she reports. He comforts her and tells her she's a knockout and kisses her hand. She grabs his face and kisses his mouth. He asks what she's doing. She says he put the mirror over her bed, he knows what she's doing. He protests that he doesn't want to take advantage as she pushes him down and rips his shirt off. She assures him that he'll be gentle.
Back in the present, Dave is telling a sad Edie about the funeral.
Back at the poker game Penny calls out to Lynette from Bree's front room. Lynette said she'd help Penny with her math homework. Lynette tells her she wishes Penny had asked her two Chardonnays ago, she's still planning Mr. Scruggs' funeral and to start without her. Dejected, Penny walks away.
Lynette's flashback starts with Lynette puking over the toilet. Tom asks what's wrong. Lynette says she's pregnant. Tom is thrilled. Lynette is not. She'd been planning to go back to work. Tom says this could be the girl they've been waiting for. Lynette says she knows it will be another boy who will pee in her face and hide dead things in her shoes. She says she's going for the job, baby or no. Tom wonders who's going to take care of the kids. She says he could cut back his hours. He scoffs saying he has a career. She freaks and says he needs to back her up and that she can't spend her life wiping noses, she needs to work.
We cut to some time later and watch Lynette on the phone brainstorming for the job. Tom slips on something and asks what the puddle on the floor is. Covering the mouthpiece Lynette says her water broke but that she's working on the job and for him to get the emergency bag and wait in the car. He's freaking out and she's trying to keep it together on the phone as she starts having contractions. Tom says she's insane and that she can go back to work after she gives birth, not during. She hangs up, she got the job. Tom says since the baby's arm is sticking out, Lynette should just high five it. Lynette kisses him and says that people say you can't have it all but I know we can.
Some time later we watch Lynette get out of her car with holding groceries with one hand and a phone- on which she's still talking about the job- as she enters the house. Eli is down a few houses and hears the baby crying from the backseat of the car. Eli runs over and brings the baby in. Lynette is aghast at her behavior and begins to cry and freak. He's sweet about all the things she's juggling and says that it was just for a minute. He hands her the baby. She cries and hugs him. The baby cries in her arms. The voice on the phone starts yelling and Lynette closes the phone.
Back in the present day Lynette decides to go help Penny with her homework.
Susan's turn. Susan is at home having a glass of white wine. She spies Eli's toolbox on her counter and weswitch to the flashback. Susan wrestles with Karl's clothes and throws them on the front walk yelling "yard sale!" Eli arrives to change the locks since Susan just discovered that Karl left her for his secretary. Eli apologizes. Susan says not to worry just to hurry since Karl said he was coming by to pick up his stuff, which she continues to throw outside. Eli says not to worry since the redhead will make Karl miserable like he deserves. Susan informs him that Karl's secretary is a blonde and tells him to spill. He says he'd seen Karl around a few times with a redhead and thought she knew. She didn't. She tells him to change the locks, not talk to her, and then leave. He apologizes again.
Cut to a later date and Eli arrives to find a crying Susan. He apologizes since he's heard that she and Mike are divorcing and thought they were a great couple. Between sobbing she says she wanted him to change the locks. He sits by her and tells her that he doesn't know much about love but watching her all these years and how hard she's tried and how hurt she's been and that she still keeps getting back up makes him realize that maybe he is missing something in trying to find love. He says it probably won't help to hear this but that she's heroic to him. She hugs him and cries more.
Cut to an even later date and Eli coming to drop off a copy of Susan's house keys. Susan tells Eli that she and Jackson split up so she won't need the keys but asks if, while he's there, he could fix some loose shingles on her roof. He says he will but that's the last thing he's fixing since he's retiring. She protests but admits she's happy for him. She says that she thinks he's been the most consistent male relationship in her life and she always thought he'd be around. Which is funny since she hardly knows anything about him. He makes her a deal. He'll fix her shingle and then she can ask him anything she wants. She says she'll go to the store and get some wine so they can toast his retirement. Cut back to the present and Susan drinking the wine, she raises her glass in a toast ot his toolbox.
The ladies, and others, attend Eli's funeral. Mary Alice says one person was missing from the funeral. Someone who had changed Eli's life in a way that he never forgot.
Flashback to Mary Alice digging in her yard when Eli approaches to offer his handyman services, he's new in town. She doesn't have anything that needs fixed but he gives her his card and takes more to hand out to her friends. He goes to hand her the cards and drops them, as she stoops to help him she sees his shoe has a hole in it that he's covered with duct tape. He's embarrassed. As he walks away she asks him to fix a broken vase. He says she doesn't have to do that. She says she needs her vase fixed and hopes he won't make her beg.
Cut to a later time and Mary Alice sad at her table and Eli entering to drop something off. As he leaves she spies the vase he fixed and gives it to him because she's been thinking about her life and the people who came into it and made it better. She says she wants to thank him. He says he should thank her for introducing him to all her friends and helping him build his business. She gives him the vase, she looks teary. He asks her if she's alright. She says she is. He asks again, she says he should go. She sits serenely but sadly at her table. She reads over the note that started the whole show "I know what you did, it makes me sick, I'm going to tell." Cut to the emergency vehicles outside Mary Alice's house with Mrs. Huber talking about seeing the blood through the window and wishing that here had been some warning that she would do such a thing and we pan over all the residents of Wisteria Lane including a devastated Eli Scruggs. Mary Alice tells us that in that moment he made a vow to God to help people. And for the rest of his life that's exactly what he did.
We cut back to the ladies gathering after the funeral and saying nice things about Eli and promising to keep him in their memories. As the men come to lower the coffin Bree fixes the flower arrangement, saying she wanted to fix something for him for a change.
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