Melissa Harrold, Staff Writer

While Wisteria Lane seems to be a fairly safe, well-to-do neighborhood (despite the various levels of kooky behavior by its residents), this week's episode suggested that maybe life behind white picket fences isn't always what it appears.

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Images: Episode 4 Images: Episode 3

The show started of with a break-in at one of the houses in the neighborhood. Oddly, the perpetrator didn't remove anything from the house.

Later in the episode, Mike Delfino (who has been lusted after by Susan and Edie since moving into the neighborhood), admitted to breaking into the house in a conversation with a not-too-pleasant, unidentified man in a park. This newcomer quickly established his creepiness when he heard children playing.

"That's a sweet sound, laughter like that. It makes me mad," he said.

If happy children make a guy that angry, he must be evil.

Mike seems to have his hang-ups about whatever dirty deals this boss man wants to undertake, and he is torn between continuing this shady business or developing a relationship with Susan.

Meanwhile, Gabrielle learned that someone very close to her husband, Carlos, might be a little shady herself. Carlos' mother, Juanita ("Mama") Solis, showed up at Carlos' request to investigate Gabrielle's extramarital recreation with the teenage gardener, John.

After Gabrielle played a dirty trick on Mama Solis that ended up with her being accused of shoplifting, Mama Solis tipped her hand to some dirty dealing of her own. She described to Gabrielle that after her former husband dared to hit Carlos at age 4, she told Carlos that he had run away with a waitress to El Paso.

But, as she wielded her sharp, metal knitting needles, Mama Solis implied that God had given them to her as "tools for her salvation" from a violent husband. Yikes.

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Although Gabrielle is a spoiled brat who probably deserves a reminder of how good her life with Carlos is, no one deserves the knitting needle treatment Mama Solis threatens.

Speaking of spoiled brats, Lynette and her husband, Tom, tried everything to bust their twin terrors into an elite private school, because all the public schools were apparently done dealing with them. After trying basically everything to get them in, a discouraged Tom had the nerve to suggest to Lynette that she should "make some sacrifices" and homeschool the boys.

Lynette, who gave up a high-paying job to raise her family, was having none of that.

"I made sacrifices over the past six years. If another sacrifice has to be made, I think it's your turn on the merry-go-round," Lynette said.

Although Lynette didn't let Tom hijack her sanity, Zach Young, the son of the deceased Mary Alice, showed in this episode that his sanity might be long gone already.

Bree and the sullen Zach found common ground as they bonded over the losses of their mothers. When Zach expressed his sadness that his mom wouldn't be around for Christmas, Bree decided to surprise him with the promise of an impromptu Christmas dinner. But, Rex, Bree's estranged husband, asked her out to dinner and she had to cancel.

What happened then was something out of a bizarre horror movie, where the monster is a deranged Santa Claus. Bree and Rex returned home to find that Zach had broken into their house, put up a Christmas tree (which he had chopped down from the yard), strung lights everywhere and put up three stockings: one for Zach, Paul (his father) and Mary Alice (his deceased mother).

With the poor, guilt-ridden Zach, the intimidating Mama Solis and the mysterious Mike Delfino around, the residents of Wisteria Lane had a lot of drama on their hands this week that no locks could keep out.