Desperate Housewives Episode 5.13 The Best Thing That Ever Could Have Happened

Neighborhood handyman Eli Scruggs dies of a heart attack on top of Susan's roof, shaking up all the women of Wisteria Lane, who each remember how much a difference he made in their lives. Gabrielle remembers how Eli helped her make friends when she first moved to Fairview by suggesting she host one of the weekly poker parties. Gaby's insistence on making a dramatic entrance and her tales of her glamorous days as a model fail to win over her new suburban neighbors, however. The next time Eli stops in, he tells her, "I went out on a limb to get you into that game and then you go in there and act like you're better than they are." He advises her, "Drop the attitude. Learn to like your neighbors." Gaby shows up with a muffin basket to the next poker game, which she wasn't invited to, and apologizes for starting off on the wrong foot. "What I should have said was, 'My husband's never home. I miss the city. I miss my life. I'm lonely all the time and I could really use some friends.'" This time, the women welcome her with open arms.

Next, Bree recalls how she decided to write her cookbook after her first husband, Rex, suggested she find a job as he wasn't going to buy her that new stove she wanted. Rex, however, didn't take her seriously, saying,"Now, can you stop this foolishness and make me something that isn't leftovers?" Eli, who just happened to be in the kitchen fixing the sink, saw Bree throw out what she had written so far. Later, after Rex died, Eli stopped by and asked if she'd thought about what she's going to do next. He handed her the recipes she threw out. "I kept this for you, just in case you might need it some day." She was incredibly moved that he saved it and he urged her to write the book "some day." When Edie learns the news, she remembers how Eli helped her feel better about herself when he accidentally overheard her then-husband refusing to have sex with her. "It's not you," Eli reassured her. "I used to work in construction and my buddies would have gone crazy over you." He was also there to console her when she found out her husband was gay. "No need to be sad. You're a knockout," he told her, right before she jumped him.

Penny asks Lynette for help with her math, which reminds Lynette of how discouraged she was when she learned when she was pregnant with Penny, and how desperate she was to go back to work. Eli came to the rescue when Lynette was so distracted by a phone conversation that she left her new baby in the car. Lynette gave Eli a huge hug and then hung up on her boss. And then, in the present, she goes to help Penny with her homework. Eli was also on-hand to change the locks when Karl left, and Susan was giddy, and when Mike left and she was inconsolable. He swings by to tell Susan that he's retiring and she tells him she'll miss him, saying, "I think you have the most stable and reliable male relationship in my life and I just thought you'd always be there." Susan goes to the store to get some wine to toast to his retirement, but ends up drinking the bottle alone, toasting an absent Eli.

Lastly, we see how Mary Alice gave Eli his start. He came by asking if she needed any work done, and she said she didn't. But when she saw his worn shoes, she asked him to fix a broken vase for her. Two years later, when he stopped by, she gave him the vase as a thank you. He wondered if she was all right and she told him, "Everything's fine," adding, "You should go now." A regretful Eli sat in his car for nearly an hour after learning of Mary Alice's suicide, and vowed that from then on he would do what he could to help people. At his funeral, as his coffin is being lowered, Bree tells them to wait and adjusts a flower that has fallen from the arrangement. "I just wanted to fix something for Eli for a change," she says.