Desperate Housewives

Desperate Housewives is one of the longest running and most addicting dramas ever. The intense drama, surprises, humor, and irony keep viewers coming back season after season. A recent episode’s use of irony keeps us on the edge of our seats. The episode starts with the narrator, Mary Alice, revealing that one of the following characters will die: Wanita, Mike, Jane, or Karen. Throughout the episode, each character faces death, but everyone except one is saved. They start with Karen; In an earlier episode we learned that Karen has very serious form of brain cancer and wants to commit suicide. But Bree finally convinces Karen to stay strong for her husband. Jane next faces death when she begins choking on a roll. This is ironic because she is a doctor, and because her boyfriends ex wife is the one to save her. Wanita faces death when she is climbing a tree to rescue her cat. This is ironic because her father, who has not been around because he was in rehab, saves her. Lastly, Mike is faced with death because he earlier threatened a loan shark to protect his friends. Mike is sitting on the front porch with his wife, Susan, reflecting on his life. The last thing he says to her is “you will never know how much I really love you”. As she is getting up to make dinner, the loan shark drives by and shoots. Mike is hit straight through the heart. Ironically, his life just “flashed” before his eyes. Overall, the episode is ironic because the least suspected, most healthy, widely liked character dies. Karen is 85 years old and has cancer; Jane is considered “a villain”; Wanita is just 12 years old. There is a clear reason to make any of them vunerable, yet the strongest dies.