We flash back in time this week, courtesy of Mary Alice's voiceover, to find out all about Eddie. Turns out he's had close relationships with each of the women on Fairview, and all of the interactions have helped shape him into the Fairview Strangler he is today. First there was Mary Alice, who tried to befriend his mother Barbara back when her husband left her and Eddie was four. But Barbara was too busy trying to get drunk and find a new man. When Mary Alice finally forced her to stay home with Eddie, she told him she ruined her life. Nice work, Mary Alice. Then there was Gaby, who met him when he was nine, and she'd just moved to the lane. She was lonely, and so was he, so when he snuck into her house, she didn't mind -- especially since he unpacked boxes and cooked for her. When Carlos told her it was weird and she needed to make friends her own age, Eddie didn't take it well. He rushed home, grabbed his BB gun, and shot a bird. So, Gaby's the first one who actually drove him to kill something.
Next up was Bree, when Eddie was in high school and painting her house for cash. He told her girls didn't like him, so she encouraged him to pursue the girl he wanted, and gave him wooing tips. When he used them on Danielle, Bree went to his house to tell him she didn't like him that way. Unfortunately, his mom answered instead and Bree told her, who relayed the message as, "Stop stalking her daughter." He went back to work for Bree, who told him he'd find a girl who would say yes someday. Which led him to a prostitute, who laughed at him when he gave her flowers. After all the years of his mother laughing at him, it was too much and he killed the pro, horrified at himself. Then was Susan, who noticed his ability at art and became his tutor. This was during the time Mike was dating Katherine, so he watched her sad and miserable because of Mike. When Eddie outgrew Susan's teaching ability, she got him classes at the Art Institute, but when he returned to tell her how it went, she was two hours from marrying Mike. Eddie didn't understand how she could marry someone who hurt her, and said she could marry him instead. She laughed at him, and said he knew just what to do to make her feel better, by joking. Then she invited him to the wedding. He was there, in the back row, and afterward, he hung around until she took out the trash. But it was Julie, and we all know how that went.
Then, in the present, Eddie's hanging out at the Scavos' playing charades when his mom, drunk, comes over and tells him he has to come home. Lynette stands up to her, but Barbara talks back and Lynette lets them leave. The next day, Eddie comes back, upset, to fix Lynette's car. While he's there working on it, Lynette tells Tom she's disappointed in them for not doing more for someone who clearly is too damaged to help himself get away from his mother. While they're talking, Eddie returns home to his mother, who has found his scrapbook of all of his killings, and asks him if he hurt those girls. He cries and says he did, and she says she didn't raise him that way. When he says she actually did, she goes to call the cops, but he hits her over the head with her bottle of Scotch and then strangles her. As he's leaving the house, teary-eyed, Lynette shows up to invite him to come and live with them, because this situation isn't healthy. Then she sees his mom's hand, and assumes she's passed out. He goes along, and says he will live with them. In the end, MAVO tells us that monsters are made by other monsters as Eddie packs his mom's body into his trunk.
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Previously, someone strangled Julie, and then the coffeeshop girl, scaring the neighborhood. Lynette got rid of gold digger Irina, then Eddie killed her, revealing himself as the Wisteria Strangler. Now, Mary Alice's voiceover tells us there is a house in Fairview, with a monster living in it who kills young women. "You may ask how such a monster came to be. And that's a very good question, indeed." Eddie peers out the window as his mother, a haggard-looking Diane Farr, tells him she needs more Scotch. He says he'll get her some, and rubs her shoulder reassuringly, but she thinks there's some in his room. So, when he leaves to help Lynette with her car and pick up the Scotch, she tears apart his room looking for booze, but she finds his scrapbook of killings, ending with an article about Julie's attack. Title card.
MAVO picks back up as Mary Alice is running. In the flesh. She explains how she met Eddie when he was four. She stops her run to talk to Eddie in his front yard, then ends up watching his mom and dad fight, as the dad says he never wanted a kid and is leaving. Mary Alice interrupts and tells them they don't want to talk like this in front of their kid. Diane Farr (not yet haggard), whose name is Barbara, begs him not to leave her "alone," then calls Eddie to her after he leaves. Mary Alice shows up a few days later to check in, with a pot of homemade mac and cheese. Barbara reluctantly lets Mary Alice in, and they talk about her sad life: She's all alone with a four-year-old to raise, hates her mother, has no friends and probably won't find a new boyfriend, either. Mary Alice tells her she'll find love; she just has to look for it. Eddie sweetly tells Mary Alice goodbye. Barbara looks at her son with disdain.
Mary Alice rings the door again a few days later, bearing a teddy bear. No one answers, but Eddie's in the window. He says he's not supposed to open the door, because his mom's gone and he doesn't have a sitter. Mary Alice asks where his mother is, and next thing we know, she shows up at a bar where Sheryl Crow's playing and Barbara's tramping it up with some trashy drunk. Mary Alice lectures Barbara, and reveals to the trashy drunk that Barbara's a mother. Mary Alice hauls Barbara's ass home, where Barbara makes excuses for leaving him alone. She knows how wrong it is, and she promises Mary Alice she'll never do anything like this again. But she does really need a man. I'm not sure why that's so awkward for Mary Alice, but she leaves right at that moment. First, though, she tells Barbara to always put her child's need first; that's what being a mother is. Barbara agrees, and when Mary Alice leaves, she hugs Eddie and says, "Oh, Eddie. It's not your fault you ruined my life." Not exactly what Mary Alice meant by putting his needs first.
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