Children Will Listen (Desperate Housewives)

"Children Will Listen" is the 18th episode of the ABC television series, Desperate Housewives. The episode was the 18th episode for the show's first season. The episode was written by Kevin Murphy and was directed by Larry Shaw. It originally aired on Sunday April 10, 2005.

Plot

Susan's mom, Sophie Bremmer comes to visit Susan when her boyfriend Morty allegedly shoved her. Susan fears that if she does not bring the two back together, she will end up living with her mom—forever. When she visits Morty, he tells her that Sophie made the first shot and that is why he threw a book at her. When Susan tells Morty to reconcile with her, their meeting turns into a violent one.

When Bree watches Lynette's children, she spanks Porter when he misbehaves, Lynette takes the news badly since never hits her kids and Bree responds by saying everyone knows the Scavo kids are out of control. Lynette tells Bree she has no business criticizing her parenting since Andrew is now at a camp for juvenile delinquents. But then when the boys keep acting up, Lynette snaps. She threatens them with a spanking -- from Mrs. Van De Kamp. The boys immediately start behaving. Bree and Rex visit Andrew at Camp Hennessy where Andrew refuses to talk to Bree. Bree marches in the room just as Andrew announces to his dad that he might be gay.

Gabrielle tells Carlos she is grateful for him staying with her even though she doesn't want to have children. Carlos says she is worth the sacrifice, but in reality he has been tampering with her birth control pills for months. The next day, the lawyer from the hospital shows up at the Solises with the settlement check for the negligence case over Mama Solis' death. Carlos is furious that Gabrielle didn't tell him about the money sooner so he could have used it to fight having to go to jail. She tells him he deserves to go to jail and that at least this way, they'll have money when he gets out. He threatens to divorce her and cut her out of the settlement unless she signs a post-nuptial that will alter the terms of their pre-nup. She counters by saying she knows about his bank account in the Cayman Islands, proof of his illegal profits. But then he moves the money so she can't blackmail him anymore and physically forces her to sign the post-nup. To get revenge, she reignites her affair with John.

Meanwhile, Felicia tells Zach a little secret about his past.

Title reference

The episode title Children Will Listen comes from the Stephen Sondheim musical, Into the Woods.

International titles

• Finnish: Lapset kuuntelevat (Children will Listen)
• French: Les enfants chamboulent tout (Children upset everything)
• German: Mutterglück (A Mother's Benefit)
• Hungarian: Szófogadó gyerekek (Dutiful Children)
• Italian: Figli (Children)
• Spanish: Los niños escucharán (The children will listen )