Completely agree with all fo this.

It wasn't so much of a mystery but more of a focus on Paul's panto schemes and then how him and Felicia were gonna come to blows. I thought the 'Who Shot Paul?' thing would be a massive mystery but it was awful

I was sad when she died lmao, its a really memorable moment though

Yeah. I didn't understand why they gave them both a cliffhanger ending either.

I mean we're probably meant to assume Felicia died but they didn't make it definite. And Paul was getting arrested at the end of one episode and has no mention the next. As top characters who were there as part of the show's best story back at the beginning it was pretty shoddy. I reckon the season finale murder should have involved Paul or Felicia rather than the random stepfather.

As for the family from season 2 I can't remember much, but I remember loving the twist that it was the other brother who was the murderer and Bree broke out of hospital. That was very good.

I know the mystery had to wrap early cos of Marcia Cross's pregnancy but originally Orson was meant to get with Susan thus how he met her at the cinema during S2. Orson's story was changed partly cos of fan reaction but also creative differences between Marc Cherry and the writers/producers which is why they left at the end of season 2 and Cherry returned to writign duties by which time it'd been written that Orson meets Bree in the finale.

His wife, mother and Monique weren't introduced until S3. The S2 finale implied he ran over Mike because of something to do with practicing his dentistry on guineapig inmates and that he had a mysterious friend in the mental assylum Bree was in

I think it was deliberate that the Paul/Felicia thing finish in the penultimate ep and the finale focus on all the primary housewive's dramas because it was still uncertain if S7 would be the last. It gave enough time to wrap up the Paul/Felicia thign (even though it was still shoddy and like you said just expect us to assume she's dead and he's in jail) but set the path for what might be an 8th season

The Applewhite's were a very underappreciated family lol. Their mystery was different to Mary Alice's because we kinda knew early on what their deal was but it was how we expected it to be revealed (similar to Paul getting away with Martha's murder) but yeah the killer being the other brother was a neat twist to finish it off

Yes, whether he was with Susan or Bree he was the villain for season 3. I know his family weren't introduced until season 3 but originally he was the killer. I remember the inmate in Bree's asylum, no doubt part of Orson's original plan. I don't remember anything about practicing his dentistry on guinea pig test subjects I assumed it was always about him being a witness to Monique's murder.

Once they'd decided they wanted to keep him on the show longterm they had to change the story and thus then we get the change of direction with his wife turning up alive.

Even though I prefer her turning up alive to the original story as it was much better, prefer a mystery with shocking twists. That Christmas episode when she drives up the street and reveals herself is quite memorable.

:conf: I dont remember that..

The guinea pig/prison thing was what Orson told Mike in his surgery during the S2 finale after Karl and Mike's fight. Mike said he thought Orson looked familiar and asked if he was one of these 'guinea pigs'. Obviously we now know it's because Mike met Orson the night of Monique's murder but neither Monique or the murder were implied in the S2 finale and so he was never originally 'the killer' because at this point no one died. We knew he was a villain but were lead to believe (as was intended at the time) that it was something to do with prison experiments and then the attempted murder of Mike. No actual murder was confirmed or hinted.

I'm not sure about Alma and Gloria showing up because yes that part could've been due to fan reaction and to rush the story ready for Marcia Cross to leave but Orson's whole backstory changed in the space of those 2 seasons mostly for creative reasons and a change of writers/producers

Season 2 finale. The scene where Orson is checking Mike's teeth after Karl and Mike fight.

I meant Orson's original story as "the killer" once season 3 had taken off and they'd already abandoned the things hinted at in season 2.