Nightmare Fuel in Desperate Housewives. Wisteria Lane may look like a charming suburbia, but plenty of horrible things happen there. The place might well be cursed.
Beware, spoilers are unmarked!
- Felicia Tilman, when she returns later in the show, has turned into such such a creepy combination of Stepford Smiler and Bitch in Sheep's Clothing you'll shudder just watching her. While Paul Young did murder her sister, her sinister revenge against him is the stuff of nightmares. She went as far as cutting off two of her fingers to frame him, and once she got out of jail, tried to poison him with antifreeze liquid.
- George, a pharmacist, lusted after Bree once she ended their affair together and became jealous of her husband Rex. So he tampered with Rex's prescription drugs by replacing his heart medication with placebos which led to Rex's death. He also beats up and attempts to kill other people who look like they are trying to come in between him and Bree. He also drugged Bree at one point and was seriously considering taking advantage of her. He eventually proposed to Bree and pressured her into marrying him. After the engagement he became increasingly possessive of her, and increasingly violent. He even made himself a creepy life-sized doll of Bree at his home.
- Karen McCluskey kept her dead husband Gilbert in a chest freezer for ten years.
- The storm that destroys Wisteria Lane in "Something's Coming" in season 4.
- Victor Lang getting impaled in the chest by a sharp fence picket the strong wind threw in him.
- The Cliffhanger of the episode is pure undiluted fear with Lynette's scream of horror as she sees that the storm has obliterated McCluskey's house (both Lynette and her had to take cover elsewhere while the wind was raging outside) — with her children and husband inside. Fortunately, the next episode shows that all the Scavos made it alive. Ida Greenberg, on the other hand...
- When a new neighbor moves in Wisteria Lane along with his sister, Lynette soon discovers that he keeps a lot of pictures of his former students in his basement. Troubled by his behaviour and persuaded that he is a pedophile, she warns her neighbors. However, they became violent, and began to harass the guy so much, that his sister has a heart attack, and dies. Lynette is devastated by grief, and go see him to apologize... Only for him to thank her. Turns out his sister only viewed the good in him, and was acting as his Morality Chain. With her gone, he is free. Lynette is paralyzed in Fridge Horror, realizing that she just "freed" a pedophile. The guy moves out of Wisteria Lane, free to do what he wants. One of the few examples of Karma Houdini of the show.
- Granted, it is POSSIBLE that he did this to get back at her for being the catalyst of his sister's death and him having to pack up and move. The point of it is that we simply do not know. Which, in some ways, is worse than confirmation. Although, why anyone would be content with leaving town with everyone believing (and one woman hearing a confession) that you're a pedophile is anyone's guess. The very fact he did it in the first place is incredibly suspicious.
- Bradley Scott's death, stabbed in the back by his wife Maria with a kitchen knife.
- The whole arc about the strangler in season 6, who's revealed to be Eddie Orlofsky.
- Lynette takes him at home not knowing that he killed his own mother just minutes earlier. Sure enough, he snaps and attacks one of the twins for something as unsignificant as a remark to Lynette. And she ends up Alone with the Psycho (while she's about to give birth) in the penultimate episode of season 6.
- Patrick Logan the Eco-Terrorist and Mad Bomber, the very reason behind Angie Bolen's Dark and Troubled Past. He almost kills Nick by running him over with his car and has no issue about randomly killing people in bombing attacks.
- The riot against the ex-convicts home which Paul Young set up. Including having Susan trampled, Lee and Bob trapped in a car which is being beat up, Juanita, a child screaming in terror whilst in the car, and the good old fashioned claustrophobia of being pushed along by masses of people. For parents, there is also Juanita being lost in the mob.
- Alejandro Perez, Gabrielle's stepfather who used to rape her (one flashback even shows her as her younger self alone in her bedroom with Alejandro coming for her). He invites himself in her life once again, stalking her and even attempting to rape her once more. And even after getting killed by Carlos in the latter attempt, he keeps haunting the main housewives through Guilt Complex and Finagle's Law after they dispose of his body in the forest. Susan goes as far as creating a morbid painting of him being buried by her, Gabrielle, Bree and Lynette and exhibit it. Not only this, but Susan finds out Alejandro also raped his new stepdaughter.
