Lynette Scavo

Lynette Scavo
File:Lynette 39.jpg Felicity Huffman as Lynette Scavo
First appearance	Pilot (episode 1.01)
Created by	Marc Cherry
Portrayed by	Felicity Huffman
In-universe information
Alias	Lynette Lindquist (maiden name)
Gender	Female
Occupation	Vice President, Accounts, Parcher & Murphy Advertising former housewife
Family	Rodney Scavo (father-in-law) Allison Scavo (mother-in-law)
Spouse	Tom Scavo
Children	Preston & Porter Scavo Parker Scavo Penny Scavo Kayla Huntington (step-daughter;adopted)

Lynette Scavo (née Lindquist) is the name of a fictional character on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. The character is played by actress Felicity Huffman.

Lynette Scavo represents that person inside all of us who just can't seem to hold it together. She is loveable because of her chaotic life, her struggles and, most important, her ability to be honest about them.

History

Each one of them is a blessing, really. But I think I just can't take anymore blessings.

— Lynette Scavo

Template:Spoiler Lynette used to be a high-powered advertising executive but now her husband Tom travels almost all the time and her ADHD afflicted boys and infant daughter are driving her crazy. It is as though she took a new job she thought she would love, and now she desperately misses her old one but she is so driven that she tries to apply the same go-getter methods she used at work to being a mom. And it doesn't always work. Worse, Tom seems to have no idea how harried she is. He's oblivious to her plight, and his cluelessness only fuels her frustration. Lynette is fearless and able to say it like it is. When the worlds scariest stay-at-home mother, Maisy Gibbons, insists on a politically correct version of Little Red Riding Hood the impressionable Lynette gives Maisy a talking to, even offering to "throw down" outside. But Lynette, although a toughie, is also an intense overachiever, and in her frenzied attempt to get the costumes made on time, she winds up getting hooked on her sons' ADD medication. The career woman who once had it all begins to unravel, realizing she's not cut out for the life she leads.

Strung out and exhausted, she hallucinates that Mary Alice is offering her a revolver. When she finally calms down, she admits to Bree and Susan, in one of the most moving scenes of the show, that she thinks she's a terrible mother. This admission itself only becomes more painful to Lynette when her friends confess that they too found motherhood challenging. For the first time Lynette realizes that no one has an easy time of motherhood, and she sobs to the girls, "We should tell each other this stuff."

Seeking a solution to their problems, Tom and Lynette hire a nanny, but she turns out to be a little bit too attractive to keep around. Then, when Tom is offered a lucrative promotion that entails him traveling for work even more, Lynette finds a way to ensure that the offer is retracted. Nostalgic for her old days on the career path, she is ambivalent and frustrated with the challenges of what is supposed to be a placid, ideal life. As she begins to see what's right for her family might not be right for her, Lynette displays mettle we haven't seen before. When Tom quits his job and decides to be a stay-at-home dad, Lynette is torn by her desire to return to work and anxiety about leaving her kids. In the ending of season two, Lynette thinks that Tom is having an affair with a woman living far away. She follows Tom and sees them hug and kiss. Lynette then leaves Tom and takes the kids with her. Tom finds her after their son broke his arm from jumping off of a balcony and proves that he did not cheat, but instead he has a daughter that he never knew about. Her name is Kayla and she is 11. He had a one night stand with a woman named Nora Huntington and Nora got pregnant. Since then, Nora has moved into the same neighborhood and gets on Lynette's nerves day-after-day as Lynette desperately tries to find a way to get rid of her.

Lynette forbade Nora from talking to Tom after catching her trying to move in on him. In response, Nora stopped by their house to tell them that she was moving to Mexico and was taking Kayla with her. Lynette and Tom then decided on taking Nora to court to get legal custody over Kayla. Later in the day, however, plans changed when both Nora and Lynette found themselves on the wrong end of a hostage situation in a supermarket. During this situation, both Lynette and Nora got into an argument that caught the attention of Carolyn, the woman who was holding them hostage after trying to kill her own husband for having an affair. This resulted in Nora telling Carolyn that Lynette was trying to steal her child and Lynette countering in response telling her that Nora tried to steal her husband. This remark sent Carolyn over the edge, shooting Nora. Whilst Nora was drawing her last few breaths, she told Lynette to take good care of her daughter, Kayla. Nora's death sent Lynette into a rage, leading her to tell Carolyn that maybe she deserved to be cheated on. Carolyn drew her gun, aiming at Lynette to shoot her. One of the hostages threw a can at Carolyn's head while she was shooting, causing her to only shoot Lynette in the arm instead of the chest. Carolyn was shot by another one of the hostages. In all, leaving two dead (Carolyn and Nora) and two injured (Lynette and a supermarket employee). Afterwards, Lynette was hospitalized for her injuries.

She is now struggling to get Kayla to feel at home although she overheard the latter saying she would never love her. Recently, Lynette decided to quit her job and work with Tom at their pizzeria. Template:End spoiler

Family

Sons: Porter Scavo, Preston Scavo, Parker Scavo Daughter: Penny Scavo Husband: Tom Scavo

Quotes

• "Each of them is a blessing, really. But I think I just can't take any more blessings."
• "Tom, our last version of 'normal' had me popping pills. 'Normal' is a bad, bad plan."
• "Tom, it's okay. She's attractive. Men by nature are drawn to fertile young women with whom they can plant their seed. It's the basic flaw of your gender."
• "You know, our mothers were smart. They didn't get nannies or put us in day care because they knew if they did, we'd find out there are other women out there who are better mothers than they were."
• "Pat, can you see here I am holding a baby hostage? I'll call back!"

Trivia

• Lynette's four children were originally planned to be called Peter, Paul, Preston and Patsy instead of Porter, Preston, Parker and Penny. Whether the "P" thing is an hommage to other female-led series Charmed is unknown. Also on Episode 2 of Desperate Housewives, Penny's name is written as Daisy on Mike's whiteboard.
• While Bree's family is based on Marc Cherry's teen years, Lynette's is based on his childhood life.