Bree Van de Kamp

Bree Hodge
File:Season3 promo.jpg Marcia Cross as Bree Hodge
First appearance	Pilot (episode 1.01)
Created by	Marc Cherry
Portrayed by	Marcia Cross
In-universe information
Alias	Bree Mason (maiden name) Bree Van De Kamp (second name) Bree Hodge (married name)
Gender	Female
Occupation	Housewife
Family	Henry Mason (father) Eleanor Mason (step-mother)
Spouse	Ty Grant (ex-fiancé) Rex Van De Kamp (husband; deceased) George Williams (ex-fiancé; deceased) Peter McMillan (ex-boyfriend) Orson Hodge (husband)
Children	Andrew Van De Kamp (son) Danielle Van De Kamp (daughter)
Relatives	Aunt Fern Phyllis Van De Kamp (former mother-in-law) Edwin Hodge (father-in-law; deceased) Gloria Hodge (mother-in-law)

Bree Hodge (née Mason, formerly Van De Kamp) is a fictional character on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives, played by Marcia Cross. She is one of the lead characters of the series.

Characterization

...Everyone on Wisteria Lane thought of Bree as the perfect wife and mother. Everyone that is, except her own family.

— Mary Alice Young

Bree Hodge is a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, conservative Republican and is one of the four main characters in the series Desperate Housewives. Bree is recognized for her perfectionist attitude and work ethic, which at times borders on neurosis and obsessive compulsion. While the writers have shied away from officially diagnosing the character as suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, the character herself refers to her “quirks” in terms of anal retentiveness and not obsessive-compulsiveness.

Bree has been described as being a skilled homemaker, on the level of Martha Stewart in terms of abilities as a cook and with regards to craft-making skills. Besides being a dedicated homemaker, she also is well-versed in regards to firearm training: she owns four guns and is a card-carrying member of the Nation Rifle Association. She is a staunch conservative, owning and displaying a framed photograph of noted Republican President Ronald Reagan in her home. She is also a conservative Christian and homophobic, though as of the third season Bree has slowly renounced her disdain for homosexuals with the revelation that her son Andrew was gay, and also his revealing that her homophobic response towards him when he came out of the closet was the driving force towards the pain he inflicted upon Bree during season two.

Character history

Early life

Born into the wealthy conservative family of a prosecuting attorney, Bree's life was forever changed when she was a child, when her mother died in her family's driveway, after being hit by a drunk driver. To deal with the trauma, Bree closed herself off from the outside world, repressing her emotions and presenting the illusion of perfection to those who saw her. She also developed an anal retentiveness obsession with cleanliness, which began when she personally washed her dead mother's blood off the driveway, which according to Bree, made her feel happy in the wake of her mother's death.

Bree's father remarried shortly after his wife's death. Bree and her step-mother did not get along: her step-mother was extremely cold towards her step-daughter and very critical of everything she did. Bree reacted to this by repressing her anger and desperately working hard to garner what little praise and emotional support she could pry from her step-mother.

Bree went on to attend college, where, in her freshman year, she met her future husband Rex, while attending a campus Young Republican meeting. The two connected the moment they met, as after their meeting the two went to a diner, where they stayed up until 2:00 AM, talking about immigration and state government. At the time, Bree was involved in a serious relationship with another man but quickly ended her relationship with him in order to begin dating Rex. This caused stress between Bree and her family, who did not approve of Rex as a suitor for their daughter. Shortly thereafter, the two married, with Bree quickly becoming pregnant with the first of her two children by Rex.

Season 1

According to Rex, the two started with a normal marriage and Bree herself acting like a normal suburban stay-at-home mother. But along the way, Bree changed considerably: her obsessive-compulsive disorder began to consume her very being, to the point that her entire life became about cleaning and crafting the perfect illusion towards her family being perfect.

During this time, Bree gave birth to a daughter named Danielle, and the family moved to Wisteria Lane, where Bree developed friends within her neighborhood and with the more wealthy residents of the town, as Rex's career as a doctor allowed for Bree to provide a perfect upper-class lifestyle for her children.

On the outside, Bree's life was the envy of all of her friends. But in private, things were falling apart: her husband Rex was growing increasingly bitter towards Bree for her increasing emotional coldness and obsession with the family's appearance, ultimately culminating in him beginning an affair with a local soccer mom/secret prostitute Maisy Gibbons. Bree's children, most notably Andrew, began to chafe at Bree's controlling nature: Andrew rebelled against her any way he possibly could, while Danielle became secretly promiscuous, as a means to rebel against thier mother's conservative views. Bree desperately held the family together, in no small part due to her iron will which allowed her to dominate the family in light of Rex opting to play “good cop” to Bree's “bad cop”, in order to obtain his children's affections.

After 17 years of marriage, it took the suicide death of Bree's friend and fellow housewife Mary Alice Young to motivate Rex to demand a divorce from Bree during dinner. Bree responded by adding onions to her husband's salad, knowing that it would cause him to have an allergic reaction and nearly kill him.

Much of season one of “Desperate Housewives” focused on Bree's attempts to keep her family together as she dealt with her son Andrew's rebellious behavior and her husband Rex's desire for a divorce. The two sought private counseling for their marital troubles (under the condition, stipulated by Bree, that they tell everyone they were taking tennis lessons instead of going to couples therapy). There, Bree met Dr. Goldfine, a psychiatrist who would ironically become a confidant for Bree, much to her initial distrust of the very concept of the field of psychiatry. Furthermore, she reached out towards Zach Young, the son of her deceased friend Mary-Alice Young, but failed to reach the troubled teenager.

Ultimately, during a dinner party being thrown in honor of the deceased Mary-Alice Young by her friends, Rex finally left his wife after Bree (seeking to join in on her fellow housewives and their husbands discussion of their personal sex lives) revealed that Rex always cries after ejaculating during sex. Rex leaving his family deepened the rift between Bree and her son Andrew, who by this point had openly begun attacking his mother verbally, blaming her for causing all of the problems inside the family. When Bree discovered that her teenage son was drinking alcohol and going to strip clubs, Andrew angrily announced that he was leaving the house and moving in with his father. Rex, however, rejected Andrew's attempt to live with him and ordered him to apologize to his mother and return home. In order to bring himself to return to his mother with his tail between his legs, Andrew got drunk and drove home, only to hit Juanita Solis (Carlos Solis' mother) with his car, as she ran out into the street.

The hit and run caused Bree to call her estranged husband and their ensuing cover-up of the crime brought them closer together. Their marriage fell onto hard times once again, however, when Bree discovered her husband's affair with Maisy Gibbons after Rex had a heart attack while having sex with Maisy. Confronting her weakened husband on his hospital bed, Bree vowed to never forgive her husband for his betrayal of their marital vows.

As of this moment Rex, I am no longer your wife. I am going to go out and find the most vindictive lawyer I can find and together we are going to eviscerate you. I am going to take away your money, your family, and your dignity. Do you hear me? I am so thrilled to know that you still love me. Because I want what's about to happen to you to hurt as much as is humanly possible. I'm so glad you didn't die before I got a chance to tell you that..." .

— Bree Hodge

Bree took to the revelation regarding Rex's infidelity in her stride; she told Andrew of the affair (which shattered his love for his father, until Bree told her son that her boast of no longer loving Rex was only half-true and that part of her would still love him). But seeking to make Rex jealous led Bree to make a decision that would have dire consequences for her husband. Bree turned to the family's pharmacist George Williams, for companionship based upon their mutual love of guns and cultural matters (which Rex loathed). Though Bree accidentally shot off one of George's toes while visiting a target range, George fell madly in love with Bree and was confronted by Rex. In his attempt to intimidate George into staying away from Bree, Rex mocked George's profession as a pharmacist and stated that Bree would rather be with a professional doctor instead. This only fueled George's hatred for Rex, causing him to hatch a dangerous plan to kill Rex by replacing his heart medication with placebos made from potassium.

Bree and Rex ultimately would reconcile at this point, partially motivated by the revelation that their son Andrew was gay. A staunch conservative Christian, Bree tried desperately to get Andrew to renounce his homosexuality, stating her fear that Andrew would go to hell as a result of his sexuality. To Andrew, this would be the defining moment in his hatred for his mother, as the revelation that his mother believed he would burn in hell for all eternity made him realize his mother could never truly love him. After Bree tearfully told Andrew her fears for his eternal damnation, Andrew falsely proclaimed that he was done with men, though confessed to his priest (who Bree had consulted to help “correct” her son) that he was still gay. He then added that he would play the role of “Good Son”, so that he could destroy his mother when she least expected it.

Reconciled, Bree and Rex began to work on restoring their marriage, which included Bree agreeing to engage in dominatrix-type sexual role-playing with her husband. However, despite Rex's demand that she stop seeing George, Bree continued to hang out with the pharmacist, oblivious to the fact that George was seeking a romantic relationship with her, as opposed to a close, nonsexual friendship. When she told George how Rex had forbidden her from spending time with him, George took Bree's anger at Rex as code for him to kill her husband. So George continued to replace Rex's heart medication with placebos. This caused Rex's health condition to rapidly deteriorate, leading towards him becoming physically weak and at risk from a serious heart attack.

As Rex and Bree planned to renew their marital vows to celebrate their reconciliation, Bree confided to George about Rex's failing health. This caused George to break into the Van De Kamp household to replace the placebos with the real medication, in order to cover his tracks. While foraging, George discovered Rex's S&M paraphernalia. George then crafted a lie where he told Bree, in strictest confidence, that Rex had been bragging about how he had gotten his wife to serve as his own personal dominatrix, to his friends at the medical practice where he worked. This caused Bree to turn against Rex, who had a heart attack when Bree told him what she had heard (Bree omitted the fact that George had told her, per his request). Bree sent Rex downstairs and slowly broke down, retreating into her obsessive-compulsive disorder as she made the couple's bed before taking Rex to the hospital. Once she got there, Bree confided to her friends that Rex could have died while she was making the bed and expressed guilt for making him wait like she did. Bree apologized to Rex, who now had to undergo a potentially dangerous heart surgery to save his life. After Bree left her husband at the hospital, however, Rex's doctor confronted him with the prospect that Bree may have been slipping him extremely dangerous quantities of potassium in order to kill him. Rex refused to believe that Bree would poison him, until the Doctor reminded him that Bree had attempted to poison him several months prior in a fit of rage, when he first announced his desire for a divorce. When the doctor left the room, Rex contemplated what he had been told and wrote a cryptic note to his wife, telling her that he “understood” and “forgave her” (what it is Rex “understood” and “forgave” is never stated, but assumed to be him forgiving Bree for murdering him and understanding why she did it). Shortly after writing the note, Rex suffered a stroke and died. At home at the time her husband died, Bree calmly thanked the doctor who called her for alerting her of her husband's death and promptly went about cleaning the family's silverware, given to Bree and Rex by Bree's aunt when the couple were married. After cleaning the silverware, Bree exploded in grief.

Season 2

Days passed as Bree bottled up her grief and resumed her pretending of not being distraught in the wake of her husband's death. This was in no small part due to the arrival of Rex's pushy and domineering mother, Phyllis. Phyllis had never approved of Bree as a spouse for her husband and sought to usurp control over the funeral, so as to punish Bree for freeing Rex from her controlling grip. This ultimately culminated at the funeral, when Phyllis went behind Bree's back and replaced the tie she picked out for her husband with his garish orange prep-school tie. Bree's anger exploded as she proceeded to demand that Tom Scavo (husband of Bree's friend Lynnette Scavo) hand over his tie so that she could put it on her dead husband's body. After the funeral, Bree confronted George and privately expressed the tears and pain that she had been repressing as she told her friend, oblivious to his contribution to Rex's death, how much she missed him.

The weeks that followed would be trying, as Bree turned to George for comfort in the wake of her husband's death. This led the police, notified by Rex's mother, to investigate Bree for murder. They dug up Rex's body for a further autopsy and told Bree about the note Rex had written prior to his death. Bree reacted in horrific fashion towards the notion that Rex went to his death believing that Bree had murdered him, by having his body buried in a public cemetery instead of the family plot, as well as throwing her wedding ring into the open grave in anger at Rex's dying thoughts and written declaration.

Bree began to drink heavily and turned towards George for emotional support; George masterfully manipulated Bree's childlike trust in her “friend”. He convinced her to send Andrew away to a camp for troubled teens when he confronted George over the way he was taking advantage over the grieving Bree. George also brutally assaulted Dr. Goldfine, when he suggested to Bree that she stop seeing George. George topped this off by inviting Bree to go with him on an out of town trip, with the pretense of him keeping the trip non-romantic. Bree agreed, but when they went out for dinner during the trip, George drugged Bree unconscious and then waited for several hours until Bree woke up in her hotel room, fully dressed and George eerily sitting in a nearby chair. As Bree struggled to remember what had happened to her, George angrily told Bree that nothing had happened to her due to his diligence in “protecting her” but went on a tirade about how he had fallen in love with her during the past couple of months and demanded that Bree either return his affection or else lose him. Distraught and confused due to her being drugged and George's sudden and utter change in personality, Bree reluctantly agreed and soon agreed to marry George.

By this time though, George had overreached his hand; sending out a premature wedding announcement attracted the attention of a former girlfriend of his who had been the past victim of his obsessive stalker behavior. Bree dismissed her claims, but started to worry when George began to demand that she wear his engagement ring at all times and revealed his intention for Bree to bear him several children, an idea that Bree was against due to her having raised two children already. Things came to a head when Bree ran into her former boyfriend, whom she had dated before she met Rex, during dinner. George instantly became jealous and reacted in a publicly hostile tone towards Bree (who had opted not to wear her engagement ring to dinner) and to the former boyfriend. When Bree expressed her anger at George for his inappropriate behavior, even going so far as to say they were now no longer engaged, he fled the restaurant and stole the former boyfriend's car, which he then promptly doused in gasoline and burned.

By this point, Dr. Goldfine had recovered from his injuries. After he talks to Bree, she realizes that George was his attacker. George soon fled, as his home was raided and evidence was discovered exposing that he had caused Rex's death by tampering with his medication. With George on the run, Bree went about hosting a charity event at a nearby hotel, unaware that George had rented a room at the hotel for one last gambit to win Bree back. George swallowed a large amount of sleeping pills and called for Bree to come to his room, where he sought to manipulate Bree into saving his life from his apparent suicide. Bree, however, now knowing that he had caused Rex's death, refused to save him, especially after George proclaimed that he thought that she wanted Rex dead. Bree coldly watched as George fell unconscious and died.

With George's death, Bree was exonerated of all wrongdoing in her husband's death. Andrew was promptly brought home, where he proclaimed that he was no longer going to hide his homosexuality from his mother and began to openly bring his longtime boyfriend up to his room. Andrew's defiant attitude, combined with her grief for her husband's death, and the revelation that George murdered her husband as part of his obsession with her drove Bree to become an alcoholic. When she passed out while babysitting Lynette's kids, Lynette sought(unsuccessfully) to help Bree acknowledge her drinking problem.

Things came to a head when Andrew demanded that he be allowed early access to his trust fund, which he had assumed was set up by his father. Bree refused, in part because the account was set up by Bree's parents and not Rex. Denied, Andrew sought to legally emancipate himself from his mother and thus gain full control over the trust fund. When Andrew had his boyfriend hit him in the face, so that he could play the “child abuse” card along with the “alcoholic” card against his mother in court, Bree had no choice but to begin attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. This led to a tense confrontation between mother and son, where Andrew explains that he doesn't understand why his mother won't simply let him take his trust fund and leave, effectively ending the emotionally toxic struggle that the two are locked in due to Andrew's utter hatred for his mother. To this Bree responds, "You know, the opposite of love isn't hate. It's indifference. And if you hate me, that means you still care and we're still connected and I still have a chance to set you right."

Bree attends AA and meets Peter McMillan, a kind, attentive man who becomes her sponsor. She confesses to him that she doesn't like herself anymore; Peter says he likes her just fine. And so, Peter becomes her new addiction. After Bree kisses him in thanks, Peter warns her that he is also a sex addict. He tries to foist her on another sponsor, but Bree falls off the wagon (possibly with the intention of showing Peter how much she needs him). After Bree frames Peter's emotionally abusive and controlling sex addiction sponsor of drug possession, Peter agrees to help her get sober. At this point, Bree's parents step in, after the first court date in Andrew's bid for legal emancipation results the family's various dirty laundry being made public in open court. Meanwhile, seeing Lynette's anger at Bree's drinking problem, Andrew attempts to get Lynette to testify on his behalf. On the stand, however, Lynette sides with Bree, after realizing that Andrew is trying to manipulate her.

Seeking to avoid any further family scandal, Bree's step-mother offers to let Andrew move in with them, effectively resolving the conflict while allowing Andrew to get what he wants after all: access to his grandparents' fortune due to his status as their only grandson. Bree is furious at this, but has a lucky break when she sees Andrew telling his boyfriend that he is leaving town. Having a talk with her son's boyfriend, Bree realizes how much he loves Andrew and the two decide to work together to foil Andrew's plan. While packing Andrew's belongings up for transport to his new home, Bree hands her step-mother a box containing Andrew's gay porn. As her step-mother reacts in horror, Bree tells her that Andrew is gay and effectively turns her step-mother against him. Bree's step-mother then tells him that not only is she not going to let Andrew live with her, but that they are dissolving the trust fund that Andrew coveted so much. Though Andrew suspects Bree was responsible, he says nothing as he realizes that his mother has turned the corner and has now come to accept his homosexuality.

Despite this, the anger still exists with Andrew, and he finally exploits it when he seduces Peter (now officially dating Bree) in Bree's own bed. The next day, Bree drives Andrew to visit a nearby college, but stops the car after they exit the city. The two then have a tense confrontation as Bree reveals the true reason for their car trip:

Bree: There's so many things I want to say to you, Andrew. But mostly, I just want you to know how sorry I am.
Andrew: Sorry for what?
Bree: Every child deserves to be loved unconditionally and I thought that was the kind of love that I had for you. Maybe if I had, it would've been different.
Andrew: Why do I suddenly get the feeling we're not gonna make it out to Perkins College today?

(Bree gets out of the car and walks to the trunk. Andrew follows.)
Andrew: What are you doing?
Bree: I packed up some of your things. There's also, um, an envelope in here with some money and that should tide you over until you get a job.
Andrew: What, you're gonna, you're gonna leave me out here in the middle of nowhere?
Bree: I noticed a bus stop about a mile back. You can go anywhere you want.
Andrew: Mama, mom, please don't do this.
Bree: I have to. I can't be around you anymore. I'm just not strong enough.
(Bree starts to turn away from him. Andrew's face becomes filled with rage.)
Andrew: You know what the good news is? I win...
Bree: You win?
Andrew: I remember the look in your eyes when I told you that I was gay... and I knew that one day, you would stop loving me. So here we are. I was right. I... I win.
Bree: Well, good for you.
(Bree gets into the car, starts the engine, and drives away. In the rear view mirror, she sees Andrew standing all alone by the side of the road and she begins to cry.)

Abandoning her son causes Bree to start to spiral into a deep depression, which culminates in her not only forgetting her remaining child Danielle's birthday, but losing her cool, and brutally snapping at Danielle's friends at the make-up birthday that she is guilt-tripped into throwing for Danielle. When Danielle runs away with Matthew Applewhite, Bree's breakdown is complete and she checks herself into a psychiatric facility. While in the facility, Bree is seen by Orson Hodge, who is visiting a patient at the hospital. The two verbally go at it, as Bree claims that she is not insane like the other people in the institute, which offends Orson (who has spent time in a mental institute after the death of his father). When Bree learns via a voice-mail message that Matthew Applewhite is a murderer who brutally butchered his previous girlfriend, Bree freaks out and tries to leave the clinic. At this point, the clinic's staff refuse to let Bree leave and put her in restraints. Ultimately, Bree does escape, with help from Orson Hodge, who decides to lie to the clinic's guards about not seeing Bree escape the hospital. Escaping back to Wisteria Lane, Bree finds Danielle and a gun-toting Matthew Applewhite going through Bree's home for money to take with them. Exposing Matthew as a killer, Bree refuses to let Matthew hurt Danielle and puts herself between Matthew and her daughter. Matthew tries to pull his gun's trigger to kill Bree, but he is shot dead by the police as they enter the house to rescue Bree and Danielle. Bree and Danielle reconcile as Orson shows up to start his relationship with Bree over again after their first conversation turned into an argument.

Season 3

After a six-month courtship, Bree and Orson got married, but their marriage was plagued by the revelation that Orson may have not only physically abused his first wife, Alma, but also murdered her. Bree's relationship with Orson results in Bree realizing that she never had a proper orgasm, after Orson performs oral sex upon Bree before their wedding. Bree defends Orson from the charges leveled against him regarding his ex-wife's fate, though she is unaware that Orson, months prior, had ran over Mike Delfino, boyfriend to Bree's friend, Susan Mayer, in order to keep him from remembering that Orson was at the house of Orson's mistress Monique Pollier, on the night that Orson's sociopathic mother, Gloria Hodge, murdered Monique in order to keep Orson trapped in his loveless marriage to Alma.

During this time, Andrew returned home, and the rift between Andrew and his mother was healed through Orson's mediation. However, the arrival of Orson's evil mother, Gloria, and the return of Alma, causes a rift in the family once more. When the two women successfully drugged Orson for the purpose of allowing Alma to rape Orson, Bree intervened and learned the truth about what had happened. Bree's evil mother-in-law retaliated by neutralizing Bree with a booby-trapped ladder, which left her injured and confined to her bed. Ultimately, Gloria tries to kill Bree in the bathtub, trying to make it look like a suicide, after arranging for Danielle to unwittingly drug her mother unconscious. However, Orson intervenes and in defense of Bree, causes his mother to suffer a terminal stroke. Orson then tells Bree that Alma (having turned against Gloria when she announced her plan to murder Bree) has died and frames her for Monique's murder while putting Gloria (now paralyzed and mute due to her stroke) into a nursing home, with him telling her that he'll never visit her again. Bree then left to visit her parents, with Orson arranging to meet up with her later for an extended vacation/honeymoon as their original honeymoon was cancelled with Andrew returning to the family. However the revelation that Danielle was pregnant has led to much more chaos for Bree as she now must deal with her daughter's impending single motherhood.

Quotes

• "It's the age-old question, isn't it? How much do we really want to know about our neighbors?"
• "Now, the red basket is filled with desserts for your guests, and the basket with the blue ribbon is strictly for you and Zachary -- it's filled with rolls, breakfast type things. It's the least I can do to make sure you have a healthy meal to look forward to. I know you must be out of your minds with grief. Of course, I will need the baskets back when you're done."
• "All I'm saying is that we're both going to die eventually, and in the time that we have left, whether it's two days or two decades, I think that we should be nice to each other."
• "My daughter is planning on giving you her virginity and I'd consider it a personal favor if you wouldn't take it."
• "Do me a favor, Rex. Please don't mistake my anal retentiveness for actual affection."
• "Rex cries after he ejaculates."
• "The opposite of love isn't hate; it's indifference. If you hate me that means you still care and we're still connected"
• "When I was young, my step-mother told me I possessed wit, cunning, insight, and beauty. These tools enable us to succeed to our best in life. So take good care of your looks, Danielle -- you don't have any other weapons at your disposal."
• "If you think I'm going to discuss the dissolution of my marriage in a place where the restroom doors are labeled 'Chicks' and 'Dudes', you're out of your mind."
• "Oh, don't touch those, they are Andrew's Adult videos. I don't approve, but, as you know, boys will be boys."
• "Oh Andrew, you don't know the lengths I would go to for even seating."
• "Ive got a very special, grown up type of head ache.....*sits down with glass of white wine*...ok boys, lets hav it"

Trivia

• Bree is based on creator Marc Cherry's own mother, as the entire Van De Kamp family is based on the family in which he grew up.
• Marcia Cross originally auditioned for the role of Mary-Alice Young, but Marc Cherry thought she was Bree the minute she walked in.
• Bree and her first husband Rex were both named after the overtly vain characters on two of Marc Cherry's previous failed sitcoms, The Five Mrs. Buchanans (Bree) and The Crew (Rex).
• In the 3rd season episodes 16 and 17, Bree is played by a stand in and in most scenes viewers will only see her backside. This is due to Marcia Cross' pregnancy. The character then proceeds to leave town to see her parents and go on to meet Orson for their honeymoon, which explains her departure.