Acquaintances of Susan Mayer

The following are fictional characters in the American television series Desperate Housewives. They are all family members and acquaintances of Susan Mayer, one of the protagonists of the series.

Immediate family

Mike Delfino

Main article: Mike Delfino

Julie Mayer

Main article: Julie Mayer

Karl Mayer

File:KarlMayer.jpg

Richard Burgi as Karl Mayer

Karl Mayer (Richard Burgi) is Susan's ex-husband, Julie's father and also the father of Evan Mayer. Karl first appears in the Pilot in a flashback and shows how he left years of marriage with Susan Mayer for his secretary called Brandi. Later on the series Susan and Brandi apologize to each other and become friends, Karl soon breaks up with Brandi and starts dating Edie Britt.

Susan also discovers that he flirted with Edie while they were married. He dates Edie Britt during season 1 and 2 but is jealous of Mike Delfino and tries twice to get back with Susan. He even goes so far as to lie to Susan and say that he was breaking it off with Edie, which led to him and Susan having sex. It is made obvious that Karl is still in love with Susan, as shown by several pictures of her that he secretly keeps around the house for him to look at from time to time. Later Bree Van de Kamp hires Karl to stop her son, Andrew Van de Kamp from blackmailing her. Karl tells Andrew that even though Bree did witness George Williams die, she won't even face a courtroom. Andrew says that he will just make up stories or give her a "public humiliation" and Bree is horrified, Karl asks Bree for more tea and as Bree leaves for the kitchen, Karl grabs hold of Andrew and puts him against the wall and he says that he was a good friend to his father Rex Van de Kamp and said he knew if Rex was alive then he would force Andrew to behave. Andrew backchats once more but Karl grabs him by the cheek and says that if he doesn't stop blackmailing Bree and not giving her the respect she deserves then he will take care of Andrew himself. Bree overhears from the kitchen and lets out a sigh of relief. Later in season 2, Karl offers to marry Susan when she needs a life-saving surgery so that she can use his health insurance to pay for it, but they plan to divorce soon after Susan's surgery. Karl becomes jealous of Susan and Dr. Ron's relationship and he knows that Susan had not yet mentioned her and Mike's past, so Karl breaks open a pipe under the sink and Dr. Ron gets Mike and he learns that Susan had lied to him and Karl watched happily as Dr. Ron dumped her. Later in the series, Karl asks Edie to marry him; however, Edie learns about Karl and Susan's secret wedding. As revenge for Karl sleeping with Susan, Edie burns Susan's house down, prompting Karl to buy her a new one as another attempt to get her back, only to be stopped by Mike Delfino.

In season 3, both Susan and Edie have moved on and he is mostly absent, returning only in the episode "Children and Art" to play the bad cop for Julie and Austin. This backfires when he gets mad at Susan for dating a married English man whose wife is in a coma. Karl returns in season 4 when Susan meets him at a Lamaze class as his pregnant wife, Marissa, was there. Mike wasn't there as he was receiving his 30 days chip. (30 days without drugs.) Karl constantly teases Susan about how things are going for him including Marissa being an author and a law student and him becoming partner of his firm and he constantly puts Mike down for referring to him as "the plumber". Susan however brings Mike along to the next class and makes herself and him dress up in order to impress Karl, where they both lie and say they have a party to go to after and that Mike now owns his company however Susan becomes disappointed when Mike mentions he was in rehab. When Susan confronts Karl, he tells her that Mike is a good guy and he'd be better for her then he ever would. In the five year leap on season five it's presumed Karl and Marissa had their child.

Karl reappears in the second episode of the fifth season, where he was asked by Julie to pick up and help her with her insurance. He tells Susan he's been talking to her new love Jackson who is a painter and he teases her that she's now had a plumber and a painter and if he was a roofer they might still be together and Susan asks him to leave. He also calls Jackson "hacky-sack" as a reference to his laid-back, somewhat bohemian nature. Karl reappears yet again in the A Spark. To Pierce the Dark.. Karl has enrolled his son Evan in Susan's art class, Susan gave the class an art assignment to draw what makes them happy and Evan drew his Mom being pierced with a sword. Susan felt concerned by this and called Karl to talk to him about his picture and Karl had confessed to Susan that Marissa had left them six weeks prior because she couldn't handle being a mother, and now Karl is caring for Evan by himself. Karl comments that he finally understands why it bothers Susan to see him and that he was truly sorry. Susan said that while she always wanted Karl to feel what he had done to her, it wasn't a great feeling and she was sorry that it happened to him. Later, Bree hires Karl to represent her during her divorce from Orson Hodge. Bree and Karl start a relationship while Karl is working on Bree's divorce.

MJ Delfino

Maynard James "MJ" Delfino (Mason Vale Cotton) is Susan and Mike's son. He was born on May 11, 2008. Originally Susan wanted the name Conner, but she later decided to honor Mike's deceased grandfather. Mike's other grandfather was mentioned as being named James, probably resulting in the "MJ" compromise. He was being bullied by Juanita Solis, which caused their mothers to have a fight, but this has since blown over. When Mike began a relationship with Katherine, they take M.J. out to the Zoo and bowling, but MJ initially resents Katherine's presence, throwing ice cream in her hair and dropping a bowling ball on her foot. This is short-lived, however, so much so that MJ begins to prefer the company of Katherine rather than Susan, much to Susan's distress. Mike and Susan work to get him into private school and are successful when Susan takes a job there as an art teacher's assistant. His life is in danger because Dave Williams plans to kill him in order to get revenge on Susan for "killing his family." MJ ends up not dying after Susan got through to Dave.

Extended family

Sophie Bremmer

Sophie Bremmer-Flickman (Lesley Ann Warren) is Susan’s mother who has a taste for men and a very dramatic emotional life. After telling Susan that her father had died a war hero, she admitted to her daughter – during her wedding – that he was, in fact, a married man with his own business, Addison Prudy. Sophie was first seen in the series when she came to stay with Susan after having left her longtime boyfriend Morty, claiming that he is abusing her (she is also abusing him). Susan eventually persuaded them to reconcile as she doesn’t want her mother living with her. In the episode "Sunday in the Park with George", they get engaged and Morty later becomes Sophie’s fourth husband.

Morty Flickman

Morty Flickman (Bob Newhart) is Sophie Bremmer’s current husband – and Susan’s latest stepfather. He owns an expanding pancake diner. Morty first appears in "Children Will Listen" when Sophie makes Susan help her with the conflict between the two of them. It fails and the two end up fighting with Susan having to break it up. He appears again in Sunday in the Park with George, where he proposes to Sophie, and two decide to marry shortly after.

Addison Prudy

Addison Prudy (Paul Dooley) is Susan’s biological father. He owns a feed supply store in town. After years of not knowing his daughter existed, he finally is approached by Susan, and has a heart attack when she tells him about their relationship. While in the hospital, he asks her to leave because he does not want his wife Carol to know since he has cheated on her many times. Later, Carol finds out and Addison tells Susan they'll have more time to bond after he’s sorted out his marriage.

Carol Prudy

Carol Prudy (Joyce Van Patten) is the jealous wife of Addison Prudy. When she believed Susan and Addison were having an affair, she found out the truth about their relationship.

Nick Delfino

Nick Delfino (Robert Forster) is Mike’s father. When they first began dating, Mike told Susan Nick was dead, but he’s really serving life in prison for murdering his boss. Susan is upset because Nick doesn’t seem to feel guilty about killing his boss because she doesn’t want her baby to be a cold-blooded killer.

Adele Delfino

Adele Delfino (Celia Weston) is Mike’s very Southern mother, who holds onto extremely old-fashioned conservative ideals which Susan loathes and Mike is annoyed by.

Tim

Tim (Chris Carmack) is Susan's accountant cousin, who comes to help her with her taxes. Tim knows a little something about Katherine Mayfair's (the two had slept together when he was 16) mystery. He is interested in the fact that Dylan is about to turn eighteen.

Marissa Mayer

Marissa Mayer (Sunny Mabrey) is Karl's now ex-wife and Julie's ex-stepmother. She is a law professor and was pregnant when he and Marissa took the same Lamaze class as Susan and Mike. She gave birth to Evan Mayer and later abandoned him and Karl.

Evan Mayer

Evan Mayer (Sawyer Church) is Karl's and Marissa's son, who is around the same age as M. J. Delfino. Karl inadvertedly takes him to the school in which Susan works as an assistant to the arts teacher. When the children are asked to draw something that makes them happy, Evan draws his mother being stabbed to death. Karl reveals to Susan that Marissa abandoned them, leaving Karl to raise Evan alone. As a result, Evan has violent feelings toward his mother. It is also said that Evan is a bully to the other kids in his class, including M.J. Delfino. However, Evan becomes upset when he is the only kid not invited to a party M.J. has. Karl bribes Bree into convincing M.J. to invite Evan to his party, and later it appears that Evan and M.J. have become friends.

Season 1 introduced acquaintances

Deirdre Taylor

Deirdre Taylor (Jolie Jenkins) is Mike Delfino’s deceased ex-fiancée and mother of his son Dana (aka Zach Young). She gave birth to her son while addicted to drugs, and gave her son to Paul and Mary Alice Young to raise as their own (then known as Angela and Todd Forrest). When she returned, years later, to get her son back, Mary Alice accidentally killed her. Wanting to hide this, she and Paul chopped her up and stuffed her into a toy chest.

Noah Taylor

Noah Taylor (Bob Gunton) is the father of Deirdre and Kendra Taylor, and the grandfather of Zach. Noah first appeared in episode 5, Come in Stranger where Mike met him in Fairview Park to discuss his break-in at the Fromme residence. Noah came off as a bitter old man after being nasty to the local kids in front of Mike. He then reappears when Mike visits his mansion and it is revealed that Noah hired Mike to find his daughter Deirdre, (who was Mike's ex-girlfriend, 1st love, and Dana/Zach's mother). Noah had felt that Mike abandoned his daughter by finding a nice wife. However, it is believed that Noah was exaggerating, and that Mike married his first wife after Deirdre had ran away from home, and after Mike got out of prison. Noah arranged for Mike to murder Deirdre's killer and decided to put him back on his payroll. Noah had fired him because of his slow pace, which was a major flaw due to Noah's brain tumor. Noah made it clear that he had only one year left. Mike later returned with all of Noah's money. Noah appears later to discuss Martha Huber's murder and how her watch got into Mike's garage. Noah points out that whoever did it was the killer of Deirdre.

Noah is again seen in a cemetery where he tells Mike about Deirdre's death, and that she had been stuffed into a toy chest (the same chest Paul had in his pool and put into Rock Water Lake). Noah arranged for Sullivan to give Mike the case file on Deirdre's murder and bribed him to keep quiet to prevent Mike from being imprisoned, where Mike discovered that the Youngs had killed Deirdre. Noah appears for the last time in Sunday in the Park with George, where Noah attempts to break up Susan and Mike forever, by giving Susan false information about Mike's criminal records. Surprisingly enough, Kendra comes to the rescue and sets Susan straight. Noah reappears when he is on his death bed. It is then revealed that Felicia Tilman is his nurse. Noah's occupation is unknown to this day. He wants to meet his newly found grandson, Zach, but Mike and Paul don't want that. When he finds out the Youngs were Dierdre's murderer, he bullied Paul and Zach. Zach gives in and visits Noah, only so he could leave them alone. Rumors suggest that he is a mafia godfather, and that Mike was his number one man and the fiancé of his daughter, the truth about the Taylors is still a mystery. He died when Zach Young turned off his life support, and Zach inherited his entire estate.

Kendra Taylor

Kendra Taylor (Heather Stephens) is the older sister of Deirdre Taylor, and the oldest daughter of Noah Taylor. Kendra first appeared in the episode "Anything You Can Do", where she came to check up on Mike’s investigation and the progress of his work, making Susan and Edie think she was an ex-girlfriend. Susan expected to come into conflict with Kendra over Mike, but it never happened. Edie would have been rooting for Susan, as she thought it would be easier to steal Mike from her than from the glamorous Kendra. After settling in at Mike’s place, Kendra made it very clear that she only cared about herself when she told Mike to stop looking for her own sister. However, she, secretly and against her father's wishes, told Susan the truth about Deirdre's drug use and Mike's arrest.

Detective Copeland

Detective Copeland (Conor O'Farrell) is the investigator of Mrs. Huber’s murder who strongly believed Mike was the culprit. He questions Susan twice about Mike and she becomes his alibi by saying they slept together the night Mrs. Huber was killed. He mentioned to her that people do stupid things when they're in love and that he'd know because he’s been married four times.

Detective Sullivan

Detective Sullivan (Nick Chinlund) is a corrupt police officer in charge of Mrs. Huber's murder case and an underling on the Deirdre Taylor murder case. He is actually a puppet and confidante of Noah Taylor. The eyes and ears of the notorious criminal underworld Taylor family inside the Fairview police. He first appears in "Impossible", where Noah pushes him to reveal Mike Delfino’s case file to Susan at her interrogation for Mrs. Huber's murder. They are successful, she takes the bait, and they break up. This was arranged solely to eliminate a "time distortion" in order to find Deirdre more quickly. He appears once more in episode 19, "Live Alone and Like It". Noah bribes Sullivan to get Deirdre’s case file to Mike and to get Mike off Mrs. Huber's murder case. The two meet in an underground parking garage where the two exchange the case file. Sullivan has a bitter attitude towards Mike. Sullivan makes a comment about how it is wrong for him to get off with a short prison time for 5 and a half years since he was a “cop-killer”. Mike strikes back attacking him for being hypocritical since Sullivan was participating in it, and getting himself off the Huber murder case. Sullivan repays his backlash with a gun and two fists to the face, giving Mike a black eye. Sullivan makes a comment, "this file was misplaced" understand, if even a whisper of this gets traced back to me, there will be one less cop-killer on the street. Sullivan slams down the case file and walks off. Mike gets it and drives home, seeing Paul Young on a purchase list for the toy chest setting him to his target. In season two, he tries to discover who is Noah's grandson.

Season 2 introduced acquaintances

Lonny Moon

Lonny Moon (Wallace Shawn) is Susan's "rock" who was discovered to be embezzling funds from Susan's book publishing sponsors. Lonny was the reason Susan didn't have insurance for her wandering spleen because he had cancelled it.

Ron McCready

Dr. Ron McCready (Jay Harrington) is a surgeon at Sacred Heart Hospital, Ron became Susan’s love interest midway through the second season, despite a somewhat clumsy beginning to their relationship. A difference in age between the two has been shown as a possible issue. (In reality, Jay Harrington, the actor portraying the character, is just under seven years younger than Teri Hatcher.) They date anyway. When he begins to perform Susan’s splenectomy, he tells her that he loves her. Susan responds by saying “Aww, that’s so sweet. I love Mike.” At that moment, Nurse Heisel tells him that she is married to Karl. Susan tells Ron she was probably just hallucinating about a guy that didn’t exist, and that she married Karl for health insurance. The second part was true. Their relationship goes smoothly until Karl makes a clog and tells Mike to come over, as a plan to break up Susan and Ron. After Ron finds out she was lying, he broke up with her and told Edie about their marriage.

Oliver Weston

Oliver Weston (John Mariano) is described as "the most successful private investigator in Fairview" by Mary Alice Young. He is hired by Edie to find out who Karl Mayer had left her for. When it turns out to be Susan, Susan tries to bribe him not to tell Edie, but Weston doesn’t accept it, so Mike pays him $15,000 to not tell Edie, Weston then accepts the money.

Season 3 introduced acquaintances

Ian Hainsworth

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Dougray Scott as Ian Hainsworth

Ian Hainsworth (Dougray Scott) is a British man introduced in the season three premiere as a man who became depressed after his wife, Jane, was put into a coma after a horseback riding accident. He met Susan when she cared for her boyfriend Mike, who was comatose as well. After a few dates, and since Mike still didn't wake up, they spent a few days in one of his houses on the mountains. One thing leading to another, they slept together but soon after learned that Mike had woken up. Susan broke up with Ian, but Mike, having been manipulated by Edie Britt, no longer returned her feelings and she decided to go back to Ian. However, they were both still in love with their former lovers and their relationship got more and more complicated.

When Mike was put in jail for Monique's murder, he agreed to do anything to get him out if Susan promised not to see him again, as he didn't want her to find herself in the position of choosing whose heart to break, believing it would be his. But despite Ian's wishes, Susan saw Mike again, and when he found out he became furious, but they quickly reunited when she said that she loved him for the first time. Later, Ian is called interstate on a conference, with his wife's health declining. After finding out that she may not live until he returns, he tells Susan to be there with her when she dies. He says goodbye to his wife over the phone, after Susan held it up to her ear. On Ian's return Jane had died, and we see a passionate embrace between Susan and Ian. At his wife's funeral, he proposes to Susan inside the embalming room around two dead bodies. She is ecstatic but prefers him to re-propose in a more romantic surrounding. Ian proposes to Susan in episode 15, at the opening of the Scavo Pizzeria. She accepts and they are happily applauded by the surrounding crowd. However, Mike, who was also there, looks bad.

In the next episode, tension arises between Ian and Mike, as Mike discovers that the only reason that Ian actually proposed to Susan so quickly is that he saw the engagement ring that Mike bought for Susan, before he was run over by Orson Hodge, while picking up his deceased wife's belongings from the hospital after her death. However, they come to an agreement that if Ian won the Poker game that they were playing at the time of this tension, Mike would leave him and Susan alone. Luckily for Ian he won the poker game, however it has now become clear that his happiness with Susan may be shortlived as Mike still has strong feelings for her. In episode 17, Ian's parents are introduced: Graham and Dahlia, who are both in their sixties. Ian immediately worries that Susan will damage his reputation with his parents, and after various incidents including Susan setting Ian's mother on fire, he and his parents try and make Susan sign a prenuptial agreement, although Susan agrees she has lost a great deal of faith in Ian. After Susan caught Ian's father wearing her underwear, she made it so that he helped her not to sign the agreement.

Later, Ian proposes that he and Susan permanently relocate to London, to which she agrees, however she later refuses to go to London as she realises that Ian is simply trying to get her away from Mike. This is seen when Ian disagrees with Susan giving Mike a thank you gift after he helped them escape from their car when they accidentally drove into a river to avoid hitting a deer. After a heated argument between Ian and Susan, she walks over to Mike's for consolation, and they share an intimate kiss. This renews Mike's belief in the possibility of winning her back, and so he continually forces his way into her and Ian's lives, even confessing to what occurred at the poker game. After learning about this, Susan sends both of them away and cancels her wedding with Ian. Ian and Mike continued to pursue Susan, including Ian bringing over two dozen roses to her doorstep and ringing over ten times, but he and Mike were both shot down with each attempt. Eventually, Susan announced that she would go through with her marriage to him. While celebrating, Susan decided to check her messages and listened to a message from Mike. Realizing that she was still in love with both him and her former boyfriend, but loving Mike just a little more, Ian decided to call off the wedding and return to England. Ironically, Susan got back together with Mike within one episode of Ian's departure.

Jane Hainsworth

Jane Hainsworth (Cecily Gambrell) is Ian's wife, who is in a coma after falling off a horse. She is in the coma ward where Ian meets Susan. She later dies without regaining consciousness. Despite the odd situation of being romantically involved with her husband, Susan visits and helps care for Jane at the hospital, often.

Dahlia Hainsworth

Dahlia Hainsworth (Lynn Redgrave) is Ian's overprotective mother. She begins to mistrust Susan after finding out about her having divorced Karl, and insists that she sign a pre-nup before she marries Ian.

Graham Hainsworth

Graham Hainsworth (Paxton Whitehead) is Ian's father. He seems to be very dominated by his wife, and it is indicated that he secretly enjoys cross-dressing when Susan catches him trying on her bathrobe and bikini. She later uses this knowledge to blackmail him into persuading his wife not to make her sign a pre-nup

Detective Ridley

Detective Ridley (Ernie Hudson) is the detective investigating the murder of Monique Polier. When Mike’s phone number turns up on Monique’s hand, Ridley investigates him and gets a search warrant for his house. However, he doesn’t find anything to build a case on but later catches Mike burying his tool box, and arrests him for Monique’s murder. Susan then implicates Orson but as Alma Hodge later is found dead with a suicide note, the case is considered solved. Mike and Ridley part ways with a handshake.

Season 5 introduced acquaintances

Jackson Braddock

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Gale Harold as Jackson Braddock.

Jackson Braddock (Gale Harold) is Susan's on-again off-again boyfriend in the fifth season. He is a painter and gets along with Mike and MJ. At first, Jackson and Susan did not want a serious relationship and Susan keeps it a secret, but as the season progresses he wanted a more formal relation with Susan and he also wanted her to introduce him as her boyfriend to her friends; however, Susan does not want a more formal relation with him, but eventually introduces him as her boyfriend. They both eventually agree to return to the original state of the relation. Jackson suffers minor injuries during the fire in Mr. Schilling's club, which was started by Dave Williams. When Jackson moves away from Fairview during season 5, he invites Susan to come with him. She initially agrees, but later decides to leave Jackson so she can be alone for the first time in her life. Eventually, Jackson returns and proposes marriage because otherwise he believes he will be deported to Canada. Dave Williams, who suspects that Jackson is a potential witness of his arson, tips off immigration when he knows that Jackson is in the country illegally. When Susan and Jackson are heading to City Hall to be married, immigration comes and takes him in custody. He is later questioned by the police about the fire, and what he knows about Dave Williams. His current whereabouts are unknown, but it is likely that he has been sent back to Canada.

Jessie

Jessie (Swoosie Kurtz)