Gabrielle Solis

Gabrielle Solis
Desperate Housewives character
File:GabrielleSolis.jpg Eva Longoria Parker as Gabrielle Solis
Portrayed by	Eva Longoria Parker
Created by	Marc Cherry
In-universe information Other names Gabrielle Marquez (maiden name) Gabrielle Solis (first married name and current name) Gabrielle Lang (second married name) Gabriella (called by her mother) Gaby (nickname) Occupation Housewife Former First Lady of Fairview Model Make-up assistant Family Ana Solis (niece) Lily Marquez (maternal grandmother) Maria Garza (maternal aunt) Inez Garza (great-aunt) Parents Ernesto Marquez (father; deceased) Lucia Marquez (mother) Juanita Solis (mother-in-law; deceased) Diego Solis (father-in-law; deceased) Spouse Carlos Solis (re-married husband) Victor Lang (second husband; widowed) Children Juanita Solis (daughter) Celia Solis (daughter) Ana Solis (niece; Gaby is current legal guardian)

Gabrielle "Gaby" Solís (née Marquez, previously Lang) is one of four main characters on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. She is portrayed by Eva Longoria Parker. Eva Longoria Parker was Nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy at the 2006 Golden Globe Awards.

Early life

Gabrielle Marquez was born in a small town in Mexico in 1976, where her family was very poor. It is said that she has a brother and sister in You Gotta Get a Gimmick. When she was five, her father was diagnosed with cancer and died.

When she was 15 years old, she was sexually assaulted by her stepfather, Alejandro, and left home the next day. Her mother blamed Gabrielle, thinking she was jealous.

Five years later, she seduced a fashion photographer and became a model. Soon after, she attracted the affections of businessman Carlos Solis, whom she married. Shortly after, they moved to Wisteria Lane in 2003.

Overview

Gaby Solis is portrayed as vain, shallow and materialistic, but can demonstrate a more sympathetic side, particularly towards her friends, Susan, Lynette and Bree. She is reckless, often thinking of herself before others, but regretting it later and making amends. She is very attractive and has the ability to wrap men around her finger.

Season One

At the start of the series, Gabrielle is having an affair with her teenage gardener, John Rowland. She feels that John treats her with respect while Carlos, like Tom Scavo, is constantly away and unwilling to discuss emotions. Carlos, however, knows Gaby is having an affair and gets his mother, Juanita, to watch her. She does her best to keep Juanita busy but Juanita photographs them together, just as they are ending their affair. John goes after her and, not looking where she is going, is knocked down by Andrew Van de Kamp's car and slips into a coma. Gabrielle takes the camera but is forced to admit her affair with John to his mother, Helen, after she attacks Susan.

However, one of Carlos's business associates, Tanaka, isn't what he seems and Carlos is arrested for their activities. He is released on bail and Carlos builds a case with his lawyers and, as the authorities are unable to find the money earned, they offer a plea bargain which Gaby insists they take and makes sure that they have money to start again with when Juanita, coming out of her coma, dies after an accident at the hospital as she is unsupervised. The hospital offer Carlos and Gaby $1.6 million, which they take. Unfortunately the money takes time to come through and needing to pay the bills, Gaby returns to work as Carlos is under house arrest.

Gabrielle finds she is pregnant, as Carlos wanting a family of his own, meddles with her birth control. When she finds out, she is so angry that she almost leaves but blackmails him into looking after the baby in return for testifying at his trial for gay hate crimes. However, John tells Carlos about their affair and that he could be the father of Gaby's baby. In a fit of rage, Carlos goes after John, and is convicted for the hate crimes, leaving Gabrielle in an uncertain situation.

Season Two

Carlos is in jail and unwilling to forgive Gabrielle for her affair. He also insists on a DNA test, which she manages to fake, having taken someone else's results. After discovering she isn't the only gardening client John is sleeping with, she apologizes and Carlos forgives her. Gabrielle loses the baby after falling down the stairs while running away from Caleb Applewhite, who had broken into her house.

After Carlos is released from prison, thanks to a nun called Sister Mary working on a Catholic early release programme. Sister Mary dislikes Gaby, telling her that she is responsible for Carlos going to prison, trying to fund the lifestyle she wanted. She suggests an annulment to Carlos and in revenge, Gaby hints that she is concerned about Carlos and Sister Mary becoming too close so Sister Mary is sent to Alaska. She and Carlos finally agree to try for another baby once she is convinced that Carlos wants children with her, not just any convenient woman. This plan is shelved, however, when they discover she is unlikely to get pregnant due to injuries suffered when she miscarried.

She and Carlos try to adopt, but Helen Rowland works for the adoption agency and as revenge for Gaby's affair with John, tells them she would make sure that they never adopt. Next, the couple looks into surrogacy with Gaby's mother offering to be surrogate but Gaby refuses to even consider it. Carlos, not believing Gaby that her mother blamed her for the business with Alejandro, visits her and is horrified to realise Gaby was right. Their next option was to adopt pole-dancer Libby Collins's daughter, who they name Lily. They are granted temporary custody of Lily after Libby tells her boyfriend, Frank, that he isn't the father but his brother, Dale, is. Gaby, however, blackmails Dale into signing away his parental rights but Frank, determined to be Lily's father, persuades Libby to change her mind and reclaim her daughter. Finally, they ask their maid, Xiao-Mei, to be surrogate after she admits that she is in danger of being deported. Xiao-Mei gets pregnant but Gabrielle finds out that she and Carlos are having an affair. Following this, she surprisingly does not blow up at Carlos. She kicks him out but tells Xiao Mei that she is staying with her until the baby is born.

Season Three

Xiao-Mei's baby is born on Orson and Bree's wedding day. Much to their horror, they see that the baby is black and consequently isn't Carlos and Gaby's child. The doctor admits that the wrong embryo was implanted in Xiao-Mei but Carlos and Gaby's embryo didn't take so the baby was given to its biological parents and Carlos and Gabrielle divorced.

Gabrielle changed her surname back to Marquez and tried a return to modeling but discovered she was now too old and began mentoring young girls in beauty pageantry instead. She also returned to the dating scene, first dating the father of one of the pageant girls, and then her "stalker", (Zach Young). Later, in the season, she met mayoral candidate Victor Lang, who pursued her despite her insistence that she wasn't interested. She eventually accepted his proposal, and they married in the season finale on May 19th, 2007, although shortly afterward she overheard Victor saying that he married her because she would be good for the "Latino vote" in the upcoming election for governor, and, distraught, went to Carlos for comfort (who, in the meantime, had been dating Edie Britt).

Season Four

Gabrielle Lang and Carlos Solis planned to escape together; however, Edie staged a suicide attempt, and Carlos refused to leave her, though he continued the affair. They were discovered when Edie caught an STI from an infected sun bed which she accidentally gave to Carlos. He passed it to Gabrielle and she gave it to Victor. Carlos and Edie separated but when she realised Victor had her STI, she hired a private detective and showed the photos to Victor. He took Gabrielle out on a boat trip, where she assumed he was going to murder her, so she hit him over the head with an oar and called Carlos for help. They fought Victor and he fell overboard, nowhere to be seen and presumed dead but was later found, washed up and claiming to have amnesia to everyone but Gabrielle. She decided, after Victor threatened her, to leave town with Carlos, but this turned out to be unnecessary - Victor was killed during the tornado which hit Wisteria Lane. In the aftermath, which also blinded Carlos, Gabrielle and Carlos remarried.

Also in season 4, it is revealed that Gabrielle's father died of cancer when she was five. Her mother told her not to cry so as not to upset her dying father. She insisted Gabrielle be perpetually smiling, and so (she admits to Lynette) that's the way she's been ever since. She feels uncomfortable around cancer patients because of her father.

Five years following the events of Season 4, Gabrielle’s life has changed dramatically. Despite previous medical doubts, Gaby unexpectedly became pregnant twice. She is initially shown as being worn down, having gained some weight and taken on massive responsibilities that her blind husband cannot assist her with. She and Carlos are essentially “broke” and Carlos became a massage therapist. Gaby is shown ill-adjusted to her new life.

Season Five

Both her daughters, Juanita and Celia, are overweight. Gaby is concerned but Carlos seems to be less worried. Through his work at the Country Club, he meets Mrs Virginia Hildebrand, a wealthy client. She is lonely, due to her estrangement from her own family, and takes Carlos, Gaby and their daughters under her wing. Unfortunately Gaby tells her to leave them alone, after Virginia tries to insist on sending the girls to a private school and Gaby doesn't want them to go.

Early in the season, Carlos is injured in a fire and a CAT scan reveals that he can have an operation that will return his sight. Gabrielle is worried by this, fearing Carlos will no longer find her attractive, so she begins a slow transition towards her former appearance. It seems to be that Gabrielle was pregnant with Juanita right before the five-year jump because she is 4 1/2 years old. When Carlos’s vision is restored, Gabrielle’s efforts throughout the past five years are not unnoticed. She had sold nearly all her designer wardrobe in order to keep her family afloat. Carlos ultimately quits his job as a masseur and takes a high-paying business job so that he can support his family as Gabrielle did. With a large income and more relaxed lifestyle, Gabrielle succeeds her goal of regaining her former beauty but realizes motherhood and years of looking after Carlos has changed her for the better.

Gabrielle also covers for Carlos's boss, Bradley, when she discovers he is having an affair. She does it so Carlos will receive a higher wage and more time off. Eventually Gabrielle comes to her senses and tells his wife, Maria. Later, Carlos and Gabrielle are horrified to learn that Maria killed Bradley when he told her that he was leaving her for his mistress. Gabrielle later gets jealous when Carlos hires his ex-girlfriend, Lucy, as his right-hand lady which he took over from Bradley. Gabrielle gets Lynette a job with them so she can spy on Carlos and Lucy but is soon fed up with Carlos constantly being at work, due to Lucy insisting everyone works more hours. Gabrielle is happy when Carlos decides to let Lucy go due to the way she treats people.

Gabrielle is highly affected by the death of Edie Britt and remembers the friendly competitions for men they once had. She recalls Edie insisting that she wouldn't survive past fifty and is saddened to realize that she was right.

At the conclusion of the season, Gaby agrees to take in Carlos's teenage niece, Ana, who was being raised by Aunt Connie. Ana immediately tests Gaby's patience when she is asked to do some chores, she gets the Scavo boys to clean the house because "they asked to hang out with her".

Season Six

Ana continues to test Gaby's patience by wearing inappropriate clothes, stealing money and sneaking out of the house at night, which causes Gaby to refuse to become Ana's legal guardian. However, when Ana reveals her intentions of rushing through life, Gaby sees herself in her and signs the paperwork making her Ana's legal guardian. Ana thinks Gaby is too mean, and Gaby explains that she wishes someone had been mean to her at that age.

When John Rowland returns, this causes problems with Gabrielle and Carlos. He thinks that she still wants to look nice for her ex-lover. When Gaby shows up at John's restaurant, (where Carlos is having his business dinner) she doesn't put any effort into her look. She tells Carlos that she has stood by him for 11 years. She stayed with him when he was poor, blind and when he "knocked her up twice." When Ana begins to fall for John, Gaby intervenes and tells John to stay away. He then tells her he was only flirting with Ana to see if she still had feelings for him. He then asks her to run off with him and kisses Gaby just as Ana walks in. She confesses her past affair with John to Ana, and the two finally mend fences as Gaby declares her love for Carlos. Gaby then answers John by sending a photo strip of them together, torn right down the middle.

When Gabrielle finds out Lynette is pregnant, she is angered her friend kept this secret rather than risk her job. She does try to make peace but when Lynette sues Carlos, she angrily rejects their friendship. In "Boom Crunch", while Gabrielle and Lynette are fighting during a Christmas block party, a plane crash-lands on Wisteria Lane. Lynette pushes Celia out of the path of the plane.

In "You Gotta Get a Gimmick" Gabrielle told Carlos she didn't want to be reminded of her Mexican heritage - because of how poor she was, not wanting her girls to know she lived like that. Carlos told her they should know where their mother came from and the sacrifice her father made, to which Gabrielle agreed.

Gaby got involved in the Bolen's secret when she overhears Angie and Nick discussing their cover. Later, in "Chromolume No. 7, when Angie and Gaby traveled to New York, Gaby was treated badly by her old co-workers, super-models Heidi Klum and Paulina Porizkova, she realizes that she married Carlos because her career was on the verge of failure. While returning to Fairview, Angie reveals to Gaby that Patrick Logan, the "very bad guy" she's been running away from, is actually Danny's father.

In "We All Deserve to Die", Gaby decides to donate eggs to Bob and Lee so they can have a child but after changes her mind, leading them to break up. Gaby saves the Bolen family and is the one to say goodbye to them when they are leaving for Atlanta (and Danny New York). Bree finally tells Gaby about the hit and run accident that happened 10 years before. One of the children of either Lynette, Gaby or Susan isn't their own and they have been raising the wrong child.

Trivia

• Actress Roselyn Sánchez auditioned for the role also but the producers thought she wasn't right for the role because of her heavy Puerto Rican accent.
• Actress Laura Harring also auditioned for the role of Gabrielle