Andrew Van de Kamp

From Wiksteria Lane, the free Desperate Housewives encyclopedia!

Andrew Van de Kamp

Name

Andrew Van de Kamp

Age

23

Marital Status

Engaged

First seen

Pilot

Status

Alive

Occupation

Manager of Mrs. Van de Kamp's Catering

Portrayed by

Shawn Pyfrom

Andrew Van de Kamp is the sociopathic, atheist, gay teenage son of Bree Hodge and the late Rex Van de Kamp.

He takes after his mother, Bree in every way; he's smart, conniving and determined to get his way. With two such clever schemers under one roof, it's no surprise they nearly brought about each other's downfall so many times.

[edit] Season One

Andrew first appears in the "Pilot" of season one. His first speaking role is arguing with his mother, Bree, over her desire for perfection. He is attached to his father, Rex, and is upset when Bree tries to cover up their impending divorce. When he confronts her with her own lies after she discovers he lied to her, she says, "Just because I chose not to share my marital problems with you does not give you the right to be rude!": but Andrew replies, "How about driving my father away? Do I get to be rude then?", and shuts the door in her face. Andrew repeatedly breaks the rules during Season 1, infuriating Bree, who eventually humiliates him by turning up at the strip club he is visiting with his friends while grounded. Bree does later apologise to Andrew (who also admits how much he misses his father) for lying to him, but still removes the door to his room in punishment.

The acrimonious divorce of his parents results in Rex buying Andrew a car. Although Bree tries to get him to give it back, Andrew refuses. Later that episode, in his most serious crime, he commits a hit-and-run while drunk that puts Juanita Solis into a coma. His mother hushes it up for him, but Andrew fails to express any remorse for his crime. He continues to misbehave, and Bree has him dropped from his school swim team for smoking marijuana in an attempt to make him regret his actions. Further angered by her refusal to allow Rex to convalesce from heart surgery at home, Andrew claims, "You wanna see how long I can hold a grudge? Go ahead and abandon my father because I promise you will be sorry." When he finds out about his father's adultery, however, he is extremely apologetic to Bree and angry with Rex.

When Bree accuses Andrew of having a relationship with his friend Lisa, he merely laughs. He has actually been developing a relationship with Justin, who in the same episode confesses to Gabrielle Solis that he and Andrew have been "fooling around" for some time. Andrew later crashes Zach's pool party with Justin and some friends and creates mayhem. However, after everyone else has gone home, Susan Mayer catches the two in the swimming pool kissing; Andrew anxiously shouts, "I'm not, I'm not gay!" After he is expelled from school for drug abuse and refusing to cooperate with the authorities, as well as his continuing rudeness to Bree, Andrew is sent to a juvenile delinquent boot camp.

Andrew stares resentfully at his mother from Camp Hennessey. Some time later, Bree and Rex visit Andrew at the camp. Andrew only agrees to see his father; Bree believes this is because he blames her for putting him in the camp, and storms into the meeting room to tell him she did the right thing. There Rex reveals that Andrew wanted to see him alone because he fears he is gay. Bree is horrified, and despite Rex's misgivings, insists Andrew be removed from the camp immediately, saying "Our son just told us that he might be gay. There are two hundred other boys in this camp. Now, I could explain to you what might happen if we left him here, but I'm a lady and I don't use that kind of language." Rex warns her that he is still her son, and so Bree tries to comfort Andrew by telling him "I would love you even if you were a murderer".

Bree then invites the Reverend Sikes to dinner, who tries to convince Andrew to enrol in Christian counseling. He refuses, saying "I'm not confused. I know exactly who I am." This deeply upsets Bree, who tells him he has to change or he will not be with her in heaven; Andrew is shocked by this and agrees to speak to the reverend. In his final scene of the season, after swearing the priest to secrecy, Andrew states that, not only that he does not believe in God, but also that he lied to his parents about being gay to get out of the camp. This confuses the pastor, who asks him whether he is heterosexual or not: Andrew replies, "Look, I love vanilla ice cream, okay? But every now and then I’m probably gonna be in the mood for chocolate." He then says he will get revenge on Bree for rejecting him by pretending to be a model son and then doing something so awful it is "going to really destroy her".

[edit] Season Two

Set just weeks after Rex's death, Andrew's first opening shot in Season 2 is to claim Bree is incapable of having murdered his father because "it takes guts to kill somebody". He resents George Williams for dating Bree while Rex was still alive, and is very rude to him when he sees the two together. Bree blackmails Andrew with swim club subs into attending dinner with George. In response, Andrew imitates Bree's pleasure moan to provoke George, who tries to ground him but will not tell Bree why, and she refuses to punish Andrew without a reason. George decides to get rid of Andrew by kissing his mother during his swim meet, which so angers him he jumps out of the pool and attacks George. That evening, Andrew packs his bags for Camp Hennessey a second time.

Andrew tries to provoke Bree as far as possible - including exhibiting his sexuality in front of her. After George dies, Bree brings Andrew back from the camp, telling him that George killed Rex in order to marry her; Andrew is disgusted that his father is dead because of her. As a result, Andrew invites Justin to sleep over.

He also confides his wish for his mother to slip up so that he can "take her down". Later, when Bree confesses to Andrew that George didn't commit suicide, he overdosed and asked her for an ambulance, and instead she sat down and waited for him to die, Andrew is provided with the "slip up" that he was waiting for.

When Bree sees Andrew kissing Justin outside her window, she forbids him to bring his boyfriend round again. Andrew mocks her and ensures Bree later walks in the two in bed together. Bree threatens to call the police and have Justin forcibly removed, but Andrew replies that he will tell them about what happened to George. This backfires, however, when Bree hires Karl Mayer, a lawyer and friend of the family, who not only explains that Bree has not committed a crime, but slams Andrew against a wall and orders him to leave her alone.

Along with his sister, Andrew notices Bree's increasing alcohol consumption, and uses it against her. When Bree refuses to let Andrew access his trust fund to buy a car, he calls her a "mean old drunk", and she slaps him. Andrew emotionally blackmails Justin into punching him in the same place Bree slapped him. He then hires a lawyer to file for emancipation from his mother, whom he accuses of hitting him while drunk. Andrew tries to persuade her in "There Is No Other Way" to just let him go, but she refuses saying she hasn't "set him right" yet. Andrew, after consultation with his lawyer, tells Bree in "Could I Leave You?" that he will accuse her of sexual molestation if he does not get his way.

Bree's father and stepmother arrive, and convince the judge to drop the case. They try to reconcile the two, but Andrew persuades them to take him to live with them. Justin is heartbroken when he finds out. Bree persuades Justin to supply her with gay magazines and videos, which she plants among Andrew's things for his grandparents to find; they then leave Andrew behind, and revoke his trust fund. In an attempt to make peace, Bree invites Justin to dinner.

Andrew, however, secretly furious by what Bree did plots revenge. He discovers that Peter MacMillan, Bree's boyfriend, is a sex addict, and tries to persuade Danielle to seduce him. After she refuses, he lures Peter into bed himself, where Bree finds them like Andrew had planned and tells bree 'Now,we're even'. Bree finally gives up and leaves him with a bag of clothes and some money by an abandoned gas station because she can no longer love him unconditionally. In his final emotional scene for the season, Andrew, realizing he really is about to lose his mom, tells her that the only good thing is that he has won.

Bree simply replies "Good for you", and drives away in tears.

[edit] Season Three

Orson persuades Andrew to come home. He succeeds where Bree does not. Eight months after the end of Season 2, Bree is about to leave for her honeymoon with Orson when she sees a news report on television about homeless teenagers, in which Andrew is interviewed. Horrified at what has happened to him, she cancels her honeymoon and sets out to retrieve Andrew, eventually finding him in a soup kitchen; she asks him to come back but he refuses. When she shouts "I'm your mother, for god's sakes, you're my son!", Andrew replies "No, you dumped your son at a gas station seven months ago. I'm somebody else now", and runs. When Orson sees how guilty Bree feels, he finds Andrew himself and buys him lunch. During their conversation, Andrew admits he prostituted himself when desperate for money, and asks Orson not to tell his mother, before realising what he's said and correcting himself. Orson does not try to force Andrew to come home but instead points out that the reason he is living on the streets is to punish his mother, and ultimately he will only destroy himself. Andrew does not initially appear to heed this, but returns home the next day at the end of "A Weekend In the Country".

Bree is delighted, but insists on concocting a reason for Andrew's long absence. Returning to normal social activities, he is disconcerted to see one of his former clients at a school science fair. Orson is worried for Andrew, which Bree notices and asks him about later that night. Wanting no secrets, Orson confesses that Andrew sold himself for money, and that the man he had been talking to was a previous client. Bree, shocked, and a friend of the man's wife, confesses all to her. She takes it badly, and tells Bree in return that Danielle is sleeping with her history teacher. Later, Andrew watches the tail end of her argument with Danielle and, concerned, he tries to comfort Bree, explaining that she did instil moral values, "I mean, we know the difference between right and wrong, we just chose wrong", but also that she pushed them so hard they had to rebel. Bree tries to subtly get him to talk about his prostitution, but he gently brushes her off. Andrew has since got a job working at Tom's pizzeria, though he takes a fairly lax attitude to his work.

When Andrew overhears the conversation between Bree and Orson about the death of Monique Polier, he believes that it is Orson's fault when his mother suffers a fall from a rigged ladder. Warning Orson that he has never met "bad Andrew", but he will if he harms Bree further, Andrew then tells the nurse that Orson is dangerous and should not be left alone with his mother. However in "The Little Things You Do Together", when Andrew rushes home from his job fearing Orson is going to harm Bree again, he is knocked out by Gloria Hodge, who actually harmed Bree and intends to kill her. When Andrew comes round, he discovers that Orson has actually been trying to protect Bree, and their relationship returns to normal.

Andrew has had no romance this season so far, though he reveals to Danielle and Julie that he has tried to seduce Austin McCann, Edie's nephew. It is Andrew who convinces Austin to leave Fairview after he gets Danielle pregnant. In the episode "Liaisons" Andrew reveals he is only working at the Scavo's Pizzeria for $8.50 an hour because he is "doing the beer guy."

[edit] Season Four

Andrew accidentally leads his grandmother to discover that Bree is not really pregnant. He is there when his sister, Danielle, gives birth to her son.

After Andrew hears his mother talking about how she looks forward to this new chance to finally raise a child correctly, he becomes upset. He decides to move out of his mother's house and get his own apartment. Bree feels guilty and brings food to his house. Andrew tells his mother that he is not angry anymore and has forgiven her, he's moved out in order to try and turn his life around and stand on his own. Bree and Andrew are finally able to reach a full reconciliation. Andrew then makes Bree use a coaster for her drink, providing a humorous moment between the two as she thinks he is becoming more like her. In the season finale, in a scene set five years in the future, Andrew is apparently in business with Bree, who is now a successful author. This indicates that Shawn Pyfrom will probably be elevated from also starring to starring in Season Five, taking the place of Andrea Bowen as the leading teen.

[edit] Season Five

Five years later, Andrew is now the personal assistant of his mother, Bree, who, with her new cookbook, is a rising public figure similar to Martha Stewart. He has appeared to have matured and is usually seen alongside his mother wearing a suit. He apparently makes a decent living as he owns a sports car. Andrew has also grown to become somewhat of a "jerk" once again, only this time towards others (as seen when he rips off Gabby Solis during a car sale).

Orson Hodge's plastic surgeon, Alex Cominis, is Andrew's fiancé. When Bree discovers that Alex was once in gay porn, she tells Andrew and is surprised to learn that Andrew already knew and did not judge Alex for his past mistakes as he himself has a "sordid past" (referring to the feud between himself and his mother following the death of his father, Rex Van de Kamp, and his work as a rent boy seven years earlier).

Andrew accuses Bree of being too protective by investigating Alex. She admits to this, and Andrew - to her surprise - is glad. It is then insinuated that Bree has come to accept her son's sexuality and plans on handling the wedding. When Andrew's soon-to-be mother in-law comes to town, in order to out-do her Bree decides to buy Andrew and Alex the former home of Martha Huber and Felicia Tilman, which is only two houses down and on Wisteria Lane.

[edit] Season Six

Shawn Pyfrom has quit Desperate Housewives and will not be returning as a series regular. He will, however, continue to make occasional guest appearances.

In The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues, Andrew reveals that he has been in contact with Julie for years. He ends up revealing to Susan that Julie quit Med school and has been wating tables for the past 6 months.