Gabrielle Solis

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Gabrielle Solis

Name

Gabrielle Solis

Age

38

Marital Status

Married

First seen

Pilot

Status

Alive

Occupation

Homeschool Teacher
Socialite

Portrayed by

Eva Longoria Parker

"I should of seen how unhappy she was. But I didn't. I only saw her clothes from Paris, and her platinum jewelry, and her brand new diamond watch. Had I looked closer, I'd have seen that Gabrielle was a drowning woman. Desperately in search of a life raft..."

Gabrielle Solis (née Marquez, previously Lang) is vain, shallow, and materialistic, but underneath she is thoughtful and caring, and loves her friends on Wisteria Lane dearly and will always help in a crisis. She tends to be reckless and acts first then thinks later, 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 little finger.

[edit] Early Life

Gabrielle Marquez was born into a small town in Mexico, where her family was very poor. When she was five, her father was diagnosed with cancer, from which he died. When she was 15 years old, she was sexually assaulted by her stepfather, Alejandro, and left home the next day. Unfortunately this led to an argument with her mother as her mother blamed Gabrielle, thinking she was jealous. Five years later, she seduced a fashion photographer and became a model.

[edit] Season One

At the beginning of the series, Gabrielle is having an affair with her teenage gardener, John Rowland. Gabrielle feels that John treats her with love, unlike Carlos who is never there and is unwilling to discuss emotions. Carlos, however, suspects Gaby is cheating on him, and asks his mother, Juanita, to visit and keep an eye on Gabrielle. She does her best to keep Juanita busy but Juanita photographs Gabrielle with John. John chases her for the camera but, not looking where she is going, is hit by a car driven by Andrew (who was drunk) and slips into a coma. Gabrielle disposes of the camera but is forced to confess to John's mother, Helen, about the affair after Helen assumed John was sleeping with Susan.

Gabrielle learns that she is pregnant, as a result of Carlos swapping her birth control pills with sugar pills. She almost leaves him after discovering the truth but blackmails him into taking care of the baby in return for her testimony at his trial for gay hate crimes. Just as the trial is about to end 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.

[edit] Season Two

Carlos is in jail and unwilling to forgive Gabrielle for her affair. Eventually she apologizes, and he 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, he and Gabrielle try for another baby, but discover she cannot get pregnant because of the injuries she suffered when she miscarried.

She and Carlos try to adopt, but Helen Rowland worked for the adoption agency, and as revenge for Gaby's affair with John, tells them she would make sure that they never adopt a child. Next, the couple tries to adopt pole-dancer Libby Collins's daughter, who they name Lily, but Libby changes her mind and takes her daughter back. Finally they ask their maid, Xiao-Mei, to be their 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.

[edit] 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 transferred 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 last name back to Marquez. She decided to go back 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, 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).

[edit] Season Four

Gabrielle and Carlos planned to escape together; however, Edie staged a suicide attempt, and Carlos felt that he could not leave her, though he continued the affair. They were discovered when Edie hired a private detective and she 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 unncessary - 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. He wanted Gabrielle to 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.

[edit] Five Year Jump

We see Gabrielle playing poker with the girls all tired and with little to no make-up on, her hair short and unstyled. When the game ends she goes upstairs and we see she and Carlos have had two daughters, Juanita and Celia Solis.

[edit] Season Five

Both of Gabrielle's daughters, Juanita and Celia, have a weight issue. While this concerns Gaby, who cannot find a party dress that fits Juanita and witnessing her eat lots of cake at a party, Carlos is less worried.

At the nightclub fire, Carlos sustained a head injury, but the doctor surprises them when he discovers that Carlos' sight can be corrected when a bone fragment is removed. While she is overjoyed, Gabrielle worries as she fears Carlos will no longer find her attractive, so she begins a slow transition towards her former appearance.

When Carlos’s vision is restored, Gabrielle holds a party, but has to sell a family heirloom, a baseball, to pay for it. Carlos isn't happy on discovering this and Gabrielle has to dance to the rich man she sold it to to get it back. However Carlos discovers that Gabrielle has had to sacrifice a lot over the past five years, she has had to sell all her designer clothes and jewellry, and other expensive possessions including a hallway painting to keep the family afloat. He sells the baseball to buy a designer dress for Gabrielle to thank her for all the effort she put in while he couldn't work. On regaining his sight, Carlos returns to work and their finances return to normal.

Gabrielle also covers up 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. Carlos is promoted soon after this. Gabrielle later gets jealous when Carlos hires his ex girlfriend, Lucy, as his right hand lady in the company which he took over from Bradley. Gabrielle gets Lynette a job with them so she can spy on Carlos and Lucy. In the next episode, Gabrielle gets fed up with Carlos being at work all the time, due to Lucy's orders that everyone has to work 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 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 Edie 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 instead gets the Scavo boys to clean the house because "they asked to hang out with her".

[edit] Season Six

Ana continues to test Gaby's patience by wearing inappropriate clothes to school, stealing money from her purse, and sneaking out of the house at night, which causes Gaby to refuse to become Ana's legal guardian unless she behaves herself. However, when Ana reveals her intentions of rushing through life, Gaby sees herself in her and signs the paperwork officially becoming Ana's legal guardian, 24/7. Ana thinks Gaby is too mean, and Gaby explains that she wishes someone had been mean to her at Ana's age. When John Rowland returns, this causes some 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 (which is 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 offers for her to run off with him and his new found wealth. He then kisses Gaby just as Ana walks in. She then later confesses her past affair with John to Ana, and the two finally mend fences as Gaby declares her love for Carlos. Gaby then gives her answer to John when she sends a photo strip of them together, torn right down the middle.

Despite vowing not to have children, and eventually having two, Gaby tries to be a good mother and has been offended when people say otherwise. When Juanita and a friend (who comes over on a play date) are dangerously sledging down the stairs the friend's mother cusses Gaby's parenting. Gaby reacts badly to this and disallowes her and her daughter from Juanita's upcoming birthday party, however this backfires when other mothers pull out on hearing about the incident. Gaby then decides to throw an elaborate party with a clown and a monkey to convince the children to ask their parents to attend who relent, and drop their children the party, including the daughter of the woman who insulted Gaby, however Susan stays with Gaby, obviously doubtful of Gaby when she drops MJ at the party, but covers it as a quiet drink with Gaby. The party goes wrong when everyone gets scared and runs away after the monkey attacks the clown.

Gaby's parenting concerns get worse over Thanksgiving. Carlos and Gaby attend the Thanksgiving Pagent at Juanita's school, as Juanita is in it. However she forgets her lines and swears by accident, but the whole audience hear it. The principal punishes Juanita but Gaby is quick to stand up for her daughter, as the punishment (apology letter writing, pulling out of the Pagent and cafeteria cleaning) is too harsh, especially the latter, and that Juanita said it by accident. However the principal blames Gaby's parenting and implies she probably taught it to her. Gaby reacts badly by making a rude comment to her and pulls Juanita out of school. However this has been a mistake Gaby regrets as she cannot find another school for Juanita to attend and has to home school her.