Lynette Scavo

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Lynette Scavo

Name

Lynette Scavo

Age

48

Marital Status

Married

First seen

Pilot

Status

Alive

Occupation

Corporate Senior Vice President

Portrayed by

Felicity Huffman

"She used to see herself as a career woman, and a hugely successful one at that. She was known for her power lunches, her eye-catching presentations, and her ruthlessness in wiping out the competition. But Lynette gave up her career to assume a new label: the incredibly satisfying role of full-time mother. Unfortunatley for Lynette, this new label frequently fell short of what was advertised."

Lynette Scavo (née Lindquist) was once best known as a savvy career woman. In the work force she was an over-achiever who could accomplish any task, but those days came to an end when she and her husband, Tom, decided to have children. She gave up the working world and within six years had twin boys, a five year old son and a baby girl. Soon, she gained a new reputation as the mother of quite possibly the most unruly children ever born.

[edit] Early Life

Lynette is the eldest of three daughters born in 1966 to Stella Wingfield . She and her sisters lost their father very early in life and Glenn Wingfield was her stepfather for a while but he left too. Lynette blamed her mother for driving him away for a long time.

She graduated from Northwestern University and met Tom when they worked together in Advertising agents. They married in 1996 and moved to Wisteria Lane when they discovered she was expecting their eldest children, Porter and Preston. She is the best mother in Wisteria Lane and the most upfront.

[edit] Season One

Lynette used to be a high-powered advertising executive but now her husband Tom travels almost all the time and her ADHD afflicted boys and infant daughter are driving her crazy. It is as though she took a new job she thought she would love, and now

Lynette struggles to cope with her four children

she desperately misses her old one but she is so driven that she tries to apply the same go-getter methods she used at work to being a mom. And it doesn't always work. Worse, Tom seems to have no idea how harried she is. He's oblivious to her plight, and his cluelessness only fuels her frustration. Lynette is fearless and able to say it like it is. When the worlds scariest stay-at-home mother, Maisy Gibbons, insists on a politically correct version of Little Red Riding Hood the impressionable Lynette gives Maisy a talking to, even offering to "throw down" outside.

But Lynette, although a toughie, is also an intense overachiever, and in her frenzied attempt to get the costumes made on time, she winds up getting hooked on her sons' ADD medication. The career woman who once had it all begins to unravel, realizing she's not cut out for the life she leads.

Strung out and exhausted, she hallucinates that Mary Alice is offering her a revolver. When she finally calms down, she admits to Bree and Susan, that she thinks she's a terrible mother. This admission itself only becomes more painful to Lynette when her friends confess that they too found motherhood challenging. For the first time Lynette realizes that no one has an easy time of motherhood, and she sobs to the girls, "We should tell each other this stuff."

Seeking a solution to their problems, Tom and Lynette hire a nanny, but she turns out to be a little bit too attractive to keep around. Then, when Tom is offered a lucrative promotion that entails him traveling for work even more, Lynette finds a way to ensure that the offer is retracted. Nostalgic for her old days on the career path, she is ambivalent and frustrated with the challenges of what is supposed to be a placid, ideal life.

[edit] Season Two

As she begins to see what's right for her family might not be right for her, Lynette displays mettle we haven't seen before. When Tom quits his job and decides to be a stay-at-home dad, Lynette is torn by her desire to return to work and anxiety about leaving her kids.

In the ending of season two, Lynette thinks that Tom is having an affair with a woman living far away. He was fired for stealing money from his employer over several months to fund trips to Atlantic City and had also lied to Lynette about his whereabouts and why he had to go out of state for several days at a time. She follows Tom and sees them hug and kiss. Lynette then leaves Tom and takes the kids with her. Tom finds her after their son broke his arm from jumping off of a balcony and proves that he did not cheat, but instead he has a daughter that he never knew about. Her name is Kayla and she is 11. He had a one night stand with a woman named Nora Huntington and Nora got pregnant, before he was with Lynette.

[edit] Season Three

Lynette has trouble adjusting to having Nora and Kayla around her and her family but does her best. Lynette learns that Nora wants Tom back so she warns her to keep her distance. Nora decides to move away and take Kayla so Lynette and Tom go for custody. However, plans changed when Nora and Lynette were held at gunpoint by Carolyn Bigsby. Learning that Nora had made a pass at Lynette's husband, Carolyn killed her. Lynette promised her, before she died, that she would look after Kayla. Mad that Kayla had lost her mother, she told Carolyn that she deserved to be cheated on. Carolyn went on to shoot Lynette, hitting her in the arm. Lynette and Kayla struggle to get on as Kayla blamed Lynette for her mother's death.

Tom, jobless, followed his life-long dream to open a pizzeria and Lynette went to work with him but their relationship hit a problem when Tom was confined to bed with a back injury. Lynette struggled to cope with Tom, five children and the pizzeria so she hired a manager, Rick. Soon, Lynette realised she had feelings for Rick and spent time alone with him after the restaurant closed every night. Tom thought Rick and Lynette were having an affair and demanded Rick quit his job but he refused to go. Rick told Lynette he had feelings for her so she fired him. Following a row with Tom when he accidentally knocked Lynette onto the floor from their bed, they went to hospital where a CAT scan revealed swollen lymph nodes. In the season finale, Lynette told her sister Lucy that she has been diagnosed with Cancer and asks if Lucy can lend them some money. Lucy is sympathetic but unable to help as her husband has just lost his job. Tom borrows the money from Lynette's mother, Stella - much to her chagrin. Stella then told Lynette that she is moving in so she can help while Lynette fights the cancer.

[edit] Season Four

Thanks to the cancer, Lynette now wears wigs but has kept her illness a secret. She didn't want people feeling sorry for her but eventually confesses. Her friends are shocked that she felt unable to confide in them but eventually she gets the all clear. Lynette asks Stella to leave after she gave her brownies laced with marijuana. She asked her sisters to take Stella but they refused. Upset at their attitude, Lynette asks Stella to stay with her, but Stella refused and left. Lynette later discovered that Glenn left because he was Gay. Upon discovering this, Lynette reveals that she would have forgiven her Mother and that she appreciates all the time they've spent together. Stella, not wanting to ruin that, decides not to return and moves in with Glenn.

A short time later, a tornado warning was declared for Fairview, and Lynette persuaded her neighbour, Mrs. McCluskey, to let her family shelter in her basement. Ida Greenberg is riding out the storm with them in the basement too. Lynette and Karen went out into the storm to find Ida's cat but are caught in it and hide in Lynette's bathtub. After the tornado, Lynette and Mrs. McCluskey find Mrs. McCluskey's house in ruins. Lynette's family is safe though. Ida died, giving her life in fact, so Lynette's family would survive. Lynette, is touched by Ida's selflessness.

Kayla then begins to act out towards Lynette, to the point where Lynette slaps her for threatening Penny. Kayla's evil streak continues and she burns herself with a curling iron. She blamed Lynette, who is later arrested. While in prison, she told Tom what Kayla was doing so he confronted Kayla, placing his cell phone on the table, with the doctor on the other end. Kayla confesses to them that she lied so Tom sends her to live with her grandparents. Tom is upset that he had to send her away but in time, he and Lynette reconcile.

[edit] Five Year Jump

"How did the children I once craddled, grow up so very quickly?"

In the five year time leap, it is revealed that the Scavo boys are still as mischievous as ever. However this time they are having run-ins with the law.

[edit] Season Five

Tom and Lynette are still running the pizzeria and having trouble raising the twins, now teenagers. Tom is having a mid-life crisis

Lynette confronts Anne

and often sides with his sons, frustrating Lynette. Tom starts an all guy band with Dave, Orson, Carlos and Mike, much to Lynette's annoyance. Lynette and Tom discover that Porter is having an affair with Anne Shilling, a much older married woman. Anne tells Porter that she is having his baby and they plan to run away together. Lynette confronts Anne about her affair with Porter and her abusive husband, Warren, overhears them. He asks Lynette to leave and is beating Anne up but Lynette returns.

Later that day, Tom and his band have a gig at Warren's nightclub. Porter confronts Warren and Warren punches him but Lynette intervenes again. She sends Porter home and confronts Warren herself about "hitting women and children". Warren locks the door and as the band play, a fire starts. Everyone's trapped but they escape through a window and Warren blames Porter for the fire. He is later arrested but released on bail and Lynette pays Anne to leave town alone. Lynette tells Anne to contact her or Tom when the baby is born and Anne reveals that there is no baby. The real arsonist, Dave, frames Porter for the fire and scared of Warren, he jumps bail before his court hearing. Tom and Lynette realise that Preston is posing as Porter in court. Eventually Porter returns and the charges are dropped but lawyer bills, and the money used to pay Anne has left the Scavos broke, forcing Tom to sell the pizzeria. Lynette also returned to work in Advertising. Her boss is Carlos Solis. In the finale, Lynette starts feeling weird and fears that the cancer has returned. But the truth is even worse...she's pregnant with (another) set of twins.

[edit] Season Six

In her first trimester, Lynette is depressed about the prospect of having twins so late in life.

Lynette, Tom and Parker at Susan's wedding

She admits to her husband Tom that she doesn't love her unborn children in the way she loved her other kids at this stage. Lynette talks to an upset Susan, who says that she would give up everything to get just one more day as Julie's mom. This convinces Lynette to keep going on with her pregnancy, and so she announces it to her children in the third episode. Problems arise at work when she must keep her pregnancy secret from her boss Carlos in order to protect a promotion. This entails explaining away her increased bust by leading Carlos to believe she has had breast implants.

Later, Lynette learns that Nick and Julie were having a affair. She pleads Julie to speak to the police, with no luck.

Soon, Lynette's pregnancy becomes impossible to hide. Lynette pretends not to be pregnant by wearing Tom's clothes and a huge duffle coat. Gabrielle argues with Lynette, saying that she is not to be trusted. Lynette urges her not to tell Carlos, as she fears he will fire her. Instead, Carlos offers her a promotion regardless of her pregnancy.

[edit] Trivia

Lynette's four children were originally planned to be called Paul, Preston, Patsy and Phillip instead of Porter, Preston, Parker and Penny ; it is unknown whether the nomenclature is an homage to the other female-led series Charmed. Also, on Episode 2 of Desperate Housewives, Penny's name is written as Daisy on Mike's whiteboard.
Lynette mentioned in season 1, that she and her sisters were hit by her mother; this possibly indicates that she was abused as a child.
Lynette confused her pregnancy with the her 2nd pair of twins with the return of her cancer.