Bree Van de Kamp

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Bree Van de Kamp
Desperate Housewives
Portrayed by Marcia Cross
First appearance Pilot (episode 1.01)
Created by Marc Cherry
Profile
Aliases Bree Mason (maiden name)
Bree Van de Kamp (first married name)
Bree Hodge (current married name)
Gender Female
Age 46, 51 (at the end of 4.17)
Occupation Housewife, caterer; cook-book author (at the end of 4.17)
Residence 4354 Wisteria Lane
Fairview, Eagle State

Bree Hodge (née Mason, previously Van de Kamp) is a fictional character on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives, played by Marcia Cross.

Contents

[edit] Storylines

Bree is introduced in season one as the perfect wife and mother,[1] however, it becomes apparent that her emotional coldness and obsession with appearance causes the rest of her family to resent her.[2] She is forced to take part in marriage counseling when her husband Rex asks for a divorce,[3][4] and her son Andrew's rebellious behavior leads her to cover up a hit-and-run accident to protect him. Bree eventually discovers that Rex is having an affair with a prostitute,[5] and leaves him, seeking companionship with local pharmacist George Williams. Hoping to restore her marriage, Bree reluctantly takes part in S&M scenarios with Rex in an attempt to satisfy him sexually.[6] As she and Rex begin to reconcile, the conservative Bree is horrified when Andrew comes out of the closet,[7] and her attempts to "correct" her son's homosexuality only succeeds in alienating him further. Bree continues to confide in George about her family problems, and unbeknown to Bree, he begins plotting to murder Rex by replacing his heart medication. When Rex has a heart attack and the doctors discover his medication was tampered with, Rex believes Bree was the one trying to kill him, and writes her a note forgiving her. He then dies of a heart-attack, leaving Bree devastated.

In season two, Bree is disgusted when she discovers that Rex suspected her of poisoning him, and she begins to rely on George for emotional support. George manipulates Bree into agreeing to marry him, but when his obsessive and jealous behavior becomes too much, she angrily breaks off the engagement. As Bree discovers that George is responsible for murdering Rex, George attempts a fake suicide in order to win her back. However, now knowing his part in her husband's death, Bree watches coldly as she allows George to die. Following these events, Bree slips into alcoholism, and Andrew's vendetta towards her reaches a head when he falsely accuses her of child abuse. To combat this, Bree reluctantly attends Alcoholics Anonymous, and begins a relationship with her sponsor, Peter McMillan, who is also a sex addict. Bree thwarts Andrew's attempts to achieve legal emancipation, so he takes revenge by having sex with Peter. Unable to cope with Andrew any longer, Bree kicks him out and falls into a deep depression. When her remaining child Danielle then runs away with her boyfriend Matthew Applewhite, Bree suffers a nervous breakdown and checks herself into a psychiatric clinic, where she meets Orson Hodge. However, after discovering that Matthew is a murderer and Danielle is in danger, Bree escapes the facility and confronts Matthew at gunpoint. Matthew is shot dead by the police, and Bree and Danielle reconcile.

Season three sees Bree marry Orson after a six-month relationship, but their marriage is plagued by the revelation that Orson may have not only physically abused his first wife, Alma, but also murdered her. Shortly after the wedding, Andrew returns home, and the rift between him and his mother is healed through Orson's mediation. However, the arrival of Orson's mother, Gloria, and the return of Alma, causes a rift in the family once more. When the two women successfully drug Orson for the purpose of allowing Alma to rape him, Bree intervenes and learns that Gloria was responsible for murdering Orson's mistress Monique Pollier, in order to keep him trapped in a loveless marriage to Alma. Gloria then tries to murder Bree in the bathtub and make it look like suicide, but Orson intervenes and in defense of Bree, causes his mother to suffer a terminal stroke. With Gloria paralyzed, and Alma dead after falling from a roof, Bree and Orson are finally able to go on their honeymoon. When she returns, Bree announces to her friends that she is pregnant. However, it is in fact Danielle who is pregnant, but Bree plans to raise the child as her own to avoid scandal by wearing a series of false bellies and keeping Danielle hidden in a convent until she gives birth.

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In season four, it is revealed that Bree plans to lie to the neighbors about Danielle's pregnancy stem from her own desire to have another chance at motherhood. Bree develops a rivalry with new neighbor Katherine Mayfair, who she finds out is keeping a secret. Phyllis Reynolds-Van de Kamp, Rex's mother, later turns up at Bree's baby party and the two soon come to blows, with Phyllis discovering Bree's secret. However, she keeps it quiet but she goes and takes Danielle from the place where she is being looked after. Bree and Orson take Danielle out of the home where Phyllis lives with Andrew's help. On Halloween, Danielle gives birth to a baby boy named Benjamin on Bree's kitchen table. Bree and Orson then take on the role of Benjamin's parents, with Bree telling her friends she gave birth in the middle of the night. After the tornado, Bree, Orson, and Benjamin move in with Susan and Julie. Bree needs a contractor and tries to fix Andrew up, but Susan makes it fail so she stays, because it is the only thing Susan has to hold onto since her husband is in rehab. After Edie Britt discovered the truth about Benjamin being her great-nephew, she blackmailed Bree with the information. To Edie's surprise, Bree told the other housewives who ultimately sided with Bree. Not taking kindly to blackmail (Mary Alice, their deceased friend and narrator of the series committed suicide upon being blackmailed by a neighbor), the housewives all confronted Edie and made it clear that they would act as if Edie didn't exist, defriending her. During the two-hour season finale, Bree is taken hostage with Katherine by Katherine's ex-husband, Wayne Davis. Wayne uses Bree as his way of learning Katherine's secret: he has a gun, and is about to shoot Bree. Katherine couldn't bear to have Bree (the two started off as rivals, but became best friends) killed, so she told Wayne the truth. After Katherine shoots Wayne, killing him, Bree asks the other housewives (Susan Delfino, Lynette Scavo, and Gabrielle Solis) to come up with a self-defense story to save Katherine from going to jail. This works and Katherine is taken off to a hospital instead of jail. After the five year jump, Bree comes home after playing poker at Gabrielle Solis'. Andrew welcomes her telling her that he's with a woman from the New York Times on the phone who wants to have an interview with her (since she is now a famous cookbook author), Orson Hodge calls her from upstairs and Bree tells Andrew to tell the woman that she'll do the interview in the morning because she wants to have a nice bubble bath with her husband.

[edit] Characterization

Born in 1962, Bree Hodge is a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (she is Presbyterian), the conservative Republican widow of Rex Van de Kamp, the wife of Orson Hodge and one of the four main characters in the series Desperate Housewives. Bree is recognized for her perfectionist attitude and work ethic, which at times borders on neurosis and obsessive compulsion. While the writers have shied away from officially diagnosing the character as suffering from obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, the character herself refers to her “quirks” in terms of anal retentiveness and not obsessive-compulsiveness.

Bree is known for her cooking, cleaning, ironing, gardening, doing her lawn, and reupholstering her own furniture, on the level of Martha Stewart. She is also known for making gourmet meals and breakfast treats, including her pineapple bran muffins. Besides being a dedicated homemaker, she also is well-versed in regards to firearm training: she owns four guns and is a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association. Though a child of the 1970s, she is a staunch conservative, owning and displaying a framed photograph of noted Republican President Ronald Reagan in her home. She is also a conservative Christian and a homophobe, though as of the third season Bree has slowly renounced her disdain for homosexuals with the revelation that her son Andrew was gay, and also his revealing that her homophobic response towards him when he came out of the closet was the driving force towards the pain he inflicted upon Bree during season two. Andrew and Bree reconciled during the third and fourth seasons. At the close of the fourth season finale ("Free"), the series advances five years into the future to show Andrew working with his mother as her assistant or agent.

[edit] Cultural influences and impact

Bree is spoofed in MADtv's Desperate Housewives parody[8], in which they mock the character's plastic exterior and demeanor. In a 2006 interview with Charmed Magazine, Michelle Stafford admitted that her character Mandi in Charmed episode "Desperate Housewitches" was almost entirely modeled on Marcia Cross as Bree. Looking at pictures and episodes of Bree to gain a sense of her posture and body language, she laughed, "I'm just mimicking her. I'm just ripping her off."

[edit] Behind the scenes

  • Bree is based on creator Marc Cherry's own mother, as the entire Van de Kamp family is based on the family in which he grew up. Bree's family was based on Marc Cherry's teen years, while Lynette Scavo's family is based on Marc Cherry's childhood years.
  • Bree has been warned twice not to get married. The first time, she was warned not to marry George Williams by his ex-girlfriend and the second time she was warned by Carolyn Bigsby not to marry Orson Hodge.
  • Marcia Cross originally auditioned for the role of Mary Alice Young, but Marc Cherry thought she was Bree the minute she walked in.
  • Bree and her first husband Rex were both named after the overtly vain characters on two of Marc Cherry's previous failed sitcoms, The Five Mrs. Buchanans (Bree) and The Crew (Rex).
  • In the 3rd season episode 'My Husband, the Pig', Bree is played by Marcia Cross' stand in, Carolyn Howard, and in most scenes viewers will only see her backside. This is due to Marcia Cross' pregnancy. The character then proceeds to leave town to see her parents and go on to meet Orson for their honeymoon, which explains her departure.
  • Bree is the only character, from the leading four females, not to appear in every episode because of her maternity leave towards the end of Season 3.
  • Bree drives a 2003 Saturn LW300 until Rex dies, when she begins to drive his 2005 Chrysler 300C.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Season 1, "Pilot" approximately 5:43
  2. ^ Season 1, "Pilot" approximately 21:10
  3. ^ Season 1, "Pilot" approximately 27:26
  4. ^ Season 1, "Ah, But Underneath" approximately 13:41
  5. ^ Season 1, "Come Back to Me" approximately 8:59
  6. ^ Season 1, "Love is in the Air approximately 34:35
  7. ^ Season 1, "Children Will Listen" approximately 36:23
  8. ^ YouTube - MADtv Desperate Housewives Spoof

[edit] External links

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