All my begging and pleading has finally worked! Sunday's episode of Desperate Housewives—"How About A Friendly Shrink?"—marked the return of Angie Bolen (Drea de Matteo), Katherine Mayfair (Dana Delany), and Lee McDermott (Kevin Rahm) and Bob Hunter (Tuc Watkins) to Wisteria Lane. Seriously, Marc Cherry, don't ever take them away from us again. Ever.

These four provided the standout performances of the episode. Delany was in peak form, revealing a raw, vulnerable side of Katherine Mayfair that I haven't really seen before. For the first time this season, Katherine spoke without jealousy or rage clouding her words, both to a therapist and to Mrs. McCluskey (Kathryn Joosten), whose gradual softening over the years has been a delight to watch. And the final scene, a touching reconciliation between Katherine and the original four housewives, ended the hour on a hopeful note. But the episode wasn't all drama. After spotting Danny Bolen (Beau Mirchoff) out with his new girlfriend Ana (Maiara Walsh), Lee told Angie a charming story about himself and Bob, advising her not to voice her disapproval of the young couple—lest they get closer out of spite—and offering some much-needed comic relief.

The script, meanwhile, was filled with cliches—though the actors worked wonders with what they were given. Most notably, Tom (Doug Savant) kept his new "feelings journal" hidden from Lynette (Felicity Huffman) even though she wanted to read it, and insisted that she attend therapy with him to see what was inside. Couples keep secrets from each other all the time, especially on TV, so the storyline was hardly original. A bit more interesting was Lynette's struggle to validate therapy in her mind. I loved Felicity Huffman's portrayal of Lynette's inconsistency, and Lynette's ultimate decision to visit the therapist (guest star Jane Leeves!) wrapped the issue up nicely while opening a potential new window into the character's complex mind.

Speaking of cliches, how about the storm that's been brewing between Bree (Marcia Cross), the queen of passive-aggressiveness, and her newly-paralyzed husband Orson (Kyle MacLachlan)? Up until the, er, floodgates finally opened—when Bree wheeled Orson outside and sprayed him with a garden house—she resented his ungrateful behavior, he resented her affair, and both were too proud to compromise. Thankfully, Cherry seems to have recognized how annoying it is to watch two Type-A personalities go at each other's throats, and had them reconcile their differences. Maybe now the relationship between Bree and Orson will deepen and develop—if it happens, it'll be a slow and fascinating to watch.