Edie Britt

Infobox soap character
bgcolour = orchid
Character name = Edie Williams
series = Desperate Housewives


caption = Nicollette Sheridan as Edie Britt
portrayer = Nicollette Sheridan
Kara Stribling (aged 8)
creator = Marc Cherry
first = Pilot "(episode 1.01)"
last =
cause =
alias =Edie Britt (maiden name)
Edie McLain (former first married name)
Edie Roswell (former second married name)
Edie Willams (married name in 2013)
born = 1964
occupation = Former real-estate agent
parents = Ilene Britt (mother; deceased)
Ausitn Britt (father; deceased)
siblings = Helen Britt McCann (sister)
Jimmy Britt (brother; "deceased")
spouse = Charles McLain (ex-husband)
Mr. Roswell (ex-husband)
Dave Williams (husband)
romances = Numerous one-night stands
Karl Mayer (ex-fiancé)
Mike Delfino (ex-boyfriend)
Carlos Solis (ex-fiancé)
Orson Hodge (kissed)
children = Travers McLain (son)
relatives = Austin McCann (nephew)
Benjamin Katz (great-nephew)
portrayer = Nicollette Sheridan
Kara Stribling (aged 8)
creator = Marc Cherry

Edie Williams (née Britt, previously McLain and Roswell) is a fictional character on the ABC television series "Desperate Housewives", portrayed by Nicollette Sheridan. Edie, who was born sometime in 1964, was a realtor and divorcee and was competitive romantically and professionally. She had declared that no other realtor sold in the neighborhood but herself. She has a love-hate relationship with Susan. Every time they seem to be getting back on track as friends, something arises forcing them to rip each other to bits. She lives at 4362 Wisteria Lane.

eason 1

Edie is a serial divorcée, having already two marriages behind her at the beginning of the show. She and Susan Mayer are attracted to Mike Delfino which creates drama between the two, leading Susan to accidentally burn her house when she thinks they are having sex. It is mentioned by her only friend Martha Huber that she has a son but he only appears in Season 3. She is really shaken by Martha's death and is the only one to want to give her some burial. At this time Susan, having learned that Martha had written about the fire incident in her diary, reveals the truth to Edie who uses Susan's guilt as a way to step into the Housewives' group.

When Edie gets with Mike, she reveals that she has already had a sexual encounter with Susan's ex-husband Karl while they were married. She subsequently begins dating him which adds to the drama between her and Susan, but also leads her to become close to Julie.

eason 2

Edie dates Karl much to the displeasure of Susan, but Karl swings from the one to the other as he obviously still has feelings for her. He pretends to have broken up with Edie and has sex with Susan to see if they could get back together but Susan finds out that he is still with her and she shows him the door. However, when Susan has insurance problems Karl remarries her, but doesn't tell Edie. When she finds the prenup she thinks he is going to pop the question but later Karl dumps Edie and she goes on a search to find out who the "other woman" is.

She finally discovers it to be Susan and burns her house down, but later states that she has helped Susan by doing so, putting her once again in the spotlight. Needing to find a culprit Susan has Mike put her on a wire and records Edie, but due to her poor acting Edie finds out leading to a fight between the two which ends when she gets stung by yellowjackets. Susan then feels guilty and decides not to bring the tape to the police and asks Edie's help to get the insurance money, but she refuses. However Susan sticks to her decision not to show the tape, sparing Edie prison.

eason 3

Edie's nephew, Austin McCann, comes to live with her and spends time with Susan's daughter. Edie tells Julie Mayer (Susan's daughter) that her nephew is trouble and to stay away from him. Edie is involved in a hostage situation. Edie gets involved with Mike, but dumps him when he is arrested for Monique's murder. Later Edie and Susan Mayer catch Austin McCann having sex with Danielle Van de Kamp.

Edie's ex dumps their son, Travers, at Edie's house. Edie leaves him alone rather than find a sitter and Carlos Solis spots the boy and invites him to his house. Edie picks her son up and tells Carlos that she gave her ex custody to give her son a better life. Carlos takes pity on her and agrees to look after the boy when needed. Edie and Carlos begin an affair. When Travers leaves with his dad, Carlos tells Edie he doesn't love her. Edie tells Carlos she will have a child with him if he stays with her. Carlos agrees, but Edie continues the pill. Carlos discovers the birth control pills and confronts Edie at Gabrielle and Victor's wedding. Carlos leaves Edie alone and depressed at the wedding. She returns home and hangs herself. The last scene of the last episode of the third season shows Edie faking her suicide.

eason 4

On the first episode of the fourth season "Now You Know" it is revealed that Edie didn't intend to actually die. She had knocked over the chair which was keeping her up and held onto one of the roof's support beams above, and waited until Carlos would arrive. When he does to collect his stuff Edie lets go of the beam and starts to hang. Just then Karen asks to speak to Carlos about the garbage and while he goes to talk to her Edie is upstairs hanging, and Karen notices it from the window and Carlos runs up to save her. Edie survives and uses this as an excuse for Carlos to stay with her. When she returns to the street she is welcomed back by Gabrielle, Susan, Bree and Lynette and soon she learns about Carlos's secret bank account and she secretly uses it against him saying he knows he can trust her and she knows she can trust him, while Carlos is having an affair with his ex-wife Gabrielle. She says, "You can trust me with your secrets, just as I can trust you not to hurt me." She uses her recent suicide attempt to guilt and trick Carlos into staying with her, and he desperately tries to be with Gabrielle. In the second episode of the fourth season "Smiles of a Summer Night" Edie pushes Carlos too far such as blackmailing him a bit further and even asking him to marry her and says to him that if he was to say no she would let it slip about his illegal bank account, Carlos says "Yes". However, at the end of the episode, it's revealed that Carlos is paying someone to stop Edie from ruining his life. Most likely paying someone to kill her. In the third episode of season four "The Game" Edie buys herself an engagement ring and Carlos is furious and tells her not to tell anyone about their engagement at Susan's games party. Edie, however, on purpose makes Bree, Susan and Gabrielle see the ring and she tells them she and Carlos are going to get married. This angers Gabrielle who breaks it off with Carlos, but they soon get back together. In the episode it's revealed that the man Carlos hired to "take care of Edie" was actually a Certified Public Accountant named Al Kaminsky.

In episode 4.04 "If There's Anything I Can't Stand" Edie is informed that she has been given crabs. Edie tells Carlos about it and tells him she has brought shampoo to remedy it. Carlos then figures out because he had been sleeping with Gabrielle that she must have it too and he warns her about it and Gabrielle dresses up as a nurse during a night of passion with Victor so that she secretly rubs the shampoo on him. At Bree's baby party Edie smells the shampoo on Victor and asks what kind of aftershave he's using and he tells her that Gabrielle gave it to him and she soon quickly realizes that the smell is from the shampoo and figures out that Carlos must have slept with Gabrielle and she crunches up her crab cake in anger.

In "Art Isn't Easy" and "Now I Know, Don't Be Scared", Edie hires someone to spy on Gabrielle and Carlos and she manages to get a picture of Gabrielle and Carlos kissing. Edie then discovers that Carlos is leaving her after managing to get all his money out of his off shore bank account and Edie tries to use it in revenge against Carlos for cheating on her. However she is told the money is not there anymore and that the off shore bank account does not exist. Edie then takes the pictures of Gabrielle and Carlos to Victor and tells him not to blame Gabrielle as Carlos told Edie that he's only sleeping with her because he's mad at Victor and Edie says that Carlos deserves whatever is coming for him.

In episode 4.09 "Something's Coming", Edie is delivered a packet of papers, that were supposed to be delivered to Gabrielle, which contained information on where Carlos had hidden ten million dollars. Gabrielle confronts Edie, and the two wrestle over the papers, until they are blown away in the tornado. The two are forced to put aside their differences, and end up waiting out the tornado in Edie's crawl space. Edie hates Gabrielle after her affair with Carlos until she realizes that she really let herself fall for him, which was stupid, because she always knew that he'd go back to Gabrielle.

In episode 4.11 "Sunday", Edie finds out that she was given fake jewelry by Carlos Solis in exchange for the love she gave him. She also finds out from a nurse that Carlos's blindness may be permanent. When Edie informs Gabrielle about this, Gabrielle angrily confronts Carlos about the lie he told her earlier, and Carlos tells her he was afraid she might leave him. Finally, Gabrielle tells Carlos that she loves him "for better or for worse".

In episode 4.13 "Hello, Little Girl", Edie not only sends Carlos and Gabrielle Solis dog food, but also tells Gabrielle to be more kind to Carlos since the tornado affair changed him. She also warns her to treat Carlos right because if she doesn't, there are other women who will.

In episode 4.14 "Opening Doors", Bree Hodge confronts Edie about her husband, Orson staying overnight at Edie's house. Severely angered, Edie slams the door in Bree's face and allows Orson to stay as long as she wants while getting drunk from his martinis. She talks to Orson about Bree being too perfect and that people occasionally make mistakes. The two then briefly kiss, and Bree, who just happened to be outside looking for Ida Greenberg's cat, spots them in the act.

In episode 4.15 "Mother Said", Edie is confronted by Bree about the kiss she gave Orson. When Edie tells Bree she is not interested in Orson, a slap in the face from Bree told her otherwise. It ignited a full scale war between them. Edie's business with a family trying to buy the Young house is sabotaged by Bree. When Edie goes to Orson's apartment to complain about Bree, she notices Orson's statement about Benjamin. Edie then blackmails Bree into being kind to her or she will reveal all her secrets. When Bree tells Susan, Lynette and Gabrielle about Benjamin's true parentage and Edie's attempt to blackmail her, they march down to Edie's house to confront Edie and tell her that they are finished with her forever. Edie's apologies to the women of Wisteria Lane fall on deaf ears. As Edie leaves Wisteria Lane for good, she tells her son Travers that she will be spending Mother's Day with him. In fact, she will be spending a lot more time with Travers from now on.

eason 5

In episode 5.01 "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow", Edie returns to Wisteria Lane and lets her newlywed husband, Dave Williams, bribe the tenant to move out in the middle of the night so that they can move into her old house. The next morning, Edie wears a swimsuit and washes her car to let the other housewives, Susan, Lynette, Bree and Gabrielle, know that she is back and ready for action. The other four housewives meet Edie's new husband and he tells them that he and Edie met at a Las Vegas real estate convention. After welcoming Dave and Edie to the street they decide to throw a party at the Scavo's Pizzeria in their honor. When Edie becomes rude to Gabrielle in reaction to her appearance, Dave comes to Edie's rescue and asks her to be nice to Gabrielle, which she does. Edie apologizes to Gabrielle and says that it won't happen again and proceeds to get some muffins she baked. Later at the Scavo's Pizzeria Edie thanks the other housewives for the apology party, but in fact they are forgiving her for all the hell she put them through. Just when Edie thought it was safe to argue with the other housewives, Dave comes to her rescue a second time. When Edie asks Dave why he is so persistent to stay in Wisteria Lane, Dave replies by telling her that they have to be nice to her so that things will go well in the future...hopefully.

In episode 5.02 "We're So Happy You're So Happy", Edie, tired of the neighbors' cold attitude towards her, including Karen McCluskey's insulting crude joke, decides to move out. When she asks Dave why he is so insistent upon staying in Wisteria Lane, he answers by saying that they can be happy here without anyone else insulting them. 24 hours later, Dave visits Mrs. McCluskey and demands an apology to Edie. When Karen refuses, Dave tells her that she must be lonely as he notices her talking to her pet cat Toby. When Toby goes off missing, Dave offers to help Mrs. McCluskey find her cat. In return, Mrs. McCluskey not only apologizes to Edie; she also tells her to inform her husband that they have reconciled without further incident. Mrs. McCluskey later finds Toby back in her house, and finds that her front window had been left open without explanation. Karen wonders about Dave's true motives and teams up with Katherine Mayfair to get more information about him.

Behind the scenes

*Marc Cherry stated that the character of Edie is partially based on Kathy Baker's character Joyce in "Edward Scissorhands". In the pilot, she brings ambrosia to Mike's house, which is the same thing Baker's character Joyce makes in the film.

*Edie Britt was originally going to be a minor character on the show, but eventually the character escalated to a significant starring role due to extreme popularity, and had become the 5th lead.

*Due to maternity leave, Marcia Cross's character, Bree Hodge, was written out of the last seven episodes of the third season (except the season finale), which practically promoted Edie to the status of one of the four leads during this period. Her character received notably a lot more screen time and exposure than usual in order to still have four prominent storylines running concurrently.

*Nicollette Sheridan originally auditioned for the part of Bree, but Marc Cherry felt she was nothing like Bree and asked her to read Edie's part.

References