Episode 3: "You'll Never Get Away from Me"

It is a very powerful thing, and it can turn the tide of an entire life:

Deception.

In the opening scene of this week’s episode, three little girls throw a tea party, one that occurs weekly. They bring the resources they have at their disposal: tea, friends, and dress up clothes. As they play at being tiny adults, the camera carries us to the other households on Wisteria Lane where people are playing pretend. Each woman pretends her life is something slightly different than it actually is. While we cannot blame them for willingly being deceived at times (after all, don’t we do the same thing?), this episode shows us how compromising the truth can take us places we don’t want to go.

Lynette struggles to find a balance between work and home. There's nothing wrong with that in itself. After all, men and women struggle with those issues on a daily basis. Lynette wants to be there for Parker’s first day of school, but work gets in the way. She pulls it off using her innovative skills and the teleconferencing system. The only problem is that she has to lie about what she’s doing, spill coffee on her boss during a board meeting, and sneak around using company equipment. While it’s actually kinda funny to watch, the bottom line is that her character is compromised. Her actions give her something else to hide. Lynette is moving farther and farther away from freedom. (One thing I do love about Lynette is that she has great intentions, but all the wrong ways of executing them!)

When Bree finds out she’s under investigation for Rex’s murder, she has nothing to hide. She didn’t kill him after all. But during a polygraph test, the results spike when she says she has no feelings for George. At that moment she discovers a secret lurking within. Surely this revelation will take Bree in another direction, towards George, who incidentally has a bigger secret. He did kill Rex. When he takes the polygraph test, he tells a half-truth: that he did not poison Rex. Mary Alice’s words voice over, “We start by deceiving ourselves…� Indeed George deceives himself. While he may not have administered strychnine to Rex, the vitamins he administered in the place of Rex’s medications did cause his death. Mary Alice continues, “And if we can convince others, we win.� I suspect that in the next episode the investigation will be called off and Bree and George will be left to work out their new relationship. The question in this story is, what difference would the truth make? This deception is going to take Bree somewhere she would never go if the truth were plain.

On a much more subtle level, Gabrielle is deceived by her affair. To be accurate, she began the whole thing completely aware of how insignificant her and John’s relationship was. She told him repeatedly that he was just a toy, an insignificant sex object. However, somewhere along the line (perhaps the rose episode), Gabrielle begins to believe that John loves her. It is that belief that almost drives her to divorce Carlos. Now that relationship (hers and Carlos’s) has its own problems, but the deception would certainly have led her to divorce had she not caught John with another woman this week. Over time, many friends of mine who’ve had affairs have told me the same thing. “I was so deceived. If I had known what a sham that relationship was, I would never have gotten involved.� But can we blame them?

We all believe lies at different stages in our lives. The frightening thing is that if we believe them long enough, we don’t win. Our lives are turned, often irreparably, in a direction we don’t wish to go. In many cases, the truth is plain to us, but we don’t want to see it.

We don’t want to give up our dreams or our standards of living.
What are those standards anyway? Missing important events in our loved ones' lives and diminishing our own character? Lynette will most certainly continue to struggle at this job.

We don’t want to pay the price for our wrongs.
Won't we have to pay in one way or another, even if the truth doesn’t come out? How will George and Bree pay?

We don’t want to do the hard work to make things right.
Gabrielle and Carlos have a long road ahead. But what’s the alternative? More lies, hateful words and hurt feelings?

We don’t want to shatter our illusions.
When they’re gone, where will we be? Who will we be? Will we have the strength to move on?

The difficulty of deception is that the short term benefits are pretty good. We have one more day to live life the way we’re used to living it. We have one more day to stay on the thrill ride. We have one more day to work toward our predefined (sometimes outdated) goals. Jesus said of the devil, “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies� (John 8:44). Isn't it interesting how Jesus used murderer and liar conjointly to describe the devil? Why is this? Because the devil can kill our souls by deceiving us. He can destroy our lives with those tiny indulgent lies we are willing to hold fast to. By engaging in self-deception, we let him take us places we wouldn't ordinarily go.

Several chapters later, Jesus said of himself, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.� (John 14:6). Notice that instead of murder and lies, he uses life and truth together to describe himself. Christ offers us not only himself, but also a life characterized by truth. He talks of gaining spiritual treasures instead of worldly treasures (Matt.6:19-20). He challenges us to set aside our deceptions and participate in things that truly fill our souls (John 4:13-14, Isaiah 55:1-3, Matt. 16:26). By participating in truth, we will find life.

It's a very difficult thing to admit we have allowed ourselves to be deceived. It's even harder to admit we have deceived others for our own gain. But look at the effect of Gabrielle's earnest apology. It becomes a new foundation on which the two can build. The fantastic thing about this series is that it is so realistic! Maybe Carlos will struggle with fully forgiving her in future episodes, and perhaps they will grapple through the resentment of infidelity like Bree and Rex did. But for today, Carlos is touched by her humility and desire to make things right. His heart toward her is changing.

What difference would living by the truth make in our lives?