Gabrielle Solis
| Gabrielle Solis | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desperate Housewives character | |||||||||||||||||
| File:Gabbysolis12.jpg Eva Longoria Parker as Gabrielle Solis | |||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Eva Longoria Parker | ||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | Pilot (episode 1.01) | ||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Marc Cherry | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Gabrielle Solis (Template:Pron-en; née Marquez, previously Lang; is a fictional character on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. The character is portrayed by Eva Longoria Parker.
"Oh, honey, the gloves just aren't off. They're 70 percent off! Get your cashmere gloves!!"
— Gabrielle Solis to Carlos Solis during their divorce
Season 1
The families of Gabrielle and Carlos Solis are from the Mexican city of Guadalajara. Gabrielle, a retired model in her late 20's, married Carlos Solis for love, but found satisfaction with John Rowland, her teenage gardener. She questioned her relationship with Carlos, commenting once that she loved him and all her teenage fantasies had been fulfilled, yet she still wasn't happy.
Gabrielle's affair with John was nearly revealed when Carlos's suspicious mother, Juanita, came for an unannounced visit. Juanita photographed Gabrielle in her final tryst with John, but was struck by a car driven by Andrew Van de Kamp (who was drunk) in an incident that eventually led to her death. Gabrielle confessed to John's mother, Helen, about the affair after Helen mistakenly believed that John had been sleeping with Susan Mayer.
Towards the end of the season, Gabrielle learned that she was pregnant, as a result of her husband replacing her birth control pills with sugar pills. She almost left Carlos after finding out the truth about her birth control pills, but eventually decided to blackmail him into taking complete care of the baby in return for her testimony in his gay hate crime allegations.
Season 2
Season 2 focused on Gabrielle's desire to have a child. Gabrielle lost her first baby after falling down stairs whilst being pursued when her house was broken into by Caleb Applewhite. Believing Gabrielle to be in pain from her loss, Carlos sent a former inmate, Hector Ramos, to help her deal with it. Through Hector, Gabrielle began to realize that she was more deeply affected by the loss of the baby than she would at first admit. Gabrielle wanted to try for another baby, but discovered she could not become pregnant again because of the injuries she suffered when she miscarried.
She and Carlos tried to adopt, but John Rowland's mother worked for the adoption agency, and as a measure of revenge for Gabby sleeping with John, told them she would ensure they would never be able to adopt a child. Next the couple tried to adopt pole-dancer Libby Collins' daughter, but Libby eventually changed her mind and took the child back. Finally they asked their new maid, Xiao-Mei, to be a surrogate mother through in-vitro fertilization. Xiao-Mei got pregnant but Gabrielle found out that she was also carrying on an affair with Carlos. Following this, she surprisingly did not blow up at Carlos; instead, she ordered that Xiao-Mei help her throw Carlos's belongings out of the house.
Season 3
Xiao-Mei's baby was born black and the doctor revealed that the wrong baby was put in Xiao-Mei. As a result of this and other happenings, Carlos and Gabrielle divorced amicably and Gabrielle changed her last name back to Marquez. She decided to try to return to modeling but discovered she was no longer young enough, and instead began to mentor young girls in beauty pageantry. She also returned to the dating scene, first dating the father of one of the pageant girls, and then discovering that she had a stalker (Zach Young). Later in the season she met mayoral candidate Victor Lang, who pursued her despite her assertions that she was not interested. She eventually accepted his proposal, and they married in the season finale, although shortly afterwards she overheard Victor saying that he married her because she would be good for the "Latino vote" in the upcoming election for governor, and, distraught, ran to Carlos for comfort (who, in the meantime, had been dating Edie Britt).
Season 4
Gabrielle and Carlos planned to run away together, however, Edie staged a suicide attempt and Carlos felt that he could not leave her though continued the affair behind her back. They were discovered when Edie hired a private detective to take photos, and showed the photos to Victor. He took Gabrielle out on a boat trip, where she presumed he was going to murder her, so she hit him over the head with an oar and called Carlos for help. They fought Victor and he fell overboard, nowhere to be seen and presumed dead, but later washed up on shore pretending to have amnesia to all but Gabrielle. She decided, after Victor threatened her, to leave town with Carlos, but this turned out not to be necessary as Victor died during the tornado which hit Wisteria Lane. In the aftermath of the tornado (which also blinded Carlos) Gabrielle and Carlos remarried.
Also in season 4 it is revealed that Gabrielle's father died of cancer when she was five. Her mother told her not to cry so as not to upset her dying father. He wanted Gabrielle to be perpetually smiling, and so (she admits to Lynette) that's the way she's been ever since. She feels uncomfortable around cancer patients because of her father.
Season 5
Five years after season 4 ended, Gabrielle and Carlos have had two daughters, Juanita and Celia. Gabrielle, older and worn down, has lost her spot on the social ladder, put on weight and is no longer as glamorous. It is unclear of the means Gabrielle used to have the twin daughters, because of her gaining infertility in season 2.