Edie Britt

Edie Britt
Desperate Housewives character
File:Edie britt 2006.jpg Nicollette Sheridan as Edie Britt
Portrayed by	Nicollette Sheridan
First appearance	Pilot (episode 1.01)
Last appearance	Everybody Says Don't (episode 5.23)
Created by	Marc Cherry
In-universe information Other names Edie McLain (first married name) Edie Roswell (second married name) Edie Williams (third married name) Occupation Former real-estate agent Parents Ilene Britt (mother; deceased) Mr. Britt (father; deceased) Mrs. Britt (step-mother) Siblings Helen Britt McCann (sister) Unnamed step-sister Spouse Charles McLain (ex-husband) Umberto Roswell (ex-husband) Dave Williams (widower) Children Travers McLain (son) Paige Dash (step-daughter; deceased) Other relatives Austin McCann (nephew) Benjamin Katz (great-nephew)

Edie Britt Williams (previously McLain and Roswell), portrayed by Nicollette Sheridan, is a fictional character in the American television series Desperate Housewives. The series revolves around several housewives who live on the fictional Wisteria Lane, a suburbia. Edie Britt was introduced in the premiere of the series as an adulterous housewife, who has had many relationships with other women's husbands.

When she first appeared, Edie was a realtor and a serial divorcée. She had many relationships throughout the show's duration, most notably with Karl Mayer (Richard Burgi), Mike Delfino (James Denton) and Carlos Solis (Ricardo Antonio Chavira), the ex-husbands of lead characters Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher) and Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria Parker) respectively. Edie was promoted to the show's fourth female lead during its third season due to the absence of Marcia Cross (Bree Hodge) on maternity leave, and after Cross's return, maintained her position as the fifth female lead. The character departed from the show during its fifth season. Edie is known to be the rival of Susan Mayer, a feat ever since the show's first season.

Nicollette Sheridan originally auditioned for the role of Bree Van de Kamp.

Appearances

Season 1

Edie was introduced in the show's first season as a serial divorcée, with two marriages behind her at the beginning of the show. It is explained by her only friend Martha Huber (Christine Estabrook) that she has a son, although he does not appear in the show until its third season. Both Edie and Susan Mayer are attracted to new neighbor Mike Delfino (James Denton), creating tension between the two which culminates in Susan accidentally burning Edie's house down. Edie is upset when Martha is murdered, and proves to be the only Wisteria Lane resident who wishes to give her a proper burial. Susan, aware that Martha knew she had started the fire and recorded the incident in her diary, admits the truth to Edie, who uses Susan's guilt as a way to join the housewives' poker group. Edie continues to hit on Mike, but he's only interested in Susan. Edie is upset when Susan and Mike move in together. Edie tries to get the women to convince Susan that Mike is bad for her, but Susan is sure he's the one. Susan later finds out her ex-husband, Karl Mayer (Richard Burgi), had cheated on her with Edie while they were married; using this knowledge, Edie goes on to date Karl, increasing the tension between the two of them.

Season 2

In the show's second season, Edie begins a relationship with Karl, Susan's ex-husband. Edie and Susan get in to many confrontations as Susan tries to get over some minor jealousy issues. Edie later discovers a wedding ring in Karl's briefcase (she doesn't know Karl is re-marrying Susan to get her health insurance) and suspects that Karl is going to propose. When Susan tells Karl that Edie thinks he's going to ask her to marry him, he eventually proposes to her. Susan's boyfriend ends up telling Edie about her and Karl's marriage and Edie gets angry at the two for lying to her. To punish Karl and Susan, Edie decides Karl will throw her a lavish wedding and Susan will be burdened with the arrangements. Edie, one morning, wakes up to Karl packing up and leaving. Before he can drive away, his car is hit by a dump truck. Edie then discovers that Karl slept with another woman while they were engaged and breaks the news to the other housewives. Edie is extremely upset and Susan, who feels guilty about unknowingly being the 'other woman', attempts to help her feel better. Edie begins forming a bond with Susan and this makes Susan feel even more guilty. Edie gets a confession leter from Susan by mistake and feels betrayed. She retaliates by burning down Susan's house. After discovering Edie burned down her house, Susan attempts to extract a confession from Edie whilst wearing a wire, but when Edie realizes this, the two fight, and Edie is badly stung by yellowjackets. Susan feels guilty when Edie is hospitalized, and declines to turn her confession over to the police, sparing Edie prison. Edie refuses to accept Susan's pity and vows to get revenge. Susan and Mike plan on getting married, but Mike is hit by a car in the second season's finale.

Season 3

In the show's third season, Edie is with Mike when he wakes up from his coma. She learns that Mike has retrograde amnesia and doesn't remember the last two years of his life. While helping Mike fill in the blanks of his memory, Edie constructs a horrible image of Susan and leads him to believe that Susan never loved him and that they were never happy together. Edie admits to Mike that she’s always had a thing for him and that she’s hurt how he never payed any attention to her. Susan comes by the hospital to give Mike flowers, but catches him having sex with Edie in the hospital bed. Edie and Mike start a relationship, creating even more tension between her and Susan. Edie breaks it off with Mike when he is arrested for the murder of Monique Pollier. Edie's nephew, Austin McCann (Josh Henderson), comes to live with her. He begins a romantic relationship with Susan's daughter Julie. Susan doesn't want her daughter dating Edie's nephew, but Edie claims she can't do anything about it because they are in love. Edie and Susan later catch Austin having sex with Bree's daughter Danielle Van de Kamp. He departs from Wisteria Lane when Danielle reveals she is pregnant with his child. Edie is also involved in a hostage situation with Lynette, Julie and Austin at a supermarket, but makes it out all right.

Edie's son Travers is introduced for the first time, having been dropped off by his father for a month-long visit. Carlos Solis develops a fondness for Travers, which Edie uses to her advantage, beginning a relationship with him. Carlos wants to keep the affair a secret, which makes Edie think he's still in love with his ex-wife, Gabrielle. Edie tells Gabrielle about her and Carlos at Gabrielle and Victor's engagement party. Gabrielle is furious and wants Edie to stop seeing Carlos, but she refuses. Gabrielle tries to get her friends to freeze out Edie, but Edie makes that difficult. Edie considers going for full custody of Travers, but Carlos convinces her not to. When Travers is collected by his father, Edie would like for Carlos to move in with her. Carlos is renting from Mrs. Simms, who is in a nursing home. Edie visits her at the home and tells her that Carlos is an alcoholic, does drugs, and uses her home as a place to hook up with prostitutes. Mrs. Simms terminates the lease and Carlos is evicted. Edie offers Carlos a place to stay at her house, but he is suspicious that she was involved. Carlos tells Edie he doesn't love her. Edie offers to have a child if Carlos will stay with her, to which he agrees, unaware that Edie is still on the pill. When he discovers her deception, he confronts her and ends their relationship, with the season ending as Edie appears to commit suicide.

Season 4

In the first episode of season 4, it transpires that Edie's suicide attempt was faked, and was merely a bid for Carlos's attention. He agrees to resume their relationship, leading Edie to discover his secret offshore bank account containing $10 million. She uses this knowledge to blackmail him, asking him to marry her, unaware that Carlos is having an affair with Gabrielle. Edie goes on to announce their engagement, but discovers Carlos's betrayal when she, Carlos, Gabrielle, and Gabrielle's new husband Victor Lang (John Slattery) all suffer from crabs. Edie hires someone to spy on Carlos and Gabrielle, and manages to get pictures of the two of them kissing. Edie attempts to get revenge by telling the IRS about his offshore account. She then discovers that Carlos has emptied and closed his offshore account so she turns the pictures over to Victor, knowing he will get revenge. Edie, still feeling vindictive, reveals to the police that Gaby and Carlos may be responsible for her husband Victor's disappearance. A tornado is about to hit Wisteria Lane and Carlos and Gabrielle plan on disappearing. Edie then gets her hands on a folder, giving her access to Carlos's offshore bank account. Gabrielle and Edie fight over the folder, but lose the papers in the tornado. They are forced to take shelter together in Edie's crawl space and are able to put aside their differences for a while. Carlos is blinded in the tornado.

Edie finds out Carlos gave her fake jewelry when they were together and gets back at him by telling Gabrielle that Carlos's blindness is permanent, when she thought it was only temporary. Later Edie tells Gabrielle that the way she is treating Carlos is sick and that there are other women out there who would treat Carlos better. When Bree and Orson Hodge (Kyle MacLachlan) are having troubles, Edie lets Orson stay with her. Edie later shares a brief drunken kiss with Orson which is seen by Bree, who is looking for Toby the cat. Bree then confronts Edie about the kiss. When Edie says it meant nothing, Bree slaps her and a full scale war erupts between them. Bree sabotages Edie's business by hounding off potential house buyers. Edie visits Orson, who is now living alone at a hotel, to complain about Bree. When she enters the room, she discovers a piece of paper revealing that Bree's baby is really Austin and Danielle's. Edie threatens to tell everyone about it unless Bree does exactly what she wants. Bree tells her friends about her faked pregnancy and about Edie's threats. The housewives confront Edie and force her out of Wisteria Lane. On her way out, Edie calls Travers, and tells him she's going to be spending a lot more time with him from now on.

Season 5

Edie returns to Wisteria Lane, five years later, a new and transformed woman. When the housewives notice the change in Edie, they resume their friendship with her. (The fifth season is set five years on from the fourth season finale.) Edie has a new husband, Dave Williams (Neal McDonough), who is persistent in convincing Edie to get along better with her neighbors. He kidnaps Karen McCluskey's cat after she is rude to Edie, only returning him when Karen apologizes. When Karen attempts to investigate Dave's background, Edie realizes she knows very little about his past. Dave's doctor arrives in Fairview and confronts Dave at the White Horse Club, but Dave strangles him and sets fire to the building. We later learn that Dave only married Edie to have an excuse to move to Wisteria Lane and get revenge on Mike, who turns out had been involved in a car accident that killed Dave's wife and daughter. Edie starts to notice something is off about Dave and is irritated that he doesn't show interest in her. One night she wakes up and sees Dave talking to himself. Edie wants to know why he's acting so strangely and Dave tells her he used to be married before he met Edie and that his wife died. Edie is furious he never told her about this before and throws him out of the house. When Edie is locked in a basement with Susan, they have a heart to heart and Susan tells Edie not to treat men like tissue and to believe in happily ever afters. After they are freed she goes to Dave and tells him to move back in. When Dave tells Edie that Eli Scruggs, the neighborhood handy man, has died, she recalls the time that when she was having marital problems with her ex-husband, Umberto. In a flashback, while feeling insecure about her appearance after Umberto turns out to be gay, Eli reassures Edie and makes her feel better and ends up having sex with her.

While at a liquor store, Edie observes an encounter between Dave and Father Drance. Suspicious about her husband's motives, she does a research on his past after Father Drance calls her Mrs. Dash. Determined to know more about her husband's past, Edie goes to the local newspaper for information on Dave's family, only to learn that Dave had both a wife and daughter who were killed in a car crash. Later, when she asks Dave how he feels about children, he tells her that his "friend" had a daughter he loved who died in the crash and lives his life wondering what she would've looked like and how old she would've been; he also tells her that he would never have a child as it wouldn't be worth it. Edie is still determined to know a lot more about Dave's past. Upon receiving a news article on the fateful car accident and finally learning the truth about her husband's intentions, she confronts Dave when he returns home from his camping trip. As she attempts to call Mike to warn him, she is almost strangled to death by Dave. Tearful and disorientated, Edie manages to run away and drives down the lane. She almost hits Orson as he stumbles onto the road; swerving to miss him, she hits an electric post instead. Dazed and unaware that the power line had snapped and there was water underneath the car, Edie steps out. She receives an electric shock, falls to the ground and dies a few minutes later.

The housewives pay a visit to her son, Travers, to announce her death and to give him her ashes. On the journey up each of the housewives and Karen McCluskey share memories of Edie. In one flashback, Susan and Edie did get along in the beginning, until Susan finds out Edie is having sex with her neighbor's husband. In another flashback, Edie takes Lynette out to cheer her up. In another flashback, Edie tells Bree to go see Orson once a month since he went to jail. In another flashback, Edie reveals to Gabrielle that she always knew she would never see 50. However, although Edie was right, Gabrielle convinced her that in 50 years time they would still go out and still be the hottest ladies on the lane. And in a final flashback, Edie tells Karen McCluskey she knows what it's like losing a child. Once they arrive, however, Travers tells them that they were her closest friends and that they should spread the ashes wherever they see fit. Ultimately, her ashes are spread around Wisteria Lane. Edie was at peace about her death and had no regrets because she lived her life to the fullest and to her it was "a one of a kind life." Edie appears briefly in "Everybody Says Don't" as a hallucination of Dave's, telling him to do away with his complicated and "boring" plan of killing Susan's son, M.J., on a fishing trip, and instead urging him to go and kill M.J. right then and there instead.