Lynnette Scavo (Felicity Huffman) is one of the featured housewives on the ABC hit drama "Desperate Housewives." Lynnette is a somewhat reluctant housewife. She is a career-minded woman who enjoys working outside the home, but upon the birth of her first children, twins Preston and Porter, she and her husband Tom (Doug Savant) decide that she should stay home to raise them. She gives birth to son Parker a few years later and then a a daughter named Penny. Later in Season 6, she gives birth to another baby girl. The struggles of Lynnette's character most often revolve around her family and the issues that arise from being a wife and mother in today's world. She lives on Wisteria Lane in the fictional town of Fairview and is close with the other housewives, Susan (Terri Hatcher), Gabby (Eva Longoria Parker) and Bree (Marcia Cross).
At the beginning of the series, Lynnette is a woman living on the edge. She is struggling as a stay at home mom, trying to raise four young children when she would really rather be in the workplace. She had previously worked in the advertising industry as a corporate vice president. Her husband Tom is frequently away on business and when he's home he doesn't seem to appreciate the difficulties Lynnette faces every day. Lynnette even becomes addicted to her twins' A.D.D. medication.
With her children out of control, Lynnette can no longer stand it. She brings them all to Susan's house and leaves them there with her, telling Susan that she simply can't handle it anymore. Susan and Bree later find Lynnette sitting alone in a soccer field, crying. She feels she is a bad mother, but Susan and Bree tell her that all mothers have felt that way at some point. She is able to pick herself up off the ground and bring her children home. At the end of the first season, Tom has lost his job and Lynnette must return to work, which she is happy about at first, but then finds herself struggling to balance work with family life.
As the series progresses, Lynnette gets into all kinds of trouble. In Season 2, Tom reveals that he has a daughter named Kayla (Rachel Fox) from a previous relationship. After the girl's mother is killed in a grocery store hold up, Kayla comes to live with the Scavos, but soon reveals herself to be quite a disturbed child, even convincing Lynnette's son to jump off the roof of their house. Lynnette, realizing she must protect her family, alerts Tom and eventually they must make the difficult decision to send Kayla away. After this, Tom and Lynnette open a pizzeria and she nearly has an affair with the cook, but stops herself out of her love for Tom. Soon after, Lynnette is diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, but she keeps up a brave face for her friends and family. Her treatment for the disease is successful, but the pizzeria fails and she returns to the corporate world while Tom returns to college in an attempt to gain career-enhancing knowledge.
In Season 6, Lynnette is again pregnant with another set of twins. She is hurt when a plane crashes onto Wisteria Lane and loses one of babies. At the season's end, Lynnette gives birth to a baby girl while being held hostage by a serial killer. Lynnette often makes jokes about herself and her mothering abilities and she has a witty and sarcastic sense of humor.
Memorable Quotes:
"I don't, but I didn't want the first four, and they're starting to grow on me."
"I love you, I love your finger painting, but if you touch me with those messy hands, I swear I will cut them off."