Mary Alice commits suicide
''Pilot,'' October 3, 2004 (season 1, episode 1)
The pilot opened on images of suburban bliss: beautiful homes, manicured lawns, happy children. But that was quickly blown away when the series' narrator Mary Alice (Brenda Strong) shot herself in the head, kicking off Desperate Housewives' first big mystery. Why did Mary Alice kill herself? And who was blackmailing her?