Katherine Mayfair

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Katherine Mayfair (previously Davis) is a fictional character on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. The character is played by actress Dana Delany.

Character Overview

Katherine Mayfair prides herself on being an excellent wife and mother. She is known for being an excellent cook, which brings her into conflict with Bree at first, but they later become good friends. Katherine has a very sarcastic personality but can also be very serious. She is very secretive initially, but becomes more relaxed after her secret is revealed at the close of season 4. Katherine becomes close friends with the other women of Wisteria Lane, following the five year jump between seasons four and five.

Early life

Born in 1962, Known as Katherine Davis when she last left Wisteria Lane, lived on 4356 Wisteria Lane twelve years before Season Four. Sharing the home was her daughter Dylan and Aunt Lillian, who owned the house. It is revealed throughout season 4 that Katherine's ex-husband Wayne Davis had beat her on several occasions and often left her in fear. As revealed in the fourth season finale, Katherine and Aunt Lillian had Mary Alice Young babysit Dylan one particular night. When they return, Mary Alice tells them that Wayne, Dylan's father, had come to visit his daughter and gave her a doll as a gift. Furious, Katherine took the doll from her sleeping daughter and places it on top of a huge wooden bookshelf in the bedroom. Later, Wayne returns and a confrontation between the two leads to Katherine striking Wayne with a candlestick, causing him to leave.

Katherine awoke sometime later to Lillian's screams from Dylan's bedroom. Upon reaching the room, she discovers that her daughter, while trying to retrieve the doll, was crushed and killed by the off-balanced bookshelf. In shock, Katherine and Aunt Lillian realize that Wayne could have them arrested for murder, so they bury Dylan's body in the woods behind the house. The next day, Mary Alice and Susan Mayer knock on Katherine's front door, only to find that she is moving away without any explanation. After leaving Wisteria Lane, Katherine visits a Romanian orphanage and finds a young girl who bears a striking resemblance to her now-deceased daughter. Katherine adopts the young girl and changes her name to Dylan in an attempt to cover up the accidental death of her daughter.

Season Four

Katherine first arrives in season four's premiere "Now You Know," as a former resident of Wisteria Lane, who had left abruptly and without further explanation for over twelve years. As the housewives watch her and her family move into the street, Susan recognizes her and runs to hug her. At Katherine's home, she introduces her family. Katherine immediately gets upon Bree Van de Kamp's nerves by asking her to cut down the tree in her yard and has the nerve to call the rest of the wives "newcomers" to the neighbourhood she lived in before them. Bree begins to grow a dislike towards her. It's revealed that Dylan and Julie Mayer were best friends when they were little but Dylan doesn't seem to remember Julie or anyone on the street.

Dylan questions Katherine about her father but she doeasn't want to talk about him. When Dylan calls Katherine a monster, Katherine slaps her hard across the face. Katherine, Dylan and Adam Mayfair do not notice however that Bree was listening to the entire conversation. Katherine later catches Julie and her daughter in a locked room in her house and not only sends Julie home, but forbids Dylan to hang out with her ever again. Katherine informs Adam her aunt Lillian is ready to come home and she says she is letting her sleep in the room which she forbade Dylan to sleep in. When alone, Katherine lifts up a rug and looks at a large gash in the floor and breaks down in tears. It's revealed Lillian knows Katherine's mysterious secret. Lillian is brought home so she can die there. Lillian tells Katherine that they should tell Dylan the truth about what they covered up so many years ago; however, Katherine refuses. Lillian then attempts to tell Dylan the truth, but Katherine returns home just in time to stop Lillian. In her last living moments, Lillian writes down what they had covered up in hope that Dylan would find it. She dropped it on the floor and then died. Katherine watches as her body is taken away and she leaves the room, but the piece of paper remains hidden under the bed.

In the episode "Something's Coming" Katherine and her husband, Adam, stay with Bree her house during a tornado. After is revealed that Adam did have an affair with Sylvia Greene (a former patient) in Chicago, Bree comforts Katherine and at the end of the episode it appears that Bree and Katherine have finally become friends. Adam then discovers Lily's note and confronts Katherine, leaving her. In her anger, she burns the note, only for Dylan to find information in the remains. Dylan soon meets her father, Wayne Davis, who is a police officer. He stopped her the day before for speeding, but it turned out he just wanted to get a good look at her. Dylan then lies to Katherine and meets Wayne several times. Dylan eventually comes clean, and Katherine agrees to see Wayne. Wayne seems pleased to see Katherine, but Katherine tells him that she does not believe he has changed at all. Dylan confronts Katherine when she decides to move, now that Wayne knows where they live. When Wayne picks Dylan up to take her to her recital, Wayne suggests they go as a family. But Katherine tells him that Dylan is not his daughter. Wayne himself discovers through a DNA test and by Dylan's lack of scars from where she fell off her bike years ago that Dylan is not his daughter.

In the 4th season finale, Bree comes knocking on the door looking for Katherine, who bailed out on their catering job for Bob and Lee's wedding. Bree is then taken hostage by Wayne. It is when Wayne threatens Bree's life that Katherine tells him the truth about the death of their daughter and how she replaced her with another girl. After she does, Wayne, in a fit of rage, raises his gun and says he wants to kill Katherine. Adam shows up and fights with Wayne. As Bree goes to help clean Adam up, Katherine is left holding a gun to Wayne. As Wayne lays there he continues to make threats, Katherine shoots him in the chest, instantly killing him. Moments later the police arrive, and Katherine is in cuffs and it appears she is going to jail. However, when the police question the housewives, they all give alibis in Katherine's favor, saying how horrible and dangerous Wayne was. Katherine is then released as it was self-defense.

Season Five

Five years after the events concluding Season 4, Katherine is no longer with Adam. The other housewives have fully accepted Katherine as "one of them", particularly Bree who sees Katherine as the sister she never had. In "Mirror, Mirror", flashbacks reveal that during the five-year time jump, Bree began drinking again and Katherine helped her recover, allowing the two women to bond further. Katherine is now a business partner of Bree's and there is some jealousy there because Bree is the star of their business, having published a cookbook, using some of Katherine's recipes. Katherine is doing a great deal of the work without credit though and feels betrayed.

Later in the season, Katherine starts a relationship with Mike Delfino. Susan is having a problem with the fact that Katherine is dating her ex-husband. Susan does not want Mike to leave their son M.J. in her care, as M.J. appears to be starting to prefer Katherine to Susan. Katherine tells Susan she has no choice in the matter, as Mike is planning to move in with her soon. After an argument following Katherine and Mike's housewarming however, it appears that Susan and Katherine have agreed to put their differences aside and be friends again. Dave Williams plans to enact revenge on Mike so he takes him and Katherine camping. During the trip, Dave was about to shoot Katherine; however, Edie Britt finally discovered that Dave marrying her and moving to Wisteria Lane was all a plan to get to Mike. Edie texted Dave at the exact moment that he was firing the gun, which caused him to miss.

Mike, still in love with Susan, after hearing the news that Susan is getting married to Jackson, gets very upset, but pretends to be happy and in love with Katherine. He asks Katherine to marry him and she accepts. Katherine discovers Jackson is only marrying Susan for a green card but doesn't tell Mike. Katherine deceives Susan by allowing her to think Mike wants to pay alimony even though she's marrying another man. When Susan wants to confront Mike, Katherine admits to not telling Mike that Susan's engagement to Jackson was not real because she was afraid that he would leave her for Susan. Katherine and Mike are at the airport headed for Las Vegas to get married when Mike discovers that Susan and M.J. are in danger. After Dave's plane to kill M.J. in a crash fails, Mike and Susan kiss. In the last scene of the finale, Mike is seen marrying someone whose face is not shown. The camera pans the audience in attendance and neither Katherine nor Susan is shown.

Season Six

It is revealed that Mike's bride is Susan who is preparing to walk down the aisle, revealing that Mike chose to marry her rather than marry Katherine. Through flashbacks, it's revealed that Mike broke up with Katherine and proposed to Susan. When Susan is out, her wedding dress is delivered to Katherine's house. Katherine wears it while cooking to annoy Susan and demands Susan publicly apologize to her for taking Mike away. Susan initially refuses and locks her in a closet, Katherine then breaks free, crashes the wedding, but Mike demands she leave. Susan, finally feeling guilty then apologizes, but Katherine remains bitter. Katherine declares war against Susan and begins to plot a way to get back at her. When Susan is with Julie at the hospital, Katherine visits Mike, gives him a kiss and tells him she'll be there for him. Katherine then tells Orson that Mike made a pass at her, hoping this will get back to Susan. Katherine informs Bree that Mike's going to dump Susan soon and reunite with her. Later, Bree and Katherine cause a scene at a wedding they're catering, as Katherine becomes emotional over a cake. Bree is troubled by Katherine's behavior and when Katherine shows up the next day, Bree fires her. Katherine uses her key to scratch up Bree's car.

Susan is angry when Bree tells her about Katherine hitting on Mike. Things come to a head at a neighbourhood watch meeting after Susan ignores Katherine when she tries to volunteer, escalating into Susan publicly threatening Katherine if she doesn't leave her and Mike alone. That night, Julie hears someone outside and responds, gun in hand. Susan takes the gun and fires out the window, hitting Katherine in the shoulder. Angie Bolen talks Katherine out of calling the police by telling her that Mike's still crazy about her and that by staying quiet, she'll look like a "saint" while Susan looks like a "monster." One night, Katherine calls Mike and asks him to fix a leak at her house. Susan is suspicious and goes with him. She sneaks into Katherine's bedroom and sees roses and candles everywhere and realizes Katherine was planning on seducing Mike. They fight and end up falling into Katherine's bubble bath. Eventually, Katherine tells the police about the shooting and Susan is arrested. At the hearing, Katherine tells the judge that Susan's been trashing her to her friends and Susan is sentenced to community service. When Katherine tests Susan by littering at the community service, Susan reports the incident and Katherine is also sentenced to community service.

When M.J. passes by, Katherine tells him how Susan stole Mike away and is a bad mother. Mike is angered by this. When Katherine picks M.J. up from a birthday party and takes him home, Mike confronts her again and coldly tells Katherine that he never loved her at all. A devastated Katherine offers him the knife, telling him stabbing her would be less painful but he says that he doesn't care enough about her to kill her. He leaves and Katherine makes a 911 call, saying she's losing blood and after hanging up, stabs herself. She tells the police Mike stabbed her and he is arrested. Knowing this is a lie Susan tries to reason with Katherine and upon seeing how delusional she is, realizes that she needs serious mental help. Susan calls Dylan and tells her that she should come to Fairview and see her mother. Upon her daughter's return it is revealed that Katherine had been telling her that she and Mike were married and that Susan was the one who stabbed her. Dylan goes to see her mother at the hospital and catches Katherine in her lies. Susan and Dylan then watch as Katherine has a breakdown in the hospital hallway and is restrained. Katherine spends a few weeks in a mental hospital.

Trivia

• Katherine Mayfair has been seen driving two cars on the series, a 2007 Lincoln MKX (4x01-4x17) and a 2010 Kia Borrego (5x01-Present).

References