In the fourth season of Desperate Housewives, the ladies of Wisteria Lane are back--all the ladies, as the previous season's cliffhanger turned out to be a red herring.

Both Susan (Teri Hatcher) and Gabriella (Eva Longoria Parker) are facing difficulties in their new marriages: Mike (James Denton) turns to drugs to keep up with his work schedule, and politician Victor (John Slattery) seems less exciting than former husband Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira), who is still attached to Edie (Nicollette Sheridan). Bree (Marcia Cross) and Orson (Kyle McLachlan) are still faking a pregnancy to cover for Danielle (Joy Lauren), and Lynnette (Felicity Huffman) is fighting both cancer and Tom's (Doug Savant) devilspawn daughter (Rachel G. Fox) while their pizzeria gets a new rival.

Adding the new wrinkle to the season were two veteran TV actors, Dana Delany (China Beach) and Nathan Fillion (Firefly) as Katherine Mayfair and her new husband Adam. Katherine lived on Wisteria Lane years ago, but daughter Dylan (Lyndsy Fonseca) seems to have no memory of that past, or of her then-best friend, Julie (Andrea Bowen).

And what roles will be played by shadows from Katherine's and Adam's past (Gary Cole and Melora Walters)? Delany and Fillion were great additions--Katherine begins a homemaking rivalry with Bree, and Adam's deadpan gynecologist is a gem.

But the centerpiece of the season (and which coincided almost exactly with the series' hiatus due to the 2007-2008 writers' strike, which trimmed the season to 17 episodes) is a cataclysmic tornado that wreaks havoc on both the houses and the people of the neighborhood. The season concludes in a number of showdowns, then a surprising conclusion that promised an intriguing new angle for season 5.

With Kathryn Joosten as Mrs. McCluskey, Kevin Rahm and Tuc Watkins as Wisteria Lane's first same-sex couple, and Justine Bateman as the Solizs' roomer with a secret. DVD features include deleted scenes, creator Marc Cherry's favorite moments, and a 26-minute look at the making of the tornado episode. Bonus points for a DVD insert that presents Wisteria Lane as one of Edie's real-estate brochures. --David Horiuchi