Welcome to part two of my timeline. The focus this time is pre-series: birthdays and anniversaries. Most of the actual days are arbitrary, but the years have specificity.
The Van de Kamps
Rex: June 10, 1962
Bree: May 7, 1962
Reasoning: It was stated that Bree and Rex met in college. I always presumed that they were in the same year, but I don't know if that was ever explicitly confirmed or denied. Initially, I picked 1962 as the birth year because that was the year Marcia Cross was born. In Rex's case, I feel like this was supported by the show when they had Bree pull out Rex's yearbook from 1980 last season to show Sam.
Married: June 28, 1986
In the season one episode "Suspicious Minds," it is stated that Bree and Rex have been married 18 years. By the 2004 year stamp, that would make their wedding sometime in 1986.
Andrew: November 3, 1988
Danielle: September 26, 1990
During "Ah, But Underneath" we're told that Andrew is sixteen, and that episode (arguably) takes place in October 2004. By putting Andrew's birthday in November, I set it up so he would turn 17 in 2004. At the end of season (in "There Will Be Trumpets"), we're told that Andrew is going to be expelled "two months from graduation." Presumably, Andrew could have started school at 4 and turned 5 in November, setting him up to graduate at age 17. By the same token, I felt like it was never made clear if Andrew DID graduate from high school in 2005. If his graduation was actually the following year (2006), he would have been 18. Either way this makes sense.
In the same episode ("Ah, But Underneath"), it's stated that Danielle is 15, but obviously that doesn't match up with the birth year I gave her (by my timeline she would have been 14 in 2004). It's my belief (which I will argue at some other time) that season two spanned a year and a half of time. By this count, Danielle would have turned 14 right before season one, 15 and then 16 (her missed birthday in the season two episode "No One Is Alone") in season two, 17 in season three, and finally 18 in season four. The reason I set it in September was because in season four Danielle mentions that her 18th birthday was soon before Benjamin was born (which we know was on Halloween). Since I believe season two was elongated, I changed the birth year from '89 to '90 so the 18th birthday stamp would still make sense. It also gives a little more wiggle room between her and Andrew's births.
The Mayers/Delfinos
Karl: August 13, 1964
Susan: April 19, 1967
Mike: March 2, 1963
Karl and Mike are completely arbitrary. I assumed they were both older than Susan, who, more than any other character, has had her age constantly reassessed. In "Coming Home" (season two, 2005) she says she's 38. I went by this initial reference to her age, making her birth year 1967. There are several references that contradict this, but since Susan's age has yo-yo-ed so much, I decided to stick with the initial time stamp.
Susan and Karl Married: July 7, 1989
In season one's "Pretty Little Picture," Karl mentions that he and Susan were married 14 years. Assuming their divorce was finalized a year ago (in 2003), this makes the year of their wedding 1989.
Susan and Mike Married: May 31, 2008 and August 28, 2016
The first wedding date was chosen based around the idea that I mentioned before: season two spans a year and a half. By that logic, season three ends around May 2008, which is when Susan and Mike elope.
Their second wedding was harder to pinpoint by month. Lynette's pregnancy really mucks up the timeline as far as months, and then the show doesn't help itself by giving so many specific references to time in the first couple of episodes of season six. The year is based on my timeline, which sets season five from 2014-2016 and season six from 2016-2017 (something I mentioned in my previous post on the timeline and plan to expand on in the future).
Julie: January 19, 1991
MJ: March 14, 2009
Julie celebrates her birthday in the season one episode "Move On" (set in January 2005). By my timeline, she would turn 14 then, 15 and 16 during season two, 17 in season three, and 18 in season four. This matches up with her getting ready to leave for college at the end of season four.
I took some liberties with MJ's birth. If Susan and Mike got married in May 2008 and Susan found out she was pregnant a month later, there is no way that MJ was born on Mother's Day 2009. So I bumped back his birth a couple of months despite the fact that the episode surrounding his birth specifically takes place in May. The year, again, is based on the season two expanded timeline.
The Scavos
Lynette: December 29, 1965
Tom: June 22, 1967
I originally had Lynette closer to Bree's age (and Tom consequently bumped back since it was established in season five that she's two years older). I bumped her up to 1965 based on the SN they gave her in "It Wasn't Meant to Happen" (Lynette65). Later, I stuck with this year because making her any older during her season six pregnancy would have been absurd (even this date stamp pushes it a bit). By the same vein, however, I also didn't make her any younger because some of the early references on the show really place both Tom and Lynette as the couple that married and started a family latest in life. It wouldn't have made sense to bump her back to her mid 20s when she and Tom got married and had kids.
That said, there are contradictions to this. In season one they mention that Tom is 41 (which would make Lynette 43), but by that stamp, Lynette would have been about 55 when she got pregnant with Paige (which seems a bit outside the realm of possibility).
Married: March 8, 1997
I chose March because of where the episode "My Husband, The Pig" fell (in which they celebrate their anniversary). The twins were born in 1998, so obviously they got married before then. Then, taking into account Kayla's birth and Tom's ensuing relationship with Annabel, I couldn't justify them dating, getting engaged, and marrying any earlier than 1997. This throws off the idea that in "My Husband, The Pig" they were celebrating their 9th anniversary, but given the age of the twins, that didn't make sense anyway.
Kayla: April 1, 1995
Porter and Preston: February 27, 1998
Parker: September 3, 1999
Penny: January 31, 2004
Paige: April 9, 2017
The end of season two establishes that Tom's one night stand with Norah was twelve years ago. Since I have season two end around December2006/January 2007, that would make his one night stand around 1994/1995. I decided to go with late summer 1994, putting Kayla's birthday in April 1995.
Porter and Preston were the easiest. Their birthday is specifically shown to be February 27, 1998 on their school applications in the season one episode "Come In, Stranger."
I based Parker's age off of the celebration of his birthday at the beginning of season three and his mention of being five in the season one episode "Love is in the Air." The celebration puts his birthday at the end of summer; if he was five in February of 2005 ("Love is in the Air") then he'd be turning 6 at the end of the summer. This puts his birthday in 1999.
Penny is listed at 10 months old according to Mike's list of Wisteria Lane residents at the beginning of season one. This puts her birthday sometime in January 2004.
Paige falls into my adapted timeline that sets season six from 2016-2017. Lynette's pregnancy was really stretched too long (much like Susan's in season four), but the best I could do to condense it believably was to have Paige born in April 2017.
The Solises
Carlos: April 8, 1971
Gaby: February 2, 1977
Both of these were fairly arbitrary picks. I don't know if there was any particular logic beyond the choice of April for Carlos (based on Gaby mentioning that it was his birthday in season six's "I Guess This is Goodbye." There might have been some reference to Gaby's age in season one or two that made me choose 1977, but I can't find any actual mention of it in my notes.
Married: August 10, 2002
Gaby and Carlos have a tricky anniversary. The end of season two claims they moved in three years ago (and a flashback puts them at having been married three months at that point). As I said before, my season two end date puts the timeline at Dec. 2006/Jan. 2007, and the earliest that would make their move in date is 2003. I bumped it back a year mostly because a lot would have had to happen between Nov. 2003 and the start of the series; it made more sense to give them a full two years on the Lane before the pilot (not to mention that in the flashback, Lynette would have been very pregnant with Penny at that point). I chose August because the celebration of their anniversary, as it falls in my timeline, puts their wedding in that month.
Juanita: September 12, 2009
Celia: February 14, 2012
Oh Juanita. You age so quickly. At the start of season five, Juanita is four, but by the end she is seven. To make that work, I put her birthday in September (so she'd turn five soon after the premiere). Again, this goes by my timeline, which has season five start in 2014. In my favor, Juanita celebrates her birthday in season six at the beginning of the season (believably September); to my detriment, this season they just had her celebrate a birthday in January. Given the two choices, I'm sticking with September.
Has Celia's age ever been established? I think I finally settled on 2012 because Juanita seemed to keep aging while Celia didn't. I wanted to give them some space in age to justify this.
Other Birthdays and Anniversaries
Orson: September 30, 1959
Orson was in the mental institution in 1976 ("The Little Things You Do Together"). They gave him the age stamp of 17 when that occurred. This one was simple math.
Orson and Bree Married: September 15, 2007
They married on the show at the beginning of season three ("It Takes Two"). This follows my extended season two.
Edie: June 1, 1967
Like Susan, Edie's birthday seemed to jump all over the place. She celebrates it twice between the end of season three and the beginning of season four (which logically doesn't work). I think I finally decided to plunk her down right between the two in order to clear up the discrepancy. I can't remember if there was any logic to making it 1967 (I can't find my notes on Edie); it might have been as simple as keeping up the rivalry between her and Susan.
Mary Alice: November 18, 1965
The date on her tombstone. I love when these are easy.
Zach: April 30, 1988
I believe I based this date not only off of the vague Mike/Dierdre timeline we were given, but also off of the apparent rivalry between Zach and Andrew in season one. Also, it made sense that he would have been out of high school by the end of season two at the latest.
These are the only ones I've mapped out, but of course there are many other characters that I haven't mentioned here. It helps so much in writing fanfic to have some idea of where the characters are in both age and relationships (which is primarily why I only have the major characters plotted).
There will most likely be more timeline posts from me somewhere down the line. It's ridiculous how many pages of notes I have on this.
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