Past Susan Bremmer was born on November 29, 1967 and was raised by single mother
Sophie Bremmer (
Lesley Ann Warren), who told her that her father was a member of the
United States Merchant Marine who had died in the Battle of
Hanoi during the
Vietnam War. She was a cheerleader in high school and graduated as
valedictorian of her class. She graduated from
community college with an art degree. Eventually, Susan began writing and illustrating children's books, the first of which was
Ants in My Picnic Basket. In 1989 Susan married
Karl Mayer (
Richard Burgi) after two months of dating, and in 1990 gave birth to their only daughter, Julie. The following year, the family moved to
Wisteria Lane in
Fairview, Eagle State, where Susan quickly befriends
Mary Alice Young (
Brenda Strong), her new neighbor. Susan became close friends with
Katherine Davis (
Dana Delany) and
Bree Van de Kamp (
Marcia Cross) in 1994, In 2003, Karl had an affair with his secretary, Brandi (
Anne Dudek), and ended up falling for her, leaving Susan and abandoning Julie. The two divorced and agreed to share custody of Julie, although the court ruled that Julie would be living with her mother.
Season 1 One year after the divorce, Susan has started to consider dating again, even if that means dating someone who makes fun of her cooking. Susan takes an interest in
Mike Delfino (
James Denton), a plumber she meets at Mary Alice’s wake, who tells her he has recently moved in the neighborhood, renting the Simms’ house. Susan soon begins dating Mike, despite competing with realtor
Edie Britt (
Nicollette Sheridan) for his affection. Julie begins corresponding with Zach without Susan's knowledge and hides him in her room when he escapes from the institution. When Susan finds Zach in her home, she and Mike return him to Paul; Paul fabricates unconvincing lies to thwart Susan's efforts to discover his family's secrets too. As her relationship with Mike progresses, Susan becomes suspicious of his past, especially when she finds a gun and large sums of money in his kitchen cabinet. Additionally, evidence connecting Mike to the recent murder of a Wisteria Lane resident,
Martha Huber (
Christine Estabrook), surfaces. Susan ends the relationship when police inform her that Mike was convicted of
manslaughter and
drug trafficking. However, Susan learns the murder was accidental and the two renew their relationship, with Mike deciding to move in with Susan. While Mike is away on business, Susan finds Zach, armed with a handgun, in Mike's house. He vows to kill Mike when he comes home as he believes Mike killed Paul.
Season 2 When Mike arrives home, Zach's murder scheme backfires and he runs away. Mike informs Susan that he recently learned that Zach is his biological son. Susan agrees to help Mike search for Zach and finds him in a nearby park. When Zach expresses hope of rekindling his romance with Julie, she gives him money to look for Paul in Utah. When Mike finds out about her betrayal, he ends their relationship. Susan decides to write an autobiography following the break-up. While researching her father, she learns that her mother lied and her father is local business owner Addison Prudy (
Paul Dooley). She tries to establish a relationship with her reluctant father, but her attempts are effectively unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Susan is dismayed to learn that Karl has moved in with Edie. She begins dating her doctor, Ron McCready (
Jay Harrington), who informs her that she has a
wandering spleen and will need a
splenectomy. When Susan learns that her health insurance will not cover the operation, Karl offers to temporarily remarry her long enough for her to be eligible for his medical benefits. They agree to keep their
sham marriage a secret from Edie and Ron. While under
anesthesia before her operation, Susan professes her love for Mike to Ron, which prompts Ron to break up with her. Soon after, Karl leaves Edie, as his love for Susan has resurfaced. Upon learning that Susan is the
other woman, Edie intentionally burns down Susan's house. In this time of need, both Mike and Karl vie for Susan's affections. She chooses to rekindle her relationship with Mike and Karl signs the divorce papers. Susan and Mike then make plans to meet for dinner at nearby Torch Lake, where Mike plans to propose. On his way to dinner, Mike gets
run over by
Orson Hodge (
Kyle MacLachlan), a dentist whom Susan had recently befriended, and is left in a
coma.
Season 3 Season 3 opens six months after the hit-and-run on Mike. While waiting for him to wake up, Susan reluctantly enters a relationship with
Ian Hainsworth (
Dougray Scott), a British man whose wife Jane (Cecily Gambrell) has been in a coma for years. When Mike finally awakens, doctors conclude that he now suffers from
retrograde amnesia. Unfortunately, Susan is out of town with Ian when Mike wakes up. Edie takes advantage of this to move in on Mike and claim that Susan was horrible to him during their relationship. Mike turns Susan away when she returns to Fairview. Having lost hope, Susan continues her romance with Ian. Meanwhile, Susan is suspicious of Orson, who has married Bree after a six month relationship and is alleged to have killed his missing ex-wife,
Alma (
Valerie Mahaffey). Susan defends Mike, which frustrates Ian. He reluctantly agrees to pay for Mike's bail if Susan breaks off all contact with him. Following Jane's death, Susan accepts Ian's marriage proposal. As Mike slowly regains his memory, he recalls his feelings for Susan and challenges Ian for her affections. When Susan learns that the two had made a bet on her in a game of poker, she calls off the wedding and declares that she does not want to see either of them again. Realizing that letting both of them go is a mistake, Susan decides to take Ian back. However, he tells her that he cannot spend the rest of his life wondering if she is still in love with Mike, and he leaves. Susan and Mike reunite and become engaged. The couple get married in a private ceremony in the woods, with Julie as their only guest.
Season 4 In the
fourth season premiere, one month after her wedding, Susan learns that she is pregnant. While looking into their medical histories for the baby's interest, Mike is forced to admit to Susan that he lied about his father being dead. Susan visits Mike's father, Nick (
Robert Forster), who is in jail for murder. Nick warns Susan that Mike is still troubled by demons of his past. With the stress of finances for the baby, Mike begins working overtime, despite an injury resulting from the hit-and-run over a year ago. He begins relying heavily on painkillers. Susan confronts Mike about his addiction, threatening to leave him if he does not enter
rehab; he agrees to admit himself. After a devastating tornado hits Wisteria Lane, Bree, Orson, and their newborn grandson,
Benjamin, move into Susan's house temporarily. During his stay, Orson develops a
sleep walking habit and unconsciously admits to running over Mike with his car. Susan feels extremely betrayed and Bree, unable to forgive Orson, asks him to move out. Shortly after, Susan gives birth to a boy, whom she names
Maynard, after Mike's deceased grandfather.
Five-year jump In the five years that take place between seasons
four and
five, Susan and Mike get into a vehicular collision with another car. Although Susan and Mike survive, the occupants of the other car,
Lila Dash (Marie Caldare) and her daughter
Paige (Madeleine Michelle Dunn), are killed. Although Susan was driving, Mike takes the blame, as Susan did not have her license with her at the time. Susan feels incredibly guilty for taking the lives of Lila and Paige, but Mike insists it was not their fault. The argument over the topic becomes so great that it results in divorce. Giving up on love, Susan engages in a
casual relationship with her house painter,
Jackson Braddock (
Gale Harold). Jackson makes the sudden announcement that he is moving to nearby Riverton for work and asks Susan to come with him. After much consideration, Susan decides that she is unsure of what she wants and turns down Jackson's offer. Also, Mike moves across the street from Susan and begins dating her close friend and neighbor,
Katherine Mayfair (
Dana Delany). Realizing she cannot keep Mike from being happy, she gives the couple her blessing, despite still feeling uncomfortable. With both Susan and Mike employed, M.J. spends more time under Katherine's care, which makes Susan uneasy. She is heartbroken to learn that Mike and Katherine have decided to move in with one another and become engaged. Susan attempts to console Edie's husband,
Dave Williams (
Neal McDonough), following Edie's death. She explains the truth behind her own accident, completely unaware that Lila and Paige Dash were Dave's wife and daughter, respectively, and that he has been seeking revenge on Mike since moving to Wisteria Lane. When Susan learns that Mike, who is engaged to Katherine, will no longer have to pay
alimony once she is married, she explains the false pretenses of her engagement. Dave, who now understands that Susan was driving the car that killed his family, overhears this and reports Jackson to immigration officials. planning to kill M.J. just like Susan killed his own child. Mike discovers Dave's plans and is able to save Susan and M.J. After the ordeal, Susan and Mike share a brief, yet romantic kiss. Dave is sent to a
psychiatric hospital in
Boston and two months later, Mike marries an unidentified bride.
Season 6 Susan is identified as Mike's bride in the
sixth season premiere. Her marriage to Mike destroys her friendship with Katherine. The night after the wedding, Julie is strangled outside of Susan's home. While waiting for her to awaken, Susan learns from
Andrew that Julie has dropped out of medical school, was involved with a married man (revealed to be
Angie Bolen's husband Nick), and had a pregnancy scare before her attack. When Julie awakens, she refuses to identify the married man she was seeing. Prior to the attack, Susan had taken Eddie on as an art student and he developed a crush on her. When he discovered that she was remarrying Mike and that she did not see him as a romantic suitor, he attacked Julie, mistaking her for Susan. Mike warns her to leave his family alone and claims he never truly loved her. After he leaves, Katherine calls the police and stabs herself with a knife with Mike's fingerprints on it, framing him. Susan, realizing that Katherine has suffered a total nervous breakdown, calls Katherine's adopted daughter,
Dylan (
Lyndsy Fonseca), who comes to town and has her mother committed for psychiatric observation. Susan later forgives Katherine once she recovers from her breakdown. Soon after, Mike reveals that he has accumulated an immense debt in the past year. Unable to balance their debt, Susan and Mike decide to move off Wisteria Lane and rent their house out temporarily. They move into an apartment across town while Paul Young rents their house on Wisteria Lane.
Season 7 Susan accepts an offer from her landlady, Maxine Rosen (
Lainie Kazan), to appear on a website in which she does housework in her lingerie in order to make ends meet, though she keeps her new job a secret from her friends and family. Soon after, Maxine's site is merged with a larger company that uses Susan's image to advertise the website on billboards across the country. Susan pays the company $9,000 to have the billboards removed. As a result, she begins working for the website's
video chatting services to earn back the money. Paul discovers her secret and threatens to expose it unless she sells him her home, in which he now lives with his second wife,
Beth (
Emily Bergl). Hoping to derail Paul's blackmail scheme, Susan tells Mike about her job on the website. Paul retaliates by spreading the word about Susan's involvement with the website, causing her to lose her teaching job. Strapped for money, Mike accepts a job on an oil rig in Alaska and Susan becomes Lynette's nanny. After purchasing a majority of the houses on Wisteria Lane, Paul announces that he plans to open a halfway house for ex-convicts on the street. A protest against his plan escalates into a violent riot and Susan is trampled by the unruly crowd. As a result, Susan loses a kidney and learns that her second kidney is deformed and she is at severe risk of
renal failure. Susan reluctantly agrees to undergo
dialysis while waiting for a transplant. After Paul throws her out, Beth submits paperwork indicating that in the event of her death, her kidney would be given to Susan, and then commits suicide. Despite initial refusal, Paul allows the operation to move forward and he and Susan reconcile. After discovering that Paul has been depressed following Beth's suicide, Susan begins cooking meals for him with the assistance of
Felicia Tilman (
Harriet Sansom Harris), Beth's mother and Martha Huber's sister, who secretly adds
antifreeze to the food in an effort to kill him. Paul nearly dies as a result of the poisoned food. Unaware that Felicia is helping prepare his meals, Paul has Susan arrested for attempting to kill him. Eventually, Susan is released, Paul confesses to the murder of Martha Huber, and Felicia presumably dies in a car crash while fleeing town. Susan and her family move back onto Wisteria Lane. During a dinner party, Gabrielle's former stepfather,
Alejandro (
Tony Plana), who raped her during her childhood, attempts to harm Gabrielle until her husband,
Carlos Solis (
Ricardo Antonio Chavira) kills him. Susan, Lynette, and Bree agree to help cover up the crime.
Season 8 Susan begins to withdraw from her friends and family out of guilt for having helped cover up Alejandro's death. She bonds with Carlos over their mutual guilt. When Mike begins suspecting Susan and Carlos are having an affair, they agree to tell him the truth about the cover-up. Soon after, Susan begins taking an art class with renowned painter, Andre Zeller (
Miguel Ferrer), and discovers that her guilt has given her a renewed artistic ability. In a series of paintings, Susan depicts the scene of Alejandro's death and subsequent burial, arousing the suspicion of
Detective Chuck Vance (
Jonathan Cake), Bree's embittered ex-boyfriend assigned to investigate Alejandro's disappearance. She briefly considers moving to New York to explore new career opportunities, but ultimately decides against it. In an effort to ease her guilt, Susan visits Alejandro's wife and stepdaughter, Claudia (
Justina Machado) and Marisa (
Daniela Bobadilla), respectively, and write them a check to help their financial misfortune, which only arouses Claudia's suspicions. Claudia confronts Susan and Gabrielle about Alejandro's disappearance, but agrees to stop prying after learning that he had been sexually abusing Marisa. In "
Is This What You Call Love?", Susan learns that Julie is six months pregnant and has no relationship with the baby's father. To her dismay, Julie plans to put the child up for adoption. When Susan discovers that Lynette's son,
Porter (
Max Carver), is the father, she supports his decision to raise the child himself. In "
You Take for Granted", Mike is murdered by
a vengeful loan shark. The final episodes of the series deal with Susan grieving and eventually moving on from Mike's death. In the
series finale, Julie gives birth to a daughter, whom she now plans on keeping. Susan sells her home on Wisteria Lane and she and M.J. move to help Julie raise the baby. ==Reception==