Tom Scavo

Fictional character on Desperate Housewives

Thomas Scavo '/s//k//ɑː//v//oʊ/ is a fictional character on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives, played by actor Doug Savant. During Season 1, Tom was credited as a recurring role, but became credited as a series regular in Season 2. Early storylines often focused on Tom's position at an advertising firm and his need to travel often, usually leaving his wife Lynette alone to run the family. In Season 3, Tom's storylines focused on his attempts to find a new job after becoming tired of advertising. He opens "Scavo's Pizzeria", much to Lynette's dismay. Five years later, it becomes apparent that Tom is experiencing a mid life crisis when he purchases and restores an early model convertible. After Lynette gives birth to Paige, Tom is diagnosed with male postpartum depression, which Lynette laughs off as a ridiculous notion. Tom separates from Lynette at the end of season 7 and dates Jane for the majority of season 8. Tom and Lynette reunite at the end of season 8.

Thomas "Tom" Scavo was born in 1968. He is the eldest of three children (Tom, Theresa and Peter) born to Allison and Rodney Scavo. He has had three relationships prior to the events of the series, starting with one night stand Nora Huntington in 1994. He then dated Annabel Foster in 1997, but told her he is not a husband material when they worked together in advertising. He also had a one night stand with Renee Perry, during the short time when breaking off his engagement with Lynette Lindquist. Lynette and Tom met while working at the same advertising company. They married in 1997, and one year later, they moved to Fairview, 4355 Wisteria Lane. Lynette met Mary Alice Young, Bree Van de Kamp, and Susan Mayer, shortly after discovering she is pregnant with twins, and they became friends. Lynette became a mother to four children with Tom: twins Preston and Porter born in 1998, Parker in 1998 She met Gabrielle Solis in 2003

Tom is frequently out of town and seems oblivious to Lynette's problems. Tom has been keeping his one night stand with Renee a secret from his wife, and only his father, Rodney Scavo, knows about it. Tom decides to become a house husband after losing his promotion to Tim Douggan and subsequently quits his job. He seems to truly love Lynette, and the two are able to discuss family matters in depth.

Midway through the second season, Tom returns to the workplace, sharing an employer with his wife for the second time. When Lynette's boss, Ed Ferrera (Currie Graham), asks Lynette to send explicit messages to his wife to help him improve his sex life, his wife finds out and threatens to leave him unless he fires the person who sent the IMs. Feeling he cannot fire Lynette, Ed tells his wife it was Tom, deciding to fire him instead, but Lynette warns him he will need a reasonable cause. To Lynette's horror, Ed finds one when he discovers that Tom has been falsifying expense reports. When Ed confronts him, the conversation ends with Tom punching Ed, and Tom is fired. Tom is found out to be meeting with another woman after Lynette follows him to Atlantic City and sees them embracing. Lynette later finds out that this woman is the mother of his daughter, born long before he married Lynette.

It is revealed that the woman Tom was embracing is Nora Huntington (Kiersten Warren). They had a one night stand years before he met Lynette. She claims she conceived his child, a daughter named Kayla (Rachel G. Fox), but never told him. Tom confesses to Lynette that he wants to open up a pizzeria. Nora consistently undermines Tom behind his back and tries to get Lynette to tell him to drop the idea, while planning to tell him that she will support him. Nora wants to restart her relationship with Tom, determined to make a proper family for Kayla, but Tom rejects her and tells Lynette, who warns Nora to keep her distance in the future. Tom and Lynette plan to fight Nora for custody of Kayla. Before they get to court, Nora confronts Lynette in the supermarket, moments before Carolyn Bigsby takes the supermarket hostage. When Lynette tells Carolyn that Nora is trying to date Tom, Carolyn shoots and kills Nora. Just before Nora dies, Lynette promises Nora that she will take care of Kayla. Tom opens his pizzeria and, with Lynette's help, prepares it for the grand opening. He then tries organizing a surprise for their ninth wedding anniversary, but it goes wrong, leaving Lynette out in the woods at night, and he rushes to find her. A little while later, Tom injures his back while working, leaving him confined to bed rest. Lynette hires a new chef, Rick Coletti (Jason Gedrick), as well as Mrs. McCluskey to look after Tom and the children when she is at work. One night, Tom and the kids come to the pizzeria to surprise her, and Kayla sees Lynette and Rick flirting together. She tells Tom, and Tom returns to work to fire Rick, but Lynette tells him not to. After Lynette and Rick are locked in the freezer during an armed robbery, they cuddle to keep warm, and Tom sees the CCTV tape of them eating dinner before the theft. He confronts Rick, telling him that his marriage is solid, and that Rick cannot break them up. Tom asks Rick to quit but he refuses, claiming Lynette "doesn't want him gone". Rick later tells Lynette about his lunch with Tom and his feelings for her, and tries to get her to admit her feelings for him, but Lynette refuses and fires him. After finding out Tom is returning to work, Lynette sobs in her bathroom, distraught. Lynette and Tom's marriage continues to decline and they don't speak for days. Trying to rebuild their marriage, Tom gets his old college friend and marriage counsellor to talk to them both without Lynette knowing his profession. She realizes and becomes even angrier about his 'ambush therapy'. When Tom's doctor informs him that his back has recovered, Tom suggests to Lynette they either talk or have sex. Lynette agrees to sex, which quickly turns violent and Lynette falls off the bed, banging her head on the bedside table. She goes to the hospital to be treated, and Tom finds out that Lynette has fallen for Rick and misses him. The doctor performs a CAT scan on Lynette, finds swollen lymph nodes, and suggests a biopsy, as it could be a sign of lymphoma.

In the third episode "The Game", Tom attends a party held by his friend Susan. Lynette remains at home because she is unwell and in pain. Lynette's mother Stella secretly gets marijuana from Andrew and bakes it in some brownies for Lynette, to act as painkillers. This works, and Lynette attends Susan's party high, and she brings the drugged brownies with her for everyone else to have. Stella arrives and tells Tom why no one can have a brownie. Tom hastily takes them off everyone's plate before they can eat them and ends up accidentally pushing Gabrielle into new resident Adam Mayfair, spilling wine on him and sparking a feud between Gabrielle and Adam's wife Katherine Mayfair. Tom later appears at the end of the episode when Lynette discovers the truth from him about what Stella did. When a tornado hits Wisteria Lane, the Scavos take shelter in Mrs. McCluskey's basement with Ida Greenbberg. Tom and the children are left in the basement while Lynette and Mrs. McCluskey go out looking for Ida's cat. When Lynette and Mrs. McCluskey hide from the tornado in a bathtub, Tom falls unconscious after having an asthma attack, due to a cat allergy. While the Scavos and Mrs. McCluskey survive the tornado, Ida is killed while saving Tom and Lynette's kids. Rick returns, announcing that he is opening a new restaurant near the Scavos' pizzeria. Tom lies to the police when they investigate vandalism happening at Rick's restaurant, but later admits to Lynette that he did vandalize Rick's restaurant out of jealousy. He is investigated again when a fire occurs in Rick's restaurant. Tom is confronted by Lynette, and Tom swears he left the founders ball to listen to a football game on the car radio, and tells the same story to Rick after he finds a matchbox from Scavo's. The incident breaks out into a fight, and the police arrest Tom. He is later released after Lynette lies to them to provide him an alibi. Eventually, it is revealed that Porter and Preston are responsible for starting the fire at Rick's restaurant. Tom and Lynette are unsure how to handle the situation, with Tom thinking they should go to therapy. Lynette discovers that Porter and Preston got the idea for starting the fire from Kayla, and she takes Kayla to therapy behind Tom's back. Tom's denial about the problems Kayla causes for Lynette leads to her lying to the therapist and getting Lynette arrested for child abuse. Eventually, Tom is forced to send Kayla away to live with her maternal grandparents after he finds out what she did, and she threatens to continue causing problems if Lynette comes back. In the season finale, Tom and Lynette help with catering Bob and Lee's wedding. Tom gives advice to Lee about standing up for himself for wanting the ice sculpture be castle rather than a cherub, which escelates to Bob and Lee arguing then cancelling the wedding. Lynette and Tom get the two in the same room and Tom tells them that if they cannot decide over small decisions that they might as well not marry at all, and they should ask themselves whether they love each other enough that no problem can possibly tear them apart. His speech gets Bob and Lee to reconcile and to reaffirm to Lynette that their marriage is stronger than she thought.

In the first episode of season 5, Tom is going through a midlife crisis and he buys a Ford Mustang. He has difficulty disciplining his teenage sons as they treat him less respectuflly than Tom was used to when he was their age. Lynette uses that against him by tricking Tom into letting the twins borrow his Mustang for a dance. When they come back a half hour late, Tom angrily grounds them. When they claim he is more worried about the car than them, he kicks a mirror off it. Later, Tom confesses to Lynette that it was already broken and he had ordered a replacement, impressing her. In "Mirror, Mirror," flashbacks show that Tom was electrocuted in an accident and nearly died, which pushes him to enjoy life as much as he could. In the present, he tells Lynette his plan to sell the pizzeria, buy an RV and spend a year traveling the country with his family. Lynette is not happy about this, leading to tensions between them. When Tom contacts one of Porter's friends' mothers, realtor Anne Schilling, she finds him a rehearsal space for the garage band he and some of the other Wisteria Lane men have started. He spends a lot of time there, and Lynnette confronts him about him allegedly having an affair with Anne, who has 'dropped by' with some items for the rehearsal space, among them a futon. Tom denies it, but then steps on a condom wrapper on the floor. He deduces that Porter is sleeping with some girl there, but when Lynette sees Anne leaving from the rehearsal space when Tom is there, she is led to believe Tom is cheating on her. In the next episode, Lynette discovers that it is actually Port who is sleeping with Anne. After much deliberation, Lynette decides to pay Anne off, but this backfires when Porter disappears, claiming that he wants to be with her. In the last episode, it is revealed that the Scavos' pizzeria has lost its business to low sales, and Tom is forced to throw a going out of business sale to raise the money to repay his loans and pay Bree her money. Tom becomes depressed from being out of work, and Lynette getting a new job working for Carlos Solis. In the season 5 finale, Tom decides to go back to college as a Chinese language major. Thinking this is part of his middle age syndrome, Lynette attempts to sabotage Tom by getting him drunk the night before his entrance exam. It is only afterwards that Tom says he was taking Chinese in hopes of getting a new job in that market. Despite the hangover, Tom scored in the top five on the exam. However, his college plans are disrupted when Lynette reveals she is 3.5 months pregnant with twins.

Tom is excited about becoming a dad again but Lynette is not sure if she loves her unborn children. Tom reassures her that when she will hold them in her arms, she will love them with all her heart. These twins are Tom's sixth and seventh children, but Lynette loses one of them to a miscarriage when she pushes Celia Solis out of the way of a plane crash landing on Wisteria Lane. It is also revealed that Tom has been cheating on some of his college courses out of fear of failing them. He is eventually forced to drop out of college and take over Lynette's job working for Carlos while she is on maternity leave.

Tom is diagnosed with postpartum depression, and is prescribed marijuana as a cure, which stuns Lynette. In the episode "Let Me Entertain You", Tom decides to hire his own mother, Allison, as a nanny for the new baby. After an argument, Lynette fires her mother in law, but Tom overrules her. After Lynette and Allison talk, Allison shows symptoms of dementia to Penny, unknown to Lynette and Tom. Tom and Lynette finally discover Allison's dementia on Halloween, after she collapses outside the Solises' house after going out to buy more candy, despite Penny telling her they had plenty. Allison is later admitted to a nursing home and Tom and Lynette agree to visit her there. Tom is deeply upset by his mother's illness. In episode 9 Susan walks in on Tom and Lynette having sex on the nursery floor and is in awe at Tom's huge penis, and she then confronts Lynette about why she has never mentioned it before. A drunken Renee Perry eventually reveals to Susan she once slept with Tom, putting Susan in an uncomfortable situation. When Susan is injured in a riot, a guilty Renee tells Tom she should reveal the truth, but Tom insists she keep it quiet. Renee finally confesses to Lynette, revealing that the affair occurred when she and Tom were engaged but had one of their regular "break ups." Lynette is naturally upset, but keeps it quiet and begins a series of pranks against Tom as payback. When Renee find out what Lynette is doing, she tells Tom about it. Tom confronts Lynette and tells that he wanted to tell her about Renee, but there was never a good time for that because he did not want to ruin the wonderful life they have together. Lynette then forgives Tom. Tom gets a major promotion at a new company and enjoys the work. Lynette is concerned about his over working, but Tom tells her he feels more alive than ever. When Tom attends a conference, Lynette is upset that she is excluded from the business talks and forced to attend spas and other activities with the other wives. She goes so far as to steal an ID from a woman only to find out she's the keynote speaker for a lecture. Back home, Tom snaps at Lynette that after so many years supporting her, it hurts that she can't do the same for him. Renee tells Lynette that she has to choose between her own wants or being a good wife. Tom then hires the duo to decorate his office like a Trump like boss but Lynette thinks that it is not right for him and goes a different way. Renee overrules her to give Tom the office he wants and Lynette yells at Tom over how he's changing. Tom he retorts that he has to be this way in order to succeed, and Lynette needs to stop thinking of him the way he's been at home the last several years. When Tom decides to book a luxurious holiday for the family and announces it, Lynette is annoyed at Tom for not consulting her first. The two then pitch to the kids what they think is the best holiday which leads to yet another fight between them; this time however they insult each other, leaving them to decide that it is only them who need to spend a holiday together. The holiday turns out badly and the relationship deteriorates, becoming awkward. When they return home, Tom leads Lynette to believe he will spend some time in an apartment near the office. Before Lynette attends a street dinner party, Penny reveals to her that Tom had left her a note. Lynette is surprised and finds that Tom's unpacked suitcase from the holiday is not in the bedroom, convincing her that Tom had left her. After revealing to Susan her suspicions, Lynette walks into her house, finding Tom chopping up salad ingredients. He tells Lynette that he had only gone to the store. Lynette questions him why it had taken him two hours, leading Tom to reveal that he had left but came back when he considered that Lynette would have to lie about where Tom was to her friends at the dinner party. The two talk for a while and Lynette confesses that when she thought Tom had left, she felt relieved, leading the pair to decide to separate finally.

By the beginning of season 8, Tom has moved away from Wisteria Lane. He and Lynette agree to work on their marriage by attending couples counselling, however when Tom begins dating a woman from his new building, Jane, Lynette seems to think there is no point anymore in continuing counselling if Tom doesn't still have faith in their marriage. Later, Tom and Jane plan to go on a trip to Paris, although Lynette stops him at the airport and confesses to him that she is involved in the murder of Gabrielle's stepfather. He then agrees to stay with her to help her cope, and Jane is left to go to Paris without him. In "With So Little to Be Sure Of", Lynette and Tom sign their divorce papers, but the document does not make it to court. Tom later breaks up with Jane due to his feelings for Lynette. The married couple reconcile in the final episode, and Tom and Lynette move to New York so Lynette can pursue her new career for Katherine Mayfair. The couple later buy a penthouse looking over Central Park, and they take care of their six grandchildren.