Mary Alice Young (formerly Angela Forrest) is a fictional character on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. The character is played by actress Brenda Strong who narrates the series from beyond the grave. The narration provided by Mary Alice is essential to the tale of Wisteria Lane, as the show revolves around her sharing the secrets of her friends and neighbours. She is the matriarch of Wisteria Lane and is the most important character to the show's development.
Mary Alice is the most mysterious of the housewives because only bits and pieces of her story are known. A loving, doting wife and mother who was generous to her family and neighbours, she was the last person any of them expected to shoot herself in the head. She was born on November 18, 1965 and died on September 26, 2004.
In death, Mary Alice sees things she would not have seen in life: her friends' vulnerabilities, lies and secrets. She doesn't judge them so much as love them more because of their foibles, pitying them for the ways they manipulate and hurt those they care about most.
Perhaps because Mary Alice represents a part of them, the women decide to get to the bottom of her suicide. They can't quite make sense of why her husband and son are so odd, or why this vivacious woman had married a man who seems to be withholding and cold.
