Katherine Mayfair-2

Katherine Mayfair is a tragic woman who wears one of the most flawless masks on Wisteria Lane; though she appears incredibly strong and harsh on the outside, her inner world is completely shattered. Just like her biggest rival in the neighborhood, Bree Van de Kamp, she is obsessively perfectionistic about cooking, gardening, and being the immaculate suburban housewife, because she fears that if she cannot keep everything under control, her dark secrets from the past and her history of domestic abuse will be exposed. Having spent most of her life running from an abusive ex-husband, her defense mechanisms are highly developed, yet her desperation in her love life remains her greatest weakness; indeed, when Mike Delfino abandons her, she loses her grip on reality to the point of putting on a wedding dress to wait for him at home, going mad, and even stabbing Susan, which ultimately leads to her institutionalization. It is precisely the dreadful loneliness she feels upon returning to the neighborhood after this psychiatric stint, combined with the isolation brought on by the neighbors viewing her as "crazy," and her massive hunger for affection, that leaves her completely vulnerable to manipulation. Rather than being left alone to face the ghosts of her past, Katherine is a woman so deeply wounded and helpless that she would choose to surrender to the sickly love of a toxic character like Charlotte, who isolates her from the world and turns her vulnerabilities into a weapon against her.