Reception
According to ABC, "One Wonderful Day" drew 30.620 million viewers. According to Nielsen ratings, the episode scored a 13.2 rating among viewers 18 to 49 years of age, a 28.2 percent increase from the season's average rating of 10.3 in the demographic. It was the most-watched program of the night across all networks, outperforming repeat episodes of CSI and Crossing Jordan on CBS and NBC, respectively, as well as Fox's broadcast of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. The episode was the third most-watch program of the week across all networks and one of only three programs to surpass 30 million viewers. It was also the most-watched season finale for a freshman series since ER ten years earlier.
Entertainment Weekly's Dalton Ross named the episode as one of the season's best, commending the fact that "most of the main questions were actually answered," unlike the season finale of Lost. He praised the Bree storyline as well as the conclusion to the Mary Alice mystery, calling it "both shocking and satisfying." Gael Fashingbauer Cooper of MSNBC also compared the episode to the Lost season finale, writing: "'Desperate Housewives' is willing to answer some of its mysterious questions and give readers a little bit of closure. 'Lost,' heading into its own two-hour finale this Wednesday, is still dangling a dozen carrots in front of impatient viewers." Cooper felt that the episode was a satisfying conclusion to the season opining that "by allowing some of its plots to remain tantalizing mysteries, yet offering up the satisfaction of explaining others, 'Desperate Housewives' has smartly set things up for its audience to return for its new season next fall." Frazier Moore of USA Today called the finale "a smashing close" to the first season. Moore expressed interest in how the cliffhangers would be resolved, as well as in the Betty Applewhite character. He also theorized that Rex's death was a ruse, writing: "Reminder: The audience saw no death scene and no body. When has Desperate Housewives exercised restraint without an ulterior motive?"
Ann Hodgman of Entertainment Weekly was negative in her review and dismissed the episode for feeling "like a plateful of warmed-up leftovers." Hodgman criticized the writers' decision to devoting too much of the episode to the Mary Alice storyline rather than focusing on the other characters. She wrote that Rex's death did not come as a surprise, noting: "Just as a TV or movie cop is inevitably shot after he announces that he's about to retire, we know it's over for Rex the minute Bree rests her head on his feeble chest and promises him he'll make it." Hodgman stated that her interest in the Gabrielle and Carlos storyline was ruined by John telling Carlos about the affair rather than Carlos discovering it himself. She also declared that the Lynette storyline was "wrapped up almost as perfunctorily, or maybe it only seems that way because it's long been so obvious that they were heading toward one of those folktales where the husband and wife switch places." Hodgman concluded by saying the fates of Susan and Mike are predictable, as the characters are too important to be killed off. In 2009, TV Guide ranked the episode #55 on its list of "100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time". The Futon Critic ranked the episode as the 19th best television episode of 2005, calling it "note-perfect."
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Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul. A true conversion, a true Christ, is now, as always, to be made by the reception of beautiful sentiments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)