In the episode, former stripper Robin Gallagher (Julie Benz) interacts with each of the women of Wisteria Lane, drastically affecting their lives.

In recent episodes, Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher) has encouraged a stripper Robin Gallagher (Julie Benz) to quit her job and turn her life around.

[1] Katherine Mayfair (Dana Delany) has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital after suffering a mental breakdown stemming from the breakup of her relationship with Mike Delfino (James Denton), who has since married Susan.

[2] Orson Hodge (Kyle MacLachlan) has recently learned that his wife, Bree Van de Kamp (Marcia Cross), was having an affair with Susan's ex-husband Karl Mayer (Richard Burgi).

Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), who is in the middle of celebrating her wedding anniversary with Tom (Doug Savant), grows angry when she learns her son Parker (Joshua Logan Moore) is spying on Robin while she showers next door.

Gabrielle arranges for an old photographer friend in New York City to help Ana with her modeling career, but she turns down the offer because of her relationship with Danny.

[4] Benz joined the show soon after her departure as a regular cast member from the Showtime drama series Dexter, where her character Rita Morgan was killed in the fourth season finale, "The Getaway".

[7][8][9] Actress Dana Delany, who previously played a lesbian character in the Showtime series The L Word,[10] said she felt the subplot was an excellent idea: "A lot of the ladies on the set have said, 'Why has this not happened before?'

"[11] Delany said she did not know if the character would become a lesbian permanently, because the story lines change so often in Desperate Housewives, but that series creator Marc Cherry "is interested in playing the complexity of that".

[7] Delany compared Katherine's new realizations to that of actress Meredith Baxter, who realized she was a lesbian late in her life after entering into a relationship with a woman.

[7] In its original American broadcast on February 21, 2010, "Lovely" was seen by 10.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings,[12] which is 20 percent below the season average.

[15] "Lovely" continued a downward trend in the ratings: "The Glamorous Life" was seen by 11.82 million viewers,[16] and the previous episode, "How About a Friendly Shrink?

Kennedy said the Bree and Orson scenes led to "a tender moment", but said Susan was annoying and the Lynette plotline was somewhat insulting toward women.

[18] Isabelle Carreau of TV Squad said he was surprised Robin's back story was fleshed out so quickly, and speculated it could lead to a permanent role in the series.

[19] Entertainment Weekly writer Tanner Stransky criticized "Lovely" for stringing together several uninteresting and unfunny segments rather than advancing existing plotlines or introducing new ones.

[8] Gael Fashingbauer Cooper of MSNBC also criticized the episode for failing to advance the plot, and sarcastically wrote of the Katherine development, "Oh, because lesbian storylines have worked so well on this show in the past, except, never."