Pushing Daisies Fodder

Pushing Daisies: The Fun in Funeral

Once again we open with Little Ned. This week he's watching lightning bugs fry in the bug zapper. He brings one back, and this kills off a really big spider in return. On the bright side, it was huge and black, so maybe it was a black widow and we're all better off without it.

He decides to do some experimenting with multiple lightning bugs, bringing back a set of them to find out that an equal number of them snuff it exactly one minute later. The camera pulls back to reveal that he's actually been reviving and inadvertently accidentally murdering tens of bugs. All the creepy experimenting reminds me of young Frankenstein. Viktor as a kid, that is; not Gene Wilder.

We zip up to the present to find Adult Ned and Chuck making pies. Chris's question as to how Ned can bake pies only touching the fruit is answered, as it's revealed that Ned wears a single rubber glove--sort of like Michael Jackson in the '80, but in food service, way less flamboyant, and without the chimp--when baking. Which is actually good; I don't need that much of some stranger's fingers in my pie, even if he is cute and starring in his own TV show.

Reviving the fruit kills some flowers. It still doesn't look any worse than my garden out back.

Chuck reveals to the audience that for her 8th birthday, Little Ned got her a T-shirt suggesting you kiss a beaver. Well, that seems inappropriate for an 8-year-old. Or anyone not in college and probably in the Greek system. The birthday was just before Little Ned accidentally killed Little Chuck's dad. Ned is still struggling with whether to tell Chuck about her dad. But not so much that he actually tells her.

They kiss through a sheet of plastic wrap. Well, I guess non-autoerotic asphyxiation is slightly better than autoerotic. But it would still be hard to explain to the cops.

Olive watches the kiss. She doesn't seem to think it's odd that all of the romantic dealings between Ned and Chuck seem to involve plastic in some way (the body bags last week, the plastic wrap this week). She does, however, seem really pissed.

A customer, annoyed that he can't get any espresso, notices Olive's pissedness. He's a traveling homeopathic medicine salesman named Alfredo, and he's constantly worried about the earth losing its atmosphere. He takes some of his own supplements to keep from worrying about it so much.

Emerson comes in, and Olive leaves Alfredo to worry about losing atmosphere. She's pissed at Emerson for being so mean to her last week when he said that Ned didn't dig her. He says he was being honest, she says he was mean. I tend to side with Olive on this one. However, they can agree that they both hate Chuck.

While talking to Ned and Emerson, Chuck thinks that dying made her morbid. Possibly. But it could also have been living with the creepy aunts.

Emerson has come to the Pie Hole to talk to Ned, but he doesn't want to talk around Chuck. He wants Ned to meet him back at the prettiest morgue ever. Only Ned brings Chuck with him. Ned doesn't take direction well. Either that, or Chuck doesn't. Maybe neither of them does.

Emerson tears himself away from learning about the coroner's moisturizing regimen to show Ned this week's Dead Guy. He keeps trying to convince Ned to leave Chuck out of this, but Ned doesn't listen, and that's how Chuck manages to see both that Dead Guy is the director of the funeral home where Ned found Chuck and that Ned is really flustered by that. He's really adorable when flustered, at least. I can't tell that Chuck appreciates it, but I do.

Ned finally tells Chuck that he "killed" Dead Guy in order to keep her around. Well, Emerson really tells her. Emerson apparently believes in ripping the band-aid off right away, while Ned follows my theory of taking it off a millimeter at a time. Emerson rips off the revelatory band-aid Chuck while Ned was still trying to work the thing off slowly.

Back at the Pie Hole, Alfredo knows that Olive is unhappy and without Jim Dale having to tell him, even! He offers her some of his homeopathic cures. We learn that Olive still has trouble with long words. In the pilot, it was "mastication." Now it's "homeopathic." Well, neither of those terms come up that much in waitressing. Mastication comes up slightly more often, I imagine. But not much.

Meanwhile, Chuck is feeling bad and/or guilty. She feels like the life she's getting to live isn't really hers to live. It was Dead Guy's. She and Ned argue about this, which doesn't hurt Olive's feelings any.

Ned feels upset with Emerson for telling Chuck. Of course, if Ned had just left Chuck at home the way Emerson had asked, we might not be in this mess, but I suppose this is lost on Ned. Emerson, meanwhile, is upset with Ned for killing Dead Guy. Dead Guy gave Emerson a lot of leads on murder cases. Plus, it very nearly could have been Emerson that died instead. Emerson also tells Ned that he took this case so that no one else would find out that Ned is responsible for Dead Guy being dead.

What is the case? Oh, that's right; it's not to find out who killed Dead Guy because we already have the answer for that one. No, Dead Guy was stealing goodies from the dead. Dead Guy's brother knows this and wants to know what Dead Guy did with his swag. He also worries that someone knew what Dead Guy was up to and is worried that foul play was involved (No, just puppy love). But mostly he just wants to know about the swag. Of which Emerson would get a cut.

Ned refuses to go right up until Chuck tells him that he has to go to apologize, and she has to thank Dead Guy for her being alive. Chuck is apparently more convincing than Emerson. Or that rack of hers is way more powerful than Emerson's handguns in their handgun cozies (see last week's episode). Come to think of it, the cozies may be part of the problem.

At the funeral home, we discover that Dead Guy's brother, Louis, is his twin, which freaks Ned the heck out. Louis has a shirt for the reunion tour of Chuck's creepy aunts. Well, not exactly a reunion. They never left each other. Their comeback tour. However, it turns out that they suffered a relapse when they received a postcard from Chuck sent before she died. It caused them to emotionally relapse, which caused them to cry, which, in the case of Aunt Lily (the one who's missing her eye due to a horrible kitty litter accident), is pretty creepy in a funny way. Unless it's funny in a creepy way.

Brother Louis is just sure Dead Guy was murdered. It seems that word got out that Dead Guy had been grave robbing (though graves were not, in fact, involved yet), and he started getting hate mail. Worried, he told Brother Louis everything--except, of course, for where he'd hidden the goodies.

We get to see Dead Guy die again and see way too much of his nekkid tummy when he goes. In any event, Brother Louis suspects that one of the angry letters sent by one of the angry, angry relatives may have had a death threat--or a promise--that would reveal what really happened to Dead Guy. He also worries that the angry, angry relative will be gunning for him next. He's going to give the hate mail to Our Heroes for them to find out.

Ned wakes up Dead Guy in his coffin and apologizes sincerely and briefly, and then Chuck thanks him. Dead Guy says that no, Brother Louis had the swag. Theft was a family business. Chuck then notices that Dead Guy has the watch her father (the one that Ned accidentally killed, don't you know) gave her. She takes the watch back and slams the coffin lid closed, which naturally gets stuck. Convinced he doesn't want to be killed because he was standing too close, Emerson runs away like a little bunny. A little superstitious Catholic bunny.

In desperation, Chuck suggests she just let Dead Guy have his life back. Ned says that isn't how it works, and they break the coffin open using someone's urns. But it's still better than stealing stuff from the residents of the urns. They get the coffin open and Ned touches Dead Guy just in the nick of time.

Chuck thinks it's very sweet of her creepy aunts to have given her the watch. She had wanted to see their show, and now she wants to do something for them. During this revelation, she has a serious Audrey Hepburn thing going for her, and Ned is clutching the urn to his chest. They're each adorable in their own odd ways.

Ned and Chuck (driving in the Ned's semi-pimped-out car) find Emerson on a bus bench sitting between the faces of Dead Guy and Brother Louis. It's a nice shot. He's relieved that no one is dead who shouldn't be.

They start going through the hate mail, which details what was stolen from each family. Emerson declares that he is going to follow Brother Louis until he leads him to the swag and then steal it. We find out that someone wanted to murder Dead Guy, though, who parks ominously in the one shadowy part of the street just outside the Pie Hole. I suspect we'll find out who he is soon.

Alfredo notices that Chuck is depressed and offers her some FDA-approved supplements to bully her depression. They're controlled substances, though, so he can't give her any. But he can give her a sample pack! She bakes the supplement into a pie to send to her aunts. Caring for your creepy agoraphobic relatives through pharmaceuticals: The American Way.

Olive comes in the next day to discover that the delivery boy is taking all the pies except for the one that's meant for the creepy aunts; it's out of his delivery area. She offers to make the delivery boy a delivery man. But not the fun way. Dang. Apparently taking the pie out of his range makes him a man (Sadly, Kristin Chenoweth was never in Rocky Horror. Then she'd know how to make him a man. And in just 7 days. And 7 nights).

Olive sees the pie as a metaphor for her love life and decides to take it to the creepy aunts.

Chuck decides that if she were in Ned's shoes, she'd feel happy but guilty about saving her but killing Dead Guy. Ned says that's how he feels, too. Then Ned and Chuck find Brother Louis dead in the pie freezer.

Olive attempts to ding dong ditch the pie to the creepy aunts, but is nabbed by Aunt Vivian. The creepy aunts and Olive share the drugged pie. Aunt Lily notes that Chuck's favorite cheese is baked into the crust. And Olive didn't know that they did that at the Pie Hole. Well, they don't, unless Chuck's baking Happiness Pie.

The aunts tell Olive about Ned's horribly inappropriate 8th birthday gift to chuck. They've called him "Beaver Boy" ever since. As they talk, Olive discovers that Ned's childhood sweetheart is Chuck and the rumors of her death have been greatly exaggerated.

Meanwhile, Ned, freaked out about Dead Brother being in his freezer, has called Emerson on the phone. Emerson thinks Ned's being set up. There are cops at the front door of the Pie Hole, so Ned wakes Dead Brother up so our two Heroes and Dead Brother can run away like little bunnies.

Dead Brother reveals that he died when he choked on tongue. Cow tongue. That he was eating. He's a bad man, but not that gross. Anyway, he was confronted by an angry, angry customer about a civil war heirloom, and the tongue went down the wrong pipe, and poof, Dead Brother. Sadly, Ned has to touch him again before he can reveal where the goodies are buried.

I know we're supposed to be into the whole suspension of disbelief thing, but there's just no way all that took one minute. In fact, it was 1:15 just watching it on TV, and that was without Emerson having to get into his car and drive over. I'm just saying. That weren't no minute.

Chuck had read an angry letter about a customer missing a civil war sword offering to kill Dead Guys 1 and 2: Our "killer" is Wilford Woodruff. The sword had wound up on an online auction and was traced back to said dead guys.

Our Heroes wheel Once-Again-Dead Brother in a wheelbarrow in broad daylight back to the funeral home so he can be found where he died, but the building is completely locked. They try to sneak in through a small window into the basement. Emerson says the window is too small. Ned, having apparently never seen any sitcoms in the '80s and early '90s, insists that they will. He also doesn't think to sneak himself into the building, go upstairs and unlock the door from the inside. But otherwise, of course, there wouldn't be a show.

Unsurprisingly, Emerson gets stuck halfway through the window. Chuck makes the same Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree joke I do, but since she's on TV and I'm not, you actually get to hear hers.

While wandering through the basement, which is full of bodies waiting to be embalmed, I assume (Hey, I've never worked in a funeral home. It's the basement where Federico worked in Six Feet Under, only funnier), Ned keeps accidentally waking people up. He puts them all back to "sleep" except for one guy who won't go back. It turns out it's Wilford Woodruff, and he won't "die" again because he wasn't dead to begin with. And he seems pretty annoyed that Ned keeps touching him. He tries to hack Ned up with a confederate civil war sword.

Ned dodges, and Wilford hacks off some dead person's foot. Both guys freak out, which seems appropriate. Ned tries to defend himself with yet another piece of embalming equipment for which I don't have the name. Unless it's just a bug sprayer.

Wilford enjoys quoting figures from the civil war. He's also an Asian guy with a charming southern accent. It turns out his great-great-great-great grandpappy, Fambing Woo, fought in the civil war. He had been working on the railroad (all the live-long day would be my guess), when the opportunity came up to head for the hills. Most of the other guys laying tracks with him headed north, but he went south. Eventually he had to steal a uniform from a dead confederate officer, who just happened to be named Woodruff (It was sewn into his uniform. Probably also his underwear). Apparently the other confederate soldiers either didn't notice or didn't care too much that this guy was Chinese, and after the war he went on to found his own branch of the Woodruff family tree.

But back to Wilford and Ned fighting. Ned is actually pretty good with a sword. Or at least a sword-like implement. Like, actually quite good. Wilford has been the swordmaster for civil war reenactments, so that explains his fencing ability. Ned just wanted to be a Jedi. And he's annoyed that Wilford stored Dead Brother in his freezer. Food goes in there (it's true, the Health Department would not be happy about this)!

It turns out that Wilford went to confront Dead Guy #1 right after Ned inadvertently killed him, saw Ned running away like a frightened bunny from the funeral home, and put 2 and 2 together. Ned points out that he didn't actually kill Dead Guy #1. Wilford points out that he didn't really kill Dead Guy #2, either, but since he died after Wilford sent him a death threat, it still looks pretty darn bad.

Ned jumps from the stairs onto a curtain and slides down using his sword to control his fall. I know that won't work with a ship sail, but I don't know if it will with a velvet curtain. I'm guessing not, but again, otherwise there wouldn't be a show.

Chuck somehow gets into the room through the door. Since the Ned never unlocked the building, we have no idea how she pulled that off, but I'm sure I'm overthinking things again.

Wilford charges up the stairs at Chuck, so Ned hurls his sword so it sticks in the wall, tripping Wilford and probably severing several important tendons. But he's the bad guy, so we don't mind so much. Wilford's sword goes flying, and Ned catches it. He's still wrapped in the velvet curtain, and Chuck realizes he's her Prince Charming. A kind of goofy Prince Charming, but Prince Charming nonetheless.

Emerson kicks Wilford without ever seeing him, saving the day. The curtain falls from the wall (though still covering Ned), revealing the missing swag. So apparently Dead Guy #1 didn't look very hard. Or he was lying about not knowing where the stuff was, too.

Olive is thrilled to have dirt on Chuck. However, when she gets back to the Pie Hole, she sees that Alfredo has fixed her espresso machine. She is totally oblivious to the fact that he had Romantic Intentions when he did it.

Emerson, meanwhile, has learned from the examples of Dead Guys 1 and 2 and starts to lose weight. He doesn't want to be stuck in a window ever again. He will, however, still make money off the dead, though.

Chuck's creepy aunts enjoy a new Happiness Pie with Chuck's favorite cheese baked into the crust.

Chuck re-gifts the heirlooms to the angry, angry relatives, and Ned announces that he would save Chuck all over again. Chuck announces that she's glad he made that choice. I'm sure the fact that she benefitted from it doesn't hurt at all, either. Ned goes to find some plastic wrap to smooch with. It's very sweet.

There were a couple of little plot holes in this episode. Maybe there always are and I just don't notice them. They weren't as glaring, I don't think. I mean, I do watch for this sort of thing just so I can gleefully relate it to you, my Faithful Readers. And the show is a fantasy, after all. Still, I can't help being a little disappointed it wasn't quite as tight or as attentive to detail as the first two weeks' shows. Then again, this is all relative. "Not quite as good" is still very, very good with this show. Just the same, I'm hoping they take care of some of those little details next week.

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Posted by on October 19, 2007 2:08 AM
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