Pushing Daisies Fodder

Pushing Daisies: Girth

This week opens back at boarding school, where Little Ned never gets mail from his dad until the day he gets the pre-printed notice that Dad has moved. He runs away from school on Halloween to see Dad and the new house only to discover that Dad has a new family. Little Ned was cleverly disguised as a ghost, so Dad, not recognizing his son, gives him a candy bar. So then Little Ned went back to his old house to lie down in the spot where his bed used to be clutching the candy bar to his chest.

Up in the present, Lucas Shoemaker is drinking and minding his own business when he's trampled to death by a horse wearing impressive armor that "breathes" fire. Oh, yeah, I guess someone's riding the horse, too.

Over at the Pie Hole, Olive is getting punny with Chuck. She knows Chuck's creepy aunts think Chuck is No More, and says that she knows that Chuck faked her death.

Olive hears about Lucas Shoemaker dying. She pulls a huge trophy and a bag of money, complete with dollar sign printed on the front out of a hole in her wall. She gives Emerson the money. She knew Shoemaker and doesn't think the trampling was an accident. It turns out that she was a jockey back in the day. And a cute one, too! She used to race against Shoemaker, and both won races.

Our Three Heroes go to the morgue and wake up Shoemaker. He says he was murdered by John Joseph Jacobs, another champion jockey. Only he's been dead seven years. It was Jacobs' ghost!

Olive says she knows this jockey bar. When Emerson tells her John Joseph Jacobs might be involved, she faints.

Our Three Heroes split up. Emerson goes with Olive to the jockey bar. Ned says has to go do something alone. He's terrible at lying about why. Chuck goes to the stable where Shoemaker was killed.

We find out that John Joseph Jacobs was set to be named the greatest jockey of all time. There was a race--the Jock-Off 2000--to figure out who really was the greatest, but Jacobs fell off his horse and was trampled by the rest of the racers, including Olive, who wound up winning.

In the bar, a drunken jockey says he's seen Jacobs' ghost, and the lid on Jacobs' tomb has been broken from the ghost coming and going so much. The drunk was one of the other jockeys in the big race. The ghost is coming for him, too. Also the bartender/owner/other jockey.

Olive and Emerson go to the tomb. Sure enough, the lid is broken. However, instead of finding a dead jockey, they just find a horse skeleton without legs. Also oyster crackers everywhere.

Ned has returned to his old house, where he is still lying on the floor where his bed used to be, still clutching the kind of candy bar his dad gave him back in the day.

Emerson, Olive, and Chuck go to the house of the dead guy's mother. She has her son's trophies on her wall and his ashes in an urn. She put his horse in the tomb because she had promised him she would, but that's not really legal, so she pulled the ol' switcheroo and stuck the horse in there. She also says she's made peace with his death because the other jockeys all turned into big drunks. And Olive, who's just single. There's also something hiding in her basement.

The bartender, who was one of the other racers in the Jock-Off, is trampled back at his bar.

Ned, who was already in the neighborhood, goes to Chuck's creepy aunts' house. He asks them about his dad. Aunt Lily says he was a jackass. Ned takes a bite of the pie they're sharing, and the fruit rots in his mouth. Why, that pie came from the Pie Hole! He realizes that Chuck is sending them pies. Aunt Vivian tells Ned that what everyone talks about is not what a jackass his dad was, but how Ned grew up to be such a nice young man. She also gives Ned a kiss on the cheek.

Ned catches up with everyone at the jockey bar, where the bartender is still dead and there are oyster crackers everywhere. Ned revives him, and he says Jacobs' ghost killed him because he cut the girth of Jacobs' saddle, which is what led to him falling off the horse and dying in the first place. He also says the ghost is coming after Olive next because she kept the Secret.

The Secret, of course, is that one of the other jockeys had sabotaged Jacobs; the bartender wouldn't admit it, so they all swore to keep the sabotage a secret and burned Jacobs' saddle to remove the evidence.

Olive is locked into her apartment with Chuck to be safe while Ned and Emerson go looking for the last jockey, who's either the murderer or the next murderee.

Outside her bedroom window, Olive sees a mysterious horseshoe, which causes her to go up to the roof. Chuck follows Olive, worried, and both discover an amazingly tall John Joseph Jacobs.

It turns out the doctors saved his life, but his legs were crushed, so he got a leg transplant from his horse. He says he lives in his mother's basement, but he isn't the killer. And actually, he thinks he's maybe ready to get out into the world and not live in the basement anymore. Chuck and Olive go to his mom's house to help him tell her that.

At Mom's house, John wants oyster crackers, which of course, were at all the murder scenes. Olive discovers that the urn Mom claimed held John's ashes actually holds John's saddle's ashes. He knows! Just then the horseman busts into the house.

In another scene, Ned and Emerson have the last jockey in the car with him. He reveals that Shoemaker had been through AA, and when he was on the amends-making step, he told Jacobs' mother what they had done and even brought her the ashes of the saddle. Now the guys have to go back to Mom's house!

Jacobs' mother stops explains to Chuck and Olive that she had to kill the other jockeys because they killed his career. Then she proceeds to ride after them so she can trample them. They run out to the woods behind Mom's house.

Olive separates from Chuck; Mom Jacobs is only after Olive, so she's saving Chuck's life. However, at the very last minute, Ned grabs her and saves her from being trampled. She kisses him silly, but then he runs over to Chuck when she shows up, leaving Olive alone.

Mom Jacobs goes to jail. Olive gives John Joseph Jacobs the trophy and money from the Jock-Off. And Ned takes Chuck back to the old neighborhood. Dressed as a ghost, Chuck trick-or-treats at her creepy aunts' house.

I know this is shorter than my usual episode review. A lot of good stuff happened and a lot of stuff I want to talk about, so I plan to do a bigger, fuller, funner one over the weekend. Stay tuned.

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Posted by on November 2, 2007 1:53 AM
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