Pushing Daisies Fodder

Pushing Daisies: Corpsicle

First off, apologies for making you all wait an extra week to see this. What with all the holiday business, I've been a busy humble blogger. I'm still a busy humble blogger, which is why this will be on the short side. On the bright side, between the holiday break and the enforced break of the writers' strike (the only good thing to come out of this strike), I have plenty of time to write a longer, better blog. And believe me, I will. I have to talk about classic cars, Grant Shaud, and how that monkey weren't no bonobo (for one thing, since it is a monkey, it's definitely not a bonobo. Them things are apes).

A lot of material is covered in this episode. Last week, of course, Ned foolishly told Chuck that he killed her dad. At the opening of this episode, we learn a little more about that. Little Ned and his newly not-dead mom waited with Chuck at her house for her creepy aunts to come home. Little Ned wouldn't look at Chuck. Vivian, who didn't like being touched, hugged Chuck, while Lilly, who was all touchy-feely, wouldn't touch Chuck at all. Later that night, when Little Ned came over after his mom died again, Lilly hugged him right away. After which she finally hugged Chuck.

In the present, Big Ned is hunting for Chuck in the snow. It seems that after he told her he inadvertently killed her dad, Chuck disappeared. He goes to her creepy aunts' place and talks to them, rather confusingly, about seeing Chuck's ghost. They seem confused. Or at least perturbed.

Olive tells Ned that he doesn't know where Chuck is, but she's lying. Chuck is holed up in Olive's apartment. Digby (in Olive's apartment) has had his bum shaved. Actually, he looks like he's been chewing on his bum. Or the dog is the one using the clippers. Because that is not a good shave job.

Chuck tells Olive that she died and Ned brought her back to life. Olive doesn't believe her. Digby probably does, though. Chuck asks Olive to make a pie for the creepy aunts and gives her the vial of herbal happiness, er, "vanilla" to put into it. Olive does so, but while baking, she tastes the "vanilla." It isn't very strong, so she puts the entire vial in. Hopefully Chuck has more, because who knows when we'll see Alfredo the traveling homeopathic salesman again?

Ned tells Emerson that he told Chuck the truth. Emerson, you'll recall, told Ned not to do it because it would work out, well, roughly the way it's working out. He's also worried that Chuck will tell the press everything. Because that wouldn't get her sent to the looney bin or anything.

Emerson tells Ned about this week's dead guy. He was an insurance adjustor with Uber Life life insurance who was scooped up by the snow plow. The residents of the street where he was scooped offered a reward to find his killer.

At the morgue, Emerson and Deadpan Coroner debate the value of Christmas sweaters before going to talk to Dead Guy.

Dead Guy was bludgeoned by a bat with the word "kindness" carved into it. It left an impression of the word "kind" in his forehead. He also offers a possible motive for the killer; he has to decide whether people deserve organ transplants. Emerson says that they have to find out who was denied organs by Dead Guy, and they'll have their suspects.

Chuck, meanwhile, is sitting on the roof, when Oscar Vibenius, played by Pee Wee Herman, er, I mean Paul Reubens, appears. Pee Wee was in the episode "Smell of Success." He turned out not to be the killer. Whew!

Pee Wee Vibenius says that in the snow, sounds and smells are dampened, except for Chuck and Digby, who both smell every bit as strongly of death as they did before. He gives her back her sweater, which he's cleaned of every lint ball and stray strand of hair. It also turns out he's the one who (badly) shaved Digby's bum. He wants a sample of Chuck's hair so he can study it. He wants to know why Digby and Chuck are so different from everyone and everything else.

Back in the Pie Hole, Ned is still consumed with thoughts of Chuck, to Olive's consternation. Ned, however, thinks Olive knows where Chuck is.

Emerson says he's found three people for whom our Dead Guy denied organ transplants who are still alive (the other 12 who were denied are no longer With Us). One of those three lives on the block where Dead Guy was scooped up. Ned tells Emerson to check out this suspect on his own. He gets Olive to take him to see Chuck.

They have a heart-to-heart, and Chuck says she can't look at Ned right now. She also says that she has to hate him just for a little while, and she can't do that while he's there; he should go.

Feeling the need to talk to someone who isn't Ned and who will understand, she sends a note to Pee Wee in the sewer to meet her on the roof.

Emerson, meanwhile, goes to the house of Abner Newsome, one of his suspects. Abner was denied a heart transplant by Dead Guy. To say that Abner is bitter is putting it mildly. Abner's mother is one raw nerve, and she peels potatoes in the living room. She's also really consumed by charity groups, like the Wish-A-Wish Foundation. Abner points out that he'd have a hard time killing Dead Guy, what with his legs not working real well. Also his heart; his heart doesn't work real well, either.

Emerson discovers that the snowman on Abner's front lawn has a body inside it.

Emerson has Ned meet him at the morgue to wake up the new dead guy. However, Emerson is concerned that Ned is still mooning over Chuck and doesn't have his head in the game.

Dead Guy #2 is Bill Richter, another adjustor from Uber Life. He, too, was hit with a bat. He also suggests they ask his carpool partner if he knows who did it. Bill Richter tries to chuck (as it were) Ned on the chin, killing him again and cutting the questioning short.

They go to Uber Life to talk to the carpool partner. The partner has gone missing. Instead, they talk to Steve Kaiser, who's been filling in for the missing partner. Apparently all three dead/missing adjustors went dead and/or missing the same night. It turns out all three had denied heart transplants for Abner Newsome. Steve Kaiser is pretty bitter about his chosen profession.

Chuck and Pee Wee meet on the roof. Pee Wee thinks Digby and Chuck both very nearly died and came back, suggesting collapsed lungs, heart attacks, and falling into frozen lakes. Chuck gives Pee Wee a lock of hair so he can find out her secret.

Assuming the carpool partner will appear near Abner's house soon, Emerson and Ned go there. Abner is being visited by Madeline, the woman with the Wish-A-Wish Foundation. She's brought him a bonobo to cheer him up. It doesn't work.

Ned and Emerson stake out the house from Ned's car. Ned wants to talk about Chuck. Emerson really, really doesn't. He does, however, reveal a surprisingly deep side. He also reveals that he has a daughter.

Meanwhile, someone shoves a potato in the car's tailpipe. Ned wakes up in the nick of time and rescues Emerson. Sadly, however, while they were passed out in the car, a new snowman, no doubt complete with chewy dead-guy center, has appeared on Abner's front lawn.

Olive brings a Happiness Pie to the creepy aunts. Aunt Vivian is sewing new darling mermaid darling costumes, and Aunt Lilly eats the whole pie, complete with the whole vial of Chuck's homeopathic "vanilla." Lilly also tells Olive that Chuck's ghost has been spotted about, which concerns Olive.

Pee Wee Vibenius shows up at the Pie Hole to return Chuck's hair. He thinks that Chuck wants to tell him her secret herself. She decides that she now ONLY wants to tell Ned and tells Pee Wee he should have found out the secret by studying her hair when he had the chance.

Having finished off the entire pie, Aunt Lilly starts having a super freak-out.

Before Ned can wake up Dead Guy #3, the gurney tips over, and Dead Guy #3 shatters into a million pieces on the sidewalk. Ned declines to wake him up. Noting that Abner's mother was peeling potatoes the previous day, Emerson suggests talking to her, as right now she has motive and a potato connection.

Abner has found out he's been denied for another transplant, this time by Steve Kaiser. His mother says that Madeline from the Wish-A-Wish Foundation got Steve's name so she could send him a card.

Ned and Emerson go to the insurance company offices to stop Madeline before she can kill poor Steve. It turns out that Madeline was the bestest Wish granter ever until she met Abner, who couldn't be cheered up. The only thing he really wanted was for the adjustors who denied his heart transplants to drop dead. So, that's what she did. However, just as she's threatening the good guys with her gun, her bonobo puts the Wish-A-Wish van in gear, running over Madeline and somehow cutting her in half. Abner gets to have her heart.

Ned finds Chuck at her dad's grave. She's finally stopped hating Ned. She wants Ned to wake her dad up for a minute so she can talk to him, but Ned refuses. He doesn't want her to watch him kill her dad again.

Still in the midst of super freak-out, Aunt Lilly reveals to Olive that she's Chuck's mother. Aunt Lilly. Not Olive.

There are obviously lots of things to talk about here, but I'll cover those soon.

I will, however, say that Pushing Daisies has been nominated for several Golden Globes. Lee Pace is nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series-Comedy or Musical, and Anna Friel is nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series-Comedy or Musical. The show itself is nominated for Best Television Series-Comedy or Musical. Chi McBride and Kristen Chenoweth were shut out. Clearly Emerson should have had his surprisingly deep turn earlier in the season. Still. Congratulations on the nominations!


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