Pushing Daisies is literally the most clever and well-written show that the TV people have delivered to me as I sit on my couch in years. I was getting to the point that I wouldn’t watch much of anything anymore, and shows like Two and a Half Men are representative of the reasons why. The fact that Charlie Sheen and Ducky from Pretty in Pink are supposed to be brothers, and that it is on television, and successful is sad to me.
It’s easy to complain about the crap they put on my TV, but it isn’t so easy to come up with something that is really, really good. Bryan Fuller and Barry Sonnenfeld have done it, and it was so worth the wait that I almost cried when it came on tonight.
If you missed the shortened first season, that’s okay, because they gave you everything you needed to know in the first few minutes of the show. The catch up was quick and painless, and refreshed my memory after the extremely long hiatus.
The difficulty of the relationship between Chuck and the Piemaker was a main them through the show tonight, and we were introduced to the process of Chuck becoming a beekeeper. Olive had a meltdown and Ned re-animated about a bazillion bees. Emerson was clever and the Aunts were creepy as hell.
When Ned’s mother died, and (as a result of Ned’s gift), Chuck’s dad died on the same day, their lives were parted, and they were not reunited until Chuck’s own death and subsequent re-animation. Ned lived with his dad until he was sent to boarding school after a suitable mourning period, and Chuck went to live with her aunts (the one with the eye patch is really her mom). To make her feel better, the Aunts bought her some bees, and the hives for them to live in. Chuck became immersed in bee culture, and Ned learned to bake pies like his dear ole’ momma. They dealt with their grief in their own way, and they survived. As adults, they move around their apartment in a careful dance, co-habiting, yet never coming into physical contact. Both are still holding onto the thing that got them through their parental loss, until… Chuck’s bees died as a result of “rogue pesticides”, and Ned is sweet enough to strip down to his skivvies and bring them back for her. She inexplicably stripped down to her skivvies before donning her beekeeper suit, but when you see the look on Ned’s face, you know she wasn’t doing it just to be fair. (wink)
Chuck pours the dead bees over Ned’s body and he stands as still as he can – and as they spring back to life, a thousand cockroaches fall dead throughout the building. If only it were that easy! Chuck and Ned discuss his previous aversion to bringing people back, specifically Chuck’s dad, and he reveals that he hasn’t spoken to his dad in over twenty years.
At the Pie Hole, Olive isn’t nearly as pretty as she was last season. I think it’s the hair. I adore Kristin Chenoweth, and it isn’t because we have the same voice either. (Speaking, not singing – I can’t sing.) Olive is completely stressed out because all of these people that she cares so much about (except Chuck of course) are making her keep secrets she doesn’t want to keep. She still think Chuck faked her death and has no idea about Ned and his gift, but she is freaking out inside. When Chuck’s Aunts show up at the Pie Hole, she literally screams and says she can’t take it anymore.
Emerson got his first new job of the season when some redneck comes busting through his door claiming his wife was cheating on him, and now she’s dead. Turns out the wife was killed by bees at her workplace – Betty’s Bees. And let me tell you, the wife (Kentucky) is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen. The swollen bee sting boils are the most revolting thing ever. Ned nearly doesn’t get Kentucky re-dead because he is so freaked out about the stinging death. They get that she was sabotaging Betty’s Bees, and that a man of bees killed her – just before the bees swarmed out of Kentucky’s stomach and chase them out of the morgue.
Emerson volunteers Chuck to go undercover at Betty’s Bees as a Bee Girl. French Stewart is freaking hilarious as Woolsey Nichols – Betty’s biggest competitor who now owns Betty’s Bees. His eyes are actually open through most of his appearance – I wasn’t even sure it was him! When Chuck gets the job, she heads over to Kentucky’s old office. In the closet is none other than Betty herself, and her 37 year old self is a teensy bit bitter about the hostile takeover. Since Kentucky was set to be the new face of Betty’s Bees, it would seem that Betty is the main suspect.
Olive ran off after the outburst, and her empty apartment inspires Chuck to move out. She’s never had her own job, her own place, and she’s never been alone before. Ned is appalled that she would want to move out – and I almost died when Chuck reveals she walked in on Ned doing his “biz-ness.” HA!!!!
I was starting to worry that Olive was leaving the show, but it turns out that Lily took Olive to a convent. Olive does a little Sound of Music song and dance, till a nun tells her to Shhh! Silence is golden, and Lily certainly wants to make sure that Olive doesn’t spill the beans about her real relationship to Chuck.
Back at Betty’s Bees, Chuck has a chat with Betty, and the story is only getting more convoluted. It’s clear Betty is crazy about bees – but is that where the crazy ends? Chuck realizes that Kentucky was sabotaging the bees with mites – not might, and that someone figured it out.
Vivian (the other of Chuck’s Aunts) shows up at the Pie Hole again, and Ned learns that Chuck had a lot of special stuff in her room. He convinces Vivian to give them up, and he fills her new apartment with her old stuff.
Olive took all of her stuff to the convent, and it’s all given to the poor. She realizes that the nuns think that she’s knocked up – just like Lily was when she came to have Chuck. And the plot thickens…
When Chuck goes to work the next day, she finds Ned as a temp assistant for Betty. He sent the real guy home with the “scoots” (HA) and he gets Betty out of the office so Chuck can retrieve a key that Betty took from Kentucky’s office earlier. Chuck also finds a pic of Betty wearing a beard of bees, and turns to find the bee-covered guy standing behind her.
After a bunch of stupid campaign commercials, we come back to Chuck covered in bees in Betty’s office. Emerson and Ned walk in to find her, and she points at a door, asking them to open it. She spits out the queen in her mouth, and the drones follow. Because she kept still, the bees nested on her, and she survived. Ned says he lost Betty, and they go to find her.
Olive goes to confession, and Lily is there as a nun – they have a tiff and Olive asks why Vivian doesn’t know that Lily found a baby in the cabbage patch at the convent – “and by cabbage patch, I meant your lady parts.” That was too much. I almost peed my pants. It turns out that Lily slept with Vivian’s fiancé, and that’s where Chuck came from. So who was the guy who raised her? Olive’s frustration is about to overcome her stress from secrets – and she hasn’t even been in the convent a week yet!
Chuck, Ned and Emerson go off to the Honey House – Betty’s childhood home, and they find Betty. Turns out that Betty and Kentucky stole the bees and brought them back here. She explains that she was just protecting her bees – and her name. Betty explains that she and Kentucky were sabotaging Betty’s Bees together, and trying to ruin the company for Woolsey. They bust him because his spit is on the case of the queen that he spat on Chuck.
The whole story is that Woolsey was in love with Kentucky, and when he realized that Kentucky was involved in the collapse of the company, he killed her. He was arrested, and Betty started a new company, with Kentucky’s husband Dusty as her new partner.
The episode ends with a few extra tidbits…Emerson Cod continued to work on his pop-up book “Lil’ Gumshoe” the instruction manual for his daughter who doesn’t know him; Olive adopted a pig named Pigby, and Ned’s dad has been lurking around the Pie Hole for some time…seems like future plot line development to me…
