Another Wednesday, another hour spent with the Pushing Daisies crew. This week’s episode is called “Frescorts”, and it took me more than a minute to figure out what the freak that means. About 10 minutes into the show, we find out the victim of this week’s case is a guy who was “best friends” with multiple people, and seemed to have multiple personalities to match each one. He wasn’t a gigolo, he was a “frescort” (friend + escort = frescort!)
A really strange grumpy ole’ lady is at the Pie Hole. She’s loitering, refusing to order anything and smoking up the place. Ned and Olive both try to get rid of her, but Emerson enters, pouting that his book was rejected again, and calls this lady momma. Yup – the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. They’re both Private Eyes, they’re both grumpy and snarky, and they’re both in love with money. Mrs. Cod apparently indoctrinated her ever-lovin’ son at a very young age, and she’s around to see how her baby boy is doing.
So, the Frescort is dead – his name is Joe. The gang (is this Scooby Doo?) heads over to My Best Friend, Inc. to check out the company Joe was working for. The CEO Buddy Amicus, is a real creep and he explains that he started the company because he “used” to be a huge jerk. After some digging Emerson and Ned head over to Joe’s old apartment, and run into David Arquette. Okay, his name is Randy Mann on the show, but he’s Joe’s old roommate, and he seems to be hiding something.
And he definitely is. When Emerson breaks into the apartment, he finds a roomful of stuffed animals. No, not the kind that your nephew sleeps with – real live animals (well, they once were alive) stuffed and placed in ferocious poses. You know, taxidermy. This is odd enough, but then Emerson finds a small jar labeled “Joe” with a burst appendix inside.
Since Randy is at the Pie Hole with Ned, I’m guessing the “offal” he brought over to take a cooking class, probably came from those dead animals. Randy goes on and on about how he had no friends. He and Ned are BFFs of all a sudden, until Ned finds out Randy stuffs dead animals and poses them in strange ways (with a guitar and sunglasses for example).
Randy admits Joe was his Frescort, but when Joe needed somewhere to live, he offered him a place rent free. They were sort of friends, but Randy did not kill him. He suggests that they talk to Joe’s girlfriend about the appendix in the jar. He says his girl was also working at My Best Friend, Inc. and that Joe was planning on quitting so they could be together.
Meanwhile, Olive and Chuck are talking to Barb the chick who hired them at MBF, Inc. and they realize she was Joe’s girl. She stuffs them in a locker (ouch!) and runs off.
And in the most shocking turn of events, Mrs. Cod attacks her son over his rejected book. She thinks it’s an attack on her. He admits that his daughter is missing (his mom didn’t know he had a daughter), and confronts her for following him and sneaking around in his life. They aren’t exactly on speaking terms when she doesn’t believe that he was going to tell her it all.
Chuck and Olive have it out in the locker, and they talk about their love triangle. As usual, nothing is accomplished, but at least they get to have it out. Olive storms off to her apartment (she and Chuck are roommates – did I mention that earlier?), and the other three head off to find Barb. They find her dead in Buddy’s office, and when they re-animate her to question her, they find out that it was the Spartan Mascot (Buddy’s High School). They think it’s Randy Mann, and when Buddy comes in, they warn him. He leaves and is attacked in the hall. Chuck and Ned nearly make bodily contact, but they knock down Buddy’s creepy football mannequin instead. Turns out there is a dead body under those pads…hmmm…
So, the story is that Buddy was a “bleacher leecher”, who had a delusional friendship with the star quarterback (the body just mentioned). Buddy became the Mascot of the football team, and during the State Finals Buddy got in the way and the team lost. After a beating involving dirty jock straps, and the realization that the quarterback was not his friend, Buddy killed him. After some plastic surgery and steroid use, Buddy became the man he wanted to be. He also began another delusional friendship with Joe. When Joe was going to quit for Barb, Buddy went nutso again and started killing people.
So, for the ending, Ned realizes with the help of his new pal Randy that he needs to learn to be alone. So, he tells Chuck to move back in with Olive, and that as much as he wants to “duvet” her, they need to learn to be happy where they are. Later, Chuck comes over and drops a blanket to reveal her nakedness. The smile on Ned’s face is priceless, but you can see his cahones turning blue through his pants. Too funny…
And finally, Emerson gets some tips on writing fiction from his grouchy momma. They kiss and make up and she explains that she will love him no matter what. As usual, I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy from this extremely entertaining show. Can’t wait till next week!!!
