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Pushing Daisies: Corpsicle

Welcome Pie Lovers to the last episode of Pushing Daisies until…well, who knows? The writer’s strike is affecting our precious Pie Hole. There’s not much we can do except relish the deliciousness that was last night’s episode, “Corpsicle”. * snicker *

You do remember the previous episode? Ned blurts out that he killed Chuck’s father (who by the way, is named Charles Charles, just in case you never caught it).  Now that you’re caught up, let’s get right to our characters, because honestly, does anyone care about the corpsicle?

Chuck. After Ned’s announcement, she flies from the apartment and into…Olive’s. Olive, her new (and only) friend is hiding her from Ned. Chuck refuses to see Ned and asks Olive if she will make one of her special and unbeknown to Olive, mood-enhancing pies for her aunts. Olive agrees.

Ned.
He’s a moody little guy, isn’t he? He’s been depressing me lately. Well, it gets worse this week. Ned can’t believe his Chuck is gone. He mopes and moons and is especially annoying to…

Emerson Cod. Emerson has found a new case. Victor Narramore an insurance adjuster from Uber Life Life Insurance (ha!) has just been found frozen solid. After a few eye rolls and some pithy remarks, Emerson insists that Ned helps him interview their latest corpse.

Victor Narramore. Delightfully frozen—only his lips moved. (Honestly, this guy was cracking me up!)  They find out he was killed with kindness—a baseball bat labeled “Kindness”. Now, our Pie Duet must try to figure out why anyone would want to kill an insurance adjuster. Enter…

Abner Newsome. A young man with a troubled heart—no, not girl problems. We’re talking a non-functioning heart. This heart more than messes up Abner’s body. He’s a heartless, uncaring boy who is just waiting to die. (And delivering the best lines of the night, albeit horrifying!) Our Pie Duet discovers that three different insurance adjusters have rejected Abner for a new heart. 

As our Pie Duet interviews more of Uber Life Life Insurance, they soon return to Abner’s and meet Madeline McLean from Wish-a-wish. Madeline is trying to deliver a binobo monkey named Bobo to Abner. (hee, hee!) He is obviously not interested. But our duet is certain another corpsicle may turn up tonight, so they begin a stake-out. Which turns deadly when someone stuffs a potato in their car’s tailpipe. Ned and Emerson get out just in time to see a new coprse stuffed into a snowman. They race off to protect the final insurance adjuster and save him just before Madeline finishes him off with her kindness. But why?

Madeline McLean. The wish-a-wish genius. She could deliver wishes to anyone except Abner. When he wishes the men that rejected him would keel over, she finally delivered. Well, unluckily for her, our binobo monkey returns the favor and runs her over, making her heart available for Abner. And Abner a happy little boy.

(Let’s pause here to contemplate how sick that was! Ew.)

Let’s get back to Chuck.
She and Ned finally talk. She tells him she has to hate him for a little while and she refuses to see him. While she’s relaxing on the roof with her sleeping bees (did you see the bee hive cozys? perfect!), our old friend and resident olfactory genius, Oscar Vibenius, interrupts to research more about the smell of death that lingers in her hair. Chuck contemplates telling him the truth, she wants to talk to someone about her weird situation. But when it gets down to it, the only person she really wants to speak to is…our Pie Man. *sigh * Finally! (But the whole return of Oscar was odd to me. Is he going to come back to haunt our Pie Couple?)

And let’s not forget Olive and the Aunts.
Olive makes the pie and decides the whole jar of mood enhancer would be a good idea. Lily eats the entire pie herself and is not only happy, but launches our  season cliff-hanger, “I am Chuck’s mother.” (ACK!)

And one more bit of info.
Emerson apparently has an estranged daughter. He delivered this info with the first hint of real emotion. I like.

Favorite Lines:

Vivian to Ned, discussing the cold weather. “All this fuss about global warming!”
Lily. “Can’t happen soon enough…”

Ned to Emerson about his confession, “It was like word vomit.”
Emerson, “You slipped in that word vomit and then you fell on your ass and now you’re covered in word vomit.”

Emerson calling Chuck “dead girl” every. single. time.

Abner defending himself to Emerson. "I took a magic potion that made the tissue paper sack I call my heart work. Then I stepped on his neck with the soggy atrophied breadsticks that used to be my legs."

In conclusion.
I read a review of Pushing Daisies the other day (sorry, I can’t remember where) and they were commenting on how dark this show is. And I agree at one level. I mean, the 3 frozen corpses because a wish-a-wish lady wants to grant a kid’s request—it’s a little morbid. But there is something about that thick layer of character-color-comedy-frosting that just makes me barely aware of the macabre events. And I’m sure that’s why some people don’t like this show. They just don’t get that whole weird half-dark-half-too-bright theme. I, of course, can’t gush enough about it. But, my favorite part of last night was actually the colors. Did you notice every thing was red and green? All their costumes and even some of the sets were red and green. Merry Christmas!

(altho’ I can’t be as quirky and fun as Pushing Daisies, if you’re bored waiting for our Pie Man to return, come visit me at ohamanda.com!) 

3 thoughts on “Pushing Daisies: Corpsicle”

  1. A few comments:

    Another great episode, though the change in Chuck made be realize how much I had come to enjoy her perkiness in the presence of a particulary perplexing predictament. Probably. Possibly? Glad to see her smile again by the end of the episode.

    Hmmm. A high aunt seeing floating mermaids suddenly confessing she is Chuck’s mom. The first question was, if she was masquerading as Chuck’s aunt, and her sister IS Chuck’s aunt, then was she Chuck’s dad’s sister? (Ewwww?) Or since she is the mother, then her sister is truly the aunt and she is just masquerading as another aunt?

    Anyone else find the creepiness of Verbinius even MORE creepy knowing that the actor playing him used to be Pee Wee Herman? Yes, that is Paul Reubens playing Oscar. I guess it’s better him playing a scary-sewer-sniffer/doggy-derrier-damager than playing with hims…er, nevermind.

    Okay AMPTP – give the writers a REAL deal, quit posturing and fix this ASAP. I want my Pushing Daisies and Chuck shows back. NOW.

    Side note: Last night, I ran through the house for my den. My daughter, 12, asked where I was headed in such a hurry. I grinned and told her I was Pushing Daisies. She said, correcting me, “You’re watching it.” I replied, “And you’re pushing it.” Rolling her eyes, she said exasperated, “Daaaad…” and walked away. My poor family….. ;)

  2. Possibly a perfect post, Mark! ;)

    And yeah…Pee Wee—ew.

    I was trying to figure out the aunts, too. Let’s see…if Lily & Vivian are sisters, then that means they have to be…hmmm, what I mean is…Chuck’s dad must have been…yikes. I don’t want to think about it too much, *shudder*

    ps–I miss Chuck, too. The Nerd Herd Chuck, that is.

  3. Yeah, I’m also trying to figure out the whole “aunt” dynamic.

    Of course, do we know anything about Chuck’s mom? Maybe Chuck’s “mom” was really Lily and Vivian’s sister and she died too young for Chuck to ever know her. We’ve heard lots about her dad, but nothing about her mom.

    Still not sure how it will all work out, but as soon as we cut back to the aunt with the swimming mermaid, I knew what was coming.

    And congrats to the cast and crew. The show got three Golden Globe nominations yesterday, including best TV show (Comedy) and best actor/actress for The Pie Maker and Chuck.

    (The other) Mark

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