Dim Sum Lose Some (Pushing Daisies 2.5)

Sometimes it’s the title that does it for me. I could just read the title of the Pushing Daisies episode and be satisfied. Remember the pilot, Pie-lette? (hee, hee!) When I read last night’s title, Dim Sum Lose Some, I knew it was going to be a good episode!

We begin again with young Ned at boarding school, this time entering a private roulette game in a classmate’s room. (You know, because most 8 year olds have their own roulette wheel.) And while young Ned loses his chocolate betting he learns that gambling isn’t for him. (Hmmm…sounds similar to Bad Habits, remember? Poor Ned doesn’t like to get dirty. They’re really working on Ned’s issues aren’t they?) According to our narrator gambling can give you an outcome you can’t see coming (that’s called foreshadowing, folks!).

Let’s begin in…

The Pie Hole. Olive is back, Chuck is thinking up new pies and Ned is happy. (Well, for Ned.) Until he encounters a new customer. This new customer tells him his pies are as good as his mother’s and that he is a nervous talker like his dad. Ned is completely freaked. The customer introduces himself as Dwight Dixon, an old friend of Ned’s family. He’s looking for Ned’s dad. And while Olive and Chuck are giddy with this new discovery, Ned is tight-lipped and refuses to help Dwight.

Now, Emerson Cod. He’s in a digestive coma thanks to the Dim Sum restaurant downstairs. Then he grabs his fortune cookie and there’s a message hidden inside for help. Emerson enters the Dim Sum and encounters…Simone? Remember the beautiful polygamous dog owner from last season? After a little click-click doggy training on Emerson, she leaves and Emerson discovers Lai Di Ting, Boa Ting’s wife. Boa Ting is the genius chef of the Dim Sum.

And he’s also dead. So, our Pie Trio head off to the morgue (our attendant absent this week, sadly). Poor Boa has a copper pipe through his head but doesn’t realize he’s dead. He’s screaming and yelling that he has to pay off his debt or they’ll kill him. (Gambling…there’s the foreshadowing!)

We soon discover that since the prohibition the Dim Sum has been home to a gambling ring. But not with cards. They gamble with food. (Is this something they totally made up? Because it was hilarious!) Small little containers of food are lazy-susan-ed around a table and played like cards. There are four suits: chicken, beef, pork and shrimp. (*snort*)

Not only are there some mean characters around the table (I wish I had caught all their names. The only one I remember was Louie Lou), but Simone is there, too! Emerson interviews her in his office and after an electrically charged conversation about the dim sum poker table, Emerson and Simone end up in a lip-lock.

Now, back to the bet and the murder…

Boa gambled away his daughter to Rubbie Wu, the restaurant manager and cousin to one of the dim sum Poker players, Shrimp Boy. He tries to win back her freedom but is stopped (via the copper pipe and his pressure cooker) by Rubbie.

And the above two sentences took a lot of figuring out–and a lot of costumes. Emerson as Jimmy the Ace (funniest funniest thing of the night), Ned as a big money Texas oil man (that was weird), Chuck and Olive as Chinese waitresses (least believable thing of the night).

Let’s get back to Ned and his dad…

Chuck and Olive are upset about Ned and his dad. So, they head off to Ned’s dad’s house. And discover no dad but two sons. Twin magician sons. Two magician sons with Ned’s eyebrows. Named Maurice and Ralston. *snicker*

After the Dim Sum, Chuck talks Ned into visiting his two half-brothers who have experienced abandonment, too. And when Ned does, he’s pleasantly (?) surprised to meet them but not as excited as they are—they rush him with hugs. All while Dwight is watching from the car…with a gun. (Plot thickens!)

Best Lines of the Night
Ned to Chuck, “Cautious Ned has left the building.”

Emerson to Mae, “I could gold leaf my bathroom in what I made on my hunches!”

Simone on Boa Ting’s pork rolls, “They blur the line between eating and sex.”

Ned to Emerson, “I might have shrieked.”

Emerson to a dead guy, “You think ‘cuz you’re dead you don’t have to tell us what you’re up to, but you are SO wrong!”

In Conclusion
Lots of big character plot stuff going on tonight—Emerson and Simone! Ned and his brothers! But sadly not much Olive and absolutely NO Lily and Vivian.

Tonight’s episode was visually exciting, though, didn’t you think? It was hardly at The Pie Hole and mainly at the restaurant which was bright red. I love the way the colors saturate the whole show.

The only thing I thought was weird was Ned as the Texan. Since when does straight-laced Ned don a get-up and new persona? Hilarious. But out of character.

Oh, and my new favorite thing? Emerson’s eyebrows. Just watch how much he moves them. Love it.

One More Thing
If you *do* want to talk politics. Here’s a little Obama vs. Pushing Daisies article. Interesting.

(Ned and our Pie friend won’t be back until November 19 *gasp* but I’ll be at ohamanda.com until then.)