Pushing Daisies – 1×02 Recap | MuchMusic.com

Pushing Daisies – 1×02 Recap

October 12th, 2007

1×02 – Dummy

So whether you like it or not I’m going to regale you with recaps of my new favourite obsession/tv show, Pushing Daisies.

First thing’s first, as we start this second episode we learn that the Pie Maker, Ned, was abandoned at a boarding school after his mother’s unfortunate demise. He is somewhat less than popular and so spends his time bringing frogs (dead and ready for dissection) back to life…and relegating several unfortunate birds and squirrels in proximity to the afterlife. Poor squirrels…always getting a complete raw deal on this show.

Flash forward to the present and Ned and his newly-resurrected childhood love, Chuck, living in non-touching harmony. Chuck is full of questions…and like a child who just asks “why?” after every explanation, she doesn’t ever seem to be quite satisfied with Ned’s evasive answers. Olive (the Pie Hole waitress, with a sexy new haircut) goes to death-defying lengths to spy on our erstwhile lovers and she can’t seem to figure out why they never touch. Interesting question, Olive, but I’m willing to guess you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Meanwhile, Emerson Cod, detective extraordinaire and my absolute favourite current TV character (yes even more than House), has taken to knitting to reduce his anxiety over Chuck’s upsetting the balance of the investigative team dynamic. He knits sweaters, vests, sweater vests and awesomely, gun holsters. SAH-weet.

This week the team investigates the recent death of an automotive safety specialist. They visit him at the morgue (and we get a quick sighting of our favourite deadpan coroner) and find he thinks he was killed by a crash test dummy. Hooooookay. Do they have hallucinogenic drugs in the afterlife? They proceed to his company to find his girlfriend to see if she knows anything. Turns out she’s a car model…but not just for any car…for a car (that looks like a combo Mini/PT Cruiser) that runs on dandelions. I’m not even kidding…I couldn’t make this stuff up – so once again, hats off to these writers and their slightly scary creative genius. Speaking of hats – the models are all wearing puffy white things that look like dandelion tops…which make me want to reach through the screen and pop their head right off. The team discovers something is rotten in the state of dandelion as they discover a closet full of dead people dressed as test dummies. They learn from the deceased’s pie-swilling, eating-disorder having, cute-as-a-button girlfriend that the company uses real dead bodies to keep anyone from downloading the bad/dangerous test results from official crash test dummies. She tells them to follow her to where they are keeping the real dummies but, naturally, her dandelion car explodes before they can get there. That giant fireball of exposition tips us off to what the company was trying to keep quite – a fatal flaw involving speed, wires and sparks. Not good. The trio finds the pit of dummies but before they can do anything all three are kidnapped by a human dressed as a crash test dummy who then intends to use them as test dummies to silence them. I’m guessing he’s the guy they should’ve been looking out for…just hypothesizing out loud here. This next scene is genius: the trio are trapped in individual plastic body bags inside the test car as the master villain gives his inevitable expository speech…but they can’t hear him at all, so he’s just babbling to himself. Since it looks as if they are gonna be goners, Ned and Chuck kiss…but prevent any premature death by doing so in their plastic bags. Convenient. I love that but I’m wondering how long until the writers run out of ways to do that. Emerson’s hobby comes in super handy here as he uses a knitting needle to break out of his bag. He gets the other two out of their bags and they drive to safety…and bring the evil car magnate to justice.

But what of Olive? Well she spends the episode pining after the Pie Maker, which would be boring if it didn’t consist of a completely awesome musical number (Hopelessly Devoted to You, for those who are keeping track) which involves dancing with Digby the dog and shooing away customers. You keep thinking they will cut her off but no, she does the whole damn thing. Awesome. Now I know why they hired a Broadway star to play the part.

So yeah – all seems very weird yes? It totally shouldn’t work but it does and leaves me wanting more. What else can you ask for from a television show? They will have to watch they don’t dive completely off the cute end though or they’ll find themselves in a pool of candy floss and crinolines.

Episode Rating: B+

Is anyone else watching this? What do you think? Did it keep your interest after the pilot? Too sweet and cute to tolerate? What’s your opinion?

To catch up on full episodes, head here or watch it on Rogers On Demand (Channel 100).

Tags: devon soltendieck