Why does it irritate me so badly that they explain Ned's powers all over again every single week in the previouslies? It makes me SO MAD for some reason. Is it just me? Obviously, they want newcomers to the show to understand the premise, but then again, there are so many unexplained things about the show that are hard to understand -- synchronized aunts; Chuck's wardrobe; dead-fruit pies; Chenoweth's low billing -- I don't know why they bother explaining anything. Whatever. Y'all, from what I can tell, this is our last episode for a while. I am not sure what the strike will mean for Pushing Daisies, but I will just go on and presume that it will persevere. It can't be killed! I hope not, anyway. I guess they'll show reruns, but really, why would you watch a rerun when you could read a recap? What? Oh, people, just laugh along with me, please. I have been sick for a week and am to the point now that only Ned could revive me (consequently sending off forever my neighbor's son, a teenaged K-Fed, to that big do-rag shop in the sky).

Jim Dale takes us once again into the past to review that tragic day in which Ned brought his mother back to life only to see Chuck's dad die as a result. Ned sits in silent horror as his mom comforts the dejected Chuck -- and again, we're forced to accept that Ned and his mother have not even made the barest contact since he revived her earlier -- until the aunts arrive. Chuck would remember later that Ned didn't seem to want to look at her during all this tragedy. She would also remember that Vivian, who didn't like to touch anyone, was the first to hug her. And she would also remember that Lily, who didn't mind touching, couldn't bear to embrace her. Chuck would also remember that later that night, the doorbell rang to show Ned standing on the doorstep, silent and morose. "Something happened," Lily says, clutching Ned to her immediately and before he even speaks. "His mother died." It wasn't until this moment, JD tells us, that Lily was able to take Chuck into her arms.

Chuck also remembers the pain she felt when Ned's father took him away to be abandoned at the School For Unloved Children. "Chuck would never see him again," Jim Dale says, sadly. "Not for as long as she lived." Dang, show. Why do you have to hit me so hard with these crying children and their dead parents and stuff? Especially right now, when I am trying to simultaneously recap, do laundry, and bake a pound cake for my office holiday party. Don't even get me started how mad I am that I have to bring food to a corporately mandated function. A note to all those captains of industry surely reading these recaps: if you can't shell out even the minimum of holiday magnanimous-ity, then please do not bother at all. Having to provide my own food at a party you're allegedly organizing for my benefit does not fill me with the warmth of the season. But I digress. Again. Sorry.