Pushing Daisies
Pushing Daisies

Episode Report Card
Al Lowe: A+ | 455 USERS: A
YOU GRADE IT
Robbing Hood
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description!

Damn the suits at ABC to Hell, this show is SO good. I open with such condemnation, because I can't get over how something so excellent could end up so abused. Do I love writing nonstop recaps of the endless twists? I only sort of love that. But do I love watching it, and listening in wonder to the wordplay so otherwise absent from modern culture as we know it? YES. And thus, am I pleased that this gem is rejected while lumps of coal such as, I don't know, [insert just about anything else currently playing on TV] remain untouched? While Chad Michael Murray remains untouched? Decidedly NOT. We begin with a brilliant example of the genius soon to be cruelly torn away: Young Ned, as we know, didn't have many friends back at the Abandoned Children's Institute. Only the fabulously orthodontic Eugene Maljandani is available for marble shooting, and though Young Ned cringes at the damage it does to his rep, he considers playing with Eugene an act of charity. Especially as, Jim Dale tells us, Eugene's only other companions are his two pets: the lethargic Indian python, Bilbo; and Akbar, a bunny. Y'all, when he said the snake's name was Bilbo, I had to just turn off the TV for a while. I could not stop laughing for hours. Tragedy strikes when one of Ned and Eugene's competitive marbles errantly flies off course, breaking both Akbar and Bilbo's cases, leading to, as Jim Dale so bluntly reports, their joint demise. The snake choked on the bunny. Harsh, JD.

However, under the guise of kindly burying Eugene's pets, Young Ned resolved to perform another act of charity: he brings them both back to life (resulting in the deaths of two nearby raccoons). As long as the benefits outweighed the costs, Jim Dale tells us, Young Ned believed an act of charity outweighed the consequences. Seeing Eugene's smile gleaming through his headgear at the return of his friends is proof enough for me.

Present Day Ned, despite all his early life lessons, is currently troubled by the potential consequences of bringing Chuck back to life. Thinking of the mysterious machinations of Dwight Dixon and how his snooping could uncover Chuck's secret, Ned stress-bakes back at the Pie Hole. "He's dating your aunt, he's going to see a picture of you," Ned rambles when Chuck comes in, "and if he doesn't have retro-grade amnesia, he's going to recognize you. That is, if he already hasn't." Ned marvels at the coincidence of this aunt-dating, not that Vivian isn't totally datable, he is quick to add.

Olive, for her part, wonders if Dwight has maybe been after Chuck all along, because he knows she "faked" her death (as Olive believes). Maybe, Olive says, he's with the IRS. "If anyone can figure out whether you're dead," she says, "it's the tax man." Oh, Internet, I tell you with a full measure of audited-after-a-devastating-housefire bitterness that that is quite true. OR, Olive postulates, maybe Dwight is some kind of paranormal investigator! "Maybe," she says creepily, "he's an old priest, and a young priest is coming." Okay, well, I'll be seeing y'all. I have it written into my TWoP contract that any reference to The Exorcist in a show I'm watching will result in a compulsory vacation of two weeks, during which my brain will be cleansed from within to make me stop thinking of it. Ned nervously says that such a thing would be a waste of religion, because Chuck's not... dead. The thought of it, however, urges him to action. They must, he says, do whatever it takes to find out who Dwight is, and what he wants. "Hmm!" Olive says. "Counter-intelligence via pie delivery, by gossiping with a purpose. My speciality." (Every time Kristin Chenowith is on screen, I renew tenfold my objection to the cancellation of this show. She is too awesome.)
Pushing Daisies