PUSHING DAISIES
Season 1 Episode 9
“Corpsicle”
Written by Lisa Joy
Directed by Brian Dannelly
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

After an opening sequence where we witness the day of Chuck’s da’s death (during which time Ned’s mum also died, twice), we discover that after Ned’s blurting of the awful truth last episode (like “word vomit,” as he puts it later on to Emerson), Chuck disappears.
As it turns out, she’s hiding out at Olive’s, and she’s so despondent that she feels the need to tell someone about her dark secret, even if that someone won’t believe her.
So she tells Olive.
And Olive doesn’t believe her.

Later on though, Chuck finds out that Oscar Vibenius is still intrigued by her unique smell, which he’s discovered is the same smell he picks up from Digby. (Oscar’s actually shaved off some fur from Digby’s bum to confirm his suspicions; poor Digby!)
Still needing to confide in someone who isn’t Ned, Chuck eventually gives Oscar some of her hair, so he can uncover the truth she’s been keeping to herself.
Eventually though, Oscar returns her hair, wanting Chuck to tell him the truth herself. By that time though, Chuck feels she can safely see Ned already without hating him, so she takes back her hair, and tells Oscar, You should’ve checked out the hair when you had the chance.

Ned and Chuck finally reunite at her da’s grave, where she actually asks Ned to bring back her father, if only for a minute, but Ned refuses, telling her, I can’t bring your father back, then kill him again. I couldn’t do that to you…
It’s a great, sad scene, as Ned wants to comfort her by embracing her, but of course, he can’t…

Meanwhile, since Chuck isn’t spending time at the Pie Hole, she asks Olive to bake a pie for her aunts, and gives her the happy juice she doses her pies with. (Olive is her unsuspecting homeopathic drug mule…)
Thinking it’s vanilla and taking a taste of it but not finding it particularly strong, Olive decides to use the entire bottle.
Later on, Lily eats the whole pie, and in her drugged-out, blissful state, she blurts out to Olive that she is, in fact, Chuck’s mum! (Which is where the episode ends…)

The whodunit portion of the finale involves the murders of Uber-Life Life Insurance adjustors. Notable bits in this subplot include a Blood Simple reference, Bobo the banobo, and Emerson admitting that he has a daughter (which surprises us all, including Ned).

Thus do we close what Bryan Fuller has come to think of as the show’s “teaser season.” Now, due to the strike—and the subsequent time afforded to Fuller to re-think the narrative thus far—the reveal of Lily being Chuck’s mum (a plot development which was originally meant to be resolved mid-season), will apparently “inform much of [Pushing Daisies’] next season’s direction.”
At the Paley Fest ’08, Fuller also confirmed that Chuck will find out who her real mother is next season: "It's going to be interesting to see how she reacts to that information, and how the Pie Maker tries to control her trajectory and how that will complicate their relationship. There are going to be some nice surprises."
Fuller also said that the interruption caused by the WGA strike, "… gave us a chance to look back at the nine episodes and [figure out] what was working and what was not working. The arc of the first nine was a soft, romantic arc. In the second season, we want to do something a little harder and a little more aggressive in the style of storytelling. We learned a lot of lessons."

If you’ve been following these recaps, you’ll know that I love me my Pushing Daisies, and I do think it’s the best new show that emerged from the past strike-truncated season. (Chuck’s a close second.)
I’m looking forward to fall, when Daisies returns, and hopefully, between then and now, people who haven’t tasted of its bittersweet humour and whimsical visuals can catch up on the web. (Or, the Season 1 DVD set, which hits stores in early September.)

Parting shot: At the Paley Fest, Fuller fielded a question regarding the chances Ned and Chuck have of conceiving a child: "I think her egg would die when his sperm hit it."
He also confirmed that Ned is a vegetarian, because if he ever ate meat and it made contact with his insides, the meat would come back to life “and crawl out of him.”

(Image courtesy of pushing-daisies.com.)

reVIEW (13)
SAVED!

This review (originally published under the title “Rescue G-O-D”) is being resurrected for no other reason than what I feel is my civic duty to call attention to movies that deserve an audience.

“Accepting Jesus into your heart and getting saved is a big decision. Especially for a three year old.”

Mary (Jena Malone) is a student at American Eagle Christian High School. She’s part of the Christian Jewels, a “girl band for Jesus.” Her mother (Mary-Louise Parker) is the number one Christian interior decorator in the entire region. Her boyfriend Dean (Chad Faust) is a star athlete who ice skates for Christ.
But two weeks before the summer ends, Mary’s life hits a huge speed bump: as it turns out, Dean is gay. And not only that, but Mary (having just banged her head on a pipe because of the shock of discovering her boyfriend’s “spiritually toxic affliction”) has a vision of Jesus, who tells her that Dean needs her right now.
And thus does the hilarity ensue and Saved! (directed by Brian Dannelly and co-written by Dannelly and Michael Urban) kick into gear.

“Come on. You’re not born a gay. You’re born again.”

One of the applaudable points of Saved! is that is doesn’t take any cheap shots in getting its laughs (and let’s face it, fundamentalist religion is such an easy target), while at the same time doing its best to explore (or at least touch on) subject matter that you don’t normally see in teen comedies: homosexuality, teen pregnancy, and faith.
And yes, Saved! is a teen comedy; the best one I’ve seen in quite awhile, as a matter of fact. And while it doesn’t transcend the genre, it does use it as a sound venue to explore issues of purpose and choice, of the constant struggle to find the answers to the questions life perpetually throws at us.
And though the film is not entirely free of stereotypes (thus are the perils of the teen comedy), the delicate, fragile strength of Jena Malone, the surprising mixture of cynical bravado and genuine caring of Eva Amurri’s Cassandra (the only Jew—read: heathen—at American Eagle High), and Mandy Moore (yes, that Mandy Moore) as self-righteous warrior of God, Hilary Fay, make for a portion of a pretty good ensemble. (Though some parts are underwritten, and echoes of what were an interesting performance in Party Monster by Macauley Culkin—who plays Roland, Hilary Fay’s disabled brother—turn into the dreaded beginnings of one-note acting here.)

Despite these shortcomings though, script and performance do intersect in some genuinely moving scenes: Mary’s moment of desperation and desolation at the foot of a cross; Hilary Fay’s prayer for guidance; the revelation shared by Mary and Cassandra in a comfort room.
The use of Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” (better known as the theme from The Exorcist), and Travis’ “Flowers in the Window” are also genuine delights in Saved!, as is the duet of Mandy Moore and Michael Stipe (of R.E.M.) on “God Only Knows” (which plays over the end credits). Stipe produced Saved!, as he did the glam rock remembrance, Velvet Goldmine, a few years back.
I mean, come on! Michael Stipe and Mandy Moore in a duet?! Whoduthunk?

“In the meantime, I was trying to find a new religion, or a new God, or whatever, but to tell you the truth, they’re all kind of freaking me out. I mean, sure, they can’t all be right, but they can’t all be wrong, right?”

Saved! is bitingly funny (in one scene, Mary and Hilary Fay are at the Emmanuel Shooting Range, whose tag line is “… an eye for an eye”), but is it offensive?
I honestly don’t think so.
I think Christians with a healthy sense of humor would get a kick out of it. (And I do think a healthy sense of humor is something everyone should have, regardless of faith.)
Commendably, Saved! does its best to portray its characters as real people with imperfect lives, who struggle with the specters of divorce, alcoholism, and childhood traumas, doing their best to be true to their chosen faith, to live up to the standards of their beliefs.
And they stumble, and some of them even resort to cruelty. (Though it should be noted that of the three principal “misfits”, Mary—the Christian—is the one totally innocent of any wrongdoing, while Roland and Cassandra—the “non-Christian” and the Jew—author one particularly nasty and vengeful act which precipitates hasty retribution.)

“No one fits in 100% of the time.”

Saved! is a rare sort of teen comedy. It isn’t a satire in the way Heathers or Election were; it’s more heartfelt than your usual satirical fare. And unlike Dogma, it doesn’t go to extreme (and at times, absurd) lengths to question the basic tenets of the religion it’s “attacking.”
It is, ultimately, a film that simply asks questions (as well one should), as do we all, at one point or another in our lives; questions of ourselves and our beliefs, of our choices and our decisions, and how those fit into the Greater Plan.
It also puts forward a possible answer: a faith that is inclusive of all, even the “freaks” and the “deviants” (as opposed to the largely exclusionary nature of most, if not all, the major systems of belief), for after all, wasn’t that what Jesus’ ministry was all about: the embracing of all, regardless of anything save for the fact that we are all God’s children, and we are all mirrors of His likeness.
Not bad for a teen comedy, wouldn’t you say?

(Saved! OS’s courtesy of impawards.com.)