+29.jpg)
PUSHING DAISIES
Season 1 Episode 8
“Bitter Sweets”
Written by Abby Gewanter
Directed by Allan Kroeker
(WARNING: SPOILERS)
This one’s another winner, as Dilly Balsam (ex-SNLer Molly Shannon, who also voiced Patience the Vampire in The Amazing Screw-On Head), co-owner of Balsam’s Bittersweets Taffy & Sweets Emporium, moves in across the street, intent on crushing her perceived competition, The Pie Hole.
Ned, now officially Chuck’s boyfriend (and preoccupied with his guilt over inadvertently causing her father’s death), is hesitant to engage in the war, the hostilities inadvertently pushed into overdrive by a welcome gift of Georgia peach pie. Olive and Chuck have no problem in getting down and dirty though, and are ready to do so.
They get their chance when Dilly gets health inspector Andrew Brown (Steve Hytner, from The Bill Engvall Show and Roswell) to pay a surprise visit to The Pie Ho (its sign “inexplicably” malfunctioning). Brown discovers the locked room stocked full of rotten fruit (which Ned uses for his ingredients, of course) and shuts the Ho down.
In retaliation, Olive and Chuck break in and release a pack of rats in the Emporium. Unknown to them, Dilly’s brother Billy (Mike White, who starred in The Good Girl and The Stepford Wives, and recently worked with Shannon in his directorial debut, Year of the Dog) is already a floating, taffied corpse in one of the shop’s vats.
When Ned finds out about the rat problem, he goes next door to try and clean the mess up, but instead touches Billy’s corpse by mistake. But Billy can’t talk with a mouthful of taffy, and when the cops bust in, Ned touches Billy again, and he’s caught red-handed, with Billy’s now permanently dead, taffied body.
With Ned in jail, Emerson is forced to sleuth the old-fashioned way, and with Chuck’s (and the coroner’s) help, they find out that Billy bit off one of his killer’s fingers before dying. Sadly Billy’s stomach acids eradicated all trace of a fingerprint, so Emerson and Chuck go to the scene of the crime, and with the help of some flour, lift a pair of handprints (with a grand total of 9 fingers) from a marble countertop.
It turns out that Billy’s killer was Brown, who was rudely demanding to be paid for his “surprise inspection” to The Pie Ho. A scuffle takes place, and voila, dead, taffied Billy.
With Ned in the clear, there’s a welcome back do at the Ho, courtesy of Olive and Chuck. Later that evening, and despite having decided otherwise, Ned confesses that he caused Chuck’s dad’s death. (Dang that cliffhanger!)
There’re also a couple of subplots involving a “carpool doll” (think Lars and the Real Girl), and the return of traveling salesman Alfredo Aldarisio, who is still smitten with Olive, and whom Olive doesn’t realize is right there in front of her, until it’s too late.
At episode 8, we’re winding down on the interrupted freshman season of Pushing Daisies and it’s still going strong. With yet another Hitchcock homage in this episode, “Bitter Sweets” keeps the winning streak going.
Parting shot: We also discover that Dilly is capable of murder, as we see her getting rid of Brown‘s body, which could actually be yet another Hitchcock nod. (If only that 4-fingered hand had been shown sticking out of the trunk of a car as it sank into the muck, then the reference would be undeniable…)
Parting shot: Reviews of The Amazing Screw-On Head and The Stepford Wives can be found in the Archive.
(Image courtesy of pushing-daisies.com.)
Season 1 Episode 8
“Bitter Sweets”
Written by Abby Gewanter
Directed by Allan Kroeker
(WARNING: SPOILERS)
This one’s another winner, as Dilly Balsam (ex-SNLer Molly Shannon, who also voiced Patience the Vampire in The Amazing Screw-On Head), co-owner of Balsam’s Bittersweets Taffy & Sweets Emporium, moves in across the street, intent on crushing her perceived competition, The Pie Hole.
Ned, now officially Chuck’s boyfriend (and preoccupied with his guilt over inadvertently causing her father’s death), is hesitant to engage in the war, the hostilities inadvertently pushed into overdrive by a welcome gift of Georgia peach pie. Olive and Chuck have no problem in getting down and dirty though, and are ready to do so.
They get their chance when Dilly gets health inspector Andrew Brown (Steve Hytner, from The Bill Engvall Show and Roswell) to pay a surprise visit to The Pie Ho (its sign “inexplicably” malfunctioning). Brown discovers the locked room stocked full of rotten fruit (which Ned uses for his ingredients, of course) and shuts the Ho down.
In retaliation, Olive and Chuck break in and release a pack of rats in the Emporium. Unknown to them, Dilly’s brother Billy (Mike White, who starred in The Good Girl and The Stepford Wives, and recently worked with Shannon in his directorial debut, Year of the Dog) is already a floating, taffied corpse in one of the shop’s vats.
When Ned finds out about the rat problem, he goes next door to try and clean the mess up, but instead touches Billy’s corpse by mistake. But Billy can’t talk with a mouthful of taffy, and when the cops bust in, Ned touches Billy again, and he’s caught red-handed, with Billy’s now permanently dead, taffied body.
With Ned in jail, Emerson is forced to sleuth the old-fashioned way, and with Chuck’s (and the coroner’s) help, they find out that Billy bit off one of his killer’s fingers before dying. Sadly Billy’s stomach acids eradicated all trace of a fingerprint, so Emerson and Chuck go to the scene of the crime, and with the help of some flour, lift a pair of handprints (with a grand total of 9 fingers) from a marble countertop.
It turns out that Billy’s killer was Brown, who was rudely demanding to be paid for his “surprise inspection” to The Pie Ho. A scuffle takes place, and voila, dead, taffied Billy.
With Ned in the clear, there’s a welcome back do at the Ho, courtesy of Olive and Chuck. Later that evening, and despite having decided otherwise, Ned confesses that he caused Chuck’s dad’s death. (Dang that cliffhanger!)
There’re also a couple of subplots involving a “carpool doll” (think Lars and the Real Girl), and the return of traveling salesman Alfredo Aldarisio, who is still smitten with Olive, and whom Olive doesn’t realize is right there in front of her, until it’s too late.
At episode 8, we’re winding down on the interrupted freshman season of Pushing Daisies and it’s still going strong. With yet another Hitchcock homage in this episode, “Bitter Sweets” keeps the winning streak going.
Parting shot: We also discover that Dilly is capable of murder, as we see her getting rid of Brown‘s body, which could actually be yet another Hitchcock nod. (If only that 4-fingered hand had been shown sticking out of the trunk of a car as it sank into the muck, then the reference would be undeniable…)
Parting shot: Reviews of The Amazing Screw-On Head and The Stepford Wives can be found in the Archive.
(Image courtesy of pushing-daisies.com.)
