By  Buzz Byrne

We all know the premise of PUSHING DAISIES at this point, right? Ned can touch dead things and bring them back to life for one minute. If he touches them again they are dead forever. If they stay alive for more than a minute death takes another life. Ned touched his childhood love Charlotte Charles- a.k.a Chuck after she was murdered and now they are making a life together, falling in love, touching the dead with P.I. Emerson Cod and trying not to touch each other.

Let’s take a deep breath and muscle our way through tonight’s plot. Bradan Craden’s crop-duster crashes into the Broadview Luxury Apartment building and Chuck, Ned and Emerson rush to help and look for the dead. The tenant of the apartment, Conrad survived. But he didn’t. The plane had been hi-jacked by an escaped convict, Lemuel Winegar, who dressed Bradan in his prison garb, posed as Conrad and stuffed the dead Conrad in a trunk. Chuck is taken with Lemuel because she can touch him and imagines he is Ned. Olive Snook is still smitten with Ned and knows Chuck has somehow faked her death so she gets to know Chuck’s Aunt Lillian and Aunt Vivian better to find out more about her competition for Ned’s affections. She also brings a carrier pigeon to them that died in front of the Pie Hole (Ned brought back to life accidentally) so that they may help mend the wing of the single winged bird. Lemuel’s ruse is exposed and it turns out his old prison bunkmate Jackson Lucas told him about a stash of diamonds that Lemuel is now seeking. They were buried in the steps of a windmill that is now at the National Area for Retired Mills. Lillian fixes the pigeon with a Bedazzler and a parrot wing but the bird leaves before Olive can reattach it’s carrier pigeon message so they follow “Pige” that they may deliver the missive. And it leads them to sing the They Might Be Giants song “Bird House in Your Soul.” Everyone converges on Elsita’s windmill (I know, seems a little late to introduce a character). Lemuel searches for the diamonds and Elsita entertains him because she is bored. When Lillian, Vivian and Olive arrive with Pige, everyone claims ownership of the carrier pigeon and the truth is revealed that Jackson had been corresponding with Elsa, Elsita’s mother, by the pigeon and when these two had died Lemuel and Elsita had picked up the mantle and posing as the two old folks had actually fallen in love with each other. This is when Ned, Emerson and Chuck show up. Olive has the chance to expose Chuck but knows it will hurt the aunts who she now has affection for so she tells the newcomers to wait before entering the windmill. Chuck knows that Olive knows something. Olive takes the aunts away, Lemuel gets arrested and Chuck and Ned enjoy a dance together on a roof top, clothed in the garb of “Unorthodox urban honey pioneers,” (beekeepers).

Whew.


So what does it all mean? Nothing. The overriding philosophy is mainly the Lennon/McCartney “Love is All You Need” variety with a touch of nihilism. When the plot so obviously twists in such a rollercoaster manner, convention and subtlety dismissed, style and wit are the prominent feature. I don’t know if that is truly enough to sustain a show but tonight it worked wonderfully. Mainly because of the major role Olive and the aunts had. Their turmoil is far more interesting and complex than the simple moral issues Ned and his powers present. The writers are not much concerned about mining that aspect, as the darkness in that is too inherent, but Olive’s unreturned love and the aunts’ ache of loss are subjects that feel unique.

I’m still hoping this show stays around for a while.