By Buzz Bryne

As the narrator (Jim Dale) tells us, Ned (Lee Pace) has learned that, “Happiness borne of passion is short lived.” Despite this he still asks Chuck (Anna Friel) if he is her boyfriend. After much yammering on his part, she agrees that she is. Olive (Kristin Chenoweth) is suddenly swept away with a well fueled anger over being the odd one out. These wounds take time to heal, but keeping with the strange and beautiful turn of this love triangle from two weeks ago, Olive confides in Chuck.

These women don’t need to hate each other. Not when Dilly Balsam (Molly Shannon) moves in across the street to open Balsam’s Bitter Sweets. Her parents died from the bird flu and when she went to confront the avian killers they “Tippi-ed” her “Hedren.” And she survived, only braver, harsher and more ruthless. So why not open a candy shop?

Emerson, Ned and Chuck solve a case of a Burly Bruce killing a Tony with his full sized carpool doll who he also believes is his girlfriend.


Dilly and her brother Billy are set on destroying The Pie Hole and taking their location. To that end they sabotage the sign (it reads “Pie Ho”) and sic Health Inspector Andrew Brown on them who promptly shuts them down. Temporarily.

Everyone wants revenge except Ned. “I will not engage.” He decrees. He also is struggling with whether to finally tell Chuck that he is responsible, though accidentally, for the death of her father. He feels he must but Emerson encourages him to keep his mouth shut.

Chuck and Olive, tender yet tense allies, break into the Bitter Sweets and let loose a bunch of rats. When Ned discovers this, he goes to the scene of the crime to retrieve the rodents. What he discovers is Billy Balsam in the taffy. Dead. And the police discover this too as they arrive right when Ned is hauling the corpse from the tub. They haul Ned to the slammer and his new cellmate, Burly Bruce. Ned takes page of philosophy from Chuck’s playbook and indulges in Burly Bruce’s delusion that his doll is real and she will be waiting for him when he gets out. Ah, love. As Emerson observes, “It is a broad generalization but a handsome man who makes pies shouldn’t even spend a little time in jail.”

Through actual detective work, Emerson and Chuck get the charges dropped against Ned. Seems Billy had a finger in his tummy, bitten off the real killer during the murder. The first person we see with mittens is Dilly but she has all her digits in place. The prime suspect becomes one Health Inspector Brown. He was bribed by Billy and Dilly to take out The Pie Hole and having done that came back to try a little blackmail. Billy got taffy-ed in the process.

As the show wraps up, Olive has brief fantasy of being swept off her feet by the travelling salesman Alfredo. Maybe she is moving on. Dilly proves not to be so innocent as she dispatches Health Inspector Brown. Ned, home and comfy in bed across the room from Chuck has a warm feeling of relief and happiness. So much so that he says, “Chuck, I killed your dad.”


So much for peace.

The prospect of both Paul Reubens from last week and Molly Shannon from this episode being recurring characters is great news for this already strong show.