User Reviews

In this episode, you get to see Ned's skills put to the test when a frozen solid corpse is his next interrogation! However, all the victim can really give them as clues is that he was hit in the face with a baseball bat AND there are tons of potential suspects as he's an insurance man whose job it is to reject claims! Then, through the course of the show, other frozen and clubbed corpses pop up--and, as before, they worked for the same insurance company. The trail leads to the home of a very surly kid who is dying to get a heart transplant and his harried mother. However, the kid couldn't do it--he's just too sick and weak. Could it be the mother? Through most of the episode, Chuck is in hiding at Olive's apartment. That's because dumbbell Ned accidentally blurted out that he was the one who killed her father---and she naturally had to sort all this out for herself. Soon, Paul Rubens' character from a previous episode arrives. He's intrigued by her and wants to discover her secret.

Overall, a very good episode. The only negative is that I really wished someone had just clubbed the obnoxious kid, but he did have a lot of great one-liners. Also, the final scenes involving the monkey and the van just have to be seen.

Oh, and by the way, a Bonobo is NOT a monkey like you see in the show. Until recently they were called 'Pygmy Chimpanzees' and are only a bit smaller than a regular chimp--and look almost nothing like the tiny helper monkey you see here.

In this episode of Pushing Daisies, Chuck deals with the pain of Ned telling her that he killed her father. Ned is devastated because he didn't mean to 'kill' her father. So Chuck lives with Olive until she stops 'hating' Ned. Chuck knows it is about time for her aunts to get a pie, but she doesn't want Ned to find her, so she sends Olive to go make the pie. But Chuck tells Olive the anti-depressant in the bottle is vanilla. While baking the pie, Olive tastes the 'vanilla' and thinks it is to weak, so she puts the whole bottle in the pie! Later, Emerson Cod investigates these 'corpsicles' in a boy's yard waiting for a heart transplant. The first murder victim had 'KIND' indented across his forehead. They have to find the killer before more social workers turn up dead in this brilliant episode!

After Ned's confession to Chuck about killing her father, in the previous episode it isn't surprising that things aren't going well between them. In fact Chuck has gone off leaving a distraught Ned walking the streets looking for her. Chuck however is staying with Olive and even tells her about how Ned brought her back to life; of course she doesn't believe that. While this is going on Emerson gets a new case; somebody is killing insurance adjusters; specifically ones who were involved in turning down a teenaged boy's heart transplant operation. When Ned wakes the first victim the only think he knows is that he was killed with kindness... well; a baseball bat with the word 'kindness' carved into it. The victims are found hidden inside snowmen on the lawn of the boy's house. He certainly seems bitter enough to have done it but his health is such that he couldn't kill anybody himself; no matter how much he wishes he could. When Ned is off helping Emerson Chuck takes to the roof where she meets Oscar Vibenius, the 'smell man' again, it turns out he is still intrigued by her scent of death. Trying to avoid Ned Chuck asks Olive to bake a pie for her aunts but she adds far too much of the homoeopathic antidepressant causing Aunt Lily to start hallucinating and in the final moments of the episode she lets out a surprising revelation.

This was a fine conclusion to the first season; the mystery may have been smaller than usual but it was still entertaining. The story of how Ned and Chuck's friendship will be affected by her knowledge of his part in the death was well handled; it was both interesting and rather touching. It was good to see Paul Reubens return as Oscar Vibenius as he proved to be an interesting character in 'Smell of Success' and continued to be entertaining despite the viewer knowing he wasn't a suspect this time. The scenes were Swoosie Kurtz' character, Lily Charles, is hallucinating were hilarious and her final revelation to Olive came as a real shock; no doubt how Olive deals with this knowledge will be important in the next series.

Because Chuck has left after finding out Ned inadvertently killed her father, Ned can't concentrate on the case at hand which is this: an insurance salesman is found dead this snowy day in front of a snowplow. When Ned touches him, this salesman says he was hit with "kindness" which was written on a bat with that word. This trail leads to a boy with no heart who's been refused a transplant by this company. When Ned asks Olive about Chuck, Olive reveals she's with her by answering Ned's questions with more of those. Wanting someone to confide in, Chuck reveals to Olive why she's still alive but Olive doesn't believe her. When Oscar from underground comes by The Pie Hole's roof, Chuck allows him to take a lock of her hair so he can find out about her. After some time has passed, Chuck feels better and when Oscar tells her he'd rather she told him about her unusual smell, Chuck takes back her hair. Oh, and with Olive making the pie for for Vivian and Lilly, she puts a little too much of the "vanilla" Chuck usually puts in resulting in Lilly, who ate the whole thing, revealing she is Chuck's mother...Another wonderfully whimsical episode of "Pushing Daises" that takes further steps in forwarding characterizations. Like that Emerson has a daughter he hasn't seen for a while. Or the revelation of Lilly. Hilarious seeing her hallucinations like that of a crab suddenly appearing! Also loved Olive's constant mentioning of "bosoms". Or Chuck's of "bum" in referring of Digby's hair there being cut. Paul Reubens is great as Oscar. And nice seeing Grant Shaud, formerly Miles Silverberg on "Murphy Brown", as another insurance salesman. So much good stuff here, it's too bad this is the last episode before the writers' strike went into effect. Hopefully, it will end before the season does. Until then...