In a sense, its kind of appropriate that Pushing Daisies is back from cancellation, because the show is only back for a limited time to tell us what it already had completed. Much like the people Ned brings back, who only get one minute to explain what they already knew, Pushing Daisies is only back to run through the final three produced episodes before leaving the airwaves forever (it will be brought back as a comic book and possibly a movie a la Serenity). Why couldn't ABC have brought this back full time and sacrificed a different show? I hear According to Jim is pretty awful.
The first episode since October is about Olive Snook and her feelings for Ned. The opening flashback revealed the details of her childhood kidnapping and stated that often in her life, she gets what she wants, just not the way she intended (in her first flashback, she got a horse through very roundabout methods). When she was young, she wanted her parents to notice her, and it wasn't until her kidnapping that they did... sort of. In the present, she wants nothing more than to have Ned notice her. Meanwhile, it seems like she is not noticing potential suitors left and right; last season had Alfredo Aldarisio (he probably would have come back if the writers' strike hadn't happened; the actor who played him is known for his work on Broadway and a lot of people thought he was going to get a musical number) and this year as Ned's friend Randy Mann. In the last episode, Olive's love for Ned was fully reignited when he hinted that he may have had some feelings for her at one point. This week, the two of them had to pretend to be a couple, which allowed her to hold hands with and kiss Ned (they kissed once last season, but it was brief; this time around, it was a long, awkward kiss).
Why did they have to pretend? Olive's "kidnappers" recently escaped from prison and tracked her down. It turns out that they didn't so much kidnap her as she tried to run away from home to make her parents miss her, and they ended up together. The three bonded, but when the kidnappers did the right thing and returned Olive, they scolded her parents for their neglect. In return, the parents falsely accused them of kidnapping Olive. She constantly wrote them letters in prison, telling them of her love for Ned (among many many other things), and they believed the pair were engaged. Thinking it would break the mens' hearts, Ned decided to try a "normal" relationship, one that didn't require gloves to hold hands or saran wrap to kiss.
In the wake of the Charles Charles misadventure, Ned decided to forsake his powers and live a normal life. Therefore, he was involved in Olive's story rather than the murder mystery with Emerson and Chuck. The murder stories are never the highlights of the episodes, and this one was kind of dead weight, but as always, Emerson and Chuck were entertaining. Anyway, the purpose of Ned's adventure was to teach him that trying to be normal wasn't working because he kept trying to do what he THOUGHT people wanted of him, not what he thought was right. He eventually enraged Olive enough to finally get over her love for him, allowing her to finally see that other people were interested in her. Sadly for Ned, when he saw Olive and Randy together, jealously welled up within him. Whether he is jealous of another man having Olive or jealous of the ability to actually hold one's love remains to be seen, but it looks like things are going to get very rocky for the Chuck-Ned-Olive triangle... or it would if the show were actually still going on. Oh, and by the way, Olive sings again!
I was so happy to see Pushing Daisies again; it had everything that makes the show great. Witty dialogue, bright visuals, grisly deaths that seem almost normal, and alliteration. Then I got a little sad because I remembered that there are only 2 episodes left. And look what was to come;
this screenshot isn't from "Window Dressed To Kill", but I had to put it up because Gina Torres plays Emerson's wife.Up next: Angel #6...
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