Before I get into the Mel Brooks goodness, I had to do this post covering the "series finale" of Pushing Daisies. Last night, the final episode produced aired, meaning that for many people, the adventures of Ned, Chuck, Olive, Emerson, Lily, and Vivian are done. Bryan Fuller and co. modified the ending of "Kerplunk" to act as a kind of wrap-up, which was fine enough (I'll get back to it later), but many plotlines are unresolved, and will be picked up in comic book form later this year. There are also rumors of a movie, but I am less hopeful about that than I once was.
In one sense, "Kerplunk"'s story was fitting for a series finale because Lily and Vivian finally got back into the pool to become the Darling Mermaid Darlings again. The theme of the episode was new beginnings, which mirrors the pilot (Chuck got a new beginning). However, the episode was originally meant to be a turning point, not an "ending" (although, as the ending narration pointed out, and ending is nothing but a new beginning); Lily and Vivian get back into show business because of the death of a member of their rival synchronized swimming team, and the manager of an aquatic showpark needs a replacement. Oh, and by the way, the death was one of the most fantastic of the series, and that is saying something. The surviving member, a prima donna who is known as a spotlight hog, does everything to stay in the show, and when she fails, she tells Vivian Lily's dark secret: Lily slept with Vivian's fiance, leading to the birth of Chuck. The rival also allows us to see into Lily's soul; the rival team was also composed of sisters, and the surviving sister slept with the murdered sister's husband. Instead of sympathizing with her, Lily grew to hate the rival even more, because she saw herself in the rival, and, as the narrator said, there was nothing Lily hated more than herself.
Chuck and Ned, meanwhile, had to deal with the aunts' new success when they booked a tour through Europe. Ned, who helped broker the deal, thought Chuck would be ecstatic about their success, but it actually made her very upset. Chuck knew that she couldn't actually speak to her aunts, but as long as she could be near them, everything would be fine. If they were to go to Europe, she would have to choose between following them and leaving Ned behind, or staying with Ned and worrying about her aunts. I don't know if the episode would have ended the same if it hadn't been retooled, but I'm not sure how else it could have ended. Chuck finally revealed herself to Lily and Vivian, which helped break up their fight over Chuck herself (Vivian was in the process of throwing Lily out). I'm fairly certain that Bryan Fuller wanted a Chuck/aunts reunion before the series finale because (1) it would make for good stories and (2) they could only keep the aunts in the background for so long.
Emerson and Olive were important in the episode, but they didn't have any huge revelations/plot lines aside from helping in the investigation of the death. As usual, though, they got some of the best lines and actions. Every time Olive tried to imitate the oppressed male aqua-robat was hilarious, and Emerson's speech at the end about Ned and Chuck was extremely touching, and showed that, under all his sarcasm and anger, Emerson truly enjoyed the company of the Pie Maker and the girl named Chuck.
Finally, the show ended with a monologue from the narrator as the camera panned through Papen County, visiting the various locations we've seen throughout the series (the windmills from "Pigeon", the lighthouse from "The Legend of Merle McQuoddy", the nunnery from the beginning of Season 2, and the sewers, with a CGI Oscar Verbinius), taking moments to stop and give updates on the various characters.
Olive and Randy Mann got together and Olive opened a macaroni restaurant called The Intrepid Cow, while Emerson's pop-up book finally brought his daughter back to him. These were likely hints at what was to come had the series continued. Sadly, we didn't hear anything about Ned's father and why he left Ned or why he saved his life in "The Norwegians". Charles Charles didn't return (by the way, how is it that Lily and Vivian have the surname Charles as well?), and we still don't know who hired the guy who killed Chuck (though maybe that was never supposed to come back as a mystery). We don't know why Dwight Dixon wanted the pocket watches or what his true connection was to Charles Charles and Ned's father (we still don't know Ned's surname). Hopefully, we'll get the answers in the upcoming comic book, and maybe, MAYBE a movie. A man can hope.Up next: There goes the planet...
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