Oh, hi. I’m Chris, the Senior Executive Research Intern. I think I got that title right (actually, Chris has been promoted to Senior Executive Researcher — ed.). Anyway, I’m the guy who sends Jeff, Tina, and Jake the news items for the top of the podcast. I will also be providing recaps of some of the shows they discuss, beginning with what I think can be agreed upon as the group favorite for new show, Pushing Daisies.

:01

The show begins with the narrator telling us about Ned’s childhood at age 9 or so. The narrator is the only element of the show I’ve heard receive any negative criticism thus far, and I agree that it’s a love it or hate it thing, because it intrudes upon the story. Personally, I love it. Jim Dale has a wise, deep voice and I think it adds to the fairy tale quality this show endeavors towards.

The opening re-explains a lot of the backstory we heard last week. Ned learns that with a touch, he can bring the dead back to life. A second touch from him makes them dead again, forever. But if he lets something live again for over one minute, something in the nearby proximity dies instead. Ned learned these tragic rules after reviving his mother who had just had a stroke. Consequently, his childhood crush and next door neighbor “Chuck” lost her father. Ned’s mother died later that night when she kisses him goodnight.

We’re told that after Ned’s mother died (as we saw in last week’s pilot episode), his father sent him off to boarding school. There, Ned was melancholy and quiet and received a lot of teasing for it. To get back at everyone, Ned plays a prank in biology class. Frogs for dissection are wheeled out and you can already see where this is going.

Ned only meant to revive one, I think, but in the surprise, he bumps several dead frogs and class is thrown into disarray. Cut to Ned sitting up in a tree outside of school. The frogs run by and a bunch of birds drop out of the tree. A teacher asks Ned if he did this, to which Ned says, “no.”

The narrator tells us this is when Ned learned to keep secrets and that he liked it very much. From here we cut to present day where Ned is a pie maker. There are some brilliantly clever transitions on this show from scene to scene, by the way. This episode, like last one is by director Barry Sonnenfeld, a talented guy. Hopefully the show can keep up the gorgeous cinematography all season. It’s wonderful. We’re reintroduced to Chuck, who Ned revived last week. They are clearly in love with one another but of course, cannot touch. Also, since Chuck was reported dead, she can’t go out into the world and get her own place so she lives in Ned’s apartment. In separate beds, natch.

Wow, the narrator just told us Chuck is 24 years old. They’re YOUNG! I honestly thought they were early thirties, but that’s probably just because I am and I figure everything centers around me. Looking closer, I can tell that the actor and actress playing Ned and Chuck are indeed pretty young. God, I feel old.

Continuing the story of Ned keeping secrets, the narrator clues us in that Ned hasn’t told Chuck that he is responsible (in a way) for her father dying. Ned and Chuck are starting their day and we learn that Chuck thinks a refrigerator is called a cheesebox, because her eccentric aunts dedicated their fridge to holding just cheeses. This kind of random whimsical detail is what provides this show with its heart.

Outside the apartment window (several stories up, above the pie place I believe), we see Ned’s employee and next-door neighbor, Olive, dangerously leaning outside her window ledge, with a mirror, to spy on Ned. She’s very curious about Chuck because she is quite obviously in love with Ned herself.

We cut to Emerson, the private detective who knows Ned’s secret and uses it to solve murders. They split the reward money. Emerson is not comfortable with Chuck and apparently this big gruff private dick releases his stress by… knitting. Ha! His most recent project is a huge sweater and wool gun holsters.

Emerson meets up with Ned to investigate a recently deceased man. The police are offering a reward on info leading to solving the apparent hit and run killing. Em and Chuck begin a game of sorts, locking one another out of Ned’s car to talk to him one-on-one. Poor Ned is going to be struggling to balance his lives between these two for a while, I guess. He also always makes Chuck sit in the back so that they don’t touch, by the way. Even though she loves sitting up front. Awww.

The trio arrive at the morgue with some zany lie about who they are and the suspicious morgue attendant lets them in. I guess this will be a recurring gag. They gave two different lies to him last week. Anyway, the deceased victim is named Bernard and he was a young scientist for a car manufacturer, found dead at the side of a remote road, the apparent victim of a hit and run. Ned revives him and the one-minute clock is ticking. Instead of getting right to the heart of who killed him, however, Chuck starts hitting Bernard up with questions of what they can do for him, his faith (Buddhism), and vastly irritating Emerson. Bernard simply wants them to tell “Janene” that he loved her, and that he doesn’t recall being hit by a car. The minute is up and Ned has to touch him again before they can ask anymore questions.

:09

Commercials!

:12

We go to the Pie Hole, Ned’s bakery, where the trio are engaged in arguing over how to handle their investigations. Emerson is peeved at Chuck getting in the way, while Chuck has a strong sympathy for the deceased they encounter. Ned and Chuck leave to bake some pies and Olive swings by to hit up Emerson about “what’s the poop? The skinny?”

Emerson orders rhubarb, not wanting to engage her but when she presses him, he tells her point blank that Ned is crazy for Chuck in a way he’ll never be for her.

Sample dialogue:

Olive: Did they touch much?

Emerson: I wish they would.

The next day, Chuck and Ned visit Bernard’s place of employment to try to find “Janene”. They are at a car manufacturer who has invented a gaudy car called the Dandy Lion SX, which apparently runs on dandelions. Heh. The president of the company is offering a tour to a large group of Japanese investors. Hey! I recognize that actor. It’s the creepy professor from last season of Veronica Mars. Whatta scumbag that guy was.

Anyway, Chuck approaches the Pres and engages him in fluent Japanese (!) inquiring about Janene. Apparently Chuck had a lot of time to learn many foreign languages on tape in her previous, dull and quiet life. The president, Mark Chase, points out Janene, a showgirl for the car dressed in a dandelion suit. When Ned and Chuck ask her about Bernard, she denies knowing anyone by that name but happily accepts the pie Ned brought.

Chuck and Ned follow the tour group to watch the car crash tests with the Japanese investors. We also see Janene squatting behind a rotating Dandy Lion car, sobbing and eating the pie. Ned and Chuck snoop around and find a room full of crash test dummies hanging on hooks. One of them is missing his mask.

:20

More ads! Go ABC, go!

:24

The trio (Chuck, Ned, Emerson) are back at the Pie Hole discussing what they learned. Gotta say, these actors all have great chemistry and very unique and different personalities. Chuck is full of energy and curiosity. Ned is super quiet and slyly devious. Em is grouchy on the exterior but definitely seems to be an honest soul at heart. I love ‘em! They decide the only real lead they have is that missing dummy mask.

As Olive watches Ned go and the Pie Hole is empty, she launches into a full-blown musical solo, “Hopelessly Devoted.” I think that’s from Grease 2? She grabs Digby’s paw and twirls his sleeping body around, dancing with him. Oh, Digby is Ned’s dog who was hit by a truck when he was a kid. He was the first dead thing Ned revived, but Ned can’t touch him anymore so he spends most of his time with Olive. What’s great is this song is huge and epic but Olive completely halts when a couple tries to come in. After she shoos them away, she launches right up again, only to be interrupted by Manuel the evening floor cleaner. But he has on an iPod and she starts up AGAIN. Manuel asks if she said something and she cuts things short. I think this is so silly and so cute. She is belting out her feelings but it isn’t an aside, she’s REALLY doing it and doesn’t want to get caught.

Olive sits down at a table and Digby jumps up to kiss her. The narrator tells us that Olive considered how much she liked Ned, while Digby considered how much he liked salt.

The trio have broken into the Dandy Lion lab. Em is proud of himself for using his private eye connections to duplicate a fake keycard ID in a very convoluted manner. Chuck tells him how she hugged a guard leaving his shift and pickpocketed his. Hilarious. Ned and Chuck talk, hinting at the fact that Ned is keeping secrets from her.

Em walks up and says, “Skeletons in the closet.” “Exactly,” replies Ned. “No, there are actual bodies in the other room!

:29

More ads. There are a LOT of ads for young children’s toys. I guess ABC really thinks this is a show for young parents or something. I think everyone would enjoy this. It’s like a full-blown movie. It may have a minimum of sets and characters, but the acting, camera-work and writing are top notch.

:32

The trio is back in the room of hooks that previously held all the crash test dummies. It is now supporting tons of cadavers. They begin waking ‘em up and asking them if they know about the Dandy Lion company. The second girl remembers signing her body over to them after she would die. Ah, so they seem to be there legally. Hrm, stumper. That lead nowhere! Well, we learned that Emerson went to art school before becoming a P.I.

Just when it seems they’ve run out of leads, they bump into Janene. She was hoping they’d come by to investigate. She reveals that she did know Bernard and loved him very much. She couldn’t talk earlier because she was being watched by the company president.

Janene explains their relationship. It’s cute. They were a great match. Bernard began getting to be a bit distant so she knew something was wrong and tried following him but kept losing him on the roads at night. She is telling the trio the tale at the Pie Hole and has more info but her price is high. She wants the last of Em’s pie. After some harsh glares and tough choices, Em parts with the pie. She tells them she can show them something but needs to go to the bathroom (?) first.

The group gets in Ned’s car (Chuck in back) and follow Janene in her Dandy Lion. They get out on the open road and her car explodes! I think a box of Ex Lax lands on their car too. I guess Janene had her own secret.

:39

Time to make ABC some money. Coming up next on ABC is Private Practice. No thanks.

:43

Janene is alive! She’s in the hospital, completely bandaged up, but Chuck has tried to make her feel better by drawing makeup all over her bandaged face. Janene mentions where she was taking them – a big ditch.

The trio drive out to the ditch in the evening and it’s full of bodies in crash suits. Unfortunately, the group is attacked by an actual Crash Test Dummy, who tasers all three of them. Cut to Olive in bed (with Digby), dreaming of Ned and Chuck together in a huge bubble bath. She decides she won’t mope. She tells Digby they’re going for a walk.

Em, Ned, and Chuck wake up. They’re all sealed in clear body bags, hands bound, in a Dandy Lion car. In a Dandy Lion car in the crash test area! The Crash Test Dummy waves the hook to start the crash. He takes off his mask. It’s… the only guy it could be, the president, Mark.

Mark begins ranting and monologuing. Bernard had learned that the Dandy Lion car had a fatal flaw, where if the car got up to 70 mph, had the headlights on, and the seat warmers, it would cause the radio to short circuit and that spark would cause the vehicle to explode. He begged Mark to delay the launch of the car. Mark won’t hear of it, after all he’s invested, and tries to bribe Bernard, but Bernard is too honest and walks away. Mark plucks the mask off one of the crash dummies and tasers Bernard in the back. He puts Bernard in the clear bodybag and crash car and kills him. Then he places Bernards body on a remote road at night and waits for him to be hit/found. While ranting, Mark mentions a “long-sublimated love for botany” that cracks me up.

We then go inside the car, where it is of course sound-proofed and our heroes can’t hear a single word Mark is shouting at them. The narrator tells us that Chuck wonders why she always seems to die just when things are starting to get good. Believing they are about to die, Chuck and Ned go in and kiss. In their bodybags. It’s a brilliant little idea. However, all is not lost! Emerson takes out a knitting needle and frees himself and Ned and Chuck. Chuck starts the car up and drives away. Mark runs off frame and chases them down in his Hummer 3. The narrator tells us that unfortunately, the three never heard Mark’s rant about the exploding Dandy Lion.

:50

Ads.

:54

Mark is chasing the group and trying to get them to speed up, or run them off the road. He rams them off into the woody hills, but the car manages to end up on the road further ahead. Mark is right behind them but is pulled over by the police. Justice prevails!

Our trio is all pumped up and racing back to the Pie Hole. They’re getting very close to completing the trifecta that causes the car to explode. Just then, Olive and Digby walk in front and Ned slams on the brakes, saving them.

Mark makes to escape the police but… he’s out of gas. Tee hee. Janene heals up and gets help for her eating disorder. Em finds a way to chill out too – by knitting a LOT of socks. Olive tells Digby she won’t give up on Ned. Finally, Ned invites Chuck to sit in the passenger seat of his car. He’s installed a glass wall between them, that even has a rubber glove so that Chuck can hold his hand while he drives.

So that’s it for the second episode of Pushing Daisies. I’ll recap it so that if you miss it, you won’t feel lost. I think I speak for all of the TV Zombies folks when I say it’s a great show that you should definitely check out. See you next week.