Pushing Daisies S01 E06: Bitches

Summary:

We start again in a flashback to Ned’s boarding school. It is bedtime, but Ned is awake. He is playing with homemade clay dolls of the people back home, but Ned learns that he can no longer imagine. He looks at the moon, while child Chuck looks at it too back at home. We then transition back to the present with Ned waking up and watching Chuck sleeping. Chuck also wakes up and while trying to get up, slips and falls on top of Ned. Chuck surprisingly doesn’t die again. This leads to Ned and Chuck making out and undressing. Chuck then pulls off her skin to reveal Olive underneath. Ned wakes up in fright from his nightmare.

Ned and Emerson are having a conversation in the Pie Hole and Emerson explains that dreams don’t mean anything. Ned, still concerned about the kiss with Olive at the end of the last episode, confides in Emerson. He suggests to Ned that Olive has feelings for him. This distresses Ned even further which delights Emerson.

We then move over the conversation shared between Olive and Chuck. Olive confesses the kiss to Chuck which Ned didn’t mention to her. This upsets Olive , now realizing that the kiss wasn’t worth mentioning. Chuck explains that she and Ned never touch. Chuck says that it’s allergy in order to keep Ned’s secret.

In a scene change, we find dog breeder Harold Hardin dying. Narration explains that his almond flavored coffee was poisoned and after realizing this, Harold spills it on the ground. This causes him to slip and fall on the sharp end of a brush, multiple times. The Kennel Club offers a reward for catching the murderer. Emerson, Ned, and Chuck head to the morgue and find out that Harold’s wife gave him the coffee. Nothing is so simple though, as Emerson learns that Harold actually had four wives: Hillary, Heather, Simone, and Hallie.

At the Pie Hole we see Ned avoiding a conversation with Olive about their kiss. Ned also tries to avoid letting her help with the investigation, but Emerson thinks it is a good idea. Each person (Ned, Emerson, Chuck, and Olive) will visit a different wife to ask questions about the murder of Harold.

Through narration we learn the different occupations and personalities of the three wives: Hillary owns a boutique dog clothing store and is generally happy, but might snap if surprised or ridiculed; Heather is a pet psychologist though we don’t learn much else; Simone is a dog obedience teacher with a strong hunting instinct, like the Jack Russell Terriers she trains; and Hallie breeds seeing-eye dogs and much like her labradors, she loyal but competitively obedient.

Olive goes to visit Hillary, Ned visits Heather, Emerson goes to Simone, and Chuck sees Hallie. Through the investigations of Olive, Chuck, and Emerson, we learn of Bubblegum, the perfectly bred dog that Harold crafted. We also learn a little of Olive’s backstory and how she got to the Pie Hole. Simone says that Bubblegum died after she backed up over him after hearing of Harold’s death. Meanwhile, Ned gets some relationship advice from the mourning Heather. Through further conversation we come to realize that Simone and Harold had a mostly business relationship and all four wives gave Harold coffee that morning.

At the Pie Hole, the wives appear and confront the four. Before they can talk, Emerson asks who gave Harold the almond creamer and we learn that it was Hallie. After she is arrested, Chuck and Ned still believe that she is innocent.They go to visit her in prison and find out that she believes that Snuppy (a rival dog breeder) had killed Harold for Bubblegum.

Meanwhile, at the office of Snuppy, Ned and Chuck discuss the kiss. Chuck sees the possible benefit in polygamy in situations like theirs. Both of them want physical contact, but can’t have it and she believes that sometimes it is okay to hold someone else’s hand, or kiss someone else. Just then, Snuppy enters and we learn that he is the legal owner of Bubblegum against Harold’s wives’ wishes. He plans on cloning Bubblegum from his DNA.

Emerson goes to visit Simone and she also believes that Snuppy is the perpetrator. Emerson believes it was actually Simone, angry that she wouldn’t see any of the money from Bubblegum. Emerson leaves and takes a nap. In his dream state, he realizes that Bubblegum’s collar has moved everytime that he visited Simone and that the dog is still alive. We also learn that Emerson might be falling for Simone.

Ned once again avoids the kiss conversation with Olive and she is clearly upset. Hillary comes to the Pie Hole and Olive reveals to her that Bubblegum can still be cloned from the ashes.

Meanwhile, Emerson confronts Simone yet again and she reveals that she actually has Bubblegum hidden. But she knocks out Emerson before he can ask more. Emerson wakes up bound and Simone reveals that she believes Emerson was actually hired by Snuppy to find the real Bubblegum. This is of course false and across town, we find a dead Snuppy.

In an attempt to sniff out the murderer, The trio bring Snuppy’s body to the funeral to see who will be most shocked by the recently reawakened body. Hillary sees Snuppy alive and starts to run. Ned fortunately catches her. Through narration, we learn the motive: Hillary had never liked polygamy, but adored Bubblegum. When she found out he was going to be cloned, she was angry that Bubblegum would no longer be the only one of its breed. In order to avoid this, she killed Harold and attempted to frame Hallie. She then killed Snuppy, not knowing that Bubblegum was still alive and Snuppy only had a rat’s ashes.

Ned apologizes to Olive and she admits that she wants Chuck and Ned to work out. She only wants Ned to be happy.

Pros:

-Emerson and Simone’s relationship was one of the highlights of this episode. They worked well together as opposite sides of the same coin.

-The other highlight was Olive again. Kristin Chenowith is an amazing performer and it shines through in this episode.

-The mystery was clever and an easy one to follow along.

-Finally hearing Olive’s backstory was great.

– A surprisingly positive portrayal of polygamy as both the narrator and Chuck defend it as real love.

Cons:

-I wish we could have actually seen and not heard Olive’s backstory.

-The mystery did not leave enough clues in the beginning to implicate the murder, it seems to come from left field (though this is somewhat common in the show).

-I love the clever use of dog breeds as metaphors for the personalities of the wives.

Overall:

This was good episode. Not one of the best, but it is a great showcase for the talents of Chi McBrinde and Krisitn Chenowith. This episode only leaves me wanting more from them. The issue of the kiss throughout the narrative is also great as it explores another aspect of Ned and Chuck’s rekationship, rather than leaving it stagnant. It was greatly built up in the last few episodes. This episode provides some relief to the problem, but it does not solve it. It makes the relationship seem much more realistic.

Rating:

7/10 Daisies