TV-Reviewed

Emerson had been the only person up until this episode who’d never gotten a flashback sequence on his childhood. We finally got one with this episode. The facts are that Emerson grew up being a child gumshoe with his mother who was also a detective. The most revealing thing to come out of the flashback was perhaps the fact that Emerson’s mother was white. While on any other show this revelation would be on your mind maybe the whole episode, but Pushing Daisies never addresses and after the first couple of minutes, you just don’t pay attention to the color differential between the two.

Emerson’s mom comes back to see her son. Emerson is a different person around his mom and the hardened layers really come off when he’s around her. It was nice seeing a happy Emerson. His mother couldn’t have come at a better time though, because Emerson is feeling guilty about not letting his mom know that he has a daughter. We also find out that Emerson’s pop up book is actually a book that he wrote himself so his daughter could find him if she wanted too. He’s sent it into publishers, but it keeps getting rejected due to certain events in the books depicting child endangerment and other acts that aren’t really appealing to children.

This week, Emerson is hired by two people claiming to be best friends of the victim who’s name was Joe. Joe worked at a company called Frescort, a company where you hire people to be your friends. Joe was murdered and both of his “friends” want to know who murdered him. Bringing Joe to life wasn’t that different from any of the other times, but watching as the liquid is coming out of parts of his body was a “gross out” moment.

Chi McBride as Emerson Cod, Debra Mooney as Calista Cod

It’s great to have Olive back with the main cast again and before Olive was usually left out of the detective work, but it seems like the writers will actually make her part of the team. She and Chuck do some undercover work together. Speaking of Chuck and Olive, they’re living together and it was funny in the beginning of the episode to see the two wash everything under the bridge like: Olive being in love with Ned, Olive keeping Chuck’s mother’s identity, and Chuck acting like she’s the center of the universe. It was even more funny to see the two get trapped in a locker later on and only to realize that neither one was over anything. Chuck and Olive are a great pair and even though the two have these issues, they have a great chemistry that we need to see more of.

Ned is also still missing Chuck ever since she moved out and he learns that he needs to be by himself. It’s apparent that Ned has abandonment issues due to his father not being there for him. We’ve seen it with Olive leaving and Chuck moving out on her own. Pushing Daisies is doing a good job of developing these characters and making these characters see their flaws.

The case was another entertaining one; while the culprit was a bit more obvious then in the previous episodes this season, the story that went along with it made for an entertaining affair. David Arquette also makes a guest appearance. It felt a bit weird seeing him so soon after we just saw him on My Name is Earl, but I actually liked him a lot better in this episode playing the creepy lonely guy who just wanted a friend. Also, we can’t forget to mention Dana Davis playing the little-too happy Barb.

By the end of the episode, we’ve had a lot of character progression for the whole main cast, Emerson got some notes on his book, and a good episode. Pushing Daisies is just as strong as it was last season and we really can’t wait to see what’s next for the gang.

Rating: 8.8