Oh Jiminy Jehoshaphat! I went out on a limb for you people. A tree limb, jutting from a cliff with my limbs dangling over certain death. So don’t leave me dangling with Dwight’s disappearance.

In a break from format, tonight’s episode of Pushing Daisies eschewed the MoW and was all the stronger for it. Tying up loose threads, before dropping some new ones, tonight was all about Charles’s disappearance and Dwight’s death.

Vivian, as innocent and naive as ever, asks Emerson for help tracking down her missing paramour, Dwight Dixon. But Emerson already knows where Dwight can be found, six feet underground where he left him. But treating Vivian roughly to convince her she’s been abandoned doesn’t work: she hires The Norwegians.

All tall and beautiful, the Norwegians and their pimped out RV, MOTHER, take the case and get cracking. It doesn’t take long to figure out something is amiss. Dwight’s room was filled with guns and ammo and Lily’s note to meet her at the cemetery. When confronted, Lily just shows Vivian the watches she liberated from Dwight’s room which only serves to hurt Vivian more.

Undercover Olive does some recon and plays nice with the Norwegians, although it looks to Emerson as though Itty Bitty has betrayed him. For a few minutes I thought she might have been the one to move Dwight’s body to protect Ned and Chuck, but I was mistaken. Her only significant accomplishment – a big one – during her stint with the Norwegians was helping Ned steal MOTHER. That, and throwing the trio off the scent by saying she was attacked by men and beaten with “blue and white socks” – Swedes!

While Chuck spends the hour believing her undeparted father is watching over her, in the end it is Ned’s father who saves them all. The ageless George Hamilton¹ moved Dwight’s body, set up the death scene in the motel room, and rescued Ned and Olive from their precarious position.

Some other thoughts:

• The Emerson Cod of the first season would never have taken the heat off Ned and Chuck. The progression week to week was imperceptible, but looking back the evolution of their relationships becomes obvious.
• “Allow me to soap up those hard-to-reach places.”
• How happy for Olive to finally hear that Ned has had thoughts about her…
• Olive’s beautiful homage to Superman: “If you’ve got me, who’s got you?”
• Daddy Deadbucks! Unfortunately, the sun won’t be coming out tomorrow for Pushing Daisies.
• A great trio for the Norwegians: the always awesome Orlando Jones; Michael Weaver, who earns a permanent place of distinction for being a Broken Lizard regular; and Ivana Milicevic. I couldn’t place her, even though I knew I should but IMDB filled in my memory gap: Mrs. Riley Finn.

What did everyone else think?

R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at Sketch War, his personal blog, Tumblr, and stalked on Twitter.

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posted by R.A. Porter in → Reviews