Episode Report Card Djb: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT While You're At It, Keep The Nightlight On Inside The Birdhouse In Your Soul
By Djb | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.23.2007
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.This episode begins with Olive tending to a dead pigeon, which Ned accidentally revives. Looking up to see what all the fuss is about when another bird falls out of the sky, the entire cast bears witness to a plane flying into the side of a building. And because this show is filled with pretty colors, stylized images, and a general sense of purdy-osity, Pushing Daisies somehow manages to take the iconically horrifying image of a plane flying into the side of a building and make it almost...adorable. As it turns out, the plane belongs to one Bradan Caden, a crop duster who is assumed to have committed suicide. But when Ned has a chance to work his finger magic, we discover that endless quantities of foul play are, as usual, afoot. The plane, in fact, was hijacked by a man named Conrad who was stuffed into a drawer in his own apartment -- an apartment which was occupied by another man claiming to be Conrad. In no time, Ned, Emerson, and Chuck are chasing a pigeon into a windmill to find some stolen diamonds. No, it's true. Olive, meanwhile, continues her pie delivery service to Aunts Lily and Vivian, all in an attempt to stage a meeting between them and the hated Chuck. But at the episode's climax, Olive realizes she has bonded with the aunts, and decides against the plan at the last second. And if you think this episode was good without a special appearance by the music of They Might Be Giants, just imagine how good it is with one. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously on Six Feet Under And Then Six Feet Back Up Again: Ned, dead girl, can't touch, sad aunts, Olive, Emerson, opening credits.
While a group of un-tortured young boys who do not have the power to raise the dead play a rousing game of kickball, young Ned sits by a tree a fair margin away from them. The authoritative narrator British-ly informs us that Ned was lonely and unable to make friends at his school for boys, so he often found himself playing alone. By way of example, young Ned throws an orange ball against the tree several times, until he misses the tree by a wide margin and the ball goes sailing off. The narrator (though, due to his amazingly British-osity, should perhaps be known as The Narratour, adding an Anglo "ou") informs us, "What young Ned did not realize was that beyond the meadow and under the same orange sky, someone he loved was remembering him." But who might love Young Ned? His girlfriend is out of reach, his classmates won't let him play kickball, and he accidentally killed his mom...twice. Maybe we need to widen our search to be a little more inter-species.
Sure enough, Digby the dog sits on the front porch of the house in Coeur d'Coeur, as The Narratour catches us up: "Three days prior, Digby had made a decision." I do like this show's ability to be quirky without crossing the fine line into annoying, with small touches such as the implication that Digby is making thoughtful, rational decisions and possesses the freedom of self-determination. Like how my cat "decides" to stare and meow at a blank patch of wall in my apartment for hours, rather than his merely being compelled to do so because he has a brain the size of an almond. Hang out with a pet long enough and, like with Digby, you'll believe that they can be lonely/amused/in love with a patch of wall/etc. Anyway, Digby takes off running, "guided by the compass of his heart." This is a beautiful sentiment, even if I'm having trouble understanding why this translates into Digby pulling a fire alarm and causing the arrival of a fire truck. I guess Digby understands the concept of loneliness, but not the concept of wasting the valuable tax dollars of all of Coeur d'Coeur's residents. I hope he finds Young Ned soon, or we'll cut to Digby calling the police to report fake crimes, putting hazardous materials into the local mailboxes, and otherwise creating a public nuisance in the name of canine loneliness.
Holding Young Ned's orange ball in his mouth, Digby runs onto the meadow of Young Ned's school, and the two begin running toward each other in slow motion. But when they reach one another, we watch them remember that they are not allowed to touch or the zombie-fied Digby will once again die. In fact, The Narratour tells it like it is: "They could not touch, or Digby would die." And I have no qualms about watching this adorable little sequence, but isn't this kind of a retread of information we already know? How granular are we getting in our recapping here? Are we about to learn the dictionary definition of "pie"? I don't want to tell this show how to do its job, but if people aren't on board with the central concept by Episode Four, those people are never going to stop watching America's Next Top Model.