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Pushing Daisies: Puppy Love

Four wives, one dead husband on Pushing Daisies.

Published: November 15, 2007 at 07:42 PM GMT
Last Updated: November 15, 2007 at 07:42 PM GMT

By Lisa LaValle

 
I really love how ABC’s Pushing Daisies is finding its formula: solving the mystery of the week but also checking in on Ned and Chuck as they navigate their rather unique relationship. This week, polygamist dog breeder Harold Hundin (played by Joel McHale, host of The Soup on E!)–he was a dog breeder with four wives, not a breeder of polygamist dogs–found a dash of cyanide in his morning coffee, so Ned and the gang set out to figure out which wife was tired of sharing.
 
At first glance, it seemed the sexy and strict obedience instructor Simone would be the only one cold-hearted enough to take her husband’s life, but Emerson soon learned she didn’t killed her husband but has plenty up her sleeve (we’ll get back to her later). The youngest and newest wife, Hally, is jailed because she was the one to give Harold “almond-flavored coffee cream creamer” that morning, but Chuck refused to believe that she, a breeder of seeing eye dogs did it.
 
Harold had created a new breed of “perfect” dog–a border collie, Labrador, Jack Russell terrier, poodle mix–and named it Bubblegum, and he was the other love of the ladies’ lives. Little did the wives know, Harold had sold the rights to Bubblegum’s DNA to Ramsfeld Snuppy, the head of Snuppy’s Puppies, a pet store chain that would clone Bubblegum and put a Coll-A-Dor-Russell-A-Poo in every living room. When Bubblegum and Snuppy both end up dead, things get a little more complicated. Bubblegum’s death was faked by Simone, who thought Snuppy couldn’t clone a dead dog (but apparently he could), so Chuck, Emerson and Ned bring Snuppy’s corpse to Harold’s funeral to see which wife is most shocked to see him alive.
 
Surprise, surprise, it’s Hilary, wife No. 1 and designer of puppy couture. Hilary heard about the cloning scheme, decided she didn’t want Bubblegum to share his life like she was forced to share hers, so she killed Harold, thinking he hadn’t yet signed the papers giving Bubblegum to Snuppy. He had, so she had to cover her bases and kill Snuppy.
 
Phew. During all of that, Emerson got kidnapped by Simone (and kind of liked it); Olive and Ned dealt with the aftermath of their “accidental” kiss; and Chuck contemplated supplementing her relationship with Ned with someone she could actually touch.
 
My favorite lines came at the end of the episode, when Ned and Chuck lay in their separate beds. Ned said there were things people wanted out of the person they’re in a relationship with, but “just because we want them doesn’t mean we need them to be happy.”
 
Chuck asked, “What do you need to be happy?” Ned, of course, replies, “You.”
 
Simple as that. Ned and Chuck are trying to figure out how to make their relationship work, just like any other couple. In Pushing Daisies, it’s obviously taken to the extreme, but in the real world we often love our boyfriends/girlfriends/husbands/wives unconditionally. Fortunately, most of us can touch our significant others without killing them, but the idea of needing vs. wanting things in a partner is universal.
 
I’ll end with a few more of my favorite lines, mostly courtesy of Emerson:
  • “That girl dropped a bomb in your subconscious with her saliva.”
  • The repetition of “friendly expression of innocent gratitude” and “gangster love.”
  • “Your conscience calls you on the telephone?”
  • “I suppose I could pay my bills with blind kids’ smiles, but their money is a lot easier.”

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Reader Comments(1)
Emerson was my favorite character throughout this whole episode. I love Chi McBride in anything. Thank you for all the Emerson quotes at the end of your commentary.
Posted at 08:38 PM on Nov 30, 2007 by Crissy
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