In the first episode of the second season of Pushing Daisies, this show is just so goddamn wonderful, y’all. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Pushing Daisies.
I have a lot of things to say. I have a lot of them.
- I am going to guess that there are a ton of you who have waited for years for me to see actual nuns on a show for Mark Watches. In fact, I seem to recall GIFs of nuns in this specific color scheme in the comments in the past. This is everything you’ve been waiting for. It’s just like (spoilers for the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) ubj V xrcg nfxvat sbe gur jbeyq gb bcra hc naq rng crbcyr naq vg yvgrenyyl qvq gung va gur svanyr.
- Oh my god, nuns.
- DIANA SCARWID AS MOTHER SUPERIOR.
- FRENCH STEWART AS THE VILLAIN.
- PIGBY
- PIGBY
- PIGBY PIGBY PIGBY PIGBY PIGBY
- A CANON REFERENCE TO HAPPY TIME, WHICH CONFIRMS THAT THIS TAKES PLACE IN THE SAME UNIVERSE AS DEAD LIKE ME.
- OH MY GOD, SO MANY OF MY PREDICTIONS ARE RIGHT ALREADY, BUT IN INCREASINGLY HEARTBREAKING WAYS.
- This premiere is so great for so many reasons.
- Obviously, I picked out a lot of the more shocking moments (minus one of them, which I’ll talk about in a bit.) That’s on purpose because this premiere really sets up the second season of this show with style and excitement. Even the summary of the previous season of the show is fantastic! NO ONE EVER PULLS THAT OFF.
- It’s not only a neat aspect of “Bzzzzzzzz!” for new viewers, but it puts the events of this premiere into a necessary context. It’s a reminder of how magical (and tragic) this world is. That’s typical of all of Bryan Fuller’s shows so far. While Pushing Daisies is the most fantastical of the bunch, he’s always managed to pull together a writing staff who can mix humor and sadness with ease. I mean, the opening of this show features Chuck pouring a hive full of dead bees onto a half-naked Ned. That is a thing that happened. And it wasn’t awful at all!
- That’s the thing about this show, though: I feel like they can get away with so many ridiculous things that other shows could never do. I don’t ever question the fact that these people do any investigating at all, or that Chuck is able to get into Betty’s Bees to replace Kentucky Fitz. It’s the fairy tale element of this show: Everything just works out in a combination of beautiful coincidences, so I’m not looking for realism from Pushing Daisies.
- You know, I imagine if you were terrified of bees, this episode was a nightmare to watch.
- Anyway, this episode has so many moments that rendered me speechless. For example, that first time where Lily and Vivian show up to The Pie Hole is just… lord, it is too much. However, it’s the focus of it that I enjoyed so much. I think the show has addressed the difficulty in keeping a secret in satisfying ways. It’s not an easy thing! (Y’all, I was in the closet for a decade. Queer secret keeper here.) This parallels Chuck’s struggle in the season one finale, but Olive has a much more furious outburst here. She’s literally seconds from spouting the secrets she knows, and she has a reason to do so! Her friends are expecting her to navigate a complicated minefield of facts and not fuck up. They’re pulling her in different directions, and it’s not really fair. (Something just hit me: Perhaps Ned hasn’t told her about his powers out of respect for Olive, because he knows he’d be asking her to keep yet another secret.)
- So, Lily’s response to this is surprising, especially once you consider how this affects Vivian. More on that in a second. Lily takes Olive to the same nunnery where she spent time having Chuck, and it represents the manifestation of her secret persona. In that sense, it’s reasonable to Lily that she take Olive there to figure out how to deal with her own secrets. Initially, Olive is confused about why she’s there and how long she’ll be asked to stay. But I got the feeling that she was partially relieved to be in place where she was allowed to talk about her secrets without taking on any more of them. I really think Olive will find a way to appreciate the nunnery, which doesn’t mean I want to ignore the fact that Lily essentially kidnapped her? Oh, and Chuck’s father is Vivian’s fiancé. HELP, OH MY GOD, LILY HAS SO MANY SECRETS!!!
- This episode is also like a kindred relative to “Home” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer because it addresses the idea that we can choose the home that we have and who we want as our family. Ned struggles with what he views as Chuck’s need for independence, failing to see that this isn’t what she’s trying to do by moving in Olive’s apartment. I even said that as I was watching the episode! Oh, Ned, your fear that everything around you is going to leave is controlling you.
- Which is the fascinating parallel the writers give us in Vivian and Ned. HOW DID I NEVER MAKE THIS INCREDIBLE CONNECTION? Both characters lost the same person at different times in their life, and they’re both used to heartbreak and abandonment. Stop it. Fucking stop it. My heart can’t take this.
- Anyway, the idea of having a home rings throughout multiple stories here. In essence, Betty Bee’s sabotage of Woolsey was a desire to get her own home back. For her, that was her bees. Ned realizes that Chuck desires familiarity and comfort where she lives, so he constructs the perfect “home” for her. Olive knows she needs to work out her own issues before she can make a home of her own.
- AND THEN EMERSON MAKES A POP-UP BOOK ABOUT A LOST DAUGHTER WHO TRIES TO FIND HER FATHER, AND MY HEART IS DONE. DONE. Oh my god, what happened to his daughter? Why can’t he find her???
- AND THEN NED’S FATHER IS IN THE PIE HOLE, BUT HE HAS NO IDEA IT’S HIS SON’S RESTAURANT. This episode has ended me, y’all. I can’t believe this. This season is going to be incredible.
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