Pushing DaisiesBad Habits
The Case
Original Airdate: Oct 15, 2008
Crystal - TwoCents Reviewer
crystal@thetwocentscorp.com
There’s something ironic about a death in a Convent. And something creepy watching a blue-clad nun thump to the ground in front of Olive Snook. I can admit that, while I am not easily spooked, I cringed at the sight of a dead nun.
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The Case
Original Airdate: Oct 15, 2008
Crystal - TwoCents Reviewer
crystal@thetwocentscorp.com
There’s something ironic about a death in a Convent. And something creepy watching a blue-clad nun thump to the ground in front of Olive Snook. I can admit that, while I am not easily spooked, I cringed at the sight of a dead nun.
Mother Superior and the Head Father call it a suicide, believing that the now dead Sister Larue jumped out of the belfry, where she polished the bells daily. Olive, who had become friends with the Sister, knew that Larue would never kill herself, so she sneaks out of the Convent and enlists the help of Emerson Cod, who is incredibly amused by the sight of Olive. I love Emerson’s laugh; it’s absolutely hilarious watching him chuckle and laugh heartily. Olive tells him that she needs him to prove that Larue did not commit suicide.
Olive offers to pay Emerson in prayers (in a hilarious scene in which Kristin Chenoweth and Chi McBride are perfect), and surprisingly he accepts. I’m still a little iffy on that whole part of it, because yes, I recognize that Emerson has a missing daughter, so he would be likely to need some prayers, but this isn’t the Emerson we know; our Emerson is all about the dollar. But, hey, what ever moves the plot along, right? They agree that Emerson can not be seen as having any connection to Olive. Olive also stipulates that Ned and Chuck cannot come along.
Cut to the Convent and of course Ned and Chuck came along, and the three investigators introduced themselves as Father Dowling, Father Mulcahey, and Sister Christian. I laughed like crazy at their assumed names. If you don’t get those references, might I suggest Google? A little knowledge of classis pop culture does come in handy every once in a while; thank goodness for all that time spent watching television and listening to the radio.
Ned and Emerson go down to see the body of Sister Larue, the former being a little nervous about doing his job in a chapel, but he touches her anyway. Sister Larue wakes up and goes off, throwing around swear words like nobody’s business, the words getting covered by the ringing of church bells. Ned and Emerson manage to get out of her something about being pushed and diamonds before their time is up. Ned even had to chase the nun down. “Nun on the run! Nun on the run!” is my new mantra in life.
The next time we see Ned, he is now with Chuck in the chapel, and they manage to find a secret door in the room, and witness Mother Mary Mary (the leading nun) come out of the secret door. Chuck tells Ned that before she was a nun, Larue was actually a doctor, a mycologist, which is a “fancy name” for someone who studied fungus. Cut to Emerson and Olive in Sister Larue’s room, unearthing a whole wall full of contraband. Who knew that top shelf feminine products were so valued in the Convent? But it turns out that Sister Larue was smuggling in contraband and giving it to other Sisters.
So now they need to get behind that secret door. Chuck is sent up to keep Sister Mary Mary busy, by inquiring about the visitor’s log, while Emerson and Ned head behind that door. Chuck has a conversation with the Sister that foreshadows ruin for them, when Chuck is unable to pick up a rather common phrase that describes choosing to become a nun. Things recover, and it seems all is well, but long-time television and movie viewers recognize that these kinds of scenes mess with the main characters later. I was a little disappointed it was that obvious what the scene would lead to.
Meanwhile, Ned and Emerson follow the tunnel through a brick wall where they find a Swiss baker, who ties them up and demands to know where Sister Larue is. He is aggrieved at her loss, and tells Emerson and Ned that the two became lovers after she discovered the tunnel that lead to his bakery, and began trading truffles for contraband. The two also find a note supposedly from her telling him that she never wants to see him again. This came along with the gift of the rare Italian White Truffle, the “diamond of the table.” And suddenly, Sister Larue’s reference to diamonds is explained.
They cook up the scheme that he must have murdered her for her Italian White Truffles. But Olive took away that theory with the fact that Italian White Truffles are only grown in Italy. We all had a collective facepalm for Ned and Emerson on that one. But Olive does help them out, when she recognizes the handwriting on the note to the chef as belonging to Sister Mary Mary.
They confront her, and she reveals that she knows that Ned and Emerson are not really Fathers, and Sister Christian is nothing more than a “heavy petting power ballad.” Then Emerson and Olive are “motoring,” but the nuns stop them. I laughed at this Night Ranger reference and enjoyed the delivery of the actress playing Sister Mary Mary. It was delightful.
So then Ned and Emerson are locked in Sister Mary Mary’s office, and Olive is in the laundry room. But them they missed Sister Christian! The Head Father takes his laundry to Olive and tries to calm her down, but she notes how his clothes are covered in bat droppings, and whacks him over the head with a washboard. She runs outside, and he chases her across the courtyard, but she eventually heads up to the belfry when she spots Chuck, who has discovered a secret truffle lab in the tower, and stainless steel bells (which means that they don’t have to be polished.)
So it turns out that Sister Larue had once been commissioned to try to create the Italian White Truffle in a lab. Failing, her funding was pulled, so she headed to the Convent to take advantage of their truffle farm. At the Convent, she created a lab and worked her recipe to success. So who killed her? The answer is none other than Olive’s little pet pig, Pigbee. It turns out that pigs are highly attracted to truffles, and when Pigbee smells Larue’s truffles, he leaps towards her, and the whole thing was an accident in that regard. The Head Father’s bat dropping were a result of his discovery of her plan, and confrontation with her in the belfry, which he believed prompted her suicide. Sister Mary Mary also knew what was going on when she accidentally stumbled on Larue with the Swiss chef.
Pushing Daisies almost feels formulaic to me now. There’s a lot of fast talking, Ned looks adorable, Emerson is hilarious, Olive is heartbroken and pining, Chuck is crying and intelligent, and the mystery always has at least two major twists along the way, and it’s never who they make it look like. At least it’s still funny and quirky.
I had no idea there was so much intrigue in Convents and so much drama around truffles. So what did you think? Great pop culture references? Strange story? Too many truffles? Wondering why there is a pig in a Convent?