Pushing Daisies 1x05 Review: Strawberry

“Girth”
Written by Katherine Lingenfelter
Directed by Peter O’Fallon
 
The Story
It’s Halloween, and Olive’s old jockey friends are being killed off one by one, seemingly by the ghost of their dead rival, who died because one of them cut the girth on his saddle before a big race. Olive hires Emerson to solve the case before she ends up dead too. It turns out that the alleged ghost is actually still alive, but he got a bone transplant...from his horse, so now he’s like seven feet tall. The killer is his mother, who’s been trampling the other jockeys with a horse, wearing spooky outfits. Ned saves Olive from getting trampled, and she’s so happy that she kisses him. Also, Ned has been struggling with his abandonment issues because of his dad ignoring him and then getting remarried and having new sons he clearly loved better. He ends up having pie at Lily and Vivian’s house, only to discover that it’s his pie, so Chuck’s secret is out. But he thinks it’s sweet.
 
This episode is not one of my favorites, but it’s still a lot of fun. The thematic focus continues to revolve around secrets and lies, with Olive growing to sympathize more with Chuck because she, too, is keeping a major secret for good reasons.
 
Things I Liked

• “Don’t try to act like that’s a word everybody knows.”
• Chuck being able to understand smash-face guy because she had headgear for three years. Bahaha.
• A pub for short people!
• “Sweet Secretariat!”
• “Some of the neighborhood children started a rumor we were witches. They said we turn little boys into birds.” “That’s...terrible.” “Raawk! Help me, help me! They turned me into a bird!”
• “It’s like a sex addiction! ...I would imagine.”
• Vivian’s consoling speech for Ned, and the little cheek kiss
• Chuck tricking Olive into agreeing that sometimes secrets are for the best
• Okay, that isn’t how bone grafts work at all, but the whimsy of this show overrides my “STOP TRYING TO DO SCIENCE” reaction. Kudos.
• “I love you, shovel.”
• Chuck trick-or-treating as a ghost at her aunts’ house
  

Things I Didn’t

• Mrs. Jenkin’s horrifically pink house
  
• Mrs. Jenkins
  

The Characters
We get some more of Ned’s backstory. No wonder he ended up being so awkward and emotionally closed off, and no wonder he has issues with learning the truth about things. Most of the truths he learned as a kid were painful ones, so he has a very understandable aversion to the entire concept now.
 
This Olive-centric episode was well-placed in the season. She earned our sympathy in the windmill episode by not exposing Chuck to Lily and Vivian, so it’s the perfect time to learn more about her. And her backstory is just as wacky as everyone else’s. She’s a jockey! Her height is actually relevant to the plot! It’s great.
 
Overall Rating
4.5/5