Pushing Daisies 2x03 Review: White Truffle

“Bad Habits”
Written by Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts
Directed by Peter O'Fallon
 
The Story
Olive’s closest friend at the abbey, Sister Larue, falls to her death from the bell tower. And she hires Emerson to prove it wasn’t a suicide so that Larue’s good name won’t be ruined with the church and the other nuns. Chuck has hired a genealogist to fill in the mysteries of her family tree. Ned doesn’t understand Chuck’s interest in her ancestry, and he’s still struggling to adjust to her living in Olive’s apartment. To Olive’s chagrine, Emerson brings Ned and Chuck along on the investigation. Also, she’s annoyed when Emerson tells her Larue was murdered. She only wanted it to not be suicide. Emerson’s suspects are Mother Superior and the priest. There’s a secret passage in the basement that contains the truffle storage and a further secret passage that connects to the cellar of a restaurant. Larue and the chef of this restaurant were lovers, and they used the secret passage to smuggle contraband in and truffles out. Mother Superior figures out our detectives are impostors. Ned realizes Olive has secrets from Chuck, and he gets her to tell him. He shows her a picture of the nuns when Lily was at the convent. Ned very slowly realizes Lily is Chuck’s mother. The genealogist fails to turn up anything for Chuck, and she’s distraught. She tries to have a chat with Larue’s ghost (if there is a ghost) in the belltower. There, she realizes that the bells are stainless steel, so Larue was never polishing bells. She was attempting to synthesize white truffles using chemistry! Chuck nearly shares Larue’s fate when distracted by the sound of Olive screaming, but Olive pulls her to safety. Larue was pushed by Pigby, so it was an accident after all! Mother Superior decides to continue Larue’s work, and Olive decides to come home. Ned tells Chuck Lily is her mother, and she feels much better about her past and her future.
 
I’ve always liked the way this show handles religion, and I think I figured out why. Unlike most of the times it comes up in the Buffyverse, here, Christianity—specifically, the lifestyle of cloistered nuns—is treated with the same frankness and whimsical exaggeration as everything else. It’s not portrayed as weird or old-fashioned or stupid. Olive finds a great deal of solace in her time at the convent, and she takes the religious elements of it very seriously and expects her friends to respect that. Chuck is even pondering the eternal ramifications of her alive-again status, in a religious context! That’s probably the main reason I like this episode so much, but the character stuff for Ned, Chuck, Emerson, and Olive is all great too. S2 continues strong!
 
Things I Liked

• This episode’s title is one of the best puns I’ve ever seen
• Little Olive flashback!
• “Endowed with a tenacious spirit and the inability to accept negative statements...”
• Hah! The name of Olive’s order of nuns is “The Sisterhood of the Divine Magnatum.” Magnatum means truffle. “Sisterhood of the Divine Truffle.”
• The whole scene where Olive hires Emerson, from him laughing to her talking to him all secretive-like about how he has to come in disguise to the abbey
• “What got thee to a nunnery?”
• Emerson accepting prayers as payment because he’s still trying to get his daughter back. Awwwwww.
• Mary Mary and Eduardo Dedonde
• Sister Christian
• I freaking love that Emerson’s alias is Father Dowling. That’s the name of a murder mystery series in the late ‘80s. Very nice. Ned’s alias, Father Mulcahy, is a reference to M*A*S*H.
• How uncomfortable Ned is with touching Sister Larue alive again in a convent
• “Top-shelf femme care” is apparently forbidden. Bahahahaha.
• By-proxy hi-five
• “My God! Leatherface has a four-core food processor with a two horsepower motor and an extra large feed tube. I’ve wanted one forever.”
• Von Getz weeping when Ned tells him Larue is dead.
• Ned swooning over the white truffle
• “Everything else seems about right, though, so peace be with you and also with you.”
• How long it takes Ned to figure out Olive’s secret about Lily and Chuck.
• Mother Superior figuring out they’re fakes because she tracked the references in their aliases
• Olive running zigzag from Father Ed, and him *chasing her in zigzags*!

 
Things I Didn’t

•  Larue and Von Getz’s over the top makeout scene

 
The Characters
The issue Ned needs to work on this time is understanding that just because he doesn’t think there’s anything worth finding in his own past doesn’t mean that genealogy and closure aren’t valuable things for other people. He’s always known who his parents are, for better (his mother) and worse (his father), but Chuck only knew her father. She was loved and raised by step-aunts she didn’t realize were actually her mother and her real aunt. There’s a lot of good for her to find in her past. Another thing I like about Ned’s characterization in this one is the stuff about his formal culinary training. He isn’t just some pie hobbyist. He went to school for this, and has a serious appreciation for quality food.
 
I feel so sorry for Chuck. One thing I wanted from Buffy in S6 when she was dealing with her post-resurrection depression was her fear that getting brought back the way she was would disqualify her somehow from going back to heaven. I’m confident that heaven doesn’t fall for glitches that are beyond the control of the individual in question, but it’s very poignant to watch a character go through those doubts. Chuck does. She needs another hug from Ned via Emerson. It would be especially nice if she could confide in someone a little more versed in theology about her situation. Not being able to do that probably makes her doubts a lot worse.
 
Emerson is back to the sidelines, but we’re still getting bits about his search for his daughter every episode. I love that even a cynic like Emerson won’t turn his nose up at Olive’s offer to pray for him.
 
Olive was able to get one of her secrets off her chest, at least, so that’s a relief. She was also able to clear her friend’s name of suicide (even if she helped uncover her affair with the chef in the process), clear the air with Chuck and reestablish their friendship, and clear the air with Ned and establish a more balanced friendship. The convent has definitely done her good, and I’m glad that she leaves it with no regrets about her time there. She’s not leaving because she’s realized trying to be a nun was insane; she’s leaving because she’s ready to, even if she’s going to miss it.
 
Overall Rating
4.5/5