Pushing Daisies 2x5: Grading/Discussion. Spoilers.

[Temis the Vorta]

Yeah that was a million more viewers than last week.

 

[Geck]

Watched it after work today and another great episode . Chi McBride stole this episode...brilliant work. Amazing directing this week too, some of the shots had me on the floor laughing. Loved Olive improvising with the gong too. Even the very concept of the episode, using dim sum dishes as poker cards, is such an amazingly creative idea. Very interested to see where the thread with Stephen Root goes too.

The only two things that hold the show back from an Excellent rating from me are horrible acting from the daughter/waitress, and the fact that after another explosion in the kitchen and a pipe going through the busboy, no one else in the kitchen seems interested in his health or the freak accident, leaving Ned and Emerson free to revive him right then and there. Uhh...

I do hope we get to see the aunts again soon though. They're minor characters and don't need to be in every episode, sure, but it's been 3 weeks now. Sad there's no new episode till Nov 19. Boo...

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Dya think Ned's dad has the same power and the "old army buddy" is after revenge for someone who the dad killed when he revived another person? Being in the military certainly would create situations where you'd be tempted to revive a dead buddy without thinking about the consequences.

What if it was Ned that died and his dad revived him at the expense of someone else (possibly a friend of the "army buddy"), and then left him at the boy's school because he was afraid of touching him and/or because he could never give his son a hug or show that kind of affection?

 

[bigdaddy]

Dya think Ned's dad has the same power and the "old army buddy" is after revenge for someone who the dad killed when he revived another person? Being in the military certainly would create situations where you'd be tempted to revive a dead buddy without thinking about the consequences.

What if it was Ned that died and his dad revived him at the expense of someone else (possibly a friend of the "army buddy"), and then left him at the boy's school because he was afraid of touching him and/or because he could never give his son a hug or show that kind of affection?

That actually makes perfect sense.

 

[JD]

Excellent episode. I really liked the stuff with the food poker cards, and the Emerson/Simone stuff was allot of fun too.
As for your ideas about Ned's father, both of those are pretty good theories. I honestly hadn't even thought about Ned's father having his ability, but it would make sense.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Dya think Ned's dad has the same power and the "old army buddy" is after revenge for someone who the dad killed when he revived another person? Being in the military certainly would create situations where you'd be tempted to revive a dead buddy without thinking about the consequences.

What if it was Ned that died and his dad revived him at the expense of someone else (possibly a friend of the "army buddy"), and then left him at the boy's school because he was afraid of touching him and/or because he could never give his son a hug or show that kind of affection?

Interesting idea, but when inbetween Ned reviving Mom and Dad shipping him off to school did something happen to Ned that killed him? Wouldn't he remember at least being injured? It would be cheap-ish of the show to just suddenly have Ned remember something that hasn't been presented to audience as a big fat clue before now...

What if the old army buddy was the guy who was revived at the expense of someone else's life? And he finally realized what happened and is angry because of the guilt, or there was some other reason that he would have wanted to die? What if he tried to commit suicide?

And do revived people ever die? Maybe they are immortal and it's a curse. The old buddy wants revenge for being cursed to live forever. Or he just wants Ned's dad to touch him again and put him out of his misery, at gunpoint if necessary.

With the ratings what they are, we need to start thinking about a wrap-up soon, unfortunately. If we get the last half of the season, I doubt we'll get more. The way out of Ned's dilemma is if he touches Chuck (he's bound to do that by accident sooner or later) and she dies. Dad revives her (even if Ned can't, why couldn't Dad?) Now the guy she can't touch is her future father-in-law instead of Ned, no big deal, so they all live happily ever after.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Interesting idea, but when inbetween Ned reviving Mom and Dad shipping him off to school did something happen to Ned that killed him? Wouldn't he remember at least being injured? It would be cheap-ish of the show to just suddenly have Ned remember something that hasn't been presented to audience as a big fat clue before now...

Maybe he was hit by a car, in the hospital for a while where his external injuries healed, but he died from a stroke caused by the accident. How long between his mom dying and his dad dropping him off at school was there? I don't recall. Was it immediate?

Alternatively, it could have happened before Ned's mom died, and the father just never told her about it.

 

[A Clockwork Lim]

My theory is that it was Ned's mother that died before, and that's why Ned's father left. He couldn't stand the burden of not being able to touch her again. It explains why every time we've seen her, she had that same zombified ditziness that everyone Ned touches has after they're revived. It also works just fine if you assume that it's the person doing the touching that can't touch again, not that the victim can't be revived by the same power twice.

Ned also seems fairly certain that, while immortal if unharmed, those revived can still be "killed again." That's based purely upon his behavior. If Chuck were unable to be harmed at all, a lot of things would be handled differently. (Plus didn't she twist her ankle and recover from it in one episode?)

But yeah. If Ned's father has the same gift it makes sense why he's so distant and moves from family to family. Something happens, he uses his power, and then unable to do what Ned's doing with Chuck, he just moves on and tries to start over.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Maybe he was hit by a car, in the hospital for a while where his external injuries healed, but he died from a stroke caused by the accident. How long between his mom dying and his dad dropping him off at school was there? I don't recall. Was it immediate?

The implication was, there wasn't much elapsed time between Mom dying and Ned being sent away.

Was a car accident involving Ned ever depicted? I know the dog got hit by a car.

 

[A Clockwork Lim]

Ned was taken to the Longborough school as soon as his father showed up to retrive him from the aunts. He showed up at their door and then was rolling down the street with Chuck screaming after him.