Pushing Daisies: “Frescorts” (Recap)

By Tom Rose
Fancast.com

Last night on Pushing Daisies we finally got a look inside the heart of the dollar crazy Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) by way of his mommy. Yes, he has a mommy. The teddy bear inside the grizzly has been hinted at - he’s written a charming pop-up book “‘Lil Gum Shoe” that is intended to be a road map for his missing 7-year old daughter (a tome unfailingly rejected by all publishers) and there’s always one moment in any episode where the gruff exterior is distracted from his zeal for the company credit card machine by a whiff of sentimentality. But it was only a moment so far. Last night, we got the whole hour.

In the opening we see that Emerson’s roots as a PI go deep. It’s the family business. Started by his colorfully film noirish mom, Calista Cod (a marvelously mad cap Debra Mooney) she hires Emerson on early in life to form Cod & Cod with one stated goal: barrels of cash. The adventure on the high fees is bankrolled by Calista’s uncanny nose for clues and Emerson’s ability to see right through any line of b.s. Together they vow to never let anything stand between them. For the first time in his life, however, he leaves out a detail: a daughter. Who’s now missing. Is Calista losing her edge?

When a batty old bird shows up at the Pie Hole chainsmoking and ordering only a glass of water, we find out that edge has been newly honed. Ned (Lee Pace) Chuck (Anna Friel) and Olive (Kristin Chenoweth) debate which park bench to banish her to when Emerson strolls in and recognizes the stogie. “Ma!” says Emerson. “Let’s go find a bar, I’m hungry” says Mrs. C. Off they go on their latest case: catching up.

Only Emerson is finding it hard to come clean about his paternal peculiarity. Just as he’s about to spill his guts, a Brazilian Bombshell pops in with a case. Her best friend Joe is missing. Emerson gladly grabs the fistfull of dollars offered up and takes the job. After B.B. leaves Emerson reveals he’s had another client that morning who paid handsomely to find his best friend’s killer. The best friend is also a guy named Joe. He’s in the morgue. Voila! Double-billed and now double-teamed, Cod & Cod are on the case.

Now that Olive has paid her pennance she moves back to the old apartment next door to Ned. Only there’s a hitch - Chuck has moved in, remember? When Olive opens the door to her former dwelling, Chuck is removing her stuff. Olive decides on a whim they should be roommates… Ned is not gonna like this.

At the morgue Ned wakes Joe up. Joe is a pleasant guy, very nondescript. Except for the stab wound in his shoulder (already stitched) and the formaldehyde filling his lungs (already bursting) that spills all over Emerson’s wing tips. Joe does have enough time to say he was going to see his best friend when he was killed. After Ned touches him to death, Emerson figures there’s one too many best friends in Joe’s little circle.

Cod & Cod have a sit down with their 2 clients who share the best friend Joe problem and demand answers. It turns out Joe was something called a “Frescort” - a person paid to act like your favorite buddy. And Joe had a real knack for the job. He was the top buddy at My Best Friend Inc.

A visit to the owner, Buddy Amicus, reveals the story behind the unusual business. Seems Buddy was once a star football player until he got injured. After that he couldn’t even buy a friend. Hey! Sounds like a business model! The business takes off. Emerson decides the best plan is to infiltrate the company and assign Chuck and Olive, new roommates and about to become undercover best friends. Ned mugs his misgivings for the camera.

Looking through the keyhole at Joe’s apartment Ned and Emerson find Joe’s roommate Randy Mann (David Arquette) and he’s pretty broken up by his buddy’s death. They were best friends too. Joe REALLY got around. But Cod’s attempt to search the place is rebuffed by the creepy Randy. Emerson smells trouble and it’s peculiarly like embalming fluid.

Later, after rusing Randy with a free cooking class coupon, Emerson returns to the apartment to find rooms overflowing with stuffed animals. Randy’s a taxidermist. Could that explain Joe’s condition at the coroner’s? Or is Randy overly attached to his former pets?

In an effort to find out, Olive and Chuck apply to My Best Friend Inc. as new hires and they’re picked up on the spot by Barb, the spunky receptionist. She loves their peppy personalities but there’s a catch: best friends cannot be best friends to each other. No fraternization!!! The new partnership is on the back burner - for now. But the new job does get them in to the employee locker room.

That’s where they discover Barb has broken the rule herself… she was Joe’s REAL best buddy. The one he loved and decided to quit his job for. A motive? Before Chuck and Olive can find out for sure, Barb pushes them into a locker and dashes off. Sounds like a motive to me.

Back at Emerson’s office, he finds an intruder. It’s Ma Cod and she’s snooping into sonny boy’s private life. He reveals that she’s an unsuspecting grandma and she’s upset that Emerson has been hiding it from her. But she’s savvy enough to suggest that his failed publishing of the pop up book is due to a boring story. Like all good writers, he should be telling the tale of his own life. That will bring his baby home. Cod & Cod forge a new partnership: Mother and Son.

Olive and Chuck get on each other’s nerves in the locker, airing all their grievances. Olive’s unrequited love for Ned, Chuck’s resurrection from the dead and, oh yeah, Olive’s keeping the secret of Chuck’s real ancestry. Olive 2, Chuck 1. By the time Emerson cuts the lock on the door, it’s BFF no more. Maybe they should infiltrate Paris Hilton’s production company.

Dashing off to the boss’ office, they find Barb breathing no more, killed by Buddy Amicus’ latest invention about to hit the market: The Hug Machine. Looking it over, Ned seems to get a few ideas for more inventive ways to hold his beloved Chuck. But there’s still a murder to be solved.

Ned pulls his Lazarus trick and Barb reveals she and Joe were about to elope. The last time she saw him was when he was on his way to quit his job, moonlighting for a sports jock. Hmmm… Amicus was a star athlete, wasn’t he? When Buddy bursts in to discover the scene he has a panic attack and goes to evacuate the building. But the lights go out instead, forcing Ned to grope for the switch. He accidentally touches a football player mannequin and the grotesque figure springs to life.

He’s the real star athlete. Buddy killed him long ago in his nonfictional nerd days worshipping the golden-armed teen. When he’s humiliated by the jock, he snaps. But his madness produces the brilliant rent-a-buddy business plan and the assumption of a new identity. The hard working, talented Joe had become the object of his latest fixation. When he learned that his star player was about to quit the team, Buddy killed Joe and embalmed him in the attempt to make him a twisted Best Friend Forever… the eternal kind. Barb was hugged to death to cover his tracks.

Luckily Emerson has an athletic background. When Buddy rushes back in after they’ve unraveled the plot, he’s got a sword. But Cod has a baseball bat and swings for the fences. Buddy is friendless now… and headless to boot.

But his client list makes for a wonderful mixer at the Pie Hole. All those best-friends in waiting discover each other and have a blast together. In the middle of the celebration Chuck offers to move back in with Ned, but he’s not having it. My Best Friend Inc. taught him you’ve got to work out your problems and maybe sometimes you have to do it alone. Olive and Chuck will remain roommates… at least for awhile.

Cod & Cod pick up the pieces of their broken family and decide to deal honestly with each other from now on. The key is that Calista will start acting like a Mom instead of Samantha Spade. Emerson decides to rewrite his book and send it around again. He’ll find his ‘Lil GumShoe yet.

Just before bedtime, Chuck knocks at Ned’s door dressed only in a blanket. As she lets it fall, Ned looks on hungrily. This is a sight he’s never seen before and Chuck certainly brightens up the foyer. But never has there been a truer embodiment of the old adage: Look. Don’t touch.

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