Pushing Daisies: Dim Sum Lose Some (Recap)

By Tom Rose
Fancast.com

Cancellation rumors swirled yesterday before the new episode of Pushing Daisies last night, but ABC gave the show a vote of confidence, choosing not to pre-empt in favor of Obama’s 30 minute infomercial/election ad.

Apparently ratings are slumping. Don’t they always with a smart, funny, groundbreaking take on an old genre? Oh, I forgot about Lost… and Heroes. Anyway it was a very strong turn.

Ned (Lee Pace) has been spending a lot of time avoiding risks in these last few years. We find out it all started back in boarding school when he lost a prized heirloom in a roulette game. It was from his dead mother. His very much alive father, however, sends him a postcard from the Post Office advising of a home address change. No forwarding information was available.

Ned is not the only guy looking for his dad. An old Army buddy, Dwight Dixon (Stephen Root) shows up for a piece of pie and asks Ned for an address. Ned claims he hasn’t heard a thing about dear old dad for 20 years. Chuck (Anna Friel) and Olive (Kristin Chenoweth) aren’t buying and later they wrangle an address to investigate, turning up some surprising family history.

But first: The Case

Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) has an office conveniently located above a Chinese restaurant. The one with the best dim sum in town. The chef, Bao, has a magic touch. Which actually belongs to the steamer he makes them in. When an explosion occurs, poor Bao is put through with a boiler pipe. The police call it an accident but Mrs. Bao knows it’s murder. The thought of losing out on dim sum lunches from now on propels Cod to take the case.

Turns out Bao, unlike Ned, is a betting man and a poor choice leads to prospective bankruptcy - but for the insurance policy the secretive chef signed only the day before his untimely death.

When the gang checks out the restaurant for clues we all learn a little history. The joint was a gambling parlor back in the Flapper Era until it was shut down by poilice in a raid. But the games continue when the owners hit on a unique way of playing 5 card draw - the menu. Food items represent cards and beans make up the pot. This way if the cops bust in, you can say you were just having dinner. I predict a surge in Chinese Restaurant gambling parlors where the kidney beans are kept in the safe.

In the series cycle, it’s Emerson’s chance to prove he’s got a little something, something going on. He hooks up with his dream girl, Simone, a dog trainer with a hypnotic hold over him. Or maybe it’s just the clicker she snaps so frequently. Whatever, Emerson snaps to as soon as he hears it. It makes for a nice bit of comedy on the part of Chi McBride.

Chef Bao’s daughter is not looking too clean on this whole deal. She has the most to gain by not having a bankrupt father and by keeping the dim sum game spinning. Plus, she’s been recently engaged to Bobby, a hot shot Chinese food entrepreneur. And the characters who regularly chip in the ante are a rather unsavory bunch, particularly Shrimp Boy, a hulking gangmember type with an overdeveloped sense of fair play. A bet is a bet.

While Ned and Emerson run down the killer, Olive and Chuck go to the address Ned provided and meet the new occupants. Identical magician twins with bushy eyebrows, Maurice and Ralston. When dad ran out some years back they took over the mortgage and stayed on to build a life on their own. Olive and Chuck, a new pair of buddy sleuths we should see a lot more of, are charmed to their socks and determined to get this family back together.

Meanwhile, Ned and Cod unravel the mystery of the betting parlor killer. It was the prospective son in law all the time. He orchestrated the insurance policy after Bao lost everything at the dim sum table and blackmailed the chef for his daughter’s hand. But it turns out that Bobby is a cheater of the highest order. That doesn’t sit with Shrimp Boy, so the gangster with a heart of gold makes Bobby pay dearly. With a life sentence.

As the episode closes, Ned is united with his unseen twin brothers, giving him a sense of family at long last.

So why is Dwight Dixon sitting in his car by the curb, with a .44? Something tells me we’ll find out soon… unless there’s another infomercial in the future. Thank God the election is Tuesday.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Pushing Daisies will be pre-empted the next 2 weeks, returning to its regularly scheduled time on November 19th.

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