Pushing Daisies: Corpsicle (Episode 109)

This week, the role of Chuck will be played by... a monkey?: Ned and Emerson get down to business. Monkey business, that is!The denizens of Play-Doh village run riot as, back in the past, child Chuck stomps through like a girl Godzilla. Her father, washing his car nearby, splashes at her with the garden hose. Not having a mother, Charles Charles is not just the star of his young daughter's life -- he's a universe. So it's profoundly devestating when he drops dead, collateral damage inflicted unknowingly by Ned's trigger finger. Ned can't look at his mother, who sits with and comforts Chuck while waiting for the aunts to arrive. His own mother having been dead only hours before, he acts like he's seen a ghost. Which he kinda has.

Back in the present, Ned looks for her in the snowy night. Not finding her in the streets near The Pie Hole, he tries the aunts. They're not the most welcoming, poking a shotgun through the mail slot at his, um, crotch, and neither is the house, which is freezing. They never learned to light the furnace, Chuck's particular task when she was alive. Ned lights the furnace, and asks if maybe they'd spotted Chuck's ghost? They have not, but should they expect it? And why is Ned picking at old wounds in the middle of the night? He didn't mean to, and leaves them for the evening.

Back at the apartment, Ned checks in with Olive, who wasn't so pleased to be kept up with all the door-slamming coming from his place. She takes down the mistletoe from her doorway, but Ned is too addled to notice. Ned leaves, and Olive consoles Chuck, who is hiding out in her guest bedroom. Chuck, hurt and confused and burdened by the secret, tells Olive the truth about her: that she died, and that Ned brought her back. Of course, Olive doesn't believe her. She does agree, though, to make the aunts' pie for that week, taking Chuck's bottle of "vanilla" to add to the pastry. And on a seemingly unrelated note -- Digby is missing some fur from his bum. Did he get caught in the vacuum cleaner again? Poor baby.

That thing's uglier than a chipmunk's ass.

Emerson doesn't have time for Ned's mooning over Chuck, as they've got another case. Uber-Life life insurance adjuster Victor Narramore was found frozen on the 200 block of Oak Street, a real dead corpsicle. After a brief exchange with the coroner, who complains that his "rent" from Emerson is feeling a bit light and takes a bit of grief from Emerson about the Christmas sweater he's wearing (a gift from his niece), Ned and Emerson learn from the briefly revived Victor that he doesn't know who he died, but how: a baseball bat with the word "kindness" scratched on it. Even had the word "kind" burned backwards into his forehead. He also remembers leaving work, and making it to his car when his assailant snuck behind him.

Alone on the roof, Chuck considers the snow when Oscar creeps up, returning her sweater and asking more questions about her scent. The bees explain why she smells of honey, but why does she smell of death? Having examined the hair pulled from her sweater, and fur snagged from Digby, he may have an idea but wonders if Chuck feels like sharing. She doesn't, though he suspects that she knows more about death than she lets on. Oscar asks for a larger sample from her, but she refuses.

It's hard to keep the truth between you and me when i can't look at you

Olive tries to distract Ned from his moping by using the word "bosom" as many times in a pretend conversation with him as she can, but he cannot be moved. Emerson comes in with some interesting news -- of the fifteen people turned down by Victor for a new organ, three were viable persons of interest, and one of those persons lives on the block where Victor was scooped up by the snowplow. They've got somebody to visit. But before they do, Olive lets Ned into her apartment so he can see Chuck. She still can't bear to see him, so she leaves him to go underground and leaves a note for Oscar, asking him to meet her on the roof.

The person of interest is Abner Newsome, a wheelchair-ridden teenager in need of a new heart. That's in the literal and figurative sense, as his illness has made him surly and difficult. Of course, that could just be him being a teenage boy, so he's normal in that regard. Emerson is alone, though, so he gets to witness Abner's mom Emma peel potatoes faster than Abner can come up with putdowns. The real discovery is outside, though, as Emerson finds the corpsicle of another Uber-Life man, Bill Richter.

At the morgue, Ned revives Bill, who died as Victor had. Though he doesn't know who killed him, he suggests they talk to Kevin Vanden Eykel, who is in his carpool. Too bad Kevin's missing, as reported by Steve Kaiser, who's covering Kevin's cases. While he doesn't know anything about how Bill ended up in a snowman, he knows that Victor, Bill, and Kevin all had one thing in common: they had all rejected Abner Newsome's claims for a new heart in the past.

Chuck meets Oscar, alive with the possibility that her secret might be revealed to him, and so come to life. Of course, it could just be the cute-ass coat she's wearing that's making her feel that way. While she denies knowing anything about Digby, she is intrigued by Oscar's theory, that once-dead cells, having lost oxygen in demise, retain the unmistakable whiff of ozone even in revival. That's the scent on on Digby's hair, but it's still just a theory. Chuck cuts off a larger lock of hair for him, but doesn't give her secret away, instead inviting him to tell her it instead.

Emerson and Ned find themselves at the Newsomes, where they meet Madeleine McLean from the Wish-A-Wish Foundation. With her is Bobo the Bonobo, and they're in to bring some cheer to Abnher. He's still not buying it. In any case, the boys set up a stakeout, where they wait for the killer to make another insurance adjuster-filled snowman. In the dark, Ned wonders if he should revive Chuck's dad for an instant, so she can say goodbye and mend her relationship with Ned. Emerson doesn't think that's such a wonderful idea -- Ned can't just do that to a father-daughter relationshp. As a father to a daughter himself, he should know. Ned is shocked, as we should all be, but Emerson has nothing more to say. They don't see the shadowy figure outside the car, the figure which it turns out shoved a potato in the exhaust pipe. They nearly die of carbon monoxide poisoning, but live to see the morning. Too bad the same cannot be said of Kevin Vanden Eykel, who is no doubt concealed within the freshly made snowman on the Newsome's lawn.

The aunts are chatty with Olive, wth Lily consuming the entire pie while Vivian sews costumes for their upcoming tour. Olive is glad to hear about them being hopeful, though she looks alarmed when they mention the possible return of Chuck's ghost.

Oscar finds Chuck in the kitchen, making a pie. He returns her hair, as he'd rather hear its secret from her. But having decided that she'd rather share her secrets with only one person in the world who is not Oscar, Chuck doesn't share.

Over at the aunts, Lily and Vivian recall a story about a train robbery. Lily then wants to know what Olive put in that pie, as it sure wasn't vanilla. Also, Lily hallucinates a port wine cheese ball turning into a crab. But I guess that's to be expected

Emerson deuces that he and Ned are giant, enormous idiots, but they've still got a job to do. Before Ned can revive Kevin, the EMT's drop the corpsicle, which shatters (EW) on impact. Inside, Abner is running himself into a wall. He's been rejected again, having heard the news from mom Emma. Emma tells the boys that Madeline left for the agency to talk to Steven Kaiser, and that's when the boys realize who the culprit is.

I'm gonna need you to stop wildin' on the insurance adjuster, ma'am.

Madeleine's mission was to make Abner's wish come true, and when he made the mistake of saying that he wished the adjusters who turned him down would die, Madeleine took it upon herself to make it happen. Fortunately for Steve Kaiser, Ned and Emerson speed up in time to distract her. What nobody sees coming is Bobo the Bonobo, himself tired of Madelein's antics, drive the Wish-A-Wish van right over poor Madeleine. While Madeleine's body is torn in two, her heart is intact, and is promptly given to Abner.

Ned finally meets Chuck at her father's grave. While she understands that it is impossible for Ned to give her what she wants -- another moment with her father -- she is coming around enough to let Ned console her. At the aunts, Lily is still tripping. Talking to a vision of a mermaid who is in fact just a pert Olive, Lily reveals that as a child, Chuck would stand in the spot where Olive now sits and watch the snow with her. When Chuck was asleep, Lily would make two snow angels, pretending that they'd been made by Chuck's mother and father. Her father, being dead, was merely an angel, but what about her mother? Her mother is a mermaid -- Lily.