[Moment-by-Moment] Pushing Daisies, S2E07: “Robbing Hood”

Posted by pushingdaisies

November 27, 2008 |

A brief explanation of the “Moment-by-Moment” concept, which is basically one girl’s viewing odyssey through a vast and strangely populated terrain of television, and her reactions therein, as she watches. Other people may or may not figure into this equation, depending entirely upon who she’s able to rope into watching these things with her. Context (where appropriate and necessary) and time points will be provided for those playing along at home; each new MBM shall be posted shortly after each new episode of Pushing Daisies has aired. I trust you all realize that spoilers will, by necessity, be involved, but just in case…now you can’t say I didn’t warn you. Also, it should be noted that the times I’m using while writing this come from DVRing each episode when it premieres, and do, as a result, include timing for commercials. Keep that in mind if you watch and read this later while viewing the DVDs when they’re released. Ready? Let’s play.Pushing Daisies, Moment-By-Moment. Season Two, Episode Seven - Robbing Hood

0:45 - Jim Wade, our narrator, is telling us all about the python and the rabbit…and the rabbit’s name is apparently Akbar AKBAR! Suddenly I wonder if this has anything to do with Matt Groening’s Life in Hell comics?
2:00 - First Chuck and then Olive come into the kitchen, survey the massive number of pies that Ned is in the process of baking, and make the same pronouncement: Ned is clearly stress-baking Sometimes, this show makes me grin my face off so hard that it almost hurts. NED STRESS-BAKES. AHAHAHAHAHA. SO DO I.
3:00 - Olive grabs a pie and starts to head off to Aunts Lily and Vivian’s house, talking about how gossiping with a purpose is what she does best. It’s just…so…perfect!
4:20 - Aunt Lily is stumbling along in her house, martini glass in hand, demanding a stronger drink than what she’s got as well as a fork for the pie Olive has brought. I haven’t talked about how much I adore Aunt Lily, but of the two, I think I like her the most. She’s all rough exterior, but I think she’s a lot like Aunt Vivian describes Dwight Dixon’s heart later in this episode…but maybe that’s why Vivian feels so protective of Aunt Lily. Maybe that’s just what she’s drawn to. Or maybe that’s how she learned to be drawn to it, by living with Aunt Lily for so long? The world may never know.
4:50 - Gustav Hoffer’s attorney appears.Joe: Holy crap, it’s Neelix!
6:20 - Mr. Neelix, Esq. makes a remark about Emerson’s tight balls. Sometimes, it’s not about the dialogue at all. Sometimes, it’s all about the facial gestures. Again, Emerson cannot be beat!
6:30 - Narration ensues about Gustav Hoffer’s invention of the mechanized yarn baller. You know, I was amused, but less so than I might have been if I didn’t know that such things do, in fact, exist. Which is maybe more creepy and less amusing. But still, I suppose someone had to invent them!
7:24 - Chuck’s got a fantastic yellow ensemble complete with matching oversized yellow-framed sunglasses when they go to revive Gustav Hoffer’s corpse. OK, if you’ve got this recorded, roll it back and take a look. The frames on Chuck’s sunglasses (which only show up for a moment) and on Hoffer’s are the same, only Hoffer’s are in black.
12:05 - We’re introduced to Gustav Hoffer’s widow. This is going to bother me. I know the widow’s voice, but I can’t place it. Who is she?
12:55 - Ned’s in the trophy room, and has just gotten his first good look around.Joe: Oh no! Ned: Oh no! Me: *laughs*
13:14 - We’re back with Hoffer’s widow and aha, a light bulb goes on over my head. OH YES. It’s Movie-Version Jan Brady! Seriously, I’m glad I figured that out. That’s one of those things that would bother me and then wake me up at 3am out of a dead sleep.
13:27 - Ned’s allegedly in the bathroom, which was his excuse for going to find the trophy room. That noise? Sounded really, really painful. Good thing Emerson covered for it with the remark about the dog.
14:18 - Emerson and Chuck have to explain to Ned what a key party is. That might possibly have been the most adorable thing ever.
16:23 - Our Robbing Hood of the title appears, as head of the Bellmen. I’m not saying he was miscast, but I do think that Nathan Fillion would have been REALLY GREAT here. Just saying.
17:37 - Our intrepid team has just encountered a Bellmen telemarketer in the flesh. You know, it’s actually sort of heartening in a really weird way to watch the telemarketer worm his way out of things while on the spot. Because all sorts of pictures go through your head when you’re on the phone with one of those guys. Or, at least, they go through mine. I know it’s only TV, but it’s still pretty fantastic.
18:50 - Vivian and Dwight are sitting on a bench in the park and Vivian is expressing the misgivings that Lily has shared about Vivian and Dwight’s budding romance. “Vanish like a puddle of gasoline in the sunshine” will now be my new favorite phrase to describe anything that vanishes. Ever.
20:05 - Dwight is asking Aunt Vivian more questions about Chuck’s funeral. He totally knows that Chuck is Chuck…right?
20:15 - Aunt Vivian has just handed Dwight the newspaper clipping from Chuck’s funeral, presumably as actually printed in the Papen County Picayune. Wait…he really didn’t know? He’s just now putting it together? That…kind of astounds me, actually. I’d seriously thought he’d planned that far ahead.
24:04 - Mr. Neelix, Esq is flipping out at the Pie Hole as new details of the case unravel. I’m also going to have to find a way to work “malfeasass” into a conversation, all natural-like. Pushing Daisies: good for vocabulary enrichment!
25:29 - Olive has just asked to be let in on the sting. Am I the only one who just pictured her in a bee suit? And no, I don’t actually blame the Betty’s Bees episode.
26:02 - Olive has, in fact, become a centrepiece of the sting in question, and is now seen walking purposefully into the Bellmen headquarters with Pigby on a lead in a fantastically froufy outfit. OH MY GOD SHE IS TOTALLY CHANNELING ZSA ZSA AND IT IS KIND OF FABULOUS. Kristin Chenoweth = â™¥
28:30 - Ned and Chuck have just broken into what used to be Chuck’s old room in her aunts’ house. CHEESE LOCKER. Hee! â™¥ Also, waxing rhapsodic about the “flowery overtones of Stilton.” Have I mentioned how much love I have for this show?
29:01 - Chuck has just revealed how very crafty she is with her tin can going to the Victrola downstairs to spy on her aunts. Joe laughed quite a bit at this, and had that look on his face that showed that he’s just as charmed as I am by this show. Which doesn’t happen often, so it’s something to treasure.
29:34 - Aunt Lily has just begun a sentence with the phrase, “There’s no way in Tinkerbell’s tiny buttcheeks” I’ve now watched this twice, and it’s a good thing, because I didn’t hear the whole next line after that because we were laughing too hard.
37:00 - We’re panning over the people currently eating at The Pie Hole. Wait…is that Crystal from Dead Like Me? Well, IMDB doesn’t seem to think so, and I can’t find a listing for her. She didn’t have a speaking role. But if it isn’t Crystal, it’s definitely a Crystal-alike.
46:01 - Our petite waitress, Olive, has just indulged in a round of “stress bingeing.” Oh, how many pies did she manage to eat? *camera pans out* SIX. SIX WHOLE PIES. WHOA. :O Possibly seven if that red towel on the left is covering an empty pie tin! :O
48:00 - Aunt Lily’s decided to visit Chuck’s grave. Now here’s an interesting twist. Since the ground’s been disturbed, if Aunt Lily decides that she wants the coffin exhumed to see whether or not Dwight stole the pocketwatch, and Chuck’s body isn’t there, she’s going to assume he had more dastardly plans afoot. So that might end up being the way Chuck manages to escape her aunts knowing the strange circumstances of her re-enlivening. Maybe? It’s a theory. I didn’t say it was a sound one.
57:30 - Ned and Chuck are now digging into Charles Charles’ grave. That’s something I’ve wondered for awhile, actually…and especially in this case. Since they only have a minute to talk to each person Ned brings back to life, I wonder if they ever come up with a script in advance to figure out what to say to each person? ESPECIALLY in the emotionally-fraught case of someone like Chuck’s dad. Also, this can’t end well…can it?