“Girth”
October 30th, 2007
You know, when I heard that Pushing Daisies was having a Halloween episode, it felt like a natural fit – however, this isn’t quite what I expected. The episode was good, a solid continuation of some of the show’s key themes and all, but it wasn’t exactly spooky or sensationalist. It used the Halloween setting to introduce a sleepy hollow-esque horseman, but otherwise was actually quite grounded in its characters.
It was a story of Olive’s employment history, Ned’s childhood trauma, Chuck’s precarious present, and Emerson’s love of shovels before it was the story of a ghostly killer. And, of course, the following will contain spoilers.
The Facts are these…
Olive Snook spent nine years as a horse jockey, during which time she had a rivalry with a variety of other jockeys. During one particular race, the Jock-Off 2000, John Joseph Jacobs falls off his horse and is trampled to death by Olive and others. Now, in the present, a fiery horseman murders Shoemaker, another jockey, and fingers the ghost of the deceased jockey after Olive hires Emerson to solve the murder. After the other jockeys begin to be murdered, we learn that Olive is keeping a secret: JJJ’s girth (Part of the saddle) had been cut, so one of them was a murderer. We learn that John Joseph Jacobs didn’t actually die, but rather has his horse’s legs in place of his own and is living in his mother’s basement – and, he knows the secret. Or, more specifically, his mother knows, and was behind the murders.
Ned, meanwhile, has his own story this week independent of his ability to bring people back to life. While he moves in on occasion in order to revive the ghost’s victim, Ned spends his time with his usual Halloween tradition: returning to his childhood home after his father abandoned him at boarding school with an entirely new family elsewhere. The story gave Ned a chance to grow as a character independent of his ability, and even allowed him some bonding time with Lily and Vivian. It helped him realize that his new life with Chuck has finally given him a purpose. Realizing Chuck desires a connection to her aunts, he takes her trick-or-treating in a ghost costume to echo his earlier trip to his father’s.
The episode was full of a lot of really fun touches, not unlike past episodes: the bar for Jockeys where Emerson towered above all others was perhaps a highlight in this regard. I also felt like the show’s special effects are still existing in that “So bad they’re good” realm with the jockey scenes.
What I liked best about the episode, however, was the fact that its “murder of the week” gave us a glimpse into Olive’s character, and that the show balanced it with a story of Ned’s own. It’s a strong precedent, and now we only need an Emerson-centric episode before these characters have each received a rather personal story in this setting.
Cultural Observations
- Love that Ned is now using last week’s one-armed murderers prosthetic arm to pet Digby.
- Nice to see someone actually call attention to Olive’s cleavage.
- Loved Emerson getting fidgety about “All the Gold” as a financial opportunity.
- Lily’s speech to Ned was Ellen Greene’s best scene to date, and was incredibly touching.
- “Tell Ned I Love…his pies!”, followed by Olive losing Ned yet again, was bittersweet and touching all at the same time. I’ve really come to emphathize with Olive, a character I didn’t really “get” in the pilot.
- “I love you shovel” = Hysterical.
- You know, for a show with this much whimsy, it’s disappointing that no one was able to be costumed in this episode.
Cultural Learnings 