Here’s your recap for the latest episode of “Pushing Daisies”:

OK, now this writers’ strike thing is REALLY getting on my nerves. We’re already out of original episodes of “The Office” and tonight brought us the final episode of “Pushing Daisies,” only the best new show of the season. Yes, the cupboard is bare and I’m bummed. I might need one of Chuck’s mood-enhancing pies to get through this.

Appropriately enough, it was a rather melancholy episode — one that brought us three frozen corpses (”corpsicles,” Emerson called them) and a protracted funk for Ned and Chuck.

Our story picks up after Ned broke the mind-numbing news to Chuck that he (inadvertently) killed her dad when they were children. Chuck flees out into a snowy night and a very glum Ned goes searching for her to no avail. Turns out, she’s staying at Olive’s place. While on the lam, Chuck recalls the day her father died and now remembers how little Ned couldn’t bring himself to look at her. Feeling more isolated than ever, she has a need to share her personal Lazarus-like story with someone. Anyone. And, indeed, she even let’s it slip to Olive, but — wouldn’t you know it? — Olive thinks she’s joking. Later, Chuck even considers telling Oscar (Paul Reubens), the scent expert, who already detects a whiff of death about her (and wants a lock of her hair to study), but she holds back. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a recap of the latest episode of “Pushing Daisies”:

Five fateful words. Five words that bring a whole new wrinkle to this delightfully daffy little show:

“Chuck, I killed your father.”

Yes, I was taught in journalism class never to bury the lead, so even though tonight’s episode ended with that earth-shattering declaration, I’m starting with it.

“Chuck, I killed your father.”

Those are the words Ned uttered to Chuck just as they were settling down to bed. Our tightly wound pie-maker has been carrying around this horrifying secret for most of his life. And after spending some time in jail (more on that later) and hemming and hawing, he finally let it out with one big emotional burst — even though Emerson had repeatedly instructed him not to.

“Chuck, I killed your father.”

Of course, Ned didn’t intentionally off his best girl’s dad. As a boy, he used his magic finger to bring his mom back to life (temporarily), which meant that someone in the general vicinity had to bite it. And Chuck’s dad just happened to be that someone.

Too bad because Ned and Chuck were really becoming tight. As tonight’s terrific episode opened, Ned found himself asking his long-time crush if it was time to start using the words “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” to describe their relationship. He says he realizes they’re “trite” terms, but he wants validation. Of course, sweet-faced Chuck heartily condones it. Next thing you know, she’ll be wearing his letterman’s jacket.

But Chuck has something else to say that makes Ned freeze in his tracks. It’s her father’s birthday today and he would have been 60 years old.

Fortunately, there’s another goofy murder case to take Ned’s mind off his guilt. This one involves a beefy galoot named Bruce who strangles his friend, using a blow-up doll named Shelia. (Told you it was goofy). But in a nice change of pace, the case is quickly solved and we move on to the story of a ruthless candy-maker named Dilly Balsam (Molly Shannon) who sets up shop across the street from the Pie Hole and immediately makes it her mission to drive Ned out of business.

Dilly’s underhanded ploy includes paying the health inspector to make a surprise inspection at the Pie Hole, where he finds a room full of rotten fruit (fruit that Ned has the ability to revive). And so the Pie Hole is shut down.

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A smelly sock served as a murder-case clue for Emerson and Ned. (ABC).

TV critic Gillian Flynn penned a lovely tribute to “Pushing Daisies” for this week’s issue of “Entertainment Weekly,” in which she chided the hard-hearted cynics and naysayers who dismiss the show as nothing but fairytale sweetness and sap.

One gets the sense that she might have been addressing her own co-workers. “Entertainment Weekly,” after all, has been glaringly MIA when it comes to this one-of-a-kind show, barely acknowledging it in the magazine’s juiced-up season preview issue and totally snubbing it in a later piece about the best new shows of the fall. (Oh, but the article — snicker, snicker — included “Bionic Woman.”)

I’m, of course, right there with Flynn, and hope her piece can sway some more people to take a look at “Daisies.” But in a case of unfortunate timing, I thought the show produced one of its weaker episodes tonight. Yes, it was an episode that actually had me turning up my nose just a bit — which made some sense because it was all about scents.

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The Freak blog continues its effort to bring you recaps of hit shows. Here’s a rundown of last night’s “Pushing Daisies”:

I love how this fantasical show is just nailing its ambidextrous storytelling. On one hand, it’s a procedural with an offbeat murder of the week. On the other, it’s a compelling serial, fleshing out its characters as it goes and slowly unspooling the plot threads. “Law & Order” could learn a thing or two from “Daisies.”

Wednesday’s episode, “Bitches,” is a great example of how creator Bryan Fuller is pulling off the improbable and making “Daisies” bloom. This time, the case involves a renown dog-breeder who dies after somone poisons him. When Ned does his one-touch, revive-the-corpse magic, they learn that his wife was the murderer. Just one problem: The guy had four wives. Uh-oh, it’s “Pushing Daisies” meets “Big Love.”

As usual, the show gives us a weird and hilarious case, the various components of which involve a rival breeder, a hybrid pooch named Bubblegum, a dominatrix-like dog trainer (who turns the gruff Emerson into puppy chow), a false imprisonment and a chaotic funeral.

But what’s key here is that the writers use the case to explore the limitations — and frustrations — of Ned’s hands-off relationship with Chuck. When we first see the couple, they are sleeping, a la Rob and Laura Petrie, in separate beds. Ned has had a very sexy, but disturbing dream in which he is actually kissing Chuck (with no fatal consequences) and about to make love to her, when Chuck suddenly sheds her skin and turns into … Olive!

“She was wearing a Chuck suit,” a dejected Ned later reveals to Emerson.

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So did you watch “Pushing Daisies” last night? Are you still loving this whacked-out show? Or is it just too much whimsy for you?

I have to admit, there are times when I cringe and when I roll my eyes. It can get just a little too precious at times. And the whole Ned-Chuck relationship is enough to send you into diabetic shock.

Still, I remain hopelessly devoted because the show usually has just enough cynicism and snark to dilute the sap (Thank You, Chi McBride). And you can always count on at least a handful of witty lines, the kind of which you’ll hear nowhere else on television.

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