Pushing Daisies gave us a special Halloween episode tonight, and with it came another great hour of TV.  Not only was this week's case fun and engaging, their was ample character development, especially with the pie maker himself, Ned.  I'm enjoying the formula of beginning each episode with a scene from Young Ned's life and how that informed who he is now.  This is necessary because, by nature, Ned keeps his feelings close to the vest and, while he may seem simple on the outside, Ned is clearly a complicated man.  Olive and Chuck had their moments as well, and we learned a lot about Olive's previous vocation. 

Young Ned is at his first year of boarding school.  Young Ned is hoping for a letter from home.  He never received a word from his father.  Finally, one day, he received something in the mail.  It was a pre-printed card from his father, saying he'd moved.  Ned ran away from school to spy on his father's new address.  He saw his dad with two brand new sons and a brand new wife.  It was on Halloween.

Twenty years later, in a large horse stable, a jockey gets trampled by some sort of evil horse and horseman.  The horse breathes fire. 

Olive tells Chuck that Ned hates Halloween.  Olive tells Chuck that she knows that her aunts think she's dead.  Olive believes Chuck faked her own death.  Chuck doesn't argue with that.  Ned enters The Pie Hole and is freaked out by Chuck's Halloween decorations.  But, since Chuck put them up, he allows them to say.   Olive thinks she has taken Chuck down a peg.  She celebrates by jumping on her bed.  While jumping, she watches the news and finds out about the jockey who died.  It appears Olive knew the man.

Chuck asks Ned why he doesn't like Halloween anymore.  Ned makes up excuses; he says he grew up. 

Olive opens up a safe deposit box at the bank and pulls out an enormous trophy and a large money bag.  She gives the money to Emerson at The Pie Hole and wants to hire him.  She wants him to investigate the death of the jockey, who was actually a blacksmith.  She believes his death was not an accident.  Olive admits that she used to be a professional horse jockey.  Ned laughs at her. 

For over eight years, Olive had been a jockey.  She was considered a great jockey, and was a contemporary of  of the now-dead jockey, named Schumacher.  Ned, Emerson and Chuck go to wake up the body.  He asks Schumacher what happened – he says John Joseph Jacobs killed him.  The thing is that John Joseph Jacobs has been dead for seven years.  Schumacher thinks that Jacobs ghost killed him, and the ghost will kill again.

The three discuss whether ghosts exist or not.  Chuck talks about how Ned used to be very scared of ghosts – he once peed his pants at a séance at Chuck's house.  Emerson tells Olive that Schumacher was killed and that it might have been Jacobs ghost.  Olive passes out at the name.  Olive also said that there's a bar where a bunch of jockeys hangs out.  Chuck heads to the stables to investigate, Emerson goes to the bar, and Ned goes to do some secret alone business.

For over three years, Jacobs had been the greatest jockey in the world.  At the race of the century, Jacobs fell off his horse and was trampled by the other horses.  Olive was one of the jockeys who trampled him, and was also the eventual winner.  She thinks that Jacobs ghost is out for revenge on those trampling jockeys.  Emerson thinks that it's more likely an angry gambler. 

Emerson, at the bar, is told to leave, that they don't serve his kind.  His “kind” is anyone taller than sixty inches.  A drunk at the bar says that the ghost of Jacobs rises from his grave and walks the stables at night and looks for revenge.  Olive now thinks she's in danger.  Olive and Emerson head to Jacobs tomb.  They find that the casket, and the tomb is broken.  They open the tomb to see if Jacobs body is still there.  They find the bones of a horse inside, but no human. 

Chuck visits the stables with Digby.  It's dark and creepy.  Emerson shows up and scares the hell out of Chuck. 

Ned is across town, visiting his father's old house.  He lays there, on the floor, where his old bed used to be.  The house is now deserted.  He looks out the window at Chuck's aunts house. 

Emerson and Chuck head to Jacob's mother's house.  Emerson thinks whoever is committing the murders and pretending to be Jacobs also stole his body from his tomb.  Jacobs mom clearly hates Olive – she's very passive aggressive.  She still holds a grudge over her son's trampling.  She really takes offense to Olive's cleavage. 

The mother tells them that Jacobs was cremated and is now on her mantle. They buried his horse instead.  Back to square one. 

The bartender at the jockey bar gets trampled by the ghost after hours.

Meanwhile, Ned is now at Chuck's aunts' house, eating pie with Lily and Vivian.  The neighborhood children started a rumor that the aunts are witches.  Ned asks them if they remember much about his father.  They don't remember much – he was handsome, mowed his lawn.  Vivian says that he was a jackass and he did everyone a favor moving away, including Ned.  Ned eats his pie, but when he takes a bite the fruit dies.  He figures out that the pie he's eating is his pie, and realizes that Chuck has been sending them pies.  Ned tells the aunts that he's been sending the pies.  The aunts tell Ned, as he leaves, that it didn't matter what his father was like, just that he turned out so well.

Ned joins the other three at the jockey bar, the scene of the latest crime.  Chuck ushers Olive outside so Ted can wake up the barkeep.  He says that the ghost did it.  He admits that he used to bet on his own races – he would purposely lose.  He says that all the jockeys, including Olive, held a secret and that's why Jacobs is come back to kill them.  Before he can tell the secret, Ned has to put him back to death.

Emerson and Ned confront Olive about this secret.  The four surviving jockeys, after the tragic race, gathered and cleared the air.  One of them had purposely cut Jacobs' girth – he'd been sabotaged.  They agreed to never reveal the heinous crime.  The made an oath to keep the secret.  Olive didn't want to keep it, but felt she had to. 

Emerson now thinks that someone found out the secret and is now exacting revenge.  They make Olive stay locked in her apartment.  Chuck stays with her as Ned and Emerson go to investigate further.  Chuck and Olive bond a little bit.  As Olive is about to get some booze for the two to enjoy, Olive gets the wild idea to climb onto her roof and confront the ghost.  On the roof, she finds the ghost.  It is John Joseph Jacobs, in the flesh, except he's about two feet taller than he used to be. 

Here's the truth: John Joseph Jacobs did indeed die on that fateful day, but electro-shock brought him back to life at the hospital. His legs, however, were shattered.  Unable to save his legs, the doctors performed experimental surgery, and attached his horse's legs to John Joseph, hence the increased height. He;s been living in his mom's basement for the past ten years.  He didn't kill anyone, and is only there because he heard them talk to his mother the other day.

He's a mama's boy, hiding in the basement.  Olive gives him a pep talk, that he should leave the house and get a life.  Olive and Chuck agree to talk to his mother for him.  They give him a ride home.

Now at the Jacobs' house.  Olive, putting two and two together (noticing similar crackers in the Jacobs house and at the crime scenes) now believes that it actually was Jacobs who is killing those people.

Ned and Emerson are driving Gordon, the final jockey.  He says that he told Jacobs mother everything about the secret. 

Back at the Jacobs' house, the ghost arrives.  She takes her mask off and it's revealed that the mother is the killer.  She tells Olive to run, because she's going to kill Olive and trampling works best at a full gallop.  Ned and Emerson arrive on the scene, and follow the noise of the horse into the woods.   As Olive and Chuck are running away, Chuck falls and hurts her ankle.  Olive helps her hide, and is about to give herself up, allow her to be trampled, but Ned saves her and Emerson knocks Mama Jacobs off her horse with a shovel. 

Mama Jacobs is shipped off to prison.  Olive gives John Joseph the big trophy and prize winnings that are rightfully his. 

Ned convinces Chuck to go trick or treating at her aunts house while wearing a ghost costume. 


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of ABC)