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The sophomore season begins with a bee-autifully buzzing whodunit and changes things between Chuck, Olive and Ned forever. 

Ned, the pie-maker, has a special gift.  He can touch a corpse and bring it back to life; he touches it again and it stays dead forever.  Here’s the catch: if he allows the corpse to stay alive longer than one minute, someone else has to die…

This gift comes in handy for Ned’s friend Emerson Cod, a private detective, who discovers it’s a whole lot easier solving a murder and collecting the reward when you can ask the victim whodunit. 

But things get complicated when Ned learns that his childhood sweet heart Charlotte, better known as Chuck, has been killed.  He uses his gift to bring her back to life, but can’t seem to bring himself to take back the gift of life he’s given her. 

Chuck’s beloved, reclusive aunts think that Chuck is dead so she takes up with Ned.  The two share their lives and an apartment, but can never touch. 

Season Two, Episode One – “Bzzzzzzz”

Kentucky Fritz, a beautiful, young Bee Girl with honey-producing giant, Betty’s Bees is found dead—attacked by bees. 

After bluffing their way (once again) into the coroner’s office, Emerson, Ned and Chuck discover from Kentucky that she was attempting to sabotage Betty’s Bees and they find a skeleton key.  But when asked who killed her, Kentucky can’t name a name, she simply remembers an ominous shadow…

Going undercover as Bee Girl Kitty Pims at Betty’s Bees to find out who had a grudge against Kentucky, Chuck meets Woolsey Nickels, Betty’s Bee’s new CEO—and former competitor.  Woolsey confesses that Kentucky was loved at Betty’s Bees.  Woolsey appointed her the new face of Betty’s Bees, pushing an aging Betty aside. 

While snooping in Kentucky’s office, “Kitty” meets the abrasive Betty.  She’s odd and bitter… and suspicious. 

Back at the Pie Hole, an abrupt visit from Chuck’s aunts Lily and Vivian, send Chuck into hiding.  Lily is dragged reluctantly in by Vivian, who is looking for Olive Snook, Ned’s only waitress at the Pie Hole who had been visiting Lily and Vivian to deliver Chuck’s secret pies.  Lily knows why Olive hasn’t been around in a while—during an intense herbal pie high, Lily let slip the secret she never thought she would: Chuck is her daughter.  Olive, under the pressure of all the secrets she’s been keeping from those she cares about and the unrequited love she feels for the pie-maker, quits!  Lily knows a place Olive can go…

In Olive’s empty apartment, across the way from Ned’s, Chuck is excited about her job at Betty’s Bees and wants to extend it into the apartment.  Her burgeoning independence worries Ned as he doesn’t want her away from him. 

At work “Kitty” kisses Betty’s behind, but finds that Betty is bitter at Woolsey.  Betty admits that her colony collapsed right after Woolsey’s hostile takeover.  “Kitty” thinks Kentucky sabotaged the bees to hurt Woolsey.

Emerson, Chuck and Ned meet with Dustin, Kentucky’s beloved husband, but he admits that Kentucky and Betty were closer than sisters—Kentucky would never do anything to hurt Betty. 

Vivian comes to the Pie Hole, looking for company.  She admits to Ned that she continues to hold on to Chuck’s possessions for comfort.  Ned talks to Vivian about Chuck “moving on”, soothing her hurt and giving him some perspective too. 

Olive is a nun.  Really, a nun.  But she doesn’t take to it the way the mother superior would hope.  But Olive learns that Lily was a “guest” at the nunnery years earlier, when Chuck was born. 

Giancarlo, Betty’s assistant has some intestinal issues after eating a slice of pie delivered by a secret admirer.  And who is his replacement—Ned.  “Kitty” and Ned share a tender moment, then Betty flies from her office and barks for Ned’s assistance. 

When Ned leaves with Betty, Chuck goes for some snooping… and is approached by a shadow—man made of bees… 

Ned and Emerson burst in to find “Kitty” covered in bees—but they fly off of her and she is completely unharmed.  A small case for the queen that was thrown in her mouth, allowed her to rest easy as a nest while the bees all covered her.  Ned confesses that he lost Betty Bee in the elevator.  Is Betty Bee is the bee man!?

Ned, Emerson and Chuck find the key to the key—Betty’s childhood home. 

Olive enters the confessional, hoping to be a better nun, but Lily surprises her.  Lily tells Olive that Chuck’s father was Vivian’s fiancé.  Burdened by yet another secret, Olive threatens to leave the nunnery, but Lily convinces Olive to stay and work out her issues without man-distractions. 

Emerson, Ned and Chuck use the bee keys to break into Betty’s childhood home only to find the house has become a huge nest for the colony that Betty claimed was destroyed.  Betty couldn’t bear the thought of losing her bees to Woolsey so she and Kentucky came up with a plan…

Afraid of facing the music for the fraud she perpetrated against Woolsey, Betty is hesitant to tell the police what she knows: Woolsey was enamored of Kentucky, but when he found out that she was planting defective bees in his new hives to destroy the business, he turned his bees against her.  But Emerson gets Woolsey to confess, leaving Betty free and clear.  Betty, Kentucky’s almost-sister, takes her widower Dustin as her new business partner. 

As the narrator contemplates the idea of home for each of our heros, Ned decorates Chuck’s new apartment.  Emerson delicately turns the pages of “Little Gumshoe”, a book he created about a lost little girl who has to find her dad.  The narrator tells us that the book may serve as a how-to manual for an audience of one…

Then in the shadows of the Pie Hole, Ned’s absentee father returns…?

“Pushing Daisies” is a delightful romantic comedy.  With exceptionally imaginative production design, witty scripts, and superb acting, it is truly a show that makes the viewer think and smile. 

For those faithful through the first season, you’ll recall the increasing sexual tension between the lovers who can’t touch: Ned and Chuck.  With this season’s premiere it is clear that the romantic angle will be taking a back seat to the familial issues of the characters.  Through Olive Snook, Chuck’s family secrets are slowly and painfully coming out.  Ned’s abandonment issues with his father have been a part of the show since its inception, but this teaser at the end of “Bzzzzzzz” provides a new twist on the drama as, instead of Ned pining for the affections of his long lost father, his father comes looking for him. 

It will be interesting to see how these new plotlines for the old characters pan out, but it’s great to see that the second season is rolling out with the same charm and wit that “Pushing Daisies” provided for us last season. 

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