Episode Summary: In a field of daisies in the town of Couer d’Couers, a young boy, nine years of age gleefully runs after his dog Digby when right before his eyes he watches as the three year old dog runs to the street, and into the way of a passing truck. The dog is hurled into the air, and lands on the street dead without a doubt. Slowly and mournfully young Ned walks over to the dog, but as soon as his finger had touched the lifeless creature something unexpected happens. Digby rises from the dead, and runs back to the field of daisies unscathed, and full of life. It was then that he realized that he has a gift. Ned could bring the dead back to life. However, what he hasn’t learned just yet is that it comes with a price. Moments after bringing his dog back to life another one is taken in exchange. Fortunately this time it was only that of a squirrel. Continue reading...
Young Ned is clueless as to how he had acquired such an unusual gift, but it wasn’t much of a concern for him for he was preoccupied with matters of the heart. Yes, young as he is, Ned has fallen in love with the eight year old girl who lives across the street – Chuck. However good a distraction she is to him, it is no match to the events that would happen next. Young Ned’s mother is suddenly struck by an aneurysm, which was nonetheless fatal. Knowing of his gift, but not knowing enough, he gives his mother a touch, and she in no time rises back to life to take the pies out of the oven a minute before the timer goes off. It was then he realized that his gift came with consequences. He watched as Chuck’s father suddenly becomes lifeless just a minute after he had spared his mother from death.
Young Ned had only fully come to a realization that he had brought his mother back from the dead at the expense of Chuck’s father when he learns more. That night, as her mother tucks him in bed she leans to give him a kiss on the forehead. The instant her lips touched her son’s forehead she is struck dead. Young Ned poked his mother several times, but she remains lifeless. It is then he learns that his first touch would bring the dead back to life, but touch them again and they die, but this time no prodding could bring them back.
Following their parents’ death, young Ned and Chuck’s life would drastically change. He would be sent to a boarding school, while she will be raised by her strange aunts Lily and Vivan. The two women were a renowned synchronized-swimming duo, both of whom have an unusual fondness for fine cheese. Knowing that they may not see each other again, young Ned and Chuck wander off from their parents’ funerals to have their first and only kiss. Time passed, and Ned is now twenty-nine years old. He grew into a man who avoided social attachments, but acquired an obsession with pies. He is now known as the Pie-Maker of The Pie Hole where every pie he makes is done with the help of his gift. All pies are made from rotten fruit, but with his touch are made lusciously ripe.
There is only one person in the world who knows of the Pie-Maker’s secret, and he is the private investigator Emerson Cod. Mr. Cod unwittingly discovers of the Pie-Maker’s secret when he was in pursuit of a man. The man jumps to the roof of another building, but falls straight to the dumpster just as Ned was on his way to throw the trash. Emerson watched as the man hits the dumpster, and its lifeless body bounces on the Pie-Maker. Seconds later the man regains consciousness, unsure of what just happened, but wastes no time to flee. Luckily, Ned catches up to him, and with a second touch the man is once again dead. All these Emerson Cod had witnessed, and soon after a partnership emerges. Ned who at that time was in the brink of losing The Pie Hole reluctantly agrees to work with the private investigator. Mr. Cod knew how easy his job would be with Ned by his side touching dead victims, and merely asking them who their murderers were. And so, The Pie Hole stays afloat, and Emerson Cod becomes the keeper of his secret.
Their latest case involves Leonard Gaswint who was allegedly mauled to death in his home office by his dog Cantaloupe. However, the Gaswint family is convinced that the real killer is still on the loose, and so offered a reward to the one who would solve the murder. Emerson Cod could not pass up such a hefty amount of money, and so convinces the Pie-Maker that they should pursue the case. The two visit the murder victim at the morgue who though a quarter of his face gone was nonetheless helpful in solving the case. According to the dead, he was in fact mauled by a dog, but not by the docile Chow Chow, but rather his disgruntled secretary’s Rottweiler. With the real killer identified and caught, the late Leonard Gaswint’s pet Cantaloupe was freed.
So it appears that pets sometimes become the extension of their owner, and it is just the case with the Pie-Maker’s dog Digby. Olive Snook has found in Digby an outlet for her desperate desire to connect with the socially unattached Ned. She found the dog to be needy maybe because his owner could not pet him the way most people do. She finds it strange that the Pie-Maker uses a stick to pet his dog. Unbeknownst to her, an unfortunate accident and strange incident twenty years ago had prevented Ned from touching his faithful dog, because the consequence is deadly. Olive has led herself to believe that just like Digby, the Pie-Maker himself has not received any affectionate touches, and so she had made it her mission to provide him just that. Unfortunately, her attempts have never been fruitful. In fact, the events that will follow would make it even more difficult for her.
While watching the television, the Pie-Maker found himself strangely absorbed at the news of a murdered young woman whose identity is being withheld. The body of the woman was recovered from the sea. She was said to be travelling alone in a cruise ship to Tahiti where she was killed, and was thrown overboard. With a large reward out to help catch the killer, Emerson Cod had already done his research, and conveys it to the Pie-Maker who is uncharacteristically interested with the case. Ned learns that the young girl is Jewish, and lived in Couer d’Couers. Moreover, her name is Charlotte “Chuck” Charles.
With Chuck’s body going to be buried rather quickly following a Jewish tradition, Ned and Emerson waste no time to visit Couer d’Couers. Having told Emerson Cod that he and Chuck had a history together, the man allows Ned an alone time to pay his respects to a dear friend. Though nineteen years had passed, the Pie-Maker had never forgotten of the rather young and short memory of his first love. Though their reunion is not what he would have envisioned, Ned could not help but feel a certain emotion he had never felt for a very long time. He carefully touches Chuck’s cheek, but rather than a sweet, and peaceful awakening he was met by a strong, hard pull that was immediately followed by pain as his head banged the lid of the coffin.
Chuck’s reflexes were only a result of her brutal death. Her demeanor quickly changed as soon as Ned introduced himself as the boy who used to live across the street from her house. It didn’t take long for her to make known to the Pie-Maker the events that transpired on the night of her death. Charlotte Charles remembers going out to get some ice, when she dropped her key in the icebox. As she was looking for her key, somebody came from behind, and strangles her with a plastic sack. Chuck handled the reality of her death quite well, and accepted whole-heartedly the limited time she has left. Charlotte Charles’ last memory of the world would have been a kiss from the one who gave her the first, but Ned had trouble letting her go. The Pie-Maker had let the clock tick passed the minute, and as a result had traded the life of his beloved Chuck for that of the sleazy funeral director. Now, two know of his gift, but Emerson Cod has yet to know of the other secret. The Pie-Maker could not possibly let anyone else know, not even Mr. Cod, of the choice that he made, but at that time could not think of a way to get out of the predicament. The only solution he could find was to let Chuck lie back in the coffin, and play dead as he convinces Emerson to leave Couer d’Couers. Unfortunately, Ned did not count on the burial ruining his half-baked plan. He watched as the hearse drives away with the coffin that carries Charlotte Charles.
As Chuck is being driven to her resting place, she could not help but ponder on her life. Charlotte grew up with her loving, but socially phobic aunts Lily and Vivian who both increasingly became afraid of leaving their house. It is because of them that she made it a point not to wander off Couer d’Couers. She fed her desire for adventure through reading until the day came when books could no longer suffice. That was the beginning of what was to be her end. And it would truly have been her end, if the Pie-Maker had not rescued her a second time. The gravediggers had already started their work when Ned arrives, and distracts them by burning their truck. And so Charlotte Charles once again cheats death.
At the Pie Hole, Ned explains to Chuck the caveats of his gift. Moreover, that she could never go back to see her aunts for she is as the world knows it -- dead. Though it wasn’t exactly what she had dreamed, but the adventure that she desperately longed for had finally started. She is to put behind the life she had at Couer d’Couers, and start a new one. Luckily, she is to share it with the one she loves – Ned.
Her new life seemed appealing, but learning that her murder had been a spectacle much more that her not being dead might only be because of money made her uneasy. She confronts the Pie-Maker who is looking a lot less like a prince charming now that she learned of the reward. He loses more of his charm when he makes it known that he had made bringing the dead back to life into a business rather than to serve justice. Chuck had to ask the question of whether she was only brought back to life for the reward. She was relieved to learn that it was honestly not so.
Charlotte Charles has a second lease on life, and she was not going to live it the way she did the first, which is why she completely ignored Ned’s strict instructions of her not to leave the apartment. Who better see her first, but the next-door neighbor, and pie apprentice, Olive Snook. Imagine the shock on the Pie-Maker’s face when she comes waltzing down the Pie Hole with Olive who though acknowledged Chuck’s resemblance to the dead girl on the news thought nothing of it. Having learned of the business partnership between Ned and Emerson Cod, the young woman decides to join them and profit from her supposed death.
Although Emerson Cod is strongly against the Pie-Maker’s decision that spared this young woman from death, he was all for solving her murder more so collecting the reward. In his pursuit to understand how Ned could have let this one slip through his fingers, he learns of another reason other than his love for Chuck that would explain why the Pie-Maker could not let her go. Ned confesses to Mr. Cod that he had inadvertently killed her father when he was ten. His guilt for doing so continues to consume him what more with letting Chuck die from his touch. Needless to say, with the deed already done, and undoing it is out of the question; Charlotte Charles is now part of Ned’s life. So, the three continue their investigation. According to the young woman, it all started when she had accepted an all-expenses paid Tahitian cruise.
DeeDee Duffield was the manager of Boutique Travel Travel Boutique. She had offered Chuck the Tahitian getaway in exchange for a job where she is to pick up a package that contains two plaster monkeys. The woman had assured her that the package’s only worth is its sentimental value. Obviously, Ms. Duffield lied. In fact, it was she who offered the fifty thousand dollar reward in the hope that somebody would catch the killer before he comes after her. Unfortunately, her campaign failed. Ned, Emerson, and Chuck find her lifeless body sitting at her office, her head covered with a pink plastic bag with a smiley face; the same one found on Chuck. Determined to learn who the killer was, and the reason for the murders, Ned does what he does best. Unfortunately, DeeDee could not keep her hands off of the cute Pie-Maker, and she drops dead once again before they could learn anything about the murders.
And so, they are back to square one. Emerson Cod wonders why the killer hunted Ms. Duffield if he is already in possession of the plaster monkeys. Only then did they realize that he has not gotten the ones he had killed for. The package remained in Chuck’s room even after her murder given that she had dropped her room’s key in the icebox just before the attack. With her dead, all her possessions including the plaster monkeys were given to her aunts. Vivian and Lily were at some time famous when their Darling Mermaid Darlings synchronized swimming act brought in crowds of spectators. However, an ill-fated accident that cost Lily her eye also caused the demise of their careers. Following this, the two turned their backs from the world, and cared only for Charlotte.
Vivian and Lily Charles receive an unexpected visit from Ned and Emerson Cod. Charlotte would have joined them too if not for the secret she holds, and so she made do by watching through the window as her aunts spent the whole evening talking about her. Returning to her home, she wondered why she ever felt the need to leave it, but it was a choice she already made – one that cost her life. Now, all she wants to do is to get to the bottom of things, the murder that is, and not the sea. She sneaks up her room, and finds the silver briefcase that contains the monkeys. Seeing her Aunt Vivian climbing up the stairs to her room to get the package, she quickly grabs the monkeys, and flees. Vivian is on her way down when the killer sneaks up behind her with his signature pink plastic bag.
The people downstairs are unaware of her attack. The Pie-Maker especially was intent on providing Vivian some comfort for having lost her niece. He, of all people, steps outside his comfort zone, and provides the grieving woman with a consoling hand unaware that Vivian dislikes being touched. The woman’s reaction made his mistake clear, and to avoid the awkwardness that filled the room, the Pie-Maker decides to go upstairs to check on Lily. It was then that the killer then turns to him. Luckily, Chuck had comeback just in time to save the Pie-Maker. The killer stops confused at the sight of the young woman he had already killed. Before he could do any more harm, Vivian who survives the attack thanks to her synchronized swimming skill that required her to hold her breath for a very long time, ends the murderous filled night with a pop of a shotgun. The Pie-Maker and Chuck stand stunned at Vivian saving the day, and her looking straight at them. The world seemed to have stood still as they wonder what the woman must be thinking seeing her dead niece alive, and well. Her blank reaction told them that the one-eyed aunt could only see Ned as a wall had blocked Charlotte from her compromised view. Relieved, Chuck silently sneaks out of the house, her secret still safe.
News of how The Darling Mermaid Darlings stopped the murderer of his niece was all over town. Having received the hefty reward, Vivian and Lily decides to face the world once again. With the killer dead, and her murder solved, Charlotte could only wonder why she was given a second chance. The Pie-Maker confesses that his selfless act was born out of selfishness. He wanted to live a life with her by his side. His full disclosure of his intentions made him ponder whether it was time to divulge the one secret he fears the most; that is, the cause of Chuck’s father’s unprecedented demise. He found that he, honest as he is, could not bring himself to tell he the secret knowing that it could cause him to lose her forever. Chuck could not believe that the events that changed her life were only due to two worthless plaster monkeys, but soon she and the Pie-Maker learns that they are not what they seem. The plaster monkeys are in truth made of gold.
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