Barack Obama secured the votes of every fan of Pushing Daisies the moment he declined ABC’s offer of airtime for the Obama Half-Hour Flower Power Variety Hoe Down. Although I don’t know if the twenty or thirty of us still watching this marvelous little exercise in quirkiness are enough for him to be picking china patterns just yet. Speaking of china patterns…

One of the small pleasures of this show is seeing how the vivid palettes are manifested in costume and set decisions. I normally wouldn’t gush about a cowboy shirt or an earth tone sweater, but look in the image above how Ned’s shirt ties in the red lacquered finishes of the restaurant, Chuck’s dress, and even the fan in her hair. Note how the two-tone sweater Emerson’s wearing picks up the beige and goldleaf accents on the walls behind them and the pattern on Chuck’s dress. Think back to earlier in the episode when Chuck wore a bright red coat.

Every detail is carefully considered, right down to the Chai Emerson’s wearing with around his neck.

But it isn’t set design and costuming that bring me back week after week. That’s just a little extra. A dollop of whipped cream on top or ice cream melting over a warm slice of Spring Passion Fruit pie. I come back each week for that unique combination of sweetness and rapid-fire banter that no one else comes close to. Lines like this one might even have made Lauren Graham or Cybill Shepherd swallow their tongues, but Anna Friel manages it with applomb. ((Or a slice of Three Plum.))

My mom’s been lying to me for three decades about who she is and we have a whole pile of stink to work out and I would if I could but I can’t but you can if you could and you should.

Yeah, she nailed it. One breath. It’s also key to the episode.

Everyone’s got parent issues, from Chuck and her mother to Ned and his father to the MoW and his daughter.

The addition of a new mystery, in the wonderful form of the always brilliant Stephen Root as a ¿friend? of Ned’s father looking for him, raises the stakes considerably. Since the one thing this show doesn’t do particularly well is its weekly mysteries, adding another mythology story thread is a good idea. As Emerson searches for his daughter and Chuck tries to figure out why her Aunt Lily/mother lied, Ned can now search for his father. Because as Ned’s realized, it’s not always possible to judge someone solely by their actions. Sure Ned’s dad left him. And sure he appears to have repeated the abandonment with Ned’s half-twins. ((Are the eyebrows real or Ned-orex?)) But with Jimmy James on his tail, maybe there was no other alternative. Maybe Ned’s *dad* was DB Cooper and this fellow Dwight wants to steal his money. ((Does that make Adam West Ned’s dad? Okay, I’ve gone deep into the woods here. Enough with the NewsRadio jokes!))

On top of a better-than-average MoW, ((Any thoughts on whether any illegal gambling has ever been hidden in plain sight that way?)) this week saw the return of the stunning Christine Adams as Simone Hundin, Emerson’s romantic foil from last season’s “Bitches”. Channeling dog trainer Victoria Stilwell and every dominatrix who has ever worked a riding crop, it’s no wonder Emerson has been so fully conditioned to respond. The budding romance between the man afraid of how badly it will turn out and the woman who has a tiny shred of vulnerability should add an interesting flavor to the rest of the season.

What did everyone else think?