The facts were these: Pushing Daisies was my favorite pilot of the new season. It was hyped to the point of near-saturation, but it never got annoying. When new episodes of the series finally aired, they did the impossible and maintained the high standards set by the debut. Most shocking of all was the fact that people actually watched. The ratings were nothing to write home about, but they were higher than most of the season’s other offerings and defied assumptions that the quirkiness would alienate mainstream America. Now, because of this increasingly frustrating writers strike, Pushing Daisies‘ 22-episode order cannot be filled. We are left with just nine, the last of which aired last night. Spoilers to follow…

Like many shows, the episode in question was slightly re-written to serve as a “season finale” should circumstances prevent the show from picking the season back up. Circumstances look likely to do just that, and we’re left with one whopper of a cliffhanger. In a homeopathic drug-addled daze, Lily revealed to Olive that she is Chuck’s biological mother. The lingering presence of aunts Lily and Vivian has been a source of confusion to me. They’re pivotal, exciting characters, but I wonder if that was always the plan or just an accommodation made when Ellen Greene and Swoosie Kurtz came on board and fit so well. Clearly, it was a plan. I feel like they were waiting to drop this bomb till the end of the season (or even later), so half of the shock was the interesting choice in timing.

The payoff of this new storyline will never be what we want it to be. Bryan Fuller is more likely to find a way for Ned and Chuck to touch than he is to reunite Chuck with her aunts. Rules here are the same as they were on Dead Like Me: you can’t go home - especially when you’re dead. Lily and Vivian will continue as a parallel storyline, with Olive as their unlikely ambassador, but I can’t imagine it will ever go much farther than that. Speaking of Olive, has there been a bigger surprise on this series? Or for that matter, this entire season? She was the most unnecessary and forced character in the pilot, and Kristen Chenoweth’s cutsie voice and fondness for breaking into song looked like a dark cloud ready to rain on the Daisies parade. Quite unexpectedly, she’s now one of the most engaging, hilarious and strangely complex aspects of the show. Every utterance and expression is pitch freaking perfect. Golden Globe nods for the show, Lee Pace and Anna Friel are exciting but eclipsed by the travesty of Chenoweth’s snub. She is everything that a supporting actress in a comedy should be.

One of the more interesting reviews I read of Pushing Daisies appeared in The New Yorker several weeks after the show premiered and said that it probably shouldn’t be on for more than one season before it “take[s] its place proudly beside other worthy efforts that lived fast, died young, and left behind a beautiful DVD.” In the time since I read that article, I have yet to decide whether I agree or not. While the idea of PD sustaining its whimsy over many seasons seems far-fetched, none of the short-lived shows I love make me think “Well, I sure am glad that’s all I got of this.” I’d happily give a kidney in exchange for a few more seasons of Wonderfalls - Brian Fuller’s previous (and, I have to say, far superior) series. I suppose it’s not even worth arguing, because at this point, Pushing Daisies has done enough to secure a renewal should the strike have actually ended this season. Today’s accolades are just delicious, delicious gravy.