Episode 206: Oh Oh Oh...It's Magic

Famed magician The Great Herrmann suspects that someone might be planning to kill him. He hires Emerson Cod to come to the Conjurer's Castle to track down the killer. Meanwhile, Ned makes a discovery of his own at the Castle.

Synopsis

The Past

Before discovering his ability to bring back the dead, Young Ned watched his father perform sleight of hand. After his mother died, his father disappeared and never returned in what the Narrator terms 'a cruel disappearing act', causing Ned to stop believing in magic. Later he found his father performing magic for his new sons.

The Present

Maurice and Ralston are performing at the Conjurer's Castle and arrive at the Pie Hole to give everyone tickets for their show. Ned is uncomfortable with any mention of the word "magic", which is explained to trigger acid reflux in him whenever he hears it. Emerson isn't fooled or impressed by their tricks. The brothers explain they're performing after the Great Herrmann, who has become a father figure to them. Everyone agrees to go except Ned, but Chuck convinces him to go anyway. At the show, Ned is still uncomfortable and Olive offers him lozenges for his acid reflux. As they watch the opening act - a Geek who eats glass and regurgitates animals - Chuck presses Ned to get to know his brothers and admits that if she could talk to her real mother, Lily, she'd have lots of questions.

In a flashback, Chuck is revealed to have been crank calling Lily, pretending to be various salespeople in an attempt to get her to admit she is a mother. None of them worked.

The Great Herrmann comes out and hugs an uncomfortable Ned, revealing that he hopes the piemaker's appearance in Maurice and Ralston's lives will take the focus off of him since they're so needy. In an attempt to stop Emerson from heckling him - having been warned by the twins about his attitude towards magic - Herrmann brings him up as a volunteer to check out his chains and handcuffs as he performs an escape act, Cementia! - escaping a box that has been welded shut and is then filled with quick-hardening cement. Herrmann emerges from underneath Emerson's table and asks him to investigate the deaths of his assistants, before revealing himself to the audience.

After the show, Herrmann discloses backstage that his animal assistants have been murdered. Emerson doesn't want to lower himself to doing animal murder investigations… until Herrmann asks whether pet detectives get paid more. Ned asks Herrmann how he knows Maurice and Ralston, and he explains how he covered when Ned's father ditched them at his Sunday matinee performance. He admits he didn't have any choice but to look after them since they kept coming by to learn magic tricks.

Lily and Vivian are at home when Dwight Dixon arrives at their door. He served with Charles Charles and Ned's father as UN peacekeepers in Egypt and attempts to flatter them both, particularly Vivian, until Lily cuts him short. He asks about a 'common brass pocket watch' that belonged to Chuck's father, revealing that he, Charles and Ned's father got them when they were in the service together and the watches have their initials engraved on the front. Lily claims they don't know anything about a pocket watch and Dwight takes the hint that he isn't wanted there. When Vivian goes to get his coat, Dwight tells Lily that he knows how she betrayed Vivian by having a child with Charles. Vivian returns and secretly slips Dwight a note asking him to meet with her later at the Pie Hole for a date.

Herrmann gives his second performance of the night while the team investigates the dead animals. Going over the clues, they realise that someone was trying to kill Herrmann. They hear a scream and run out to find that Herrmann failed to escape from Cementia and was suffocated in the cement. His scarf is still sticking out of the cement and Ralston rips it in half trying futilely to yank him out. The authorities rule it an accident but Maurice and Ralston don't believe it. Ned, remembering how Herrmann called him "son" in passing, braces himself and promises his half-brothers that he will bring Herrmann's killer to justice. He talks to Herrmann's assistant Alexandria, who says she doesn't know how Herrmann usually escaped the box. She also reveals that she hated the animal assistants - except the rabbit - but stayed with Herrmann due to the promise that she'd get her own act. They point out she's the only one who shared the stage with Herrmann, but she notes there was one other person: the Geek. They talk to him and he explains he was initially a plant in Herrmann's audience for a particular hypnosis act, and has been with him for years. At the time of Herrmann's death, he was pickpocketing items from the audience to be regurgitated later during his act. As Chuck leans over to listen to the items he hasn't regurgitated, her necklace sticks to his chest: he apparently swallowed a magnet.

Olive has returned to the Pie Hole to feed Digby and Pigby when Vivian comes in with Dwight. Dwight tells Vivian the story of the pocket watches and how the last surviving member of the group was to take them back to the desert to be consumed by the sand. Dwight also admits that the only reason it took him so long to come looking is because he was in prison for 22 years. Olive secretly listens in as Vivian admits she and Lily do know about the watch and buried it with Charlotte.

The trio goes to the morgue and the Coroner breaks open the cement block. However, there's nothing inside except a note from Herrmann implying that he did in fact escape and ran off like Ned's father. Ned gives the news to Maurice and Ralston and tries to explain that Herrmann had a good reason for explaining, unintentionally using the same excuse as the magician admitted to using while comforting the twin's after the disappearance of their father. They don't believe him and ask if Ned knows anything about why their father left. The facts are that nine years ago, Ned's father took his sons to see Herrmann's act and was called up as a volunteer for a disappearing trick, never to be seen again. Herrmann tried to comfort the boys and told them their dad had important business to attend to; they believed him until now.

Ned eventually explains that their father was simply someone ditching his kids and didn't have something important to do. They bond over their bodily functions giving out when they think of their father; Ned has acid reflux at the mere mention of the word 'magic' and Maurice admits that Ralston used to wet himself every time they performed a disappearing act. Ned notices that Ralston is holding half of Herrmann's scarf, but the other half wasn't in the block at the morgue. They go to the Pie Hole and Ned explains to the others that someone switched cement blocks: the one at the morgue is from Herrmann's earlier performance. They figure the cement block must still be in the theatre. Returning, they use metal detectors to try and locate the shackles in the block. Ned, Emerson, and Chuck find the block under the floor beneath the stage, and then hear the cement mixer working above, the killer having come back to finish the job. Olive, Maurice, and Ralston arrive and see a shadow on the curtain. The twins give chase and Emerson and Olive go after them. Olive spots the Geek, dead with a spike in his nose. The twins find Alexandria and Emerson accuses her of murder, but she explains that she's just packing to leave.

Ned and Chuck chisel the cement block open and Ned brings Herrmann back to life. Herrmann explains to Ned how the escape works: he uses a magnet in his shoe to open a trap door in the bottom of the box. However, someone stole the magnet before his second performance and he wasn't able to escape. For his last words, he tells them to give Maurice and Ralston his hidden magic book, admitting that he wants to 'keep it in the family'. Ned explains to Emerson and the others how the murderer killed Herrmann, and Chuck remembers her necklace sticking to the magnet in the Geek's stomach. Olive is with the corpse… but is unaware that it's getting up and approaching her with the spike. The Geek takes her as a hostage and goes to the stage.

The facts are that the Geek saw Herrmann as a father, but Herrmann considered him as a novelty act with no future. The Geek swallowed the magnets in Herrmann's shoe and switched the cement blocks out of angry when Herrmann seemed to pass him over for the twins. The Geek says that Herrmann abandoned him, and Ned sympathises, admitting to writing letters as a child to his older self to remember to never forgive his father for abandoning him, but says that being angry didn't help. He still loved his father and wanted him back. Ned manages to distract the Geek long enough for Olive to break free, and Maurice and Ralston to pull a lever and send him down a trap door into the floor where he lands next to the corpse of the Great Herrmann.

The Geek goes to jail and Maurice and Ralston collect the book. However, they offer a photocopy to Alexandria so she can become the Great Alexandria, having been strung along by Herrmann for eight years. Ned is more comfortable with the memories of his father, happy to talk to the family he has, and sets up a private 'magic show' for Chuck. He takes her to her aunts' home and asks if she wants to talk to her mother. Olive is inside alone with Lily, Vivian having gone to bed, and suggests she roleplay and say what she would say to Chuck if she were alive. Lily addresses her comments to Olive as Chuck listens in via the bee bug. Chuck sends her questions to Olive via a hidden earpiece and Olive repeats them to Lily, acting as if she is the one asking as part of their roleplay.

Across town, Dwight Dixon is digging up the grave of Charlotte Charles and finds that the coffin is empty.

Additional Info

Cultural References

The title refers to the famous refrain from the song "Magic", which was first released in 1974 by Scottish band, Pilot. In fact, this song was also used in one of the promos on ABC for Pushing Daisies' second season.

Cast

Regulars

Special Guest Star

Fred Willard: The Great Herrmann

Guest starring

Co-Starring

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