- The team investigates the disappearance of the magician who took Ned's two half-brothers under his wing. Dwight Dixon comes to Lily and Vivian searching for a pocketwatch, and Chuck tries to get Lily to confess that she's her mother.
- Young Ned (Field Cate) marvels over his dad (Jon Eric Price), the amateur magician's tricks. And then his next trick was a disappearing act while Ned was in boarding school. Later, Ned spies on his half-brothers, Young Maurice (Keenan Merkovich) and Young Ralston (Connor Merkovich) as children, soaking up his dad's tricks.
As grown-ups, they demonstrate their illusionist skills at the Pie Hole, cutting up a pie to reveal tickets to their magic show at the Conjurers Castle. Olive (Kristin Chenoweth) and Chuck (Anna Friel) soak it up. "A magic show," Emerson (Chi McBride) says sarcastically, "where did I put that rat's ass I could give?"
They're performing after The Great Herrmann (Fred Willard), who replaced their dad after he "had" to leave. "Why else would he leave?" they say.
At the show, Ned (Lee Pace) tries to adjust to having brothers, not loving the magic, getting acid reflux at the mere mention.
Flashback to Chuck trying various accents over the phone on Lily (Swoosie Kurtz) to get her to confess to having had a child, and failing.
The Great Hermann approaches Ned in the audience, thanking him for coming into the boys lives. They're pretty needy.
He pulls Emerson the heckler up on stage to perform Cementia, a trick involving Herrmann being placed in a box that is then filled with cement. Emerson checks the chains around Herrmann are real and into the box Herrmann goes. Cement is poured in, the box is welded shut and suddenly Herrmann pops up between Emerson's legs in the audience. He whispers a plea for help to Emerson: someone has been killing his assistants and he wants Emerson on the case.
After the show, Herrmann shows the Pie PIs his murdered assistants: all animals. Rabbits, a dove and other critters killed in magic accidents. Emerson turns down the case because looking into issues involving "puddy tats and bunny wabbits" would sully his reputation. He sticks to this until he decides pet detectives make more than regular ones and Herrmann ("call me 'Great'") gives him a wad of cash.
Ned asks how Great knows his half-brothers. Herrmann was there the day their dad disappeared and didn't know any of them at the time. He made up a story about their dad, saying he had "important man matters" to attend to. He left them at a Sunday matinee.
Back to Lily and Vivian's, where Lily still feels guilty about having been impregnated by Vivian's fiance.
Dwight Dixon (Stephen Root) arrives on their doorsteps, an old comrade of Charles'. Lily isn't happy to see him because Charles told Dwight everything about her. He's there for Charles' pocket watch. Lily says they don't recall it.
While Vivian (Ellen Greene) goes to get his coat, he tells Lily he'll keep her secret. Dwight leaves and finds a note from Vivian in his coat pocket, asking him out later at the Pie Hole.
The Pie PIs investigate the dead animals. Chuck thinks the bunny ate poisoned lettuce, meant for Herrmann, like all the rigged tricks. As they put this together there's a scream from the stage during Herrmann's second show. He's trapped in Cementia -dead.
The twins don't think it was an accident. Ned promises them he'll take care of it.
He starts with the live female assistant, Alexandria (Kerry Kenney-Silver), who pleads ignorance. She's been doing magic back-up for eight years, waiting to get her own act. But someone else shared the stage with Herrmann: the Geek (Paul F. Tompkins) (the animal-biting kind, not the role-playing gamer kind).
But animal biting isn't PC, so he eats glass and regurgitates toads. During the act he was pick-pocketing items from the audience to regurgitate later. Chuck listens to his churning tummy, which includes a magnet that moves her necklace.
At the Pie Hole, Olive feeds Digby and Pigby when Vivian comes in with Dwight. He's been in prison for 22 years. "Emotional or federal?" Vivian asks. Both.
Vivian says she does remember Charles' pocket watch, but they buried it with Chuck.
At the coroner's they bust open the cement block and find... no Herrmann. He left a note: "Now you see me, now you don't. XXOO, the Great Herrmann."
Ned breaks the news to his half-brothers, using Herrmann's "important man matters to attend to" line. They recognize it.
Nine years ago, their dad volunteered in the audience of Herman Gunts' act and disappeared.
But now, they know the truth: He was just some guy ditching his kids at a Sunday matinee.
Ned sees Ralston (Graham Miller) clutching Herrmann's scarf, ripped in half. The other half should have been in the cement block, but wasn't. It was a switcheroo. Herrmann really is dead somewhere.
Ned and the twins brief the Pie PIs and they head back to the Conjurers Castle to look for the cement block containing Herrmann. They find it under the basement floorboards. Emerson notices the edges need to be filled in. They hear the mixer turn on on the floor above them.
The twins chase after the figure in the shadows. "Don't go around chasing murder suspects willy nilly," Emerson yells after them, "What are you going to do, use your Wonder Twin powers?"
Olive and Emerson find the Geek on the floor with something up his nose (perhaps a small animal trying to escape? Olive wonders). Instead it's a murder weapon. The Geek is dead.
The twins have found Herrmann's female assistant, who denies, again, killing anyone.
They've chiseled open Herrmann in the cement and Ned gives him a poke. He explains how the trick was supposed to work. A trap door didn't open because the magnet that was supposed to be in his shoe, wasn't.
Someone snatched the magnets out of his shoes. As his final wish, he asks Ned to give the twins his book of magic secrets.
Chuck tells Emerson the Geek must have killed Herrmann because he had magnets in his stomach.
Meanwhile, Olive is left guarding the dead body... which slowly rises, not dead, behind her and takes the enormous nail from his nose.
He takes Olive hostage, claiming he has a tiny gun in his stomach and he's cocking it with his stomach muscles. Emerson suggests he get a bigger human shield than wee Olive.
The facts were these: The Geek thought of Herrmann as a father, but he didn't feel the same way. He was jealous of the twins. The Geek removed the magnets and planned to seal the grave so that no one knew Herrmann hadn't just disappeared. "I loved that man, I would have eaten anything for him," the Geek says. But Herrmann thought the Geek was a novelty act. As the Geek wails about Herrmann being a dad who abandoned him, Ned starts sympathizing with the story of his own disappearing father. As he talks he slowly advances on the Geek on the stage until Ned shouts "now!," Olive elbows the Geek, the trap door is sprung and he slides into the basement.
The twins find Herrmann's Magic Book of Magic and share it with Alexandria, who becomes the headliner at the Conjurers Castle.
Ned arranges a private magic show for Chuck. He takes her blindfolded in the car back to her house. Inside Olive suggests role playing to Lily, with Vivian in bed. When she mentions Chuck, Lily interrupts: "When you were a jockey did you ride the horses or just beat them after they were dead?" Olive tries to get Lily to unburden herself by pretending she's Chuck and talking to her. The tiny receiver pinned to Olive plays in the car. With an earpiece in, Chuck listens to Olive's question from the car, choked up by the chance to "talk" to her mom.
Across town, Dwight Dixon digs up Chuck's grave...with an empty coffin, of course.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content