10 Disturbing Backstories Behind Your Favourite TV Characters

Though his last name is never mentioned in the series, the protagonist of Pushing Daisies, Ned, is most often referred to as "The Piemaker." It's a pretty apt name, seeing as he makes a living baking pies in his pie shop, but everything wasn't always as sweet in Ned's life.

When he was a child, he learned that he possessed a unique and awesome power: he could bring the dead back to life. He learned this when his dog, Digby, was run over by a truck. Later that same day, his mother instantly died of a brain aneurysm, so he revived her.

Unfortunately, his gift came at a cost, and whenever he brought someone back to life, another random person would die after 60 seconds. His neighbor, Chuck, learned this the hard way when her father dropped dead in 'payment' of Ned's bringing his mother back to life, but there was another aspect of his gift he would soon learn.

When his mother leaned over to is him goodnight, the moment she touched her son, she instantly died, and Ned couldn't revive her a second time. Not only did he have to live with the horrific realization that he couldn't save his mother a second time, but he had to also deal with his father abandoning him soon after his mother's (second) death.