Why are the Aunts' surnames in Pushing Daisies 'Charles'?

In the series Pushing Daisies, Charlotte "Chuck" Charles is born to Charles Charles and Lily Charles. However, it is explained that this was an illicit affair between the two, as Charles Charles was engaged to Lily's sister, Vivian. Considering that there was no familial relationship (or presuming?) between the three--and none ever married--is it mere coincidence that all three of them had the same surname?

It seems unlikely they would have changed their name to Charles upon adopting Charlotte, and this suspicion is further validated by the last episode "Kerplunk" when the Darling Mermaid Darlings are addressed by their long-time rival as 'the Charles Sisters'.

Is this writing oversight, coincidence, or is there any other explanation?

pushing-daisies

Best Answer

As Oliver_C points out, Charles Charles' father married Lily and Vivian's Mother. When Chuck hires Cyrus Pennebaker to discover her lineage, she has this discussion with Ned about filling in the gaps:

NED: Your aunts couldn’t help?

CHUCK: Not when they’re step-aunts. My father was in his twenties when his father married Lily and Vivian’s mother. They barely knew each other.

Charles Charles, 40 years old at death, orphaned his daughter Charlotte, who was 8 years, 42 weeks, 3 hours and 2 minutes old (108: "Bitter Sweets"). At CC's funeral:

Chuck is flanked by 30-something Grey Garden-esque AUNTS VIVIAN and LILY, looking into an OPEN GRAVE as a RABBI reads in Hebrew from a prayer book. (101: "Pie-lette")

We see then that Charles Charles is somewhere between 1 and 10 years older than his step-sisters Lily and Vivian, presumably on the higher end, because they would still have had to be be young enough to justify changing their last names to Charles.

http://livingdeadguy.com/script/pushing-daisies-ep-108-corpsicle/ http://livingdeadguy.com/script/pushing-daisies-ep-203-bad-habits/