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In that brief period between Martha Stewart sending her regrets to the media spotlight, due to a prior engagement at some minimum security correctional facility, and her return as the Donald Trump of an ill-considered Apprentice spinoff, there was a different reality TV show: Wickedly Perfect. I don't think they ever actually said it was to be "the next Martha Stewart" but it was implied in every moment of the promos. I don't know if the show lasted long enough to drive the point home in its actual challenges and episodes. My impression is that it vanished pretty quickly.

In any case, their complicated system of challenges had the contestants pick apples in part one and then work in teams to create a display using the apples in part 2, while also creating their own individual projects that showcased their practically perfect Martha-like abilities. One of these individual projects was… wait for it… baking an apple pie.

Pie Baker Girl was one of the two losing entries for the competition, because, as judge Bobby Flay put it: if you're going to do something as basic as apple pie, it has to be the best damn apple pie anyone has ever tasted.

Awesome concept to emerge from something as mundane as a failed reality show.

I felt more pressure writing Identity Element than any other Cat-Tale, because I wanted it to be worthy of the source material. If you ask for the ball, you have to RUN with the ball when you get it. And we in fan fiction don't have to ask, we just take the ball. There is responsibility in those choices. If you take it upon yourself to grab a big story or a big theme, then you damn well better knock it out of the park. If you're messing with crime alley, or revealing identities, or killing off a character, it had better be the best damn apple pie anyone ever tasted.