Reaper – Rebellion
Steve and Tony want to lure the Devil into a trap by exploiting Sam’s relationship with him. Meanwhile, Ted asks Sock for permission to ask Josie out on a date. Sock doesn’t believe she’ll say yes … but she does.
Although I will miss Sock, I’m about ready to give up on Reaper. And it looks like I’m not the only one. The Ausiello Report had this to say recently: “Creatively, it failed to live up to the lofty expectations we had for it after that flawless pilot. And the ratings? Hellish.”
Things Reaper could do to improve:
Get rid of Josie – what is the point of this character?
Add more Ted – duh.
Keep Steve and Tony around – duh again.
On to the recap – this ep was a doozy. Andi recovers from her accident, although based on a conversation with her doctor she thinks that seeing Sam kill someone was a hallucination. Turns out Sam bribed the janitor to pretend to be a doctor. Sam’s hair is like twice as long. Where’s the continuity, people?
Ray Wise is fantastic, so it’s unfortunate the show hasn’t lived up to its potential. This week’s escaped soul is a lawyer, Cubbby, who bilked his clients out of their savings and has returned to literally bleed people dry. The vessel is a whip. Sam lures Cubby in with the promise of a lawsuit and when he shows up for their meeting, the boys catch him. Shocking. It is clear that, for the first time, catching the soul is not the center of this episode.
Andi has decided that there is no time to waste and asks Sam on a date. Meanwhile, Ted asks Sock permission to ask Josie out. Sock finds this hysterical and tells Ted to “hit that thing.” Andi and Sam, after making out at the Work Bench, agree their “date” should just be that Andi comes over. Code for: let’s have sex. After his date with Josie, Ted points out that she likes to date down. Sock is seriously offended. He confronts Josie, who admits Ted is an idiot and says really nice things about Sock. When Ted shows up to court his lady, Sock answers the door in Josie’s robe. On another date, Sam and Andi make out on his couch. They have gone from “just friends” to “you’re the person I trust more than anyone in the world” in one episode. Sam tells her he might act strange from time to time, but it’s for a good reason. Andi says she can’t think of a secret that would change the way she feels about him.
While all this is going on, Steve and Tony lay out a plan to overthrow the devil because they feel that his leadership is taking them in the wrong direction. Sam is reticent until they convince him that his contract will be revoked. I love me some Steve & Tony, but it’s not a great sign when the secondary characters are the best thing about a show. S&T take Sam to meet the “underground,” a group of normal-looking demons whose version of insurrection is planting flowers and collecting recyclables. “But then I tried to eat a child. I untied the kid and called my sponsor.” Steve explains that kindness is their weapon. Later, Tony admits that the peaceful resistance plan isn’t very efficient. He suggests ramming a nuke down the devil’s throat.
The next time S&T appear they take Sam to a meeting where they’ve prepared a human sacrifice to get him out of his contract. Sam refuses to send an innocent person to hell in his place. Tony gets all worked up and makes a speech about how they are demons and they should play to their strengths. If Sam can bring the devil to them, they will take care of the rest. Tony then reveals his true form, and it’s not as scary as you might have hoped. He is dark green and scaly, with horns. He looks like one of the baddies on Buffy. Or Angel. I can't remember which.
Sam tries to be friendly with the devil but since lately he’s been refusing the devil’s advances, it is difficult. They go for ice cream, and Sam starts to feel kind of bad for the devil when he admits that he once felt a true, pure love for god. He also says he views Sam as a friend, and gives Sam his private cell number. Which Sam promptly gives to Tony, but then feels awful about it. Though Reaper has a lot to learn, the development of the relationship between Sam and the devil has been great. Are they friends? No. But they do have lovely interactions like this:
Devil: I treat you with respect and you treat me like little bits of dirt.
Sam: You are so weird.
The renegade demons gather for the showdown. Steve interrupts, begging them to call it off. If they murder the devil in cold blood, they become more like him. Meanwhile, Ben discovers that Cubby (the escaped soul, remember?) used to live in their apartment. That can’t be a coincidence. Sock and Ben dig up the lease and find Satan’s signature. The devil planted the boys in the apartment so that Sam would meet Steve and Tony!
Ben phones to warn Sam, but Tony grabs the phone and calls the devil, who appears and then causes the building to collapse, killing all of the renegade demons but saving Sam. This has been his plan from the start: to use Sam in order to destroy the demons that speak out against him. In the end, Tony climbs out of the smoking pit where the building used to be, and his eyes turn bright yellow. I guess that means he’s mad.
This was a great episode chock-full of plot development, but I fear it may be too little, too late. Amusingly, it also spat in the face of 2 of the 3 "improvements" that I jotted down before the ep began: Josie seems to be taking on a more prominent role, and Steve & Tony appear to be on the way out.
Side note: one of the renegade demons, this guy, is in the Oregon Dept of Health commercial about quitting smoking that airs during this episode. Odd.
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