(S01E04) "MOM! DAD! I NEED A RIDE!" -- Sam, collector of escaped souls from Hell.
At least this morning Sam is able to put things in his mouth without them turning into bugs. However, he does the dreaded "drink orange juice right after brushing your teeth" thing, which is worse than shoving a cockroach in your mouth, *shudder*. That has to be a concoction whipped up in the bowels of Hades. Accompanied by the musical sound of nails on a chalkboard.
I guess over the first few episodes of Reaper I was guilty of thinking, "Hey, working for the Devil doesn't seem that bad! You get to have fun with your friends, send souls back to Hell, flirt with Missy Peregrym, get a funky package every so often ... where's the downside?" Well, after seeing bugs appear on everything Sam puts in his mouth and having all of his personal possessions start to vanish, I'm starting to see the cons.
Namely, the fact that the Devil just doesn't tell Sam who he's looking for. In fact, he tells him flat out, "I'm not Google, Sam." So it looks like Sam will have to endure a steady stream of mishaps from week to week, which means that things could get really interesting for him. In this episode, Sam's things start vanishing. What does that mean? They're looking for the soul of a magician from the 1920s. What sort of vessel does the Devil send Sam? A dove. It's diabolical.
Although my favorite part of how they found out who they're looking for is when they look up the magician's name on the internet, find out he's in a documentary DVD called "Dark Side Of Magic", check the inventory, and find out that The Work Bench has two copies in stock. As Sock says, "God bless you Work Bench, you have everything!" Maybe it's time to start befriending people who work at The Home Depot, or start thinking about a career change.
So the main plot involves Sam, Sock, and Ben trying to nab a magician's escaped soul from Hell, but the subplot has Andi practically launching herself at Sam in an effort to get him to go on an overnight Flaming Lips concert a mere seven hours away. Overnight trip, sleeping in close quarters in Andi's car ... me-ow. However, the Devil isn't too keen on Sam taking vacation time, so there's yet another negative to working for Beelzebub.
In fact, Ray Wise has to be about the coolest Devil I've ever seen, besting even George Burns in Oh God, You Devil. When Sam pissed him off, I have to admit that I got the chills. I wouldn't want him coming after me with that sort of an expression on his face. Would you? One of the best pieces of casting since Charlton Heston played Moses.
Out of all the souls they've been hunting down so far, this has to be the cheesiest one by far. The long hair, the do-rag, the faux-English accent, the really bad stage magic ... that guy deserved to go back to Hell. Heck, I've sat through some floor shows in Vegas who could use a trip there as well. Bring us a good baddie next time.
Besides the villain, it wasn't a bad episode. You've got a lot more Andi than normal, Sam trying to get ahold of his contract with the Devil, dozens of quips from Sock, and Sam and Satan sharing a beer just before the credits roll. Sharing a drink with your boss usually ain't that bad, even if he does happen to be the Prince of Lies. Although it sort of sucks that the Devil offered him the weekend off and he couldn't take it to spend the time with Andi. Maybe Ted is actually the real devil. The countdown to next week's Reaper begins now.
INTERIOR: BAR SCENE
Bartender approaches the Devil.
Devil: "I'll have a cranberry and soda, my good woman."
Off Sam's look.
Devil: "Oh I never drink when I work. It clouds the mind."
Sam: "Maybe if you drank you'd be less of a dick."
Zing! Nice one, Sam. Although it sort of sucks that the Devil offered him the weekend off and he couldn't take it to spend the time with Andi. Maybe Ted is actually the real devil.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-17-2007 @ 10:26AM
keithnl said...
Loved insulting the devil bit. One small thing really made this episode for me and cemented my like for the show, is when Sock pulled out a beer at work, in a regular series the "stratight" lead would of gently admonished his "side kick" for drinking at work, but Sam joined him at that was great little moment
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10-17-2007 @ 10:30AM
jun said...
Did anyone catch the silly 'Happy Halloween from You-Know-Who' things they were showing during the commercial breaks? They featured Ray Wise frolicking amongst some autumn leaves and holding a jack-o'-lantern up to his face.
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10-17-2007 @ 10:53AM
Walt said...
The show gets slightly better as the bad guys get slightly more second-rate. If this keeps up, our hero will look absolutely brilliant taking out Conan O'Brian.
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10-17-2007 @ 1:22PM
BC said...
"the faux-English accent"
How about genuine English? Darren Shahlavi was born in Cheshire.
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10-17-2007 @ 1:30PM
Oreo said...
Best episode yet, but how will this show survive 22 episodes of the same thing every season? They need to shake things up.
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10-17-2007 @ 1:43PM
Bach said...
In every episode Andi gets rejected by Sam in some way and she STILL gives him a shot?
This show is soo unrealistic!
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10-17-2007 @ 1:51PM
MrC said...
I noticed the episode was credited to Kevin Murphy. I'm assuming it's the Kevin Murphy who co-wrote the Reefer Madness musical that starred Kristen Bell, not the Kevin Murphy who was Tom Server on MST3k, but either is cool.
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10-17-2007 @ 1:57PM
Oreo said...
Yes Bash I know because the making a dear with the devil, and having to get souls for a living isn't unrealistic at all! lol
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10-17-2007 @ 2:02PM
Gill Garcia said...
The show is improving quite well and I've enjoyed the episodes so far. Sam's buddies are a trip and when Ben named the dove "Winston" I was laughing pretty good. I am getting a little bit tired of Sam's shy or whatever you want a call it interaction with Andi. I mean if they are good friends then he should be able to tell her that he is a bounty hunter for the devil. While it was catchy in the beginning, Sam's antics with Andi are starting to get old with me.
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10-17-2007 @ 3:03PM
Brian said...
The magician was great. Oily muscly dudes with an affinity for magically-based material were in danger of losing their SAG cards since Charmed went off the air.
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10-17-2007 @ 5:21PM
Derin said...
Reaper showed a "tragic" side of the series tonight. Not going to a Flaming Lips concert with Missy Peregrym was truly sad, and it broke my heart when I was watching.
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10-17-2007 @ 11:53PM
procrastinator said...
ok i hope that 'tragic' about missing the concert was meant sarcastically... though i do like them keeping things on edge with the devil putting folks in harm's way, gives a nice balance to the strangely nice things he does for sam
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10-18-2007 @ 2:58AM
Derin said...
Of course it's not "tragic", I'm not trying to change Reaper into Romeo And Juliet. BTW, I, too, like balance the show created in this episode. Otherwise, it would be too cheesy.
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10-18-2007 @ 4:00AM
Will said...
I wish the CW would repeat this sometime during the week, I dozed off and missed the first 20 minutes or so.
Watching Reaper always reminds me of "Brimstone", which only aired about 8 episodes, if memory serves. It's basically the same setup, only the bounty hunter was in hell himself and was allowed to live again as long s he bounty hunted for the devil. Brimstone was much, much darker, that's probably why it didn't last, the general viewing population didn't like that aspect of it, but it was very well done. Sci-fi used to run the shows every now and then, but they haven't in a long time. It's worth a look if it ever airs again.
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