Reaper“The Leak”
Original Air Date: May 13, 2008
Ashi – TwoCents Reviewer
People like to say that honesty is the best policy. Well. Most of the characters in this week’s episode seem to be ignoring that piece of advice for their own reasons. In an episode wrought with infidelity, deceit, and fake marriages depicted with photoshopped family albums, probably the most important of these lies concerns Sam’s contract. Those of you who were disappointed last week’s episode strayed from the mythology the post-strike episodes have built up will be thrilled this week’s returned to it in a very big way. The show revisits its most monumental scene and asks what the fans have wanted to know since Mr. Oliver burned pages out of Sam’s hefty contract. What kind of secret could be so horrible he’d destroy the contract to keep it from his son? Key word there, “son.”
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Reaper
ReplyDelete“The Leak”
Original air date: May 13, 2008
Ashi – TwoCents Reviewer
People like to say that honesty is the best policy. Well. Most of the characters in this week’s episode seem to be ignoring that piece of advice for their own reasons. In an episode wrought with infidelity, deceit, and fake marriages depicted with photoshopped family albums, probably the most important of these lies concerns Sam’s contract. Those of you who were disappointed last week’s episode strayed from the mythology the post-strike episodes have built up will be thrilled this week’s returned to it in a very big way. The show revisits its most monumental scene and asks what the fans have wanted to know since Mr. Oliver burned pages out of Sam’s hefty contract. What kind of secret could be so horrible he’d destroy the contract to keep it from his son? Key word there, “son.”
This week’s soul is a slippery one. Mike Volta, a notorious womanizer who can charm any woman he sets his sights on into his arms, keeps breaking out of hell, and the Devil is fuming. He needs Sam to nab the guy and make sure he stays down below, but one, two attempts to catch the guy aren’t enough to keep him from escaping the fiery depths to sneak some jollies with pretty ladies. The only explanation is that one of the devil’s minions is letting Mike out. Gladys the DMV demon wants in on Mike’s loving, even if in the end it might cost her life. And it almost does. Sam and the gang find him at Gladys’s house, and he stabs her to apparent death before bolting. A little stab wound turns out to be nothing for demons, though, and a simple blade extraction brings her back to life. Still, she can’t hide from Satan for long, and he condemns her to working head office in hell.
With Gladys’s help, Sam, Sock, Ben, and Andi – isn’t it great to have XX chromosomes in the mix now? – follow Mike to a wedding ceremony, where he plans to get some from the bride before she makes her vows. After the gang splits up to find their escaped soul, Sam chases him to the church’s storage space. Just as his Poloroid camera vessel burns through all its flashbulbs, Sam makes a run for the door to get some light and gets into a strangling struggle with Mike. Luckily Sock and Ben bust through the door, light pours in, and snap! Soul in the vessel.
Apart from all things hellish, immigration knows Ben and Sara are faking, and not even an album-full of naked pictures can save their marital arrangement. (Great idea, Sock…) Sara claims with his $2000 worth of financial help she can bribe their immigration agent to let them off the hook. At this point, can we honestly trust her to keep her word? Poor Ben does and she runs off with his money, leaving him to go to jail. It’s eight days in the slammer for this Reaper buddy.
While Sam tries to catch the soul, Tony and his friend Kenneth review Sam’s contract for a way to release him from his servitude. They soon realize several pages are missing concerning the identity of Sam’s father. Well wait a minute. If Mr. Oliver’s not his dad, then…who is? After Tony and Kenneth spy Sam convincing Satan to puppy dog please let Gladys go and sharing jerky with evil incarnate, they finally have their answer. It pains Tony to admit it: Sam is the son of the Devil. (Dun dun dunnnn!)
Gladys looks like she lives a sad existence. Her neighbors think she’s a kook, and now she’s releasing escaped souls for some company. She played an important role in this week’s episode: she proved demons are immortal against mortal wounds by resurrecting after Tony pulled out the blade in her chest, and she indirectly proved to the demon rebellion that Sam is Satan’s son. Or is he? As huge a revelation that is, at this point we still don’t know for sure. Only the Devil and Mr. Oliver know what those missing contract pages say, and neither of them are even thinking about telling Sam what’s in there. The teaser for the season finale shows Sam saying, “I need to know the truth.” Let’s hope he’s asking about that contract so we can put all our guesswork to rest.
Solid episode this week. The series finally started developing its first and probably most important story arc and shows signs of delving more into it in next week’s finale. We learned more about Gladys’s life outside of the DMV and got some great physical comedy a la drunken Ben. What did you guys think? Who’s going to turn out to be Sam’s real father? What does him possibly being the Devil’s son mean for Sam and the gang, the Oliver family, and the demon rebellion? If demons can’t die by mortal means, is there a possibility Steve and the first rebellion survived the collapsed building? Did anyone think Gladys describing her cat Fancy’s skin condition really disgusting, and will somebody please settle once and for all: Garfield or Heathcliff? Give us your two cents. Ben could use an extra two grand once he’s out of jail.