Reaper is an American television comedy-drama created by Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas, who also serve as executive producers alongside Mark Gordon, Deborah Spera, and Tom Spezialy.
Kevin Smith directed the pilot and is credited as a creative consultant for the series. The show’s second season premiered on Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Premise: Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison) lives at home with his parents (Andrew Airlie and Allison Hossack) and brother in the Seattle area. He has always wondered why his mom and dad were so easy on him, whether it was sports, school, or career choices, and so hard on his younger brother. Sam dropped out of college (“It made him sleepy”, Sock explains) and takes a dead-end job at the Work Bench, a home-repair superstore similar to Home Depot. He spends the rest of his time hanging out, playing video games, and pining for his co-worker, Andi (Missy Peregrym). On Sam’s 21st birthday, his parents are behaving very strangely, and Sam himself is seeing hellish visions and experiencing odd events. His father eventually explains that many years ago, he was very sick, and in return for restoring his health, he and his wife promised their firstborn child to the Devil (Ray Wise). Although the couple intended to cheat the Devil by having no children, this plan went awry when Satan convinced their doctor to lie and tell the couple that they could not conceive in exchange for wiping his gambling debts clean. Sam is born shortly thereafter. After informing him of his fate, the Devil explains to Sam that he must serve as his bounty hunter (or “Reaper”), tracking down souls that have escaped from Hell and sending them back using his new powers (which have included telekinesis and electrical powers) and vessels, varied objects said to have been hand-made in the bowels of perdition by the iniquitous and the vile. Vessels appear inside a long wooden box sent for Sam to open (with the Italian inscription “Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate” (“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here”), as was written on the entrance to Hell in Dante’s Inferno), and are specially designed for each job. Examples throughout the series have included a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner, a Taser gun, and a cigarette lighter. Although Sam initially balks, Satan tells him that should he refuse, then Sam’s mother’s soul is forfeit. Unwilling to sacrifice his mother, and convinced that he is doing good in the world by tracking down evil souls, Sam accepts his fate. With the help of his slacker friends Sock (Tyler Labine) and Ben (Rick Gonzalez), he begins his new life tracking down the corrupted souls trying to escape their own eternal rewards.
Sam’s Powers
For evey soul that Sam is forced to catch, the Devil gives him a special power to help him catch it, or give a hint for what he can do to stop it. These powers can range from psychic control, to growing tattoos that hint where the soul will be. It also seems that Sam can activate the powers any time, as seen in “The Underbelly,” when through only anger, Sam can break the wine bottle without touching it. Not all of these powers affect his body. In “Love, Bullet, and Blacktop,” all that happens is the song Radar Love by Golden Earring keeps playing.
Demons
Demons, in the Reaper universe, are portrayed as seemingly neutral and non-aggressive (so far) entities who are either in the direct service of the Devil or plotting to overthrow his rule. It was stated that all demons were once angels who “fell” out of their place after joining up with the Devil’s attempt to overthrow God and got banished along with him from Heaven. Demons residing within the mortal realm exhibit the ability to assume near-human forms that enable them to live along with real humans, with the only thing distinguishing them from actual mortals (besides their immortality) being two small horns protruding from their foreheads which can be sanded down to create the complete illusion that they are human; they are also capable of morphing into their true demonic forms, as displayed by Tony, which seem to grant an incredible boost of physical power in the process, and flight to those with wings. They are immune to mortal weapons in either form. Types of Demons include standard demons and succubi.
Reapers
‘Reapers’ are beings tasked by the Devil to apprehend souls that have escaped the depths of Hell. Sam became one in the premiere episode of the series. The word was first used in the episode “Acid Queen”, which implies that there may be others like him with a similar obligation (or predicament). Currently, it is not exactly known how many Reapers there are, or if all of them are even human. Sam does not like this status but begins to live with this fate, though shows no surprise towards its utterance. It is made clear by the demon Steve that Sam is perhaps the only person on Earth that the Devil talks with face-to-face, which raises suspicion amongst Sam and his friends. This suggestion is later disproved when the Devil introduces Morgan, a young man the Devil claims is his son.
Escaped souls
These are fugitives from Hell whom the Devil has entrusted Sam to recapture. All of them were once mortals who committed various crimes or sold their souls that ultimately led to their damnation. When they come back to Earth, they are intent on finishing the jobs that they started. After escaping Hell and returning to the earthly realm, not only do they regain a corporeal body with which to interact with the living world once again, but they also exhibit supernatural powers that often reflect the nature of their crimes or punishments. For example, an arsonist imprisoned in Hell for 50 years being tortured by being burnt everyday came back with pyrokinetic powers and could take on the appearance of a humanoid creature made of molten rock. Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of William McKinley, gained the ability to turn his hands into guns. Not all souls come back to Earth with a corporeal body, as seen in “Ashes to Ashes,” where the soul came back as a spirit since his body was destroyed.
Vessels
As the souls that Sam is sent to apprehend have already died once (along with the fact that they have various paranormal abilities), an attempt to capture or even kill them by a mere mortal could prove almost impossible. The Devil provides Sam with vessels to help him do his work. The vessel is usually sent for Sam to open in a wooden box which varies in shape per episode, sometimes inappropriate for the vessel they hold (i.e. a large box contained a Zippo lighter vessel) and it’s usually up to Sam to figure out how to use it to capture the escaped soul assigned for him to apprehend since the vessels don’t usually come with an instruction manual. All vessels are unique because each of them is intended to capture the escaped soul for whom they were created and intended to confine. The vessel could even be a living thing (e.g. a live dove). Vessels often have the appearance of seemingly ordinary day-to-day accessories, and can easily be mistaken for such. Interestingly, most escaped souls shown in the series seem to be aware whenever a vessel is brought to their presence, especially if that particular vessel is the one intended for their capture, thus alerting them of potentially being sent back to Hell by the one wielding the vessel. In “The Good Soil”, it is revealed that vessels can capture other objects besides souls (e.g. a corpse).
The Ender
Introduced in “The Good Soil”, The Ender is The Devil’s backup plan. When Sam refused to capture the soul and return it to Hell, The Ender was summoned to seek out and destroy the soul. As a result, the soul would neither be sent to Heaven or Hell. The Ender took on a form of a cloaked phantom and can destroy anything with one touch. It is unclear as to whether or not The Ender is real, or was simply an elaborate ruse set up by The Devil to trick Sam into believing the soul was safe so that Morgan could capture it.
Cast
* Bret Harrison – Sam Oliver (31 episodes, 2007-2009)
* Tyler Labine – Bert ‘Sock’ Wysocki (31 episodes, 2007-2009)
* Rick Gonzalez – Ben Gonzalez (31 episodes, 2007-2009)
* Missy Peregrym – Andi Prendergast (31 episodes, 2007-2009)
* Andrew Airlie – Mr. Oliver (31 episodes, 2007-2009)
* Ray Wise – The Devil (31 episodes, 2007-2009)
* Donavon Stinson – Ted (31 episodes, 2007-2009)
* Valarie Rae Miller – Josie (18 episodes, 2007-2008)
* Christine Willes – Gladys – DMV Demon (15 episodes, 2007-2009)
