This week’s episode, “The Cop,” got off to a bit of a slow start, but once the plot started to unfold it ended up being a well-plotted and quite amusing episode.
For a while there I was rather confused by Satan seemingly trying to frame Sam for murder. I mean, sure, Satan obviously enjoys upping the challenge for Sam from time to time, but Satan didn’t really have anything to gain if Sam ended up in jail. It’s not like Satan cares if people suspect a ghost is back from the dead and on a rampage; he doesn’t need to come up with a nice explanation for the local authorities. And if Sam ended in jail for the rest of his life, he’d be pretty much useless as a grim reaper.
At first I thought maybe it was just sloppy writing: A way to put pressure on Sam even if it didn’t make logical sense. But then as soon as Stafford started bitterly complaining about how quickly the public forgets you when you aren’t making big arrests, I anticipated a twist. I actually figured that Curtis Dean Mays had been framed and that the cop had been the real killer back then (which would explain why Mays had been big on dishing out the blame when he was first arrested). I think the actual twist, with Stafford having sold his soul to Satan, was more effective though.
I’m also using Stafford’s death as further evidence for my ‘Satan is ultimately at least somewhat a good guy’ theory. For one, this Satan is one of those ones that only offers deals that screw you over in the end (if Satan really wanted to drum up lots of business, he would ensure people who sold their souls were ecstatic with the result, thus providing lots of positive word of mouth). Additionally, it was only when Stafford tried to murder Sam that he sealed his own fate.
I was pleasantly surprised with the Gladys/Sock subplot. It had so much potential to be ineffective and annoying comic relief but it actually worked really well. I liked getting a little bit of a glimpse into Gladys’ life (much like Satan, I don’t think Gladys is really all that evil) and the comic relief stuff was actually hilarious (particularly Sock’s disturbing dream and the scene where Gladys let him know she caused the dream).
The stuff with Andi was less effective as it has now gone in a circle. Earlier in the season we had Andi shooting Sam down because his friendship meant to much to her. It seemed we had moved beyond that, but then Andi broke up with Greg for being horribly inattentive and we ended up right back where we were. Sam and Andi obviously aren’t going to go anywhere in the short-term so they really should just put that whole thread on the back-burner for a while.
I must say, aside from the stuff with Andi, this was probably the funniest episode of Reaper we’ve had yet. Ray Wise’s Satan continues to bring the bulk of the show’s funny moments, but Mitch Pileggi, Tyler Labine and Christine Willes deserve a lot of credit this week as well. Kudos all around.
