Reaper

Reaper works and I'm loving it.  Each episode thus far has been genuinely funny and provided some intriguing action to go along with it.  It truly has the potential to be a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  The character of Sock is funny from beginning to end in tonight's episode, "All Mine", which is about an escaped soul who uses bugs to kill random women.  Sam and Andi continue to dance around what will certainly be a complicated relationship for the entirety of the Reaper's existence.  We also learn that Soc kand Josie had a nickname for Sock's privates and that Sam's boss is a recovering shoe addict.
Sam wakes up and produces a nasty bug out of his toothpaste.  Three times.  In the parking lot of the Work Bench, Sam forces Sock to feed him an apple because everything he tries to eat turns into a bug.  Andi sees this as she approaches Sam and asks Sam if he wants to go with her to a lecture on monkeys at her college.  Sam denies her, and it's brutal to watch.  He tells Sock that he doesn't want to feel dumb in front of Andi's college friends.  Sock thinks he's just a wuss.

Ted, Sam's boss, admits that he was once addicted to gambling and shoes, but he got out of it through his work at the Work Bench.  He says that he sees a little of himself in Sam and promptly offers him a promotion – Assistant Manger of the plumbing department.  Sam doesn't really want it.

Back in the parking lot, Sam is met by The Devil.  He shows him pictures of two dead women, both killed by bugs.  He tells Sam to follow the bugs.  Sam's then given the vessel, but does not open it yet.  Sam tells Sock and Ben about his offered promotion and Sock is pissed at Sam for sucking the teat of management.  Sam assures him that he's not taking the job.  As the three are about to get some fast food, Sam spies an exterminator van driving down the street, with a giant bug plastered on the top.  Sam remembers to follow the bugs and they speed off and follow the van.  They end up at the Horseshoe Apartment complex.

They watch as a swarm of the bugs enter the exterminator's van.  Before they can rescue the exterminator, the bugs kill him.  They figure the escaped soul is living at the apartment complex.

Back at the Work Bench, Sam meets Greg, a friend of Andi's that she met at the lecture, who thinks that Andi should quit her job and go back to school full-time. Sam disagrees and an awkward conversation ensues.

Sock steals a bunch of mail from the apartment complex to find some evidence.  They find a guy who just started living at the apartment complex right at the time of the first bug murder.  We learn that Josie and Sock had a pet name for Sock's bathing suit area.  To find out information regarding Harold Bunsen, the guy who had moved in at the time of the murders, Sock and Sam break into Josie's office.  Josie shows up, but Sock runs interference and Sam prints out all of Bunsen's info.  He disappeared even, and they can't figure why he's using bugs to kill people.  Then they find out that his wife was found dead, devoured by bugs in a compost heap. 

Sam, Sock and Ben head back to the Work Bench to open the vessel.  It's a toaster.  They have no idea how it's going to catch the soul.  They do realize that it needs to be plugged in, so they take a portable generator from the Work Bench and a ton of extension cords to the apartment complex.  They spy on Bunsen as he feeds a sandwich to his army of bugs.  Bunsen sees the guys spying on him and sends his bugs at them.  They get away, but a part of Sam's license plate falls off, letting Bunsen know they are employees of the Work Bench. 

Ben, looking at the toaster, finds out that the toaster has a short and needs some parts to work.  Sam is then summoned, with Andi, to the boss's office.  The boss asks Sam if he's accepted the promotion.  He says no.  He then offers it to Andi, who also declines, and inadvertently blurts out that she is leaving the Work Bench and is going to start taking classes to get ready for college next week. 

At the bar, everyone congratulates Andi on going back to school.  Sock agrees that it's nice, but spouts off about how wonderful it is to live at home and leech off your mom.  In the bar bathroom, the Devil councils Sam on both getting the girl and the escaped soul.  He just wants Sam to pull the trigger on something, anything in his life. 

Bunsen surprises Sam in the parking lot, telling him that it's not him, but someone named Gloria.  Gloria has done all the killing, including Bunsen's wife.  Gloria was his mistress. The swarm of bugs watch nearby.  In a cool little Mummy moment, the bugs swarm to form a woman, a good-looking woman in her thirties, Gloria.  Gloria is the escaped soul. 

Sam takes a gander at some bug sprays.  Sock gives him some advice on the best bug spray available.  Sock is doing his best to make himself seem needed.  He wants to be in on the soul catching.  Sam invites Sock to come with him to capture the soul.  On their way out with all their bug/soul catching gear, Sam sees Andi in the break room.  She's freaking out about going to college full time.  She asks Sam for advice.  Sam gives her a nice little pep talk about how she can do it, how she'll be fine in college.

Sock and Ben begin setting up the toaster and extensions inside the apartment complex.  Sock runs in to Gloria and, not knowing that she's the soul, starts hitting on her.  Meanwhile, Sam, all decked out in exterminating gear, heads in to Bunsen's apartment.  Sock finally realizes that Gloria is the soul when a bee evaporates into her forehead. 

Ben and Sam find Sock on the verge of being choked by Gloria.  Bunsen arrives and tells Gloria to let the kid go.  Bunsen tells Gloria that he never really loved her and was only in it for the sex.  Gloria, pissed, turns in to a bunch of bees and starts swarming towards Bunsen.  Sam, realizing that the toaster is supposed to be used as a bug zapper, sticks a clothes hanger in the toaster, sparks start flying and he hurls the toaster at the swarm.  The toaster catches the soul.

Sam realizes that he doesn't want to be miserable like Bunsen, so he goes off to tell Andi how he really feels.  He finds her at the college, sitting on a bench.  Before he can really let his feelings be heard, sAndi lets Sam know that classes have been canceled for the semester because the buildings are filled with asbestos.  The Devil is implicated.

Andi tells Sam that she's relieved and just wants things to be how they've been.  Sam says no more. 


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of The CW)