Sam's got the Power

When we last left the CW’s devilishly fun “Reaper”, 21-year old underachiever and slave to the minimum wage Sam Oliver, discovered that his parents had sold his soul to the devil before his birth in exchange for his father’s health (for a more detailed account of the pilot and back story, click here for a brilliant synopsis). Last episode, Sam did battle with an arsonist escaped from Hell. This week, Sam deals with another pesky demon- But more on that later.

The episode opens with Sam waking up in bed, discovering that the Devil has sent him his newest soul-sucking device in a wooden box. Reluctant to take another job, Sam ignores the vessel and goes off to work. Unfortunately, Sam soon discovers that the box (and inherently the Devil) just cannot be ignored. Ironically, this sounds very similar to the classic Bible story of God chasing Jonah as he continues to shirk his duties. And although it seems unlikely that the devil would resort to a bible story for comedic inspiration, the idea certainly grabbed the attention of this blogger.

But I digress.

Sam gets a rude awakening when the Devil teleports him face to face to tell Sam to open the box. Basically, the devil gives him two options: He can either "quit", or "put one foot in front of the other and tough it out". However, with quitting meaning certain doom for himself and the people of his hometown, Sam eventually decides to open the vessel. Inside, Sam finds his next soul trap- a remote-controlled toy monster car running on dark energy and D batteries. After an electrical storm leaves the local hospital without power, Sam volunteers to bring them a backup generator from the hardware store. Once there, he discovers that lightning struck the wall of the building (twice), revealing the hospital's old name- Arthur Ferry Hospital. Apparently, Arthur Ferry was an energy trader who got caught stealing energy and selling it to different states. His punishment in the afterlife was to be struck by lightning for eternity- enough to drive anyone insane. Since escaping from hell, Ferry has been returning his punishment to the citizens of earth in the form of lightning showers and rolling blackouts, causing many accidental deaths on his way to revenge.

Armed with rubber wetsuits, Sam and his two coworker sidekicks meet the soul for battle at the top of a hydro power dam. However, when Sam starts channeling Dirty Harry and becomes too cocky, the spirit disappears, vowing to hunt down Sam and his friends himself.

Back at the hardware store, the spirit possesses Sam's brand new hybrid, forcing the three spirit hunters to barricade themselves in the powerless hardware store. Well, all the appliances and tools have come to life and are out for blood- but there is no air conditioning! After his friend gets hit with a possessed nail gun, Sam decides to confront Arthur Ferry and his electric personality (sorry for the pun).

Ferry, however, refuses to apologize and go quietly. Trading in his toy car for a lightning rod, Sam captures the soul by force and sends it back to the DMV (the direct portal to hell), where it belongs.

The episode, an obvious homage to Enron’s now infamous energy traders, finds the perfect way to turn a recently serious event into something to laugh about- imagine one of the people responsible for countless deaths in California being eternally struck by lightning…Now, doesn’t that bring a smile to your face?

With an infinite source of inspiration appearing almost daily, I have a feeling that these writers won’t have a tough job keeping the show current and humorous. However, building a comedy out of a show revolving around murderers might pose a problem for the writers in the future. And using news stories as inspiration is bound to offend somebody. But for now, we can all rest easier at night knowing that Sam Oliver is saving us all from escaped demons and the creatures of our qorst nightmares.

But why hasn’t he captured Ann Coulter yet?