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REAPER {UNAIRED PILOT} (TV)

Summary

The unaired version of the pilot of this supernatural comedy series about a young man forced to work for the devil, hunting down the souls of escapees from hell. Sam Oliver, a young college dropout living with his family, wakes up on his twenty-first birthday to find his parents acting uneasy around him. His friend Bert, nicknamed “Sock,” plans to take him out on the town for his birthday, but Sam is preoccupied, feeling as though he could have put more effort into his education. Sock also tries to get Sam to ask his crush Andi out on a date, but Sam believes that she only wants to be friends; his last attempt to date her was interrupted when her father passed away two years ago. At their job at a home improvement supply store, their manager Ted criticizes Sam and Sock’s poor sales performance. After the meeting, has an opportunity to ask Andi out on their day off, but chickens out at the last moment. Throughout the day, Sam keeps seeing and experiencing unusual phenomena, such as a shopping cart moving under its own volition and a recurring news broadcast about a family dying in a fire. A heavy crate nearly falls on Andi’s head, but Sam manages to rush forward and push it out of the way at seemingly superhuman speed. In the back room Sam tells Sock that he believes he somehow moved the crate with his mind. Andi thanks Sam for saving her life and he is about to ask her out when they are suddenly approached by a pack of dogs snarling at them. They chase Sam through the store before Sock arrives and scares them off. Sam decides to take the rest of the day off and on the way home a mysterious man somehow materializes in the back of his car. He claims that he is the devil, and Sam becomes so distracted that he accidentally crashes into a dumpster; he looks in the back seat to find that the man is gone. Sam finally returns home that night to find his father waiting for him. He reveals that he and Sam’s mother sold his soul to the devil before he was born; Sam’s father was suffering from an illness and the devil offered to cure it in exchange for their firstborn son’s soul when he turned 21. They tried to get around the deal by not having children, but the devil’s machinations ensured that Sam was born. Sam leaves to meet Sock, Andi, and his other co-worker Ben at a local bar, there to celebrate his birthday. Sam drinks copious amounts of alcohol and tries to speak to Sock in private, telling him about what he learned from his father. Sock seems to think Sam’s situation situation is “cool,” but Sam disagrees and decides to go home. He opens Andi’s birthday present to him, a bracelet, and discovers the devil waiting for him in his room. The devil reveals that he intends to have Sam stay on earth and recapture escaped souls from hell. He explains that people have been escaping due to “overcrowding,” and that Sam must retrieve these escaped souls by taking them to portals to hell, i.e. places that are “hell on earth.” The devil shows Sam his first assignment, the soul of an arsonist who broke out of hell and is responsible for the recent string of local fires, disguised as a fireman. To that end, the devil gives him a “vessel” in the form of a small wooden box with which to capture the soul. Sam doesn’t want to work as the devil’s “bounty hunter,” but the devil threatens to take his mother to hell if he refuses. Sam takes the box at work and after some coaxing from Sock decides to open it; he is confused when the contents turn out to be a red handheld vacuum cleaner. However, they soon learn that it exerts enough force to move a large semi truck. Sock and Ben accompany Sam that night as he seeks out the arsonist and plans to use the vacuum cleaner on him. They are startled when the arsonist transforms into some sort of flame creature and attacks them with fiery shockwaves. They dodge his attacks, and Sam seems to be unable to utilize the vacuum. They are forced to flee from the creature and take Ben to the hospital, as he was heavily injured during the fracas. Andi arrives as well, but Sam does not tell her the truth about what happened, only that he is responsible for Ben’s condition. Sam decides it would be best if he went alone to face the arsonist, unwilling to put anyone else’s life in danger. However, he is too late to prevent the arsonist from reducing another home to a smoldering crater. That night he finds his mother out on the front porch, who says that she wants to be taken to hell instead of him. Sam claims that soon everything will be back to normal and that she needn’t worry. The devil brings Sam to an empty hockey rink to meet with him and chides Sam for giving up when he says that he cannot accomplish his mission. The devil advises him to investigate the arsonist’s motives and reasons for coming back to earth before confronting him again. Sam decides to take the devil’s advice and brings Sock with him, believing that the arsonist has returned to earth to burn down the same places he burned down when he was alive fifty years ago. To that end, they try to obtain criminal records by consulting Josie, Sock’s ex-girlfriend who works in the district attorney’s office, although she is extremely reluctant to help them due to her antipathy for Sock. Josie manages to find records pertaining to the arsons and discovers the identity of the arsonist, Ned Schmecker, who ultimately died in a fire he set at his parents’ house. She confirms that the pattern between the modern-day arsons is identical to the ones committed by Schmecker, and they figure out that his next target is an elementary school. Before going there, they stop at their store to outfit themselves with various appliances and recharge the vacuum cleaner, hoping it will give them an edge against the arsonist. They confront him disabling the sprinkler system at the school and call him out. They momentarily disable him with fire suppressant, but he quickly recovers and attacks them. Sock is nearly incinerated, but Sam manages to activate his telekinetic abilities just in time, attacking the arsonist with them. He uses the vacuum cleaner and successfully sucks up the arsonist, thus saving the day. They deposit the vacuum at the local Department of Motor Vehicles, which the devil indicated earlier is a portal to hell, meeting a demon in service to the devil to pass it off. He apologizes to Andi for yelling at her earlier and they make up; she says she doesn’t think he is a loser. The devil appears and congratulates Sam for his work. He gives Sam another vessel, indicating that he will be doing this sort of work for the rest of his life, although Sam believes that he now wants to pursue the devil’s work, feeling a newfound sense of responsibility. Commercials deleted.

Details

  • NETWORK: CW, The
  • DATE: November 30, 2006
  • RUNNING TIME: 0:40:14
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: B:91241
  • GENRE: Comedy
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy
  • SERIES RUN: The CW - TV series, 2007-2009
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Kevin Smith … Executive Producer, Director
  • Michele Fazakas … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
  • Tara Butters … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
  • Mark Gordon … Executive Producer
  • Deborah Spera … Executive Producer
  • Tom Spezialy … Executive Producer
  • Joseph Patrick Finn … Producer
  • Joseph Parks … Associate Producer
  • David Schwartz … Music by
  • Bert Harrison … Cast, Sam Oliver
  • Tyler Labine … Cast, Bert "Sock" Wysocki
  • Nikki Reed … Cast, Andi Prendergast
  • Rick Gonzalez … Cast, Ben Gonzalez
  • Valarie Rae Miller … Cast, Josie
  • Donavon Stinson … Cast, Ted Gallagher
  • Andrew Airlie … Cast, Mr. Oliver
  • Ray Wise … Cast, The Devil
  • Kyle Switzer … Cast, Kyle Oliver
  • Allison Hossack … Cast, Mrs. Oliver
  • Marci T. House … Cast, Motorist
  • Christine Willes … Cast, Gladys - DMV Demon
  • Fraser Aitcheson … Cast, The Fireman