Like The Devil, I had no idea that Sam was homosexual. But there he was, in the closet with the uber-foxy and ready-to-rumble Taylor, and he pulls the old "We're going too fast" card. (Actually, most gay men I know probably would have done it with Taylor.) Sam is a total clitoris tease! By the way, that sound wasn't every man in the world laughing–it was Reaper viewers from coast to coast groaning. You're turning down Taylor because Andi rested her head on your shoulder in the makeshift TV room in the back of The Work Bench? Ugh!
Sorry, I had to get that out of my system before addressing "Love, Bullets, And Blacktop." I was pretty sure Sam was going to wuss out and not pull the trigger with Taylor, and his decision was mostly justified by the implication that The Devil is trying to tempt Sam with loose women to make him more demonic. But … come on! Did you see Taylor? Holy smokes! If going with Andi puts Sam on the side of the angels, I'm with the devil-worshippers. I haven't hated Andi as passionately as my beloved TV Blog commenters, but after this episode I think it's time to declare her character a national disaster area. Please, I beg you Reaper writers: Give Andi more to do or kill her off, make her a demon, anything. Why do TV shows always drag out these annoying, unrequited love plotlines? Whether it's David Addison and Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting or Jim and Pam on The Office, the "will they/won't they" game always lingers way past the point of anybody giving a shit. Seven episodes in, Reaper is already past this point.
OK, enough complaining. Overall, I liked this episode. Last week Reaper played with the formula by introducing two escaped soul plots–an unsuccessful experiment, in my opinion. "Love, Bullets, And Blacktop" put Reaper squarely back on the path of its usual weekly grind: A soul is introduced, the gang engage in some witty banter, The Devil shows up every 10 minutes to steal a scene, the gang gets the soul, roll credits. Not as interesting in some ways as last week, but ultimately more satisfying. How can I go this long without mentioning the awesome guest star appearance by Curtis "Booger from Revenge Of The Nerds" Armstrong as the gang's creepy lonely older guy co-worker Russ? Following up on Patton Oswalt in "Leon," Armstrong was another great piece of stunt casting, and another potentially awesome recurring character. (Am I really lame or does hanging out with Russ seem like a lot of fun? His apartment was sweet, and the man has enough drugs to keep the '72 Rolling Stones well stocked for an American tour.)
Again, no mention of the contract or Sam's dad. And the preview for next week's episode had no mention of them, either. The only connecting thread between episodes at the moment is the stupid Sam-Andi thing, which I'm guessing won't be resolved anytime soon. Sigh.
Grade: B
Stray observations
—"Who wants to rip some peyote?" Man, Russ is the shit!
—Second favorite line of the night: "You are a man of discriminating taste. I can tell by the four buttons unbuttoned on your shirt."
—So, is Sam still going to date Taylor, or is that it for them? He said he wanted to take it slow, but then it was implied that Sam knew she wasn't for him. Any insight on this, folks?
—After Andi promised to bring Sam "a program" from that Flaming Lips concert several episodes back, I was impressed she even knew what an 8-track was.