History Series / Reaper

* EvilMentor: The Devil wants to take Sam under his wing

* JerkassGods: Some of God's actions may come across as jerkass-y (having an angel [[spoiler:break Sam's hand to keep him bound to The Devil]] for unspecified reasons) or petty (punishing the Devil for his rebellion by making it impossible for him to eat [[TrademarkFavoriteFood ice cream]]).

* OnlyGoodPeopleMayPass: Alan Townsend takes advantage of this to hide from TheDevil after he wins his freedom from his contract. He hides in a cemetary, which is consecrated ground. This prevents TheDevil from tempting him into sin.

* UltimateJobSecurity: Sam, Sock and Ben routinely slack off on their jobs, do it wrong and just flat-out steal from the store, but Ted never fires them. He ''threatens'' to fire them on a regular basis, but he never does, thinking that his own ineffective penalties will somehow teach them to do better. It never does.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: A prominent plot device in the first season is if you stand inside a circle of any kind (even a chalk-drawn circle on the side walk), the Devil will be unable to hear what you're saying if he's not physically present; the characters occasionally use this to their advantage by standing inside a circle when they're having a conversation they don't want the Devil to hear. Come the second season, this plot device is abandoned, and the characters never bother to draw a circle even when discussing something they wouldn't want the Devil to know about.

-->'''Devil:''' Quick question: Quoting Hamlet -- too cliche?\\
''(glances at corpse)''\\
'''Devil:''' Nah, he'd totally do that.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: The show plays with this trope with Nina. She's a demon, so as she says herself for one thing she can't help but be a little attracted to evil, and for another 'bad boys' are what she's used to by default. She's initially attracted to Ben [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan because of his caring nature]], but is put off a little when he gets too clingy. She even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the trope, saying bad boys "treat you like crap, but at least it's exciting". She eventually decides to go back to Ben, but kisses Sam after being attracted to the dark side she thinks he has [[spoiler:from being the Devil's son]]. This later comes back when Nina seems attracted to Morgan, [[spoiler: but this turns out to be a ruse so she can lure Morgan to a group of demons so she can kill him.]]

* AntiAntiChrist: The presumed spawn of Satan is fairly depressed to learn that it's his apparent destiny to end the world. He takes comfort from the fact that he's not really all that good at anything, so he'll probably suck at that, too. Subverted in that [[spoiler: Sam is not the only son of the Devil. Satan's been around a ''long'' time, and has a ''lot'' of kids. And he's disappointed in each and every one of them.]]

* BatmanGambit: The Devil, in "Rebellion," is revealed to have [[spoiler:set Sam, Sock, and Ben in their new apartment next door to two demons who happen to be members of a demonic underground dedicated to fighting the Devil with goodness. Because of Sam's special relationship with the Devil, the demons devise a plan to trap the Devil and kill him: which is just what the Devil wants. He kills all the demons in the rebellion (except for one), because the goodness plan would have eventually worked in about 400 years]]. What's more: [[spoiler: The Devil left a series of clues that he easily could have avoided. Giving them gifts meant for the escaped soul that Sam is chasing, and putting his own name on the lease are the big ones. This allows Ben to figure out what's going on exactly one moment too late to stop it.]]

* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler: Morgan and Sam.]]
* CainAndAbelAndSeth: [[spoiler: subverted as Cady doesn't get involved in the SiblingRivalry and it's never really confirmed if she's the Devil's daughter.]]
* CallBack: In the two episodes "Unseen" and "Cancun", Sam asks the Devil to give him a straight answer and just tell him the truth. In both cases, Sam asks about [[spoiler: the Devil's children. In "Unseen" he's asking about Cady, in "Cancun" he's asking about himself.]]

** [[spoiler: He's special even as one of the devil's children. It is implied God had a plan for him, but we never find out what it is.]]
** Series 2 implies [[spoiler: the reason the Devil favours Sam to be his eventual successor over his other children, such as the more obviously evil, Morgan, is that while their personalities are in line with his own and willingly obey him, they don't have any drive to complete the tasks he assigns them. Sam on the other hand, despite his protests, is the only one who ''actually gets the job done''.]]

** [[spoiler: And Sam, as the son of the Devil.]]

* DivineParentage: Cady ''might'' be the devil's daughter. [[spoiler: And Sam might be the devil's son.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: The Devil owns Sam's soul, as well as Andi's.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: Andi in the finale. [[spoiler: It doesn't go well.]]

* IDontWantToRuinOurFriendship: Andi, [[spoiler: when she realizes that she really likes Sam romantically.]]

* JerkassGods: Some of God's actions may come across as jerkass-y (having an angel [[spoiler: break Sam's hand to keep him bound to The Devil]] for unspecified reasons) or petty (punishing the Devil for his rebellion by making it impossible for him to eat [[TrademarkFavoriteFood ice cream]]).

* MortonsFork: At the end of the first season, [[spoiler: Tony tests if Sam is the son of the Devil by dropping a laundry machine on him. If Sam dies, it proves he's human (but still dead). If Sam uses his demonic powers to save himself, Tony will execute his plan to kill Sam.]]

** Until he [[spoiler: gets fired, and for excellent reason.]]

* {{Satan}}: Sam's boss [[spoiler: and father]].

* WalkingWasteland: Cady. She's mostly a nice girl, though there have been hints of {{Yandere}} tendencies, but flowers and small animals die in her presence. [[spoiler: She may or may not be the devil's daughter.]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* MonsterOfTheWeek: practically all the escaped souls Sam catches are these.

*** [[MortonsFork Sam angrily argues that the mans blatant materialism and endless greed will inevitably condemn the mans soul to hell anyway.]]

The show was cancelled after the second season. There were talks to [[TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised continue the series as a comic book]], though nothing seems to have materialized on that front.

* MeaningfulName: One of the escaped souls is named [[ADateWithRosiePalms Jack King]], who uses sperm banks to trick women into carrying his children.

* LoopholeAbuse: In The Cop, [[spoiler:the detective sells his soul for catching five high profile killers. Satan then turns around and gives him four and the fifth ends up the detective shooting himself since he failed to specify what he meant by catch thoroughly enough.]] Satan admits it was a little sneaky.

*** [[MortonsFork Sam angrily argues that the mans blatant materialism and endless greed will inevitably condemn the his soul to hell anyway.]]