My daughter is hooked on this show which means I get to watch it peripherally. Which means I only understand it slightly. Here are some very basic questions.
I can see that they touch you before you die and then wait around to guide you after you die. What’s that first touch for? What happens if the reapers don’t do their job? My daughter says “it hurts” but the show I saw had a serial killer that mushface (I don’t know her name) reaped. She touched his chest and walked away.
Also, why won’t mushface leave her family alone? Did she hate her mother and sister in life so much that she must torment their existence in death?
Ok, the reapers (Georgia & friends) “touch” or reap the souls of the person who is about to die. This way, the deceased feels no pain upon death. If the reaper does not do his/her job, then the person’s soul is trapped in the body and it is not pleasant.
Georgia did not get along with her family in life. She has discovered, too late, how much she loves them and is constanty watching out for them. She misses them, which is why she is always hanging around. She does not look the same in death as she did in life, so there is no chance of her family recognizing her.
Apparantly your soul stays in your body where it writhes in spiritual agony, blah blah blah. An early episode dwelt with this issue.
The premise is deliberately vague and is likely to remain so, with no major insights into life and death. Rube gets the names from some undefined source because he is supposed to; he hands out the post-its because he’s supposed to; George and the others do the reaps becuase they’re supposed to… etc. The show’s premise wears thin very fast (how many Wile E. Coyote deaths do you need to watch before you get the point?) so the only redeeming feature is the characters. If you get tired of them, as I have (especially of George’s endless I’m-soul-searching-but-too-cool-to-admit-it schtick), then there’s no point watching.
It’s to remove the soul so the death is painless and less traumatic when it comes.
The primary job is the reaping of souls. If that doesn’t happen the death is painful and the trapped soul remains conscious in the deceased body ( for example an early episode a man who didn’t have his soul released in a timely manner and had to stand mute witness to his own traumatic autopsy ).
Escorting them to the afterlife appears to be a courtesy, rather than a necessity. Hence George decided to let the serial killer figure it out on his own.
The opposite. She died at 18 and is desperately lonely and drawn to her family. She doesn’t torment them because no one ( other than her sister, who is comforted by her suspected presence ) suspects she is still around. Except for the episode you saw, where special rules ( Halloween + Day of the Dead ) were in effect, those that knew the dead in life perceive them as looking completely different and the dead have a strange block that prevents them from blurting out their real identity. As it was her sister Reggie appeared to have glimpsed her, which would be a great relief to Reggie. However if her mother Joyce had seen her she propably would have gone over the edge ( she’s pretty tightly wound and a rationalist ).
If it hurts, why did she reap the serial killer? She obviously had nothing but contempt for him.
Also, this was Halloween when you supposedly are recognizable to those who knew you. George went to her gravesite on purpose just to fuck with her sister (who, if you ask me, needs a good asskicking for being so fresh. And who is also a little kookoo for cocopuffs. But that 's only if you ask me.)
Nah, George didn’t go to the gravesite to fuck with Reggie. She tries to help the kid when she can. Whether or not her leaving presents and stuff is actually helpful is open to debate, but it seems to make Reggie happier. Besides, it was past midnight and Halloween was over. George had no reason to think Reggie would a) wake up or b) be able to recognize her. Nobody ever told her the rules were different for Day of the Dead–just Halloween.
George has so many issues with her family because she died smack dab in the middle of that sullen rebellious slacker phase. She didn’t connect with her parents, and she sure as shit didn’t connect with her preteen sister. But now that she’s dead, she sees and understands things she missed when she was alive–like how much she loves them all, and how much Reggie needed her. She hangs around the family not to torment them, but to express her love for them in little ways. Mainly, she feels the need to be a big sister to Reggie, to make sure that she gets the things she needs.
And Reggie has a lot of emotional needs that her parents have difficulty meeting. The family dynamic was weird even before George died–you’d just have to see the early episodes. Anyway, she’s got all the typical emotional issues of being 11 or 12, and having an emotionally disconnected family and a big sister she adores but who pretends she doesn’t exist. And then that big sister is blown to smithereens by a falling toilet seat, and Mom packs up all her stuff and packs away all the pictures with her in them, and never talks about her, and basically acts like she was never there. So yeah, kid’s got issues out the yin-yang. She seems to be working through the worst of them, though. Also, Reggie’s inherently not like a lot of other kids her age. She’d be an oddball no matter what family she’d grown up in, because she’s just an odd little duck in and of herself.