HISTORY CHANNELED: PRIMETIME CZOLGOSZ

'Reaper' was falling into a rut, following the same pattern episode to episode, since its debut. Sam's problems with Andi, difficulties with the vessel used to collect the souls, Ben getting wounded or slimed so that it's just Sock and Sam in battle against the escaped soul.

But this latest episode, "Leon", shook things up a bit - the soul was captured two minutes into the show. Turns out Leon was only the first of two souls to be recaptured during the lead-up to Halloween and he accompanied the guys when they tried to recapture the soul of the Butcher of Ballard.

And it turned out that Leon was in fact an escaped soul with some cache of infamy in American History:

Leon Frank Czolgosz (choll-gosh), (1873 – October 29, 1901) was the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley.

On August 31, 1901, Czolgosz moved to Buffalo, New York and rented a room near the site of the Pan-American Exposition. On September 6 he went to the exposition with a .32 caliber Iver-Johnson "Safety Automatic" revolver (serial #463344) he had purchased on September 2 for $4.50. With the gun wrapped in a handkerchief in his pocket, Czolgosz approached McKinley's procession, who had been standing in a receiving line outside of the Temple of Music greeting the public for several minutes. At 4:07 p.m., Czolgosz reached the front of the line. The President thrust out his hand; Czolgosz slapped it aside and shot McKinley twice at point blank range.
[from Wikipedia]

'Reaper' played it straight with the few facts of Leon's early life that were brought up. It was his after-life they embellished. After a hundred years in Hell or so, Czolgosz (seen here as he looked in the show) had repented - somewhat - and was trying to seek psychiatric help during his brief return to life on Earth.

You almost had to feel sorry for the schmuck - until he betrayed Sam and Sock.

Eventually he was returned to Hell, but perhaps the show's mythology will deviate from established religious beliefs. Perhaps it might be possible for Leon Czolgosz to find salvation and relief from his everlasting punishment.

Czolgosz appeared in Toobworld earlier, alive, in 'Ten Days That Shook The World'. His episode depicted the events that led to his assassination of President McKinley. But in that, he was played by Nick Maroon and not Patton Oswalt.

As for the slight alteration in his appearance, apparently Hell has that effect on its "citizens". It could have been worse - the other soul to be recaptured looked like a demonic dog-beast, and an earlier soul was a walking blog of green toxic slime.

Looking like Patton Oswalt is a draw, at worst......

BCnU!
Toby OB

{Post #2100}

"I have an answer, but I think it might be wrong."
Leon
'Third Rock From The Sun'