Why, hello my little numerators! Welcome to “Reaper, Part 2.” You may remember “Reaper, Part 1.” And this is the sequel.

If you were in my eighth grade algebra class, you may also remember when Stephanie and I called each other “my little numerator” in a German accent. Awesome.

Anyway, here’s my second reason for loving the season finale of Reaper: It expanded one of the most satisfying arcs that network television has ever given to a gay couple. (That’s them up there.)

Before I delve into the show, let me add that gay characters on TV have become about three thousand times more interesting than they were in the reductive, stereotypical days of Will & Grace. I mean, the first few seasons of that show were funny, but by the end, the characters were all just horrible people doing horrible things. And yet Jack and Will were as close as we got to balanced gay characters on a network show. Which is to say we didn’t get close at all.

Then, after HBO dropped the towering glory of Six Feet Under upon the land–complete with David Fisher and Keith Charles, two complex gay characters with satisfying journeys–prime time caught on. This season, we’ve seen the beautiful evolution of Kevin and Scotty’s love affair on Brothers & Sisters (complete with a super-romantic wedding), the totally nonchalant gayness of Tom “Older Other” Friendly on Lost, and the trans-gay-friendly cornucopia that is Ugly Betty. And that’s just on ABC.

What’s nice is that all those characters are openly gay, but they also talk about other things. Kevin oversees his family’s legal business. Tom Friendly does mysterious Other stuff. And on Uggs, Alexis runs the magazine, Marc causes mischief for Wilhemina, and little Justin tries to help his mom find a new boyfriend.

And that’s a sign of real acceptance and integration: When the characters can just be out–or in Justin’s case, totally flamboyant–without constantly having to define themselves as gay. Gay stories may arise, but there are other stories, too. Rather than being pushed to the edges of a show’s universe, where their only function is to be “the gay one,” these characters get to drive multiple plot engines at once. Because their sexuality isn’t always an issue, it is much more interesting.. just like in the real world.

Which leads me to the awesome gay couple on Reaper: Steve (Michael Ian Black) and Tony (Ken Marino.)

SPOILERS AHEAD!

In some ways, it doesn’t matter that they’re gay. They are two leaders of the rebel demon army, and they are fighting to overthrow Satan and get accepted back into heaven. Regardless of their sexuality, they have a lot to do on the show.

In fact, when the Devil kills Steve, Tony sticks around for the rest of season, and until the finale, all his stories are about helping Sam and rebuilding his army.

And as we learn in the finale, Steve may even hold the secret to defeating evil: After he was killed, he made it back into heaven. And why? Because he had repented for challenging God by doing small good deeds for as many people as he could. That weakened Satan more than Tony’s anger, and it got him his angel wings. One of the grand statements of the whole season, then, is that simple kindness can overpower enormous evil, and good ole Steve is the messenger.

Notice that the message is not “gay kindness” beats evil. Steve just happens to be gay. Even as I type that, I’m moved… The gay guy gets to be the hero, and his heroism has nothing to do with his sexuality. How nice to see a story be so casually accepting.

But on the other hand…

… The series is making a clever statement about homophobia all the same. When the season began, Sam, Sock, and Ben made regular homophobic comments, but when they moved in next to Tony and Steve, they quickly realized how much they liked them. The homophobic jokes stopped. (Along with my arguments in post #1, I think it’s the arrival of T&S that solidified the show’s sincerity.) In fact, the guys totally accepted that they had gay neighbors.

What bothered them was that their neighbors were demons, so T&S had to have some teaching moments about not being demon-phobic. This was very shrewd, particularly if the writers were trying to speak to a straight audience. On the one hand, they got to deliver a message about tolerance, but on the other, they got to flatter the viewer by having the straight, male leads be totally cool with gay guys. It was like the show was saying, “We assume you’re open-minded, obviously. But in case you’re not… here’s a social message that isn’t going to hit you over the head. Feel free to extrapolate it to your own lives.”

And by having gay demons be irritated because of demon-phobia, the show subtly normalized their sexuality. As in, “The only thing that’s hard about being us is being demons, which means being gay is no problem.”

I’d say that kind of winking social lesson is effective. It makes acceptance seem genuinely smart and cool, instead of “smart and cool” in a pandering way, like those cartoons they show elementary school students where a penguin in sunglasses comes out and raps about how awesome it is to love the environment.

By the season finale, T&S are not just fully accepted members of the show’s society: They are role models. When Steve starts appearing to Sam, giving him cryptic messages, Tony freaks out. “Do you really think he would appear to you and not me?” he snarls, proving that his love for Steve has not died. Considering that Sam is trying to cement his relationship with Andi, this is great proof that love can literally last for centuries.

And then Steve does appear to Tony, explaining that he’s in heaven. Tony is so overwhelmed to see his love again–and so thrilled he made it into heaven–that he converts to pacifism on the spot, instantly abandoning his plan to torture Sam until the Devil comes to rescue him.

As in so many great stories, true love causes a noble action. But in this case, the love is between two men. The chance to see a gay relationship at the center of an epic-heroic narrative like this one made me cry.

But also? I was moved simply because the writing was good. And so were Marino and Black’s performances. If Steve had been a woman, the story would have been equally moving… but how nice that the writers let the gay characters be the heroes instead.

Heading into next season, we’re primed to see a heroic love provide a powerful weapon against evil. How beautiful, and how truly revolutionary, to see these noble acts carried out by gay characters. Reaper is smashing through boundaries with incredible grace.