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''Special Unit 2'' was a television series that aired on Creator/{{UPN}} and followed Nick O'Malley (Michael Landes) and Kate Benson (Alexondra Lee), two UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} detectives who work for the titular agency, which is charged with dealing with supernatural monsters called "Links."

It lasted only 2 seasons (strictly speaking, two half-seasons) running from April 2001 to February 2002 for a total of 19 episodes.
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!!This series contains examples of:

* AbnormalAmmo: Nick, after blowing up a building with one shot from his [[HandCannon service-issue pistol]]: "Red ammo kicks ass!"
* AgentMulder:
** Kate insisted she saw monsters as a kid; she kept this belief well into adulthood.
** It's implied that everyone at [=SU2=] was this in their respective lives/careers before joining up.
* AllMythsAreTrue: Except vampires. That's preposterous.
* AnArmAndALeg: Page lost a hand in a war. His fake hand is sometimes used as a RunningGag.
* AntiHero: Nick is a Type 4; he enjoys killing/tormenting Links and even likes intimidating humans on occasion, but still has some baseline heroism.
* ArbitrarySkepticism: All monster myths are real (genies, gargoyles, sphinx, etc.) except Vampires. Vampires are ridiculous. InUniverse, everyone who doesn't work at [=SU2=] displays this.
* BadassNormal: Nick and Kate have guns and guts, that's it, and they're responsible for protecting Chicago from supernatural creatures like gargoyles and werewolves.
* BigBad: The unnamed, former king of the Links was shaping up to be this before the series was cancelled because he escaped in the end of his introduction episode, was involved in the death of Nick's former partner, and, you know, "king of the Links".
* BoxedCrook: Carl works for [=SU2=] because he is a thief and a bad one.
* ByTheBookCop: Kate was this in {{muggle}} police and contrasts Nick, who has more experience in [=SU2=]. In a inversion of the usual, she's EnsignNewbie and gradually becomes more like him as time passes.
%%* {{Camp}}
* CityOfAdventure: UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} is home to many Links, and thus, many adventures for [=SU2=]. In ''The Web'', Page name drops an [=SU2=] in New York, implying that there are [=SU2s=] in other cities.
* CoolOldGuy: If "The Skin" is anything to go by, Kate's grandfather believed her stories about "seeing things no else sees" and encouraged her to not listen to those that tried to dissuade her.
%%* TheCorpseStopsHere
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Carl killed a dragon once. It was more by accident than on purpose, but still considered an impressive feat. [[note]]The dragon slipped on a rainy roof while trying to eat him, [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaling]] itself on a spire.[[/note]] [[spoiler: He later manages to kill another dragon by accidentally kicking a shovel into its mouth.]]
* CowboyCop: Nick has little regard for rules. Not that there are that many regarding Links, but still he doesn't care about them.
* DaChief: Captain Page is the head of [=SU2=], which is a sub-division of the Chicago Police Department.
* DarkestHour: The emergence of a new Chameleon is such a severe situation that Page orders every available officer to take part in finding it, while Carl and other local Links want to get out of the city ASAP. Even the unnamed king of Links showing up didn't cause such a panic.
%%%%* DeadpanSnarker:
%%"Everyone has their moments, but Nick and Carl the most often." this is not context. It says nothing about the trope.
* DidntSeeThatComing: Nick was able to capture the Chameleon the first time around because an early snowstorm threw off its hibernation cycle.
* TheFace: Carl is the [=SU2=] liason to the Link underworld. He's not personable or friendly to say the least, but he has useful connections and considering other Links want nothing to do with [=SU2=], he's a step-up.
* FakeGuestStar: Sean appeared in every episode of Season 1 and was usually rather relevant, but he never made it into the opening credits. By contrast, his replacement did.
* FantasyKitchenSink: Lots of stuff from fantasy is here: Gnomes, sphinxes, [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]], [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]], ogres, genies, gargoyles, mermen, spider people, gorgons, mummies, [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shape-shifting]] [[LizardFolk lizard people]], the Bogeyman, the Sandman, the undead, everything except vampires.
* FateWorseThanDeath: The reason Nick spared the original Chameleon after finally catching him the first time around. Life imprisonment is a far greater punishment for a creature that so enjoys killing.
* FromBadToWorse: In "The Skin," the new Chameleon successfully frees the original, meaning two vicious killers are out there. Worse, the new one is female and intends to breed.
* HalloweenEpisode: "The Eve." [=SU2=] faces off against the unnamed, former king Link, who raises the dead as part of a plan to reclaim a powerful artifact.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: "The Skin" and "The Eve" hint that Nick's former partner was on to something big and putting pieces together in regards to the unnamed Link.
* IKnowYourTrueName: According to Jonathan's research, knowing the name of the former king of the Links will give one power over him. Needless to say, the unnamed Link kept it under wraps.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: "The ________"
%%* IfJesusThenAliens
* ImmuneToBullets:
** Gargoyles are immune to anything that will not blow them up entirely.
** There's a creature with tentacles that lives under the [=SU2=] headquarters that eats garbage. The only reason it's there is because they still haven't found a way to kill it.
** Carl is immune to regular bullets, which DaChief uses as a live demonstration to rookies. Carl likes to show off but hates to buy new shirts.
%%* InterspeciesRomance
* ItsFakeFurItsFine: Carl steals a fur coat for Kate, but since it's fake fur, it wouldn't count as much of a crime.
* UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper: He shows up in "The Beast."
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** Nick is a bad cop because he thinks all Links are dangerous to humans or otherwise a nuisance to them.
** Carl has friendship-of-sorts with [=SU2=], but he veers into {{Jerkass}} fairly often.
* LightningCanDoAnything: Like revive ([[spoiler:and kill]]) an ancient Japanese mummy.
* LiteralGenie: One of the Links exploited this for her EvilPlan. It involved manipulating people into talking figuratively which she could then interpret literally. Unlike a typical genie, this one only had one power: To turn into a puff of smoke and hide in a container. All wishes have to be done the old-fashioned way (e.g. someone asks for a model, she has to go and kidnap one).
* [[LoveGoddess Love God]]: Cupid is a human-looking Link who, when frightened, emits pheromones that make someone inexplicably attracted to someone near them. He also has a ''very'' big heart (literally), causing issues when he has to be taken somewhere on a helicopter.
* MasterOfIllusion: One featured Link, the Chameleon, has the ability to read a person's mind and disguise itself as a familiar face. This allows it to kill its prey and elude capture with far more ease than others.
* MisterExposition: Captain Page, Sean, and later Jonathan play this role by providing information and background on various Links and missions.
* {{Mummy}}: A Japanese mummy is revived by a [[LightningCanDoAnything lightning strike]]. Bonus points for mentioning that it's very rare for the Japanese to mummify someone due to space being a premium in Japan, meaning that the mummy is someone who was a great samurai when he was alive. As such, you don't wanna mess with it, especially since this one can [[VoluntaryShapeshifting appear as a normal man]] and can kick anyone else's ass. The mummy's goal is to kidnap three women "from different corners of the world" (i.e. 1 white, 1 black, 1 Asian) and sacrifice them in a ritual to boost his power up to eleven.
* MonsterOfTheWeek: Each week has a new Link causing trouble in Chicago. The responses range from killing to imprisonment, but usually killing.
* NetworkSideswipe: DaChief briefs the NaiveNewcomer on reality.
-->"The monsters of every child's nightmare, they're all real. Except [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Vampires]]. Complete and total fiction."
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: At the end of "The Eve," Nick and Kate fire on the unnamed Link, seemingly vaporizing him. However, since no one knows his biology, they have no idea what his remains would be, assuming he left any. After Kate suggests it would be impossible for this Link to have survived, Captain Page points out the grim reality of [=SU2=] that ''anything'' is possible.
* NoSuchAgency: Special Unit 2 does not officially exist, which earned Kate some flak when she talked about them with the rest of the police.
%%* NoodleIncident
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: The standard Eastern and Western dragons are brought up, but the dragon we actually seen is described as a special Native American dragon...which behaves like a regular Western dragon anyway.
* OurMonstersAreDifferent: Most of them are [[HumanSubspecies offshoots of humanity that evolved differently]]. Others are your average cryptids.
* OurGnomesAreWeirder: The only gnome we see is Carl, who looks like a normal short human expect for having PointyEars and a slightly weird-looking face. Gnomes are apparently invulnerable to everything except dragon fire and a diamond-encrusted blade.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Apparently, being a beast inside makes for one hell of a power-broker. Otherwise, pretty standard, except there's a short amount of time where werewolves can be cured.
* {{Pheromones}}: One episode features a Link that emits these when scared (it's stated that Links like that are the inspiration for the Cupid myth). He ends up doing it outside a courthouse, and the pheromones (besides [[LoveIsInTheAir causing everyone around him to start making out with strangers]]) cause a HangingJudge to suddenly start letting hardened criminals go free. The team has to find the Link and get him to undo the effect on the judge before a high-profile criminal is set free.
* PrecisionFStrike: In "The Eve," Carl sarcastically tells the officers "Maybe you should re-named yourselves [=FU2=]."
* PsychicAssistedSuicide: Caused by the titular Link in ''The Sandman''.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Captain Page is not on a self-righteous crusade against Links; if they leave humans alone, he'll leave them alone. The others are wasted.
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The Chameleons are assholes. One of them shifted into Kate's (dead) grandfather and re-enacted a cherished memory ForTheEvulz.
* SexSignalsDeath: Lampshaded in the start of "The Depths" by a couple on the beach discussing the sexism of this trope, naturally they get attacked by the Link of the week.
* ShroudedInMyth: The nameless Link. Carl recalls being told stories about him from an extremely elderly relative.
%%%%* TheSmartGuy: Sean in Season 1, Jonathan in Season 2.
* SnarkyNonHumanSidekick: Carl is a gnome and has many sarcastic things to say to his human co-workers.
%%%%%* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Jonathan, for Sean, in Season 2.
* TakeThat: The claim that [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer vampires don't exist]] (which came back to [[IncrediblyLamePun bite them in the behind]] when Miss Summers saw them both come and go).
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: "Red Ammo", which is not an explosive bullet, but instead a mini-grenade capable of ''blowing up a whole building to kingdom come''.
* TheyWalkAmongUs: Links are everywhere; a sphinx sat in front of a college because others thought it was a statue.
* TookALevelInJerkass: According to Page, Nick is the way he is on the show because the Chameleon murdered Julie. Nick became hardened and obsessive in bringing the creature in, but he never let go of his anger.
%%%% "X and Y have this sort of relationship." is not context.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Nick and Carl are often arguing with each other, insulting each other, and even come to blows (Carl is NighInvulnerable after all) but they are friends underneath it, such as when Nick helped plan Carl's surprise birthday party. Carl was also sympathetic towards Nick when the latter's mother was about to die.
* WeirdnessCensor: Kate was recruited because she ''didn't'' have one. Everyone else either doesn't see the Links or convinces themselves they didn't. One guy was abducted by a mummy and told everyone it was some weirdo in bandages.
* WeirdnessMagnet: Kate is shown or stated to have had encounters with monsters since childhood. It is implied that all members of [=SU2=] have had similar experiences.
* WhateverHappenedToTheMouse: Sean's replacement by [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Jonathan]] is completely unexplained and Sean himself is never mentioned again after the first season.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Zero, you're welcome.
* WhoYouGonnaCall: [=SU2=] is a government agency that busts links.
* TheWorldIsNotReady: While people tend to have a WeirdnessCensor, [=SU2=] makes sure to keep the Links situation under wraps. Nick mentions how he once destroyed Kate's photographic proof months before she joined the department.
* YourVampiresSuck: Captain Page dismisses their existence entirely as "the silliest thing I ever heard."
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