The Deal
Tom Dash (Bradley Whitford), an English teacher who wants nothing more than to be a screenwriter, has moved to Hollywood to make his big break. Unfortunately, his scripts are continuously being rejected by every film studio in town, just as they've been for the last 10 years. Having run out of options, Tom is offered help with his plight by his neighbor Donald (Allen Garfield), who claims to have connections in the movie business. Little does Tom realize that Donald is actually the Devil, who expects Tom to give him his soul in exchange for his newfound success. Donald does take the time to tell Tom that he can get out of their deal, but only if he finds someone as desperate for success as he used to be to replace him.
Tropes:
- Affably Evil: Donald may be the Devil himself, but he's nothing but cordial to Tom, getting his mail for him, helping out with his chores, and even offering a way to spare his soul from descending to Hell.
- Ambition Is Evil: Tom's a decent guy who wants more than anything to have one of his scripts approved by a major production company, bemoaning his lack of connections in the film industry. When Donald gets a script approved at the cost of Tom inadvertently forking over his soul, the ambitious screenwriter replaces Vincent, the producer who wrecked his script, after Kingsley fires him. From there, Tom becomes a crooked corporate honcho who sees everyone else as beneath him himself, before he's damned to Hell.
- Bland-Name Product: The film companies that are mentioned throughout the episode are spoofs of real-life companies, such as Pacific Pictures (Paramount) and Global (Universal).
- Chekhov's Gunman: Cassie Smith, the aspiring actress who was robbed of her big break in films by a reluctant Tom. He hurriedly uses her to replace him in the deal he made with Donald, but she's unfortunately not on his side.
- The Chessmaster: Satan, who takes the guise of Donald, Kingsley, and Michael to help build Tom's career in the film industry and tear it down so he can get his soul faster.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: After Tom becomes a producer, he's seen one when he tries to help Cassie make her big break.
- Deal with the Devil: The general idea of the episode. Tom needs help selling a script, and as it happens, his neighbor Donald is the Devil. When he's not happy with what Pacific Pictures does to his script, Donald offers Tom the chance to become a studio executive himself to control how his scripts are made, which results in Tropical Fruit president Kingsley firing Vincent and giving Tom his position. Soon after this, Tom realizes that he's sold his soul to Donald for his success, and wants to avoid being damned to Hell, so he needs to find someone that can take his place.
- Didn't Think This Through: In desperation to avoid damnation, Tom dupes Cassie into replacing him to spare his own soul. He evidently didn't consider the repercussions that would have come with allowing someone he actively screwed over the chance to do anything she wants.
- Dope Slap: Kingsley gives Vincent a rapid fire pair, one on each cheek, to get him to come to his senses when he rants after being fired.
- Downer Ending: Tom ends up sent to Hell by Cassie, the woman he screwed over, and Donald prepares to offer her her own deal once she sells her soul to him.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Donald, the Devil himself, treats Tom like a friend before he reveals his true nature, and he also owns a dog named "Diablo", who he dotes over.
- Executive Meddling: In-Universe. Tom spends the opening of the first act complaining to studio head Vincent about the sneak preview of his script, where a mother looking for a lost child was essentially turned into a "heavy metal rock video".
- Michael, the director of Tom's film when the writer himself is made a producer, tries to do the same thing, threatening to go to Kinglsey (who loves the idea) if Tom refuses.
- Flipping the Table: In his frustration after receiving his latest rejection, and bemoaning his lack of connections in the film industry, Tom flips his coffee table in a rage.
- Foreshadowing: As Donald leaves Tom's apartment in the opening act, Tom notes how much he hates it when it gets hot. Donald notes that he kind of likes it, hinting that he's from the hottest place in creation.
- Hell Hound: Donald's dog Diablo is a heavily-implied case, once he's revealed to be Satan.
- Here We Go Again!: Donald ends the episode damning Tom to Hell thanks to a moment of reflex on Tom's part, then trying to ensorcel Cassie into her own contract with him, complete with an extended freeze-frame and a goofy score leading to the ending credits.
- He Who Fights Monsters: The first act has Tom berating Vincent for Pacific Pictures utterly destroying his original script. In the second act, after Tom gives Donald his soul, Vincent is fired and Tom is given his position by Kingsley. From there, Tom himself becomes a smarmy and sleazy executive who becomes desperate to avoid rotting in Hell.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: To avoid being sent to Hell, Tom gives replaces himself in the contract he signs with the first person he thinks of. That person happens to be Cassie, the woman he robbed of her dreams, who promptly sends him to Hell anyway.
- Horrible Hollywood: Hollywood is shown to be a wretched hive of sleaziness and backstabbing, where people and companies freely give up their souls for the chance to gain power, upon which they alter great scripts more and more until they pander only to the lowest common denominator to make big box office money. It makes sense given that the Devil himself lives there and has a lot of important clients.
- I Lied: Donald's response to Tom after finding out that he does, in fact, have horns and a tail.
- Irony: Lampshaded. As he celebrates finally getting a contract from a studio, as well as a check for $20,000, an ecstatic Tom declares "I'll be damned!". Donald immediately rebuts "You said it!".
- Also, after Tom reluctantly agrees to talk about his grievances with the preview of his film over lunch, Vincent tells him "Don't ever change!".
- Jerkass: Vincent, the head of Pacific Pictures Tom meets with, turns his script about a mother trying to find her lost child into a heavy metal video, brushing off his concerns with the typical Hollywood smooth talk.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After the above meddling, when Kingsley Diamond, the head of Pacific's parent company, Tropical Fruit, stops by the office, he fires Vincent without a second thought, prompting the former producer to reveal that he has a house to pay off and his lover is suing him for alimony, knocking him a few pegs down from the arrogant and condescending producer he was earlier.
- Lighter and Softer: The nature of Tom's predicament, Donald's minimalist Devil appearance, the overly-sleazy nature of everyone in Hollywood, and the light-hearted score make the episode one of these offerings.
- Loophole Abuse: Donald tells Tom that he can get out of having his soul sent to Hell by finding someone as desperate for easy success as he used to be to replace him in their titular deal.
- Louis Cypher: Averted. Satan takes the completely unassuming name of "Donald" when he tries to help Tom with his future in the movie industry, in the best way he knows.
- Magically-Binding Contract: As to be expected of the Devil, Donald has bunches of them, custom-made for actors, producers, accountants, writers and the like, in his desk drawer, giving one to Tom so the titular deal can be formally worked out. Though he initially asks if they can sign on spec, Tom still signs his contract, upon which his signature starts smoking.
- Master of Disguise: It's implied that Satan isn't just the true identity of Donald, but also those of Kingsley and Michael, who he uses to build Tom up and then tear him down.
- Motor Mouth: Michael, director of Tom's film, goes on and on about how the script is garbage to him.
- Nothing Personal: Vincent is told this by Kingsley after he's fired, as much as it seems like it's personal.
- Plot Parallel: Tom manages to lure Cassie to his apartment by pretending to hold an on-location audition for a film about a woman who sells her soul to the Devil; the plot of the episode itself.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Before his true identity is revealed, Donald wears a red jacket over a black suit with red socks as he comforts Tom after his visit to Pacific Pictures.
- Satan: Donald's true identity. He also breaks out cheesy horns and a tail after Tom brings it up, beforehand lying about how that's just in the cartoons.
- He's later hinted to take the forms of Kingsley Diamond (Vincent's boss) and Michael Rudnick (the director of Tom's film), trying to make it easier for Tom to hand over his soul.
- Smooth-Talking Talent Agent: Every man Tom meets in Hollywood talks like one, illustrating how self-centered, money-grubbing, and casually jackass the town itself is.
- Take That!: The entire episode is a big fat jab at Hollywood, from the fact that studios are run entirely by accountants who turn great scripts into pieces of crap that pander to the lowest common denominator to make easy money, to the shady business practices that are virtually everywhere in sight. It's for this reason that Donald, the Devil himself, lives in the city, even telling Tom that he has "a lot of important contacts in this town".
- Time Skip: A couple of them are present, such as the one between the opening and first acts, where Tom's script has already been (more-or-less) filmed. The second act also moves forward a couple of times after Tom is given Vincent's job, where he's been molded into a replica of him who tries and fails to help newbie actor Cassie land her first role.
- Woman Scorned: After robbing her of her big break, Cassie becomes one who has it out for Tom, who also told her that he loved her, promising her a tailored role that ended up going to the leading man's girlfriend. The first thing she does after the man himself lets her take his place in the deal he made with Donald is send him to Hell.
- World of Jerkass: What else could you have possibly expected in an episode where the absolute worst traits of Hollywood are shown in full force?
- Writers Suck: Tom is introduced struggling to pen a script that won't get panned by every studio in Hollywood, as all the others he's written over the last 10 years have.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: A non-lethal variant is present throughout Hollywood, as is demonstrated when Vincent, who introduces the newly-soulless Tom to Kingsley, the head of Pacific Pictures' parent company, fires him.
- You Look Familiar: In-Universe, Tom notes that Tropical Fruit president Kingsley Diamond and director Michael Rudnik look familiar (they're both played by the same actor). It's hinted that they're both Donald in disguise, helping Tom in his quest for success and then screwing him over to get his soul easier.
