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In General
- For the Evulz: This is the primary reason Satan or his minions, such as formerly fallen angel Kathleen, do anything. Tess lampshades it once: "Evil is for evil's sake, period."
Satan and his forms
Satan — in General
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He takes many forms, including an 11 year old boy. Lampshaded by Tess.
- Big Bad: Duh. It's heavily downplayed however as he himself is only responsible for the conflicts of a handful of episodes, with the theme of the show being that people are more often than not responsible for their problems. He is, however, the Final Boss of the show, being responsible for the explosion at the school in the finale.
- Big Red Devil: Averted most of the time. Satan only ever appears in human form in the show but he does briefly shift to the red part during one of his defeat. Monica lampshades it in "In The Name Of God":Monica: I thought that he'd be more scary you know? Fire and brimstone, horns?
- The Corrupter: Since he has no physical power over people, he gets around this by manipulating them into giving in into their hatred and bad feelings. He acts a lot more subtle in "Netherlands" where he tries to convince Monica of joining him, using the justification of Not Evil, Just Misunderstood.
- Dramatic Thunder: The reveal of who he is is followed by the sound of thundercracks in the background.
- Evil Wears Black: Many of his human disguises wear dark colored suits and clothing.
- The Evils of Free Will: In "In The Name Of God" and "Netherlands", he denounces free will as being responsible for hatred and suffering and thus should not exist.Tess: That darn free will.Satan: God screwed up, free will is a curse.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's not really scary or intimidating at all, just manipulative. This is most evident when he is played by Mandy Patinkin where he tries really hard to pretend to be the good guy. He pulls it off very well, acting as the kind and patient guide to Monica, but it's just a facade to manipulate her.
- Knight of Cerebus: He's always played dead seriously and is every bit as evil as one would expect the Devil to be.
- Manipulative Bastard: In his suave moods, he can be very manipulative, such as getting Tess to give into hatred and lose her angelic powers or getting Monica to come inches from falling from Grace. The angels also insist that this is his only real power as he can't actually intervene but can use his word to corrupt others.Sam: He's deceived us all. He's good at it.
- Minor Major Character: He's considered to be a large threat to humanity and society, considering he takes advantage of people's doubts and fears, and leads them into bad habits. Yet, despite this, he only appears in 5 episodes among the show's 200+ episode span.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: In "In The Name Of God", "Netherlands" and "I Will Walk With You" he manifests as men wearing fancy suits.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: One aspect that makes this take on Satan particularly threatening, is that unlike most versions, he isn't Obviously Evil. Most of the time when he's present, he looks like a perfectly normal man with not much to make him stand out. Any one of the townspeople be corrupting people anytime.
- Voluntary Shapeshifter: He can transform into a wide variety of people as temporary disguises.
- We Can Rule Together: Tries this on Monica when she has a Heroic BSoD.
Frank Littleton
Played by: John Schneider
The form assumed by Satan in "In The Name of God", the president of Guilford City's council and secretely the founder of a hate group. His goal in the episode is to radicalize a man named Tim, one of Tess' former case, so as to corrupt his purpose as a great leader.
- Coat Cape: During his showdown with the angels at the end of the episode, he hangs his coat over his shoulders.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Parodied. In an attempt to bring the different attendees of one of his meeting together he says that he doesn't care if they're differents (as in, whether they're "aryans", "klan members" or "skinheads"), as long as they all hate minorities.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Downplayed. Just before being cast out by Tim, Tess remarks that God loves everyone, including Satan, but this does little to humanize him since he rejects it entirely.Tess: And by the way, God loves you too.
- Hiding Behind Religion: Rather than use his usual "God isn't listening" platform, Satan chooses to quote the Bible and talk about the "God-given right to defend ourselves" to legitimize his racist platform.
- The Power of Hate: The main theme of the episode is how hate is the manifestation of evil with Satan being his representative. The angel Sam explains his power reaches so far that he's able to instill hate into Tess' heart, despite her never having even experience the feeling before. Satan's attempts also involve convincing Tim that hate and fear are what gives him strength and power. Tim eventually rejects this idea and instead chooses The Power of Love.
- Smug Snake: Courtesy of John Schneider, who just oozes smarm once he's unmasked. As Monica points out he also gets all of his power to hurt others through Tim's group, yet spends his time belittling and abusing him.
Derek
Played by: Todd Rulapaugh
Satan's disguise in "Breaking Bread", seemingly a harmless mechanic who pushed two men to commit a hate crime and is trying to make them evade justice so as to break the resolve of Matt, who is destined to become a prophet of the lord.
- Evil Sounds Deep: When saying his We Will Meet Again line, he speaks in a deep grave voice that contrasts with the regular voice of his portrayer.
- Graceful Loser: He takes his defeat with less anger than the other ones.
- Manipulative Bastard: He manages to talk the townspeople out of organizing against the hate group brewing in their community by pointing out how dangerous it might be for the group to learn their names, as well as overall suggesting that they do nothing in the hopes that the group will move on. Of course, this results in the hateful sentiments increasing because no one's doing anything about it.
- Supernatural Golden Eyes: When Matt sees him in the back of the murderers' car, he sports reptile-like eyes that glow in the dark to invoke Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness. This is actually the only time in the show where Satan has a Mark of the Supernatural.
Dennis
Played by: Thomas Dekker
Satan's disguise a young boy in "The Invitation" who is seeking to prevent the arrival of a baby who would, in Monica's words, "do great things for God".
- Animal Motifs: The episode uses the word "Beast" to describe Satan and the latter is seen alternating between his boy form and that of an adult lion.
- Deadpan Snarker: Perhaps due to appearing as a kid, this incarnation of Satan certainly has a sense of humor the other ones lacked.Dennis (as Monica is showing her angelic glow): Oh yeah! Here comes the lightshow! I love it when you guys do that.
- Enfant Terrible: Being disguised as a kid doesn't make him any less evil, giving that his plan involves causing the death of a pregnant woman.
- Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: In universe this is simply Satan revealing his true nature but on the show this manifests as black eyeliner.
The Driver
Played by: Mandy Patinkin
In "Netherlands", Monica wavering the road, her faith having been deeply shaken after witnessing a terrorist attack that killed dozens of people, meets Satan driving a car on the road who attempts to cause her fall.- A Chat with Satan: While the dialogue between him and Monica consists mostly of Break Them by Talking lectures, he does at one point try to tempt her by offering her a human life. As Monica has , the prospect appeals to her very much.
- Cool Car: He appears to Monica driving a black convertible.
- Cool Shades: He sports sunglasses when meeting with Monica and is very charismatic.
- "Leave Your Quest" Test: He tries to use the appeal of a human life with a family of her own to tempt Monica into falling from grace since it's one of the thing she's barred from having as an angel.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: He tries to invoke this trope by saying that he's not the "enemy", but the "alternative", but as his other appearences have shown, he's only doing this to manipulate Monica.
- Villain Song: As his grip on Monica's psyche is tightening, he starts singing a cover of "No One Is Alone", with the lyrics fitting suprisingly well to the situation.Still you're not aloneNo one is alone
- Villain in a White Suit: He first appears as a man in a black suit before switching to a white suit as he insinuates himself in Monica's heart and tries to project an image of Light Is Good.
- We Can Rule Together: He offers Monica to join his side.
Jones
Fallen Angels
Kathleen
- Evil Counterpart: To Monica, especially considering they were both caseworker angels who even worked alongside each other. But the main difference is that Kathleen eventually got bored of saving lives and went rogue, while Monica genuinely enjoyed being a beacon of hope and savior.
- Evil Feels Good: She even says this.
- Evil Former Friend: She used to be a close companion to Monica during her days as a search an rescue angel, which just makes her turn to darkness even more personal for Monica.
- Fallen Heroine: As a "caseworker" she would save people lives on a regular basis some of which include floods, fires and travelers in peril. But then a some unknown point in time, she soon got bored of constantly saving lives and being on the good side, which made her easy to corrupt into being a follower of the dark side.
- Good Is Boring: Fallen angel Kathleen once tells Monica this is her justification for switching sides: "I'm having too much fun."
- Heel–Face Turn: She ends up having a redemption in her third in final episode, "Clipped Wings", after she was denied a promotion to demonic "caseworker."
- Manipulative Bitch: In every one of her appearances, she insinuates herself into her victim's life and wreaks havoc, usually by saying/doing things that are supposedly helpful. For example, when she urges a cop not to trust Monica by implying that Monica is the conniving one.
Monique
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Especially since he can impersonate Monica.
- Evil Is Petty / Villain Decay: In her first appearance, she tries to trick a man into selling his soul and nearly succeeds. In her second, she merely tries to instill doubt and fear of failure in Gloria.
Gregory
