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From Dusk Till Dawn: the Series is a horror television series based on the 1996 cult movie From Dusk Till Dawn. It premiered on March 11, 2014 as one of the headliners of Robert Rodriguez's El Rey Network, where it ran for three seasons.

Like the movie it is based on, the series centers on two brothers, Seth Gecko (D.J. Cotrona) and Richard “Richie” Gecko (Zane Holtz), professional criminals on the run from the authorities after a disastrous bank robbery, who are trying to make their way to safe haven across the border in Mexico. Along the way they take a family hostage: former minister Jacob Fuller (Robert Patrick), his daughter Katie Fuller (Madison Davenport) and son Scott Fuller (Brandon Soo Hoo).

However, things are complicated by supernatural forces at play that have taken an interest in the Geckos, and seem to be leading them to a fateful confrontation.


This series provides examples of the following:

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    #-I 
  • Abusive Parents: The Geckos’ father took out his frustrations on his children.
  • Adaptational Attractiveness:
    • Richie Gecko was played by Quentin Tarantino in the original movie, but in the series he’s played by a former male model.
    • Carlos was played by Cheech Marin in the film and by the younger and better looking Wilmer Valderrama in the series.
    • Inverted by Robert Patrick in Harvey Keitel's former role.
    • The bank teller the brothers hold hostage, along with a Race Lift. In the film, she is a middle aged and white, while in the series, she is a younger Latina woman.
  • Adaptational Badass:
    • The two young women Richie takes hostage in the first episode. Their film counterparts run out the door when the shooting happens. In the series, they stop to kick Richie's ass, first.
    • Even Richie himself. In the films he was a reckless psychopath whom Seth had to keep on a proverbial leash while in the series, he's still pretty unhinged, but that was mainly due to psychic manipulations from Santanico and he was described as a pretty competent thief prior to Seth's arrest.
  • Adaptation Expansion: The first season of the series follows the plot of the movie relatively faithfully, but at a much slower pace. At the same time it adds new characters and provides a backstory absent from the original film. Until the seventh episode, when the show's plot takes another direction.
    • Even the specific race of the Vampires is expanded, in the movie, only Santanico was snake-like, now every vampire is snake-like.
  • Adaptational Heroism:
    • Richie Gecko is still a creepy psycho, but unlike his movie counterpart, he has the excuse that supernatural forces are actively messing with his head.
    • The vampire Santanico Pandemonium is portrayed as a Tragic Monster in the series, whereas in the movie she had no such redeeming traits and was an unambiguous monster.
  • Adaptation Personality Change: While his movie counterpart was just a random badass who happened to be at the bar that night, in the show Sex Machine is really Professor Tanner, an undercover professor of archeology following the trail of the Blood Cult.
  • Adaptational Villainy:
    • In the original movie Carlos was merely the brothers’ contact in Mexico and unaware of the Titty Twister’s true nature. In the series he’s a full blown vampire and intentionally leading the Geckos to the Titty Twister.
    • Likewise, it seems Sex Machine AKA Professor Tanner cut a deal with the Culebras and wants to sacrifice Katie on the temple's altar. He is also implied to be responsible for the ritual murders Freddie originally consulted him about.
  • Adventurer Archaeologist: Prof. Tanner fancies himself this, going “undercover” to investigate the Blood Cult.
  • Age-Gap Romance: Burt and Ximena are revealed to be former lovers in season three, and although both characters are vampires, Tom Savini is 43 years older than Emily Rios and looks it.
  • Alcoholic Parent: More than one:
    • Reverend Fuller becomes one after his wife’s death.
    • The Gecko’s father was a violent abusive drunk.
  • A Lighter Shade of Black: The Gecko brothers are thieves and murderers, but the vampires run an international drug cartel and drain innocent girls by the container-full.
  • Arc Words:
    • "The Gecko Brothers ride again/The Gecko Brothers are back."
    • "I'm a professional thief."
    • "You're my brother."
  • Artistic License – History: Professor Tanner mentions to Freddie that the Culebras' symbol appears in "codexes[sic] going back three thousand years"—except that paper technology wasn't even developed in the Americas until around the 5th century CE.
  • Asian and Nerdy: Scott was adopted by the Fullers from China. He’s also fluent in Elvish and uses ''Frak'' as a swear word.
  • Badass Longcoat: Both Lord Malvado and The Regulator very stylish and badass looking dusters.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: The Geckos were the reason why the Fuller Family totally shattered. But even so, Kate still manages to understand Richie and believes that there is still good in him and sticks with Seth during his time of need. In time both brothers came to care for her, even though they deny it or act like they don't care, it is clear that they genuinely worry for her and does their best to protect and save her.
  • Big Bad:
    • Lord Malvado is the main antagonist of the second season.
    • Amaru serves this role in Season 3.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Seth accepts Carlos's deal after he promises a safe haven for Richie, who Carlos knows is unstable.
  • Bilingual Backfire: She may speak it with a fairly heavy accent, but Kate is remarkably fluent in Spanish, much to the surprise of some of people talking around her in Mexico.
  • Berserk Button: Don't call Richie crazy.
  • Blood Bath: Santanico takes one in episode 7, "Pandemonium."
  • Book Dumb: Seth.
    Richie: [about Santanico] She's... complicated.
    Seth: Algebra's "complicated". She's fuckin'... AP Trig.
  • Bottomless Magazines: The Regulator's pistol never runs out of ammo despite being a single shot flintlock pistol
  • Bowdlerise: The speech outside the Titty Twister, resulting in some Unusual Euphemism.
  • Brains and Brawn: The Gecko brothers. Seth is the brawn and Richie is the brain.
  • Cain and Abel: Lord Malvado and his brother Lord Oculto really don't get along. Malvado kills Oculto in the episode Bizarre Tales.
  • Canon Character All Along: Jake Busey showed up early in season one as a Professor Aiden Tanner. Professor Tanner never appeared in any of the films, so you could assume he's a Canon Foreigner. You can stop assuming a few episodes later when he shows up as the biker Sex Machine.
  • Canon Welding: In season 3 Dr. Dakota Block, Earl McGraw's daughter, makes an appearance, being the first character from Grindhouse to be brought into this continuity.
  • The Cartel: Carlos’s employer, which in this setting is led by vampires.
  • Catchphrase: "I'm a professional thief." Seth seems to say this at least once an episode.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Carlos accuses Freddie of having a case of this. He claims that even if he got his revenge on the Geckos, he would still be unable to walk away now that he knows about the supernatural.
  • Chainsaw Good: Scott finds a chainsaw when the group searches for weapons, and Kate later uses it to defend her father from a vampire, before turning to decapitate another.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Seth and Richie aren't above fighting dirty.
  • Continuity Nod: A Big Kahuna Burger restaurant features prominently in episode 3. Richie also gives a Red Apple cigarette to Kate in episode 4.
  • Darker and Edgier: Surprisingly so, since the original was pretty damn dark to begin with. But whereas the movie had a general campy, quirky tone to it, the series is pretty damn bleak from the get go. One example: In the original Pastor Jacob's wife died in an accident a few months ago. In the series, Pastor Jacob caused the accident because his mentally depressed wife attempted to open her door while the car was moving and they were in the car to begin with because the wife took several pills, intending to OD.
  • The Determinator: Seth Gecko, of course. But Ranger Gonzales is an even bigger one.
  • Dhampyr: Technically, except from the Nine Lords, all of the Culebras are this, As the Nine Lords are born Culebras, demons from Xibalba, whereas other Culebra shown is turned from them making them hybrids instead of full bloods.
  • Doomed by Canon: Even though the details differ, bothEarl McGraw and the Geckos’s original hostage die at more or less the same point in the story as they did in the movie.
  • The Dragon:
    • In the first season Carlos is Santanico’s right hand man and the one in charge of implementing her plan.
    • In the second season, The Regulator is Lord Malvado's main enforcer while first Scott and then Maia serve as Carlos's lieutenants.
    • In the third season Brasa serves as Amaru's chief lieutenant.
  • Eldritch Location: The Temple under the Titty Twister. It is said to be built over the doorway to the Underworld and time and space work wrong there. The closer one gets to the center of the labyrinth the worse the Hallucinations and visions get, to the point of Mind Rape. Staying too long inside it results in Sanity Slippage for a human. It also serves as prison for all the supernatural enemies that the Nine Lords have captured over the millennia.
  • Enemy Civil War: The low level culebras are tired of being treated like slaves by the Nine Lords of the Night and their lieutenants, so they start a coup.
  • Eyes Do Not Belong There: And eye in the palm of the hand is a recurring symbol in the show. Richie hallucinates one in the bullet hole in his hand.
  • Evil Weapon:
    • In the first season it's Richie's bone and obsidian knife. Once Ranger Gonzales gets possession of it he starts getting visions and being harassed by a criminal he and Earl killed years before.
    • In the second season it's Lord Oculto's macuahuitl which demands human sacrifice at regular intervals and is the key to whatever Lord Malvado is looking for.
  • Faking the Dead: In the episode "Opening Night" Richie dresses up a couple of corpses as the Geckos and blows them up, in order to make sure the manhunt for them dies down.
  • Familiar Soundtrack, Foreign Lyrics: Santanico's dance from the original movie is of course recreated here. Instead of Tito & Tarantula's song After Dark, the dance is set to its Spanish cover by Robert Rodriguez's band Chingon.
  • Fantastic Caste System: Xibalaba has a ruthlessly enforced social organization, with Amaru and the demonic aristocracy on top, the demonic "middle class" doing their biding, and beings like the culebras at the very bottom, treated as slaves. It's the reason why the Nine Lords escaped to the mortal world in the first place, thousands of years ago.
  • Fight Clubbing: In season 3, Santanico runs a fight club out of an abandoned factory, where both humans and culebras fight.
  • Forging Scene: Carlos melts down his sword and uses the material to forge a large knife and a pair of metal fangs.
  • Foreshadowing: During a flashback we see a kind and religiously devout Prospector being turned into some sort of monster after some of the blood in Lord Oculto's blood well possesses him. Fast forward to the very end of the second season and Kate, the kindest and most devout character on the show is brought back to live and possessed by the same force.
  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Richie Gecko comes off like this initially, but the reality is far more complicated.
  • Fille Fatale: Kate is 17, but she comes on to Richie to convince him to let her family leave the Titty Twister. Given her reaction afterwards, however, she may not have been fully in control of her actions at the time.
  • Groin Attack: Kate delivers one on Sex Machine for leaving her and her father to die in the tunnels.
  • Hemo Erotic: In one bed scene, Kisa reluctantly tries some sexy neck-biting on a consenting Richie, at this point freshly a culebra. He later says it was a novel sensation, but he liked it. She's later seen feeding off Manola in season three in a manner that is heavily implied to be their way of having sex.
  • Here We Go Again!: By the end of the series the Geckos are right back where they started the series... robbing banks. The only difference is that now Kate is part of their gang.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • Sgt. Frost blows himself up to take out a bunch of culebras and give Seth, Tanner and the Fullers a chance to escape.
    • Rafa Infante gives up his own life in order to buy enough time for Seth and Kate to escape The Regulator.
  • Human Sacrifice: Plays a key role in the story:
    • It was Santanico’s opposition to be the recipient of this that resulted in her being transformed into what she is now.
    • Kate almost ends up sacrificed while looking for Scott in the tunnels.
  • The Immune: Freddie Gonzalez is immune to the culebras' venom and can’t be turned. Not even when bitten by Santanico herself. His body even physically expels the venom.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Seth's summary of the Abilene robbery and the people he killed that day.
    ”I left some bodies on the ground back in Kansas. Now, no doubt they were good men and true, but they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they stood between me and my freedom. So I did what I had to do. I did what anybody would do. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?”
  • I Die Free: Implied with the female culebras who serve Santanico at the Titty Twister. They all happily and willingly expose themselves to the sunlight that destroys them in the first season finale.
  • Innocuously Important Episode:
    • In the first season episode "Mistress", Seth gives Vanessa four of the oil bonds he and Richie have stolen in Abilene. While it looks like a simple filler subplot, it becomes important in season 2, when it is revealed that the bonds contain a map, and with four pieces missing, it becomes indecipherable.
    • At the end of the second season episode "Bizarre Tales", Carlos blows up the Titty Twister. While at the moment it seems like a purely symbolic action, representing Carlos's letting go of his past, in the season 3 premiere it is revealed that this action freed all the prisoners of the Twister's labyrinth, setting the plot of season 3 in motion.
  • Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Richie calls Scott "Tokyo Drift" while they're in the RV. Scott is obviously not amused.
  • In the Blood:Freddie’s immunity to the culebra venom is attributed to his “ancient bloodline” as a descendant of the Otomi.
  • It's Personal: After they kill his partner, the manhunt for the Geckos becomes very personal for Ranger Gonzalez.

    K-Z 
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Sex Machine arms himself with one after the group loses their guns.
  • Kryptonite Factor: Besides sunlight, Culebras are also vulnerable to the cold.
  • Last Episode, New Character: Ximena was introduced in season 2 before becoming a recurring character in season 3.
  • Like Parent, Like Spouse: Scott accuses Katie of this: the preacher’s daughter dating a guy who texts her Bible quotes as a way of flirting.
  • Mayincatec:
    • The Titty Twister and the temple it hides displays a mixture of Aztec and Mayan motifs, as well as secret passages and gigantic pre-Columbian technology.
    • Amaru's name comes from Inca Mythology, but her role in the story is tied to the Mayan version of hell.
  • The Maze: Located at the heart of the Temple, it uses a combination of Psychological Torment Zone and Your Mind Makes It Real to create tailor made tests for those wishing to reach the sarcophagus which contains Santanico’s blood.
  • Meaningful Rename: Starting in season 3, Kisa no longer answers to the name Santanico, even though most culebras and Xibalbans continue to refer to her as such.
  • Mexican Standoff: The show loves them:
    • Scott and the Geckos get into one in the RV. Bonus points because they’re about to cross the border into Mexico.
    • Once in Mexico, Ranger Gonzales and the Geckos get into another one at the Titty Twister.
    • Later when Seth puts a knife to Freddie's throat Jacob points a shotgun at him.
  • Mistaken for Granite: The Regulator spends most of his time as a statue in the Titty Twister until reanimated by Lord Malvado for a mission.
  • Mr. Exposition: Professor Tanner, the main source of information about the Blood Cult and the culebras.
  • Mugging the Monster: The two mooks that Richie hires to help with the job in the episode "Opening Night" don't have a clue what they're getting themselves into when they try to steal from Richie and turn in his corpse for the reward.
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much: In "Opening Night" Kate meets a culebra working at a market who just wants to live his life in peace and claims to only feed because he has to.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Of course, a lot of memorable lines from the original movie have popped up in the series, sometimes in a completely different context.
    • Carlos steals the border guard's identity in the series. In the movie, Cheech Marin portrays both characters. Chet Pussy, also played by Marin in the movie, was left to be a separate character though.
    • In the movie, everything even remotely cross-shaped hurt vampires, or at least scared them off, and the main characters made great use of that. In the series, repelling a vampire with a cross is the first thing Jacob tries, and, as it turns out, in this continuity crosses do not work.
    • In season 2, Freddie finds the Savini Codex. Some time later, Richie mentions Fred Williamson in a conversation. Tom Savini and Fred Williamson portrayed respectively Sex Machine and Frost in the original movie.
    • In the third episode of season 3, Protect and Serve, Sex Machine encounters a character played by Tom Savini. When he mentions his nickname, Savini's character is clearly not impressed.
    • In the same episode Richie shows a fake ID with a picture of Quentin Tarantino.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Santanico Pandemonium (played by Eiza González) is main attraction at the Titty Twister due to her beauty and sex appeal. Most of the clothes her wear tend to be very Stripperiffic
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Santanico Pandemonium and the Nine Lords of the Night.
  • Nasty Party: During a dinner, the lieutenants of the Nine Lords are incapacitated by poison in their blood goblets and then killed at the table by Santanico and Carlos.
  • Nebulous Evil Organisation: The Nine Lords’ influence is said to be very widespread and powerful. The only aspect of it seen on the show is The Cartel.
  • Nerves of Steel: Kate doesn’t even flinch when holding a target over her head for Richie to throw a knife at.
  • Noodle Incident: Scott and the lacrosse team.
  • "No Peeking!" Request: In "Straitjacket", Ranger Gonzalez is woken up by a call from his family, making his Ximena, whom he has just slept with, very uncomfortable. When she needs to climb out of bed shortly after, she asks him to turn around, clearly no longer comfortable with the idea of him seeing her naked.
  • Not His Sled: The series doesn’t even try to maintain the notorious Halfway Plot Switch of the original movie. The supernatural elements are evident from the very first scene of the pilot.
  • Off the Rails: The seventh episode, Pandemonium, marks the point where the show’s plot breaks completely with that of the movie. Santanico survives the initial big fight at the Titty Twister and her plan to overthrow the Nine Lords of the Night takes center stage.
  • Off with His Head!: This is how Carlos deals with some people that are trying to steal from him, followed by Decapitation Presentation.
  • Outlaw Couple: The second season shows two very different versions:
    • Richie and Santanico are very effective and enjoy all the more glamorous aspects of this trope.
    • Seth and Kate are practically a Deconstruction. They are not romantically involved, their heists are almost always failures, Seth doesn’t let Kate participate, they live in shitty motels and they’re barely scrapping by.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: The vampires in the series are different even from the ones in the movie:
    • They are called culebras, the Spanish word for snake, which they resemble closely instead of bats. They have fangs that fold into their palates instead of retracting into their gums and inject venom. They also have snake-like scales and skin when transformed.
    • They are unaffected by crosses.
    • Bullets can hurt and incapacitate them but they can only be killed by destroying their hearts, at which point their bodies turn to dust.
    • They can walk in the sunlight without much trouble if they have fed recently, but eventually it starts to burn them.
    • After draining their victims they can absorb their memories and shapeshift into their form. It’s implied they do this by feeding on the person’s soul as well as their blood.
    • They can consciously decide not to inject their venom when they bite someone, allowing them to feed on someone without turning them.
    • They seem only slightly stronger and faster than normal humans.
    • They also enjoy eating human flesh and organs, in addition to the blood.
    • According to Robert Rodriguez, the creatures are in fact not really vampires, but something very similar and more ancient. In Season 3, they are revealed to be minor demons from the hell-like dimension of Xibalba, where they were the lower class in demonic hierarchy until the Nine Lords of Night fled to Earth.
  • Our Demons Are Different: Introduced in Season 3, they are denizens from the Mayan underworld and even greater in power than the culebras (who used to serve them as lowly slaves). They possess wildly varied appearances with some being indistinguishable from humans such as Amaru and Brasa, humanoid but grotesque like Calavera and Olmeca or just completely alien like Cipactli.
  • Pædo Hunt: Kate serves up a man to be killed for lunch by Rafa because he followed her into a dark place expecting sex with her.
  • Papa Wolf: Jacob instinctively points a gun at Sex Machine the second Kate mentions that he hit on her.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: Come Season 3 Scott and his band have taken to feeding only on criminals and low-lives.
  • Meat Puppet: Calavera, the Skull Keeper, can rip a person’s skull and use them to control them, body and soul.
  • Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: After spending centuries as a prisoner in the temple, Santanico's knowledge of things like movies and TV shows is very limited. The Titty Twister didn’t have cable apparently.
  • Psychic Block Defense: Losing his trust in Santanico allows Richie to block her Mind Manipulation.
  • Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Ranger Gonzalez begins having dreams that provide coded information about what is going on in season 2.
  • Psychological Torment Zone: The deeper one goes into the Temple, the worse the hallucinations pulled from your own memories become. Exaggerated in the Labyrinth itself.
  • Public Domain Character: The Nine Lords of the Night.
  • The Purge: In the season 3 premiere the Brasa and Calavera manage to slaughter all but one of the remaining Nine Lords, effectively wiping out the leadership of the culebras.
  • Rearrange the Song: The opening theme is the "dance" sequence from the film, sped up.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Santanico and Carlos are both over 500 years old.
  • Religion of Evil: The Blood Cult that worships the Vision Serpent as a god. It’s composed of serpent-vampires and requires massive amounts of Human Sacrifice.
  • Remake Cameo:
    • Robert Patrick, who played Buck Powers, the protagonist of the second film, Texas Blood Money, plays Jacob here.
    • Danny Trejo, who played Razor Charlie in the original movie joined the cast in season 2 as The Regulator.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: The Nine Lords have Narciso put Carlos inside the Labyrinth to be "reeducated" after he helps Santanico slaughter the Councilors and then turns on her. He doesn’t expect to come out alive. But he does.
  • Riding into the Dawn: The first season ends with two sets of people riding into the rising sun: Seth and Kate in a sports car and Richie and Santanico in an SUV with tinted windows.
  • Safecracking: Richie’s specialty. He was considered the best before his Sanity Slippage.
  • Sanity Slippage:
    • Richie Gecko used to be a highly intelligent, methodical and dependable bank robber. However while Seth was in prison he became more and more unhinged, and it only gets worse as the series starts.
    • A prolonged stay inside the temple has deteriorated Sgt. Frost's grasp on reality.
  • The Savage South: South of the Border there are vicious drug cartels, safe havens for criminals and vampires.
  • Seers / Psychic Powers: Richie has constant visions and displays knowledge that he should have no way of knowing. It is implied to be the result of Mind Manipulation by Santanico Pandemonium.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can:
    • The Temple is Santanico’s prison, courtesy of the Nine Lords of the Night. On top of that, season 3 reveals that the Labyrinth served as prison to a whole host of demons that the Lords had imprisoned over the millennia. And they all got out when Carlos blew up the Temple in season 2.
    • The Nine Lords inadvertently turned the Blood Well where Amaru's blood was kept into one of these, as the blood contained Amaru's spirit.
  • Sealed Evil in a Six Pack: Because after his time in the Labyrinth Carlos cannot be killed by staking or burning, the protagonists decide to cut his head and limbs and bury the pieces as far away from each other as they can.
  • Self-Made Orphan:
    • Richie set his father on fire when he was a kid.
    • Kate kills her father before he completes his transformation.
  • Sequel Hook: The third season ends with Ranger Willet an another Ranger recovering Amaru's talisman from the tunnels near the gate to Xibalba.
  • The Series Has Left Reality: Starts out normally, with a pair of fugitives hijacking a family's motor-home and taking it to Mexico. Reality abruptly leaves the building when they're drinking in a roadside cantina and night falls, and the cantina workers become vampires.
  • Sexy Silhouette: In "The Best Little Horror House in Texas", aside from a brief Shoulders-Up Nudity shot, Sonja and Seth's Shower of Love scene is viewed as a silhouette behind the shower glass. It even ends with her hand slowly sliding down the glass.
  • Sexy Surfacing Shot:
    • Happens in "Pandemonium" when Santanico slowly rises out of her Blood Bath, dripping with blood.
    • In "Let's Get Ramblin'", Richie watches a bikini-clad Kate climb out of the pool in Slow Motion.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: Between season on and two, Seth spent a lot of time preparing to rob a bank. After the robbery he barely gets away from the cops. When he tries to count his loot, he realizes that he actually stole a bag full of canceled cheques.
  • Ship Tease: Mostly between Seth and Kate in seasons 2 and 3. It never progresses past strong hinting, likely because Seth is an adult man in his late twenties and Kate's still a teenager.
    • Kate and Richie get this on a few occasions as well, although they don't spend much time together after season 1.
    • Seth and Kisa have a couple small teases, most prominently in late Season 3 when Seth lets her drink his blood to heal herself after she's injured in a fight, something he explicitly won't even let Richie do.
  • Shout-Out:
    • "You came out of that bathroom looking like Jack Torrance."
    • In the episode "La Conquista", in response to Prof. Tanner's speculations about aliens and other dimensions, Seth says: "I can do Temple of Doom but Crystal Skull and I'm out."
    • The episode "Opening Night" includes numerous pop culture references:
      • He says that Balthazar Ambrose's name sounds like a Hanna-Barbera character.
      • Santanico complains that she wants to sleep all day like Bela Lugosi (Although she mangles the name).
      • Richie goes into a lengthy explanation of the plot of The Train to make a point.
    • In the episode "In a Dark Time" Sonja uses the surname Parker for Seth's fake passport, because she figures it's a name that suits a gentleman thief.
    • In the episode "The Best Little Horror House in Texas" Uncle Eddie mockingly refers to Sonja and Seth as Red Sonja and Conan.
    • In "Bondage" Richie accuses Seth of shooting a place up like it was Tech Noir.
      • In the same episode, when he notes that Seth has gotten his tattoo extended Richie jokes that Seth should get "a chest dragon like Iron Fist."
  • Shown Their Work: During the flashbacks to the conquistadors' arrival, all the Spaniards talk with actual Spanish accents.
  • Kiss of the Vampire: Richie very much enjoys being bitten by Santanico during lovemaking.
  • Slave Liberation: Reveled in “Protect and Serve” to be the origin of culebras. The Nine Lords and others of their kind were at the bottom of the social ladder in Xibalba, being nothing more than slaves to the demonic aristocracy, until they fled to the mortal world and set themselves and Lords.
  • Small Reference Pools: During the flashbacks to the conquistadors’ arrival to the vicinity of the temple, they claim the land in the name of Queen Isabella, even though the Spaniards didn’t begin exploring the North American mainland until years after her death. This is likely due to her being the only Spanish monarch of the period that a US audience would be familiar with.
  • Spanner in the Works: In-Universe, Ranger Gonzales continuously derails Santanico’s plans for Richie. Out-of-universe, his actions at the Titty Twister mark the point where the show’s plot breaks with that of the movie.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: Santanico, Richie, Scott and Sex Machine all survive the events of the first season, while their counterparts died in the original movie.
  • Stage Names: Santanico Pandemonium, unsurprisingly enough, turns out to be a name given to her by Amancio Malvado in the 19th century when he first came up with the plan to turn the Temple into what would become known as the Titty Twister. Her birth name is Kisa.
  • Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Texas Ranger Freddie Gonzalez.
  • Take That!: "I can do Temple of Doom but Crystal Skull and I'm out."
  • Temple of Doom: The Titty Twister is built on top of one, complete with Human Sacrifice altars and secret underground labyrinths.
  • Time Skip: Three-month pass In-Universe between the events of the end of the first season and the beginning of the second.
  • Token Human: As of season 3, Seth Gecko is the only main character who is not some sort of supernatural creature.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Prof. Tanner drops the backpack with all the weapons into the giant people grinder. Possibly subverted in that, having made a deal with the culebras, he may have done it on purpose.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Every member of the Fuller family, the farther along they get dragged into the Geckos's situation. Scott is the most enthusiastic of the three about it.
  • Toplessness from the Back: Santanico is shown like this while making love with Richie in "Opening Night", with the rest of her body being covered by a Modesty Bedsheet.
  • Villain: Exit, Stage Left: At the end of the second season Tanner and Maia both manage to avoid being killed or captured, disappearing to parts unknown.
  • Villain Opening Scene: The very first scene shows the origin of the native girl who would become Santánico Pandemonium, as she's being subjected to a ritual that turned her into a vampire against her will.
  • Villain Protagonist: Lets just say the Gecko Brothers aren't nice people.
  • Watch the Paint Job: In the second season Richie is so concerned about his precious car than he will actually freeze mid-fistfight with Santanico to avoid messing the paint-job.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • By the end of the first season finale we know the fates of every character except Scott. His fate is only revealed in the episode "Opening Night".
    • The fate of the Prospector who first breached the Blood Well in 1912. He was seemingly possessed in the same manner Kate was, and yet, the world was not destroyed and Amaru ended up back in Xibalba, ready to possess Kate in the 21st century.
  • Women Are Wiser: Kate might very well be the most levelheaded character on the show. This becomes even more pronounced after she pairs up with Seth in the second season.
  • Your Mind Makes It Real: The labyrinth at the center of the temple constructs its tests from the memories of the people who walk into it. And if you die inside maze, you die in real life.

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