Ep 3. Curious George

Content warning: This episode contains discussions of death and suicide.

In "Curious George," the third episode of the first season of Dead Like Me, we see Georgia "George" Lass struggle with her new role as a grim reaper. After being hit by a toilet seat falling from a space shuttle, George found herself among a group of other grim reapers tasked with escorting souls to the afterlife. In this episode, George is assigned to reap the soul of a man named George, who died by suicide.

George, the living man, is an old acquaintance of Rube, the leader of the reaper crew. Rube tasks George, the reaper, with finding out why George, the living man, decided to take his own life. George is hesitant to take on this task because she worries that she will be judged by the other reapers for her lack of empathy towards humans. However, she eventually agrees to take on the assignment.

While investigating George's life, George uncovers some troubling information about his family life and work life. She discovers that George's boss was embezzling from the company and blames it on George. She also discovers that George's wife was having an affair and was planning on leaving him. However, George is not certain that these issues were enough to drive him to suicide. She continues to investigate and discovers that George was fired from his job as a librarian for refusing to remove a book that he believed was important from the library's collection.

As the episode progresses, we see George struggle with her own thoughts and emotions about death and suicide. She begins to question the morality of her job as a reaper and if she is truly helping people. In a conversation with Rube, she expresses her concerns about the job and mentions that she is contemplating suicide herself. Rube reminds her that as a reaper, she does not have the option to kill herself and that there is still work to be done.

In one of the most emotional scenes of the episode, George visits George's apartment and meets his cat, Curious George. She sits on his couch and tears up as she reads through his suicide note. She realizes that despite her reservations about her job, she must continue to reap souls because she doesn't want anyone else to feel the way that George did.

As the episode comes to a close, we see George attend George's funeral and offer her condolences to his family. She has come to terms with the fact that while death may not always be fair, her job is important and necessary. The episode ends with George sitting on a bench, watching the world go by, still processing the events of the day.

"Curious George" is a deeply emotional and thought-provoking episode of Dead Like Me. It raises important questions about suicide and the morality of death. The episode also continues to explore George's character development, as she navigates her new life as a reaper and grapples with the reality of her job. Overall, it is a poignant and impactful addition to the show's first season.