Death Valley: Difference between revisions

* [[Catch Phrase]]: Captain Dashell's "Let's get out there and kill something."

* [[Cough Snark Cough]]: *Cough* Lawsuit *Cough*

{{quote| "Now it is not important who caused this death, which is why I don't mind saying it was John-John."}}

* [[Chainsaw Good]]: While John-John usually wields his trusty bat, he is more then happy to switch to a Chainsaw when he has to, with the [[A Bloody Mess|expected result.]]

* [[Combat Stilettos]]: Averted. Carla has difficulty simply ''walking'' in heels.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: In the season one finale, Billy questions whether it is smart to give the vampires the location of the UTF headquarters. Stubeck points out that, not only is their address public knowledge, but the vampires have ''already'' attacked the building, and actually blew it up only two weeks ago. Billy grins sheepishly and admits that Stubeck was right and, considering what had already happened, it was pretty dumb of himself to raise the point.

* [[Cursed With Awesome]]: The [[Vampire Wannabe|Vampire Wannabes]] that Kirsten meet have some pretty good points about why they want to be turned into vampires: Immortality, controlling zombies and [[Vampires Are Sex Gods|amazing sex]]. Where is the downside?

* [[Death By Sex]]: [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]]. When a werewolf attacks an Adult Film set, it is the makeup artist who is killed, with all the actors surviving.

* [[Dirty Harriet]]: Carla goes undercover as a Sex-For-Blood vampire prostitute.

* [[Disposable Sex Worker]]: Sofia, the first vampire seen in the series, is working as a "blood for sex" prostitute, having sex with people in exchange for being given their blood. Stubeck tries to reach her emotionally after he arrests her and tries to convince her to turn her life around, but she is killed in the next episode. However, instead of being brushed aside, Stubeck is morose over her death and Billy tries to reassure him by explaining that he cannot save ''everyone'', and what counts is that he tried.

** The Werewolves have been used as a one-time metaphor for drunk driving, with Stubeck and Billy pulling over a werewolf in mid-change for driving during a full moon.

** In "Two Girls, One Cop" the werewolf virus is used as a metaphor for HIV/AIDS within the Adult Film industry, with several references made to events in the early 1990's of HIV-positive actors spreading the disease.

** Chloe's turning is called her being "gangfanged" and is clearly sexual replete with moans and other sexual imagery.

** Natalie, the Captain's niece, describes {{spoiler|when she was turned}} as being invited over to a male friends house, discovering that he had many other men with him who forced her to drink, and then attacking her when she was drunk and only climbing off her when his girlfriend came home. The entire scene, including the questions Kirsten asked, was a standard depiction of rape disclosure.

* [[Due to The Dead]]: Both the police and the vampires have eleborate funeral ceremonies to honor their dead. The vampires' customs can easily squick out a human.

* [[Ethical Slut]]: The actors of "Two Girls, One Cop," who are just normal people and entered the adult film industry for the good pay and because they enjoyed the sex.

* [[Hot Teacher]]: Leslie, Stubeck's daughter, has a teacher that Stubeck (reluctantly) admits is hot (He quickly clarifies that he is only sexually attracted to his wife). Billy accompanies him to Parent Career Day in order to flirt with her.

* [[Hypocritical Heartwarming]]: Billy quickly turns on the sound guy when he insults Stubeck, pointing out that only he is allowed to insult his partner.

{{quote| '''Ribbings''': Look, I need you to kill me. I tried to do it myself, but I can't! I'm Catholic.}}

** While John-John was pretty much resigned that his attraction to Carla was strictly a [[Incompatible Orientation|one way street]], after his [[Unstoppable Rage|one man take down of]] invading zombies, Carla was impressed enough to organize a personal get together in a hotel room later. {{spoiler|When the ensuing explosion trauma erased most of his memory of the night she tells him that what they had discussed was that she would ''always'' be his partner.}}

** Played straight in the season one finale {{spoiler|when Carla plants a passionate kiss on John-John after saving him from a vampire attack.}}

* [[In Universe Camera]]: The UTF is being followed by a documentary team filming their activities.

* [[It Got Worse]]: Kirsten points out in the season one finale that the crime rate is ''skyrocketing'' due to the werewolf, vampire and zombie problem, {{spoiler|and it appears that there are now ''demons'' as well}}.

* [[Lampshaded Double Entendre]]: When discussing the delicious kabobs served at a Lebanese take-out restaurant, Billy decrees that "nice kabobs" sounds dirty, and explains how he would ''love'' to go up to a worker at a restaurant and compliment her on her kabobs. He later does so, to which the drive-thru attendant groans and closes the window on him.

* [[Let's Get Dangerous]]: For all Dashell's [[Cloudcuckoolander|oddities]], when it comes time to kill some zombies ''he kills some zombies''.

* [[Man Child]]: Billy Pierce, who keeps making sexual innuendos when he arrests a prostitute, shows the pornography on his phone to anybody who will look and keeps trying to make clever jokes and poses for the camera crew following him around. Stubeck, his partner, tries to get him to take what they do more seriously, and on more than one occasion has explicitly told Billy to grow up.

* [[Meaningful Funeral]]: The eleventh episode opens with the UTF attending the funeral of the LAPD officers who had died in the previous episode, [[Book Ends|and closes with Captain Dashell attending the funeral of Rico the vampire, who had also died in the earlier episode]]. Captain Dashell and the vampire leader, Rico's father, talk at both funerals and pay respect to the others fallen, and tentatively agree to meet for peace talks.

* [[Mind Control]]: The vampires are rumored to be able to control zombies, potentially explaining where the horde of zombies came from during the hijacking of the four blood bank trucks.

* [[The Mole]]: Captian Dashell is convinced the vampires have a mole at the UTF station and assigns Stubeck to figure out who it is. After reviewing the video footage he discovers that {{spoiler|the mole was the camera guy who filmed the footage.}}

** Officer Landry, the rookie of the squad. She joined the UTF to fight monsters, [[You Get Me Coffee|but winds up doing the office paperwork and looking after the Captain's niece instead]].

** When two regular LAPD officers are temporarily sent to the Valley to help with a prisoner transfer, it quickly becomes clear that they are completely untrained for handling zombies.

* [[No Respect Guy]]: Kirsten, on her first day in the UTF, killed a zombie with her bare hands ''in the station'', but none of the officers were looking at her to see the fight. It happens again in "Zombie Fights," where she again defeats a zombie single-handedly, but is criticized by Carla over her methods.

* [[The Not Secret]]: John-John is perturbed that apparently everybody in the UTF, including the sound guy, [[Everyone Can See It|had figured out that he had a crush on Carla]].

* [[Parental Substitute]]: Stubeck is father-figure to both Billy and Kirsten, giving them advice on romance and living life.

* [[Police Brutality]]: In general, excessive force is allowed against vampires and zombies without repercussion due to the nature of the perpetrators. Sometimes the characters go a little further than is necessary.

* [[Quip to Black]]: The show rarely goes to black itself, but Billy is frequently posing for the in-show camera crew and quipping [[Sunglasses At Night|while putting on sunglasses]].

* [[Rewind Replay Repeat]]: Steuback is trying to figure out who broke into the armory so he is watching footage of the captain changing the security code for the armory door. His gut tells him that The Mole obtained the code by watching the captain enter it but the footage does not show anyone else present. He keeps replaying the recording over and over till he realizes that {{spoiler|since the footage came from the documentary crew filming in the station, the other person present was the camera man.}}

* [[Vampire Wannabe]]: The parties that Captain Dashell's niece goes to are filled with wannabes looking to [[Vampires Are Sex Gods|get a buzz from kissing a vampire]] and, eventually, be turned into a vampire. They see it as cool and impressive, Kirsten sees it as ''insane''.

* [[Vegetarian Vampire]]: {{spoiler|Natalie}}, after revealing that she has been partially turned into a vampire, explains that the process apparently will not be complete until after her first kill. She says she could never kill anybody, then emphasizes that she ''really'' means that; she cannot even bring herself to kill a moth.

* [[Weakened By the Light]]: Vampires have a vulnerability to sunlight and members of the UTF carry ultraviolet lights to use against them. These are termed "U.V. Guns," but John calls them an "Uv gun."

* [[Wham Episode]]:

** Episode 8 closes with {{spoiler|vampires attempting to kill Carla and using a zombie to bomb a convenience store}}, all to send a message to the UTF that they (The vampires) are stronger and are the ones who are ''really'' in charge of the San Fernando Valley.