The sign of a well-crafted show is one that can consistently improve upon itself.
Lucifer is a prime example of that especially in regards to this season. Each episode seems like it is the best of the series, until the following episode airs then it’s the best. I for one didn’t believe that the last episode would be topped anytime soon, yet by the time this episode came to its heartbreaking close I was left stunned not to mention speechless. The episode as a whole was on point, but the back half of it was something indescribable. Parts of it were so raw that it felt like I was watching intimate moments not meant for the eyes of strangers. For me, that is the ultimate hallmark of a perfect moment in television when the writing and performances merge together to create a moment of such realism that the viewers believe what they are watching is actually happening.
For the first half of the episode, it was sort of business as usual. The quips were going off at rapid fire pace yet there were hints dropped here and there that things were about to take a dramatic turn. Knowing what was coming the writers smartly padded the first half of the episode with a lighter feeling, from the normal Lucifer antics to the full on fanboy moments for both Lucifer and Dan to the hilarity of Lucifer’s mom with Charlotte’s son, the episode was trying to prepare the audience for what was about to happen.
Before this review gets into all the big dramatic moments I want to first discuss the lighter bits of the episode. I’m fairly certain that for a part of this episode Hell actually froze over because Dan and Lucifer were getting along. Not just fake getting along, but they were genuinely enjoying geeking out together over the Body Bag movies. Kevin Alejandro and Tom Ellis obviously had a lot of fun filming those moments and it came across in their performances. I feel like the writers wrote this exactly how they think fans of their show would react to meeting any of their performers and, to be honest, I think they got it pretty right. Almost every
Lucifer fan would definitely geek out the way those two did.
While the series still hasn’t found a place for Ella in the overall mythology of the series just yet she definitely contributed to the lighter moments of the episode. After being involved in the middle of the story last week she once again kind of fell to the side. That should be a frustrating point, but given everything going on in this episode it was kind of expected that some of the secondary characters would have to sacrifice some screentime. They did optimize her time by giving her fun interactions with both Lucifer and Dan. I’m wondering what her reaction will be when she finally realizes that Lucifer isn’t acting. As for Dan, the jab about Chloe and Lucifer needing to hook up already was perhaps a tiny bit too soon. Those moments may have done nothing to advance Ella’s story, but at least she was in the episode whereas Dr. Linda was nowhere to be found. Given what happened I suspect that she is going to be quite busy in the coming weeks trying to help everyone deal with things, so it was probably best for her to get a couple days off. While the angels and Maze took a hard blow this week they weren’t the only ones to be dealt a bad hand.
Chloe’s life has been in the balance ever since Lucifer bargained with it at the end of last season. By not fully upholding his deal with his father he started in motion a series of events that would have cataclysmic results for his family. Now, granted, in his mind, he did uphold the deal by punishing his mom, and he was quite proud of himself that he found a loophole in the deal he made. He thought he was going to get it all by getting to keep his mom around and keep Chloe safe as well. Talk about a plan blowing up in one's face, or more specifically, in everyone's faces. He had the best of intentions in mind, but the price he had to pay to keep them both on Earth with him was a drastic one.
A particularly interesting point in all of this is that God didn’t actually set out to have his ex-wife dragged back to Hell. It seemed like he was content letting things play out as they were because he never sent anyone to bring her in sooner. When Uriel (Michael Imperioli) arrived he did so of his own volition without orders from his dad. He was acting purely selfishly trying to complete a task that he felt his more favored brothers could not. For his entire existence, Uriel tried to prove himself as being worthy of running with his siblings. He sat on the sidelines and watched as his siblings were given grand tasks. Even Lucifer, though not of his own desire, was entrusted with Hell. All the while Uriel was hanging around desperate to belong. It kind of seems like his mom tried to shield him from a lot which may have led to some resentment on his part. He seemed to have a bone to pick with her. Considering his first instinct was to use Azrael’s blade to wipe her from all existence instead of actually talking to her indicates they had some issues. Also, it was interesting that he brought up the fact that their mom and dad were likely to reconcile should she return to Heaven. The impression “Charlotte” gave is that her ex-husband would never accept her back through the gates of Heaven. I think that perhaps dear old dad needs to take a human form and enlist Dr. Linda because his family is seriously screwed up. Half of his children hate him, his ex-wife might want to kill him, his kids are running amuck all over Earth, and now one of his son’s is dead at the hands of another thanks to the soul destroying blade that belongs to his daughter. Yeah, I think that warrants some serious family therapy.
What is becoming evident is that apparently God and “Charlotte” weren’t necessarily the best parents to their angelic children. Given how “Charlotte” was trying to raise her human body’s children I imagine growing up with her as a mom was quite interesting. We already know that pants were optional in her household and timeouts involved chains. Based off of her inability to figure out how to stop Charlotte’s son from barking, which was a hilarious moment, I imagine she wasn’t very good at negotiating with her children either. It sounds like they may have just run amuck up in Heaven just as they do on Earth. Granted, given that she seemed to be left to raise her children alone while her husband created humans I can understand why she would have struggled given that for awhile she was essentially a single mom. It seems like all of her children went through a rebellious phase while their father was busy with work. It would be easy to blame her because she’s the only parent we’ve met, but I think God has a lot of responsibility in the mess his family has become as well. Taking that into account Lucifer’s argument that none of them actually know what their dad wants from them makes sense. He doesn't have very good communication skills with his family. I kind of get the impression that aside from the occasional banishing, as occurred with Amenadiel, he has basically thrown his hands up and accepted that his family is going to do what they all want regardless of what he wants for them. After all, he allowed Uriel to go on this fool's mission without even trying to stop him. Surely being the all knowing he had to have known what Uriel was up to. Then again he also allowed Uriel to beat the hell out of Amenadiel without intervention. God seems as hands-off with his kids as he is with his human creations. Then again, he has damned Amenadiel and stripped him of his wings as well as his powers, so perhaps he didn’t feel like it was his place to intervene in order to teach his eldest son yet another lesson. I get it, Amenadiel screwed up big time last season with Malcolm, but he nearly gave his life trying to right that wrong. If any good came out of that beat down it's that at least now Lucifer and Maze know what is going on with him. They really could have used him though when they went up against Uriel and got their behinds kicked. Uriel may have been the smallest of the family, but he sure did learn how to handle himself in a fight. He took down both of his brother's and Maze with ease. Which is what made his untimely death all the more awful. For perhaps the first time in his life he felt powerful aginst his siblings and had the upperhand. The whole situation was just awful for every being involved. There were no winners, because they all lost.
While this episode had a heavy focus on the brothers and all their issues it was also a powerful story about the lengths a mother is willing to go for her children. It was displayed when Lucifer’s mom was willing to sacrifice herself to save Chloe because of what she means to Lucifer. Granted she did have a little push from Maze, but she was still a willing participant in the plan. It was also shown through Chloe’s actions throughout the episode. After the accident, she was traumatized, but she fought to repress her fear in order to put on a strong façade for her daughter and those that care about her. But mostly, it was all about Trixie, who thankfully, got a couple scenes in this episode. I loved the way they portrayed Trixie’s reaction to her mom being injured yet again. Children are very observant and I’m sure she still remembers visiting her mom in the hospital after she was shot in the series premiere. All of the scenes between Trixie and Chloe were very touching. From the start of the series Lauren German and Scarlett Estevez have had a beautiful ease with each other. German is very motherly toward Estevez allowing a very natural relationship to be portrayed. And, for Estevez’s part that young actress is a powerhouse whose skills are years beyond her age. For someone so young she’s very good at conveying the emotions of the moment. Scenes between mother and daughter are always heartwarming thanks to the great chemistry between the actresses. The bedtime story scene was organically natural and a much needed quiet moment for Chloe after everything she’d been through. In that moment being with her daughter was exactly where she belonged. It was a nice comparison to the moment that Lucifer and his mom shared in the corresponding scene to this one. No matter how old we get when things are going wrong the only person we want is our mom. The characters in this show are not immune to that notion.
This was an episode full of powerful emotional moments. When Chloe was trying to talk down Kimo (Mark Dacascos) the moment played very real thanks to German’s phenomenal portrayal of the situation. Chloe always comes across as in control so to have that control taken away from her during the accident terrified her. To realize that at any moment she could be taken from her friends and family was something she couldn’t even fathom. I must admit that I'm glad Chloe wouldn't let Lucifer help her. She could relate to the way Kimo was feeling and she knew she could reach him without anyone getting hurt. German delivered such a powerful performance that I thought it was going to be the highlight of the episode. Turns out, even this powerful performance couldn’t hold up against the scenes that were to come.
The performances delivered during the epic fight sequence and the fallout from it were exceptional. Ellis and Imperioli pulled no punches as they unleashed their characters on each other. Lesley-Ann Brandt got to get in on the action as she showed how fiercely Maze will fight to protect her friends of which Chloe now qualifies. Even with standout performances by both Imperioli and Brandt the standout moment in the scene came the moment Lucifer stabbed Azrael’s soul destroying blade through Uriel. The look of horror on Ellis’ face said everything. In that moment it was Lucifer’s last chance to save both Chloe and his mom not to mention keep him from killing Maze, but it didn’t mean he acted lightly. Shoving that blade into his own brother shattered him. I also think that he definitely understood what Uriel said in his dying breaths, but whatever it was didn’t warrant repeating in the moment. With his brother's blood on his hands nothing else mattered in that moment as his entire world shattered around him.
While all of this was extraordinary acting, the most powerful moment of the entire episode came when Lucifer returned to his penthouse to face his mom. Ellis was nearly unrecognizable with his normal cocky Lucifer grin gone and his appearance disheveled not to mention his eyes had virtually no light left in them. In that moment he was just a being that needed his mom. He needed her embrace because what he had just done was beyond even what the Devil himself could handle. This will have long reaching consequences for him as he tries to figure out how to handle what he had to do. Lucifer is in for some trying times ahead. But not just him, “Charlotte” just lost one son at the hands of another. She’s going to have to mourn him in her own way. The way Tricia Helfer played the realization that Uriel had been killed was heartbreaking. "Charlotte" couldn't even mourn him in the moment because she realized how badly Lucifer needed her. Given all he'd risked keeping her safe on Earth with him, she knew she owed it to him to be there for him as a good mother should. In that moment all of their past stuff didn't matter and they were just a mother and son trying to make sense of a horrible situation. My fear is that she and or Lucifer will blame Chloe for all of this despite her not being directly involved of her own free will. I can’t imagine how Amenadiel is going to react to finding out. No matter how much this family fights and threatens each other they do actually love one another in their own weird complicated way.
With so much going on I must admit that the case of the week was the least interesting part of the entire episode. It served its purpose and gave some amazing fanboy moments, but it just didn’t really stand out against all the angelic stuff going on. Personally, I’m a fan of Charisma Carpenter (Jamie Lee Adrienne), but I kind of feel like her casting in this episode was a wasted opportunity. They should have brought her in for an episode where her character had a more prominent part to play. With angelic sisters now in the equation she could have easily been cast as one of them. Speaking of sisters, I'm convinced that since we now know about Azrael it's only a matter of time before she makes an appearance. I'm curious who everyone thinks should play her. Leave your casting hopes down in the comments.
This was a phenomenal episode that tackled tough situations in tactful yet heartbreaking ways. The cinematography of the various fight sequences mixed with the haunting score helped to sell the intense mood of the episode. The stakes were high and the price that was paid to save those Lucifer loves cost him and his family greatly. There will be fallout relating to this episode and only time will tell exactly what that is. One thing is certain, lives have been shattered, perhaps beyond repair.
Be sure to tune into the next episode of
Lucifer next
Monday, October 31st at 9/8C on FOX.
Hit the comments with your thoughts about this episode. Do you think “Charlotte” genuinely loves her children? Do you think she really means her ex-husband harm? Can Lucifer ever recover from having to kill Uriel? Who should play Azrael?
About the Author - Aimee Hicks
Aimee works for a newspaper in North Carolina and has a BA in Broadcasting and Cinema. She has been a TV lover since before she really understood what TV was and has a passion for analyzing performances and theorizing what may happen on her favorite shows. Her interest in television covers just about every genre, but her first love is the sci-fi/fantasy genre. For the 2016/2017 season she will be reviewing Chesapeake Shores, Dark Matter, Frequency, Gilmore Girls, Jessica Jones, Lucifer, and Orphan Black. She will also be handling the Best Scene Polls for Supergirl and previewing several new and returning shows. She also oversees the popular SpoilerTV feature, Performers of the Month (#POTM) which highlights the most outstanding actor and actress from each month. You can email her at aimee@spoilertv.com.
