Lucifer continues to exceed expectations by delivering yet another extremely well-done episode. Statistically speaking no television show can have a completely flawless season, I don’t think it has ever happened, but
Lucifer is certainly attempting to be the first. This first block of episodes has delivered flawless impactful episodes that remain true to the unique tone of the series. Many of the recent episodes have been quite heavy because of the intense nature of the stories the writers were telling. There wasn’t a huge amount of room for them to deliver as many quips as usual. This episode kind of rebalanced the tone of the season and took it a bit more back towards its neutral center. After a block of intense dark patches for characters, shows tend to give a buffer episode or two before launching into another heavy round of drama. This felt like a buffer episode, which is in no way a bad thing, for the sanity and emotional well-being of the cast and viewers alike these sorts of episodes play a very important part in the overall narrative.
When the last episode came to its conclusion Chloe and Lucifer had just had a breakthrough in their friendship. They shared a very special moment that allowed both characters to connect after a span of emotional traumas that made each of them keep the other at a bit of a distance. I expected that after that moment there would be some level of jealousy that one or both of the characters would experience. Given that Lucifer’s intentions have always been clear it was nice to see Chloe be the one to have to deal with jealousy issues. It was fun to see her get jealous every time Ella got close to him and when she walked in on them hugging it’s probably a good thing Chloe can’t shoot lasers from her eyes otherwise Ella would have been toast. Chloe was definitely jealous of someone else working with her partner. It goes a long way to show just how much she does care for him. They are friends and partners, but there is also a strong emotional bond between them. She quite literally makes him more vulnerable than any other being in existence yet he is inexplicably drawn to her for reasons that he may never understand. These two were meant to find each other for their lives to interconnect; now whether Lucifer’s father had anything to do with that is debatable. He is the creator of humans, so certainly he would have some say in their destinies , so did he specifically craft Chloe for his son knowing the journey he would go on? Or, is this a serious case of free will where both Lucifer and Chloe chose to defy what was expected of them allowing them to embrace each other? They are both strong-willed characters, so the latter option is as likely a possibility as the former, either way, the fact is that these two beings who seem so opposite fit together so seamlessly in each other’s lives.
Now that “Charlotte” is starting to make her move Chloe is going to need Lucifer more than ever. If she was willing to sacrifice countless humans just to get an audience with her ex-husband I can only imagine what she’ll be willing to do to the human who her son is smitten with. She has a very strong hatred for humans which surely won’t sit well with Lucifer much longer. Humans fascinate him and more than that he’s developed genuine emotional ties with a handful of them. Should his mom go after any of them it could launch a full on war and permanently divide her from at least him. While her intentions, however, misguided they are, seem to be to reunite her family in Heaven she is going about it all wrong. I believe that deep down she does truly love her children, but there is a darkness in her that keeps steering her down bad paths. With each devious action, she takes it becomes clearer why she was initially banished to Hell. She was given a second chance, and instead of trying to turn her life around she is making mistake after mistake. If her ex was testing her then she is failing miserably. I don’t agree with Uriel’s tactic to kill her and call it a day, but I do see now why that would be his first go-to solution to protect his father and Heaven as a whole from her.
Something I really like about the characters in this show is that no matter their status as human, angel, or demon every one of them is deeply flawed. Being a celestial being doesn’t grant them the magical answers to the big dilemmas in life. For those issues, they have to work through them on their own, but at least they now have an in the know therapist on their side. Something tells me Linda is going to be extremely busy in the coming weeks as everyone tries to deal with their individual issues. I have to issue major compliments to Rachael Harris for the way she has handled Linda finding out the truth. From the terror, she experienced last week to her curious inquiries this week the way she is portraying Linda’s journey gives it so much meaning. There are moments of drama and moments of hilarity that play seamlessly thanks to the incredible talent Harris possesses. Seriously, I can’t imagine anyone else being able to pull off what she does. Linda is definitely becoming a more pronounced character this season and I couldn’t be happier about that. While I love the Lucifer and Linda stuff I can’t wait to see her interacting more with the other supernatural characters. I’m curious to see if she’ll quiz Maze about the denizens of Hell like she did Lucifer. Perhaps Maze would be the better being for her to ask because I’m sure Maze would love to go into the details of torturing evil beings. Who knows, maybe Maze even had fun torturing Linda’s evil uncle. I definitely hope we get to have a scene of Maze just being grilled like she did with Lucifer. Unlike him, Maze would surely be a lot more receptive to her inquiries.
I’m always inclined to want things to happen right away, just by my nature I hate to wait, but I have to admit that I love the way this show takes the time to build up each character. They are in the episodes when they can bring the most impact to the story. These writers never throw in a character just for them to be there, so you know if they are in the episode their story will have meaning and will serve to help grow the character. It’s all about building up characters and developing storylines in organic ways, which is what they seem to be doing with Ella. I’m inclined to want lots more of Ella because I’m a fan of Aimee Garcia and what she’s doing with the character, but her gradual inclusion into the story allows for her to organically find her place in the core group. Had they just dropped her in and everyone suddenly welcomed her in as part of the inner circle that would have felt odd. With that said, I’m so glad that this episode had a heavy focus on Ella. This storyline allowed Garcia to really dig into the core of who Ella is and show off some of her quirks. She proved why she is so good at what she does by playing an integral role in helping Lucifer track down the rogue blade. To help Lucifer she bent the rules a little bit and in return, she got something from him, but it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I thought they were really going to reveal she had some odd kinky side and in the end, her biggest desire was to help Lucifer find peace with God by taking him to church. That’s very telling of who she is as a person. Given that we know she used to steal cars in her younger years I’m quite curious to find out when she came to terms with heavenly guidance. They firmly established the Ella and Chloe friendship last week and now that she’s got this friendly connection to Lucifer I think the show will definitely start to utilize her more. She has skills very integral to the team.
Lucifer has actually been on a roll lately establishing new friendships. This week he got closer to Ella, as just a friend, and last week it was Dan. That Dan friendship was a long time coming, though. As I mentioned in last week’s review they are very similar whether they like to admit it or not. Lucifer still calls Dan a douche, but it’s lacking a bit of the disdain it used to. The name is now being used as more of a friendly jab between friends. Even with all that in mind their growing friendship is still in its earliest stages, so I was not at all expecting Lucifer to be the one to talk Dan down when he came into possession of the blade. Dan’s strong will allowed him to fight its great power, but it was Lucifer’s guidance that allowed him to fight his way free of it. That was a very telling moment of how strong their friendship has become and where it can still grow. Dan is a character I spent most of the last season disliking, but I have to commend the writers for how they are showing a different side to him this season. I still think he’s hiding some secrets, but there is also a lot of good in him. He even volunteered to be Chloe’s confidant if she was crushing on Lucifer. He’s matured a lot since last season. Well, as long as someone doesn’t mess with his snacks he’s more mature, but one can’t really blame him for being annoyed with that. Snacks are sacred and depending on the day they could be crucial to making it through a particularly harsh day of work, so I can’t fault him for that. It was nice to see the back and forth banter between these two continue while the depth of their new friendship was still allowed to shine. I look forward to watching these two work together more in the future. Tom Ellis and Kevin Alejandro are an awesome duo. I must also take a moment to commend Alejandro for that knife possession scene. Dan was experiencing a lot of deeply rooted emotions in that moment and Alejandro nailed all the transitions throughout that scene. He and Ellis are brilliant scene partners.
While those two are working on their friendship Maze and Amenadiel are still dealing with their issues. She’s willing to help the brothers locate the blade for her own protection, but she definitely didn’t find any joy in it. She seemed particularly annoyed to have to work with Amenadiel again. I think in time these two will work through their issues, but I don’t think they’ll be heading towards relationship territory anytime soon. Given that Amenadiel is so vehemently protecting his mom and working with her I don’t foresee Maze teaming up with him again anytime soon if she can avoid it. She doesn’t trust “Charlotte” and given Maze’s track record if she has a bad feeling about her then I’m inclined to side with her. Especially given how “Charlotte” managed to manipulate her own son and set back all of the emotional growth he’s acquired in his short time on Earth. Amenadiel was actually starting to open up to the human way of life until she started to poison his mind to her way of thinking. I hope he’ll come to his senses, but until he does Maze and Lucifer would both be smart to not confide in him regarding anything.
Now that Lucifer has the blade back in his possession I do hope he finds a much better hiding place for it this time. Just for future reference Lucifer might want to not divulge future hiding spots to any of the less than trustworthy members of his family. It’s not surprising that “Charlotte” chose to provide humans with a map to a weapon of massive soul destruction capabilities, but it is surprising that Lucifer didn’t inflict any real punishment on her for it. The fact that he has a soft spot for her is no secret, whether he wants to admit to it or not he is a bit of a momma’s boy, and there is nothing wrong with that as long as your mom isn’t a potential psycho who wants to claim Heaven for her own and destroy humanity. Not exactly the best person to be trusting with anything.
The case of the week was interesting because it played directly into the supernatural side of the show and that’s something that the show hasn’t done much. This is one of the few cases they’ve tackled with an actual supernatural element to it and I really enjoyed that aspect. I hope that with “Charlotte” starting to take action there will be more cases like this. The whole yoga aspect was weird yet oddly worked within the context of the story. Overall it was a fun case of the week which allowed Ella to be more involved and even gave Lucifer and Dan a little bonding moment.
As I stated at the start, this episode was a little more low-key than past weeks, but given the ominous way the episode ended with the blade glowing in Lucifer’s hands I predict things are about to escalate again. This was a fun episode to give everyone a little breather from all the intense drama as the series setup the next round of emotional gut punches that I’m sure are coming very soon. Next week Chloe seems to be in the crosshairs of “Charlotte”, so it’ll be fun to watch Lucifer and Maze scramble to keep her safe.
Don’t miss the next episode of
Lucifer this coming
Monday, November 21st at 9/8C on FOX.
Hit the comments with your thoughts about this episode. Did you enjoy the case of the week? Do you think Amenadiel will come to his senses before helping his mom cause to much damage? Can Lucifer and Maze protect Chloe? What did the glowing blade mean?
