Lucifer went all in with this mid-season finale and it paid off in some very big ways. After many struggles and a serious issue in regards to story flow things appear to be on track. It’s been curious why this season has been so seriously void of any major celestial storylines. Apparently, as was theorized, everything now makes sense after a very confusing start. This is a case where with a bit of hindsight everything makes sense. Though, the writes would have been well served to get to this point much faster. Perhaps they would have had it not been for all the leftovers that had to be fit in. This episode also finally gave much-needed purpose to Pierce. Even though it was a bit tedious at times the writers made the long trudge to this point worth it with that epic Cain reveal at the end.
But, before we get to talking about that, there are a lot of other points to get to. This episode had the perfect blend of humorous moments and serious. On the lighter side was the storyline between Dan, Charlotte, and Trixie. After weeks of really having no storyline of his own, it seems like Dan is poised to have some things going on in the back half of the season. With his and Charlotte’s relationship on the cusp of taking off again, thanks in large part to the matchmaker Trixie, he might finally have a storyline. This will finally give Kevin Alejandro some great material to dive into. Alejandro and Tricia Helfer have terrific chemistry that is worth the writers time to explore. These two are an odd pair yet they work very well together both in regards to the performers and the characters. The writers could do a lot with them and they did set up some interesting things regarding Charlotte’s children. It could be fun to watch Dan not only develop a legitimate relationship with her, but also help her deal with rebuilding a relationship with her kids. It’s not a long-term storyline solution for Dan, but it’s a start.
Plus, this sort of storyline, would give the writers more reason to utilize Trixie. Scarlett Estevez has more than proven her ability to work with her adult co-stars, but she absolutely nailed it with Helfer. There is an easy dynamic between them as actresses that aided Helfer in bringing out Charlotte’s more maternal side. It was a maternal kick in the behind that the character needed to fight for her own children. And reclaiming that part of her life, destroyed by Mom, is a step forward in her attempt to redeem her soul. With Dan and Trixie on her side she might just be able to become the mother her children need and the mother she seems to want to be. Trixie is the daughter of a God touched human, so there is really no better person to help redeem someone than her. This could be an interesting storyline for Trixie as well. All around this is a very promising possibility for all three characters and performers. However, it is a bit odd that they set up Ella as Charlotte's spiritual guide then have seemed to shift away from that. With any luck, that means bigger things for Ella.
For quite some time now the writers have teased fans with Ella being special in some way. There is something different about her, that much has been made pretty obvious, the question is what. We know that she hears voices or at least used to. We know she has a similar knack to Trixie about being able to key in on certain celestially impacted souls. They both seem able to see the light or dark in a person. For Trixie that makes sense, but for Ella it's still a mystery how she seems to be able to identify the celestial beings in the unknowing way she does. That's something that desperately needs to be explored. Perhaps, it's worth hoping anyway, that Pierce's very brutal and public scolding will be a catalyst for her story. Will that brutal put down ignite something in her? Or will it be business as usual? Now with the big Cain reveal out of the way perhaps the door is wide open for a reveal surrounding Ella as well or at least a little more insight into her background. One might dare to still hope for Chloe to finally find out the truth, but at the rate things are moving on that front hope is better spent on the storylines for other characters.
Speaking of Chloe, she’s still storyline-less at the moment. When even Dan has more going for him on the storyline front things are definitely out of balance. Chloe gets lots of stuff to do and interacts with a lot of people, but really doesn't have her own forward-moving storyline. This has led her character development to slow down to a virtual crawl. As the co-lead that’s unusual for any show. Usually leads dominate the storylines, so this is either a refreshing change or a frustrating turn of events, depends on how you look at it. Perhaps the New Year will bring a new storyline for her as well because having her hang around waiting for the big Lucifer reveal is not giving the writers much to work with at the moment. Better to send her off on her own life quest than leave her completely attached to Lucifer. Perhaps that’s what their big fight was all about after the Sinnerman takedown. She had his back throughout the entire case of the week then he went off and went behind her back to grab the Sinnerman. He had his reasons, but she also had every right to be angry with him. After all, she orchestrated a whole prison break for the Sinnerman just to support his plan. It highlighted the rift in their bond and a need for them to spend a bit of time apart realizing how much they need one another. Maybe the writers will do what they did in the latter half of last season and change up the dynamics. That worked well last year and at this point can only help things especially in regards to Chloe. She and Lucifer need a bit of time apart in order for the writers to find some way to bring them back together as the partners they were last season.
Time apart did wonders for Lucifer and Maze. Well, he still annoys her and she still annoys him, but at least they are back on better terms than they were. Maze was more than happy to torture Sinnerman for Lucifer. She was also sympathetic to his need to protect their human friends, mainly Chloe. Still, Lucifer essentially tainting his own soul to get back at his father was a step further than even Maze was willing to go. She didn’t try to stop him, but she also made it clear she wasn’t going to be an active participant. Seeing where they go from here in their partnership will be interesting. They are back on track to being a dynamic duo, so it’ll be fun to watch them get into their usual antics. It would be nice to see them work together more like back in the first season. Which, if Lucifer's partnership with Chloe goes on the rocks, could be a very real possibility.
Thankfully, for Lucifer’s soul and apparently humanity in general, he was unable to follow through with his bolstering about killing the Sinnerman. Its likely Maze knew that would be the outcome all along and left him to figure that out on his own. What he did end up figuring out is that the Sinnerman was a misguided human, but not the being that took his Devil face or stuck him with his wings. That led Lucifer to the realization that the real true Sinnerman was right under their noses all along in the form of Marcus Pierce. Of course, that theory required a bit of testing to prove it, but it all worked out in Lucifer’s favor.
That revelation led to the big final confrontation between Lucifer and Pierce. Well, confrontation is a bit of a strong description, it was a very one-sided meeting. Ultimately it wound up being an encounter that left Pierce with a dagger in his chest, placed there by Lucifer, and seemingly dead. That is until he gasped back to life and pulled it out of his own chest only to join Lucifer at the bar for a drink. As it turned out, all this time Pierce really had no romantic interest in Chloe, at least that wasn't his main goal. He was just hopeful that the woman who made Lucifer vulnerable would do the same for him. It must have been a colossal disappointment for him when he took a bullet for her and survived. He miscalculated that Chloe was crafted for Lucifer and it appears that the ability to make a celestial being mortal begins and ends with him. The immortal sinner just wants for his existence to come to an end. With this big reveal, in an instant, Pierce became more interesting than he’s been all along. And it also became very clear why Tom Welling has been playing Pierce as such a blocked off unwelcoming character. A good theory is that Pierce doesn't want to get attached to anyone since he just wants to end it all anyway. With this in mind, Welling's performance now seems much stronger than it did when the prior episodes were airing. He made some smart choices to help keep this reveal a secret while dropping little tidbits along the way through subtle actions. The character development of Pierce would have been best served by getting to this reveal sooner, but Welling did the best with what he had to work with. Kudos to him for taking all the flack from viewers and still managing to never divulge anything. He's a true professional and it'll be interesting to see what he does with Pierce/Cain in the upcoming episodes.
So, what now? Where does the story go from here? Do Lucifer and Cain become buddies? Do they commiserate over how to stick it to God? After all, they are both his black sheep castoffs. They both believe they are being punished by God. They’ve certainly got a lot in common. More importantly, someone else at the precinct is finally also connected to the celestial side of the story. Now it might finally be time for the story to start gradually moving back to a central place of balance between the celestial and procedural sides of the series. This whole season has been heavily leaning towards procedural, so hopefully, this big reveal means more mythology building and celestial storylines in the back half of the season.
The next episode is the final of the standalones from last season. Its placement once again breaks up the flow of the season but seeing as it will finally tell the story of Lucifer’s arrival in Los Angeles it should be an interesting one. Then after that, the story can charge forward with the Season Three storyline without any additional interruptions. They have a lot of big things to tackle, like how did Cain remove Lucifer’s Devil face and give him back his wings? Why was that even necessary? Can he undo all that stuff now? Will Lucifer and Cain be buddies or form a frenemies dynamic? Will they still be rivals for Chloe's heart? Why was it so important that Lucifer had to kill the faux-Sinnerman? What happened to the faux-Sinnerman since he was killed by Pierce instead? It seems like faux-Sinnerman might have been in Pierce's life since he was a boy, so why did Pierce so ruthlessly dismiss him like that? The Cain reveal opened up so many doors and promises to inject a much-needed infusion of energy into this season. Once the show gets past this final standalone big things seem to be rising on the horizon. It feels like the season is about to turn a corner and get back on track through some pretty big storylines.
The next episode airs on
Monday, January 1st at 8/7c on FOX.
Hit the comments with your thoughts about this episode. Were you surprised by the Cain reveal? Are you excited to see what comes next? What do you want to see happen next?
A very HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!
