“Once upon a time, there were two brothers: Cain and Abel. They fought, as brothers often do, over everything.”
This week’s episode opens with Lucifer giving us a little summary of the reason behind Cain’s plight. He’s story-boarded the fighting, Abel’s death, and how that event made Cain the world’s first murderer, on a dry-erase board.
Lucifer, to help end Cain’s punishment, has a “simple” plan: He’s going to fly down to hell, retrieve Abel’s soul, and place it in a human body.
It won’t change the fact the original death happened, but it would make Abel alive now, and Lucifer seems to think that’s all it’s going to take.
I hope he’s right.
I doubt he’s right.
With the promise of a fresh body at the hospital after an explosion, Lucifer and Pierce buddy up – much to Chloe’s confusion. They pick a new body for Abel like they’re choosing a puppy.
A ninety-seven-year-old man flatlines, and Lucifer pops his wings out and descends to Hell. At the same time, Bree Garland dies.
Lucifer reappears, dusting himself off like what just happened was no big deal.
There might be one problem:
“It appears I may have misplaced your brother’s soul.”
Because nothing ever goes to plan, Abel is now running around in Bree’s body.
Cain’s curse is lifted. Or is it? Pierce checks his arm, to find the mark still there.
“Bugger,” Lucifer replies for all of us.
Linda, of course, knows a lot about Charlotte’s lost time, but she can’t reveal that, so instead she’s pushing Charlotte to talk about what she can remember, the endless loop she’s been reliving. They need to start, “In your Hell.” And it takes a lot for Linda to even be able to say that, because she knows that’s exactly where Charlotte’s soul was. But it’s even harder for Charlotte to talk about. Because deep down she knows that’s where she was too.
Maze and Abel have a history: he was the first soul Maze tortured.
“We all learned to torture by torturing him,” she tells Pierce.
Hell – with help from Maze and the other demons - made Abel multilingual and adaptable and now he’s out there walking around in the body of a young woman with only one thing on her mind.
His mind? Pronouns are going to be a challenge for me here.
Chloe and Dan have an opportunity to work together this week, and it’s a nice change to see Dan being allowed to work without the constant bullying from Lucifer. But even when Chloe and Dan work together, to speak with the man who wrote the threatening letters prior to the explosion, Chloe’s still got Pierce and Lucifer on her mind. She thinks she’s responsible for this shift in dynamics, but mostly she’s just jealous. She’s feeling betrayed.
The opportunity for her to talk more about it with Dan is interrupted by a red laser sight hitting his forehead. There’s a sniper in their midst.
In what is arguably the most ridiculous scene in this episode, Wade emerges from the bushes in camouflage. He claims the letters he wrote to Alexa weren’t a threat but a wake-up call.
(I guess I should briefly mention that the case this week involves an explosion in the office of a movie producer. The package is opened by Bree, her assistant, who then dies, and thus we get Abel. There’s links to a Bolivian cartel, and Alexa’s more involved than she makes out – but as usual the case is the least interesting thing about the episode. Moving on…).
I want to defend Dan, I really do, but out there, questioning Wade, he loses a lot of credibility as a detective. It’s scenes like this one that make me realize the writers will probably never allow this character to grow. But I will say it again, that I firmly believe the best thing that could happen to him would be to see that Lucifer really is the devil. I think that’s the storyline kicker Dan needs now.
Amenadiel places a gun on the table. “You want me to kill myself?” Abel asks. “Well I’ve never tried that before.”
Amenadiel just wants Abel out of the way, to keep Lucifer from being punished. There’s also the possibility that Abel killing himself might reverse Cain’s curse.
One of the Bolivian’s linked to the explosion Bree was caught up in arrives, and not far behind him are Lucifer and Pierce. Abel takes the Bolivian out with the gun Amenadiel had given him. Now there’s a dead man in a pool, and Abel has slinked away in the chaos.
It’s getting real messy here without Chloe, boys.
Lucifer and Amenadiel parallel Cain and Abel’s own rivalries as they argue about the situation. Amenadiel attempts to reason with Lucifer, concerned about the wrath of their father, but Lucifer is unconcerned. He believes he has nothing left to lose.
Why do I feel like God’s going to attempt to take Chloe from him in the season finale?
The boys realize they need to bring Chloe into the mix. Anyone could have told them that earlier.
These characters complement each other when they work as a cohesive team, or with their respective partners. When dynamics shift it just highlights how great Chloe really is, how much work she puts in to get the answers, and how she typically goes about it the right way. I do feel she’s a bit stuck right now as a character, but I can’t deny that at her core she’s a strong detective, mother, and friend.
Chloe’s holding onto all kinds of issues after Lucifer partnered up with Pierce, and, with Dan smirking knowingly, she projects:
“Does loyalty mean nothing to you? Alexa gave Bree her first job in Hollywood. She trained her. You don’t just ditch that the moment some big-armed, blue-eyed, toned, Bolivian drug lord comes around, okay?”
Lucifer appears to catch on halfway through the rant that Chloe might not necessarily be talking about the Bolivian, or the case.
Thinking it’s still just a Hell loop, Abel arrives at Lucifer's penthouse and shoots Cain. Abel’s celebrations are short-lived, as Cain rises, groaning but alive.
“I need you alive,” he tells Abel. “So you can help me die.”
Cain and Maze break the news to a shell-shocked Abel: He’s not stuck in his Hell loop anymore. He’s alive.
And it’s safe to say Abel’s mind is officially blown – as mimed by Maze.
And, oh, Maze. She’s still holding onto a lot of anger over the Linda/Amenadiel relationship, and them lying to her about it, and it becomes physical this episode. Amenadiel doesn’t understand why Maze is so angry. He doesn’t see how the lying affected her. And Maze doesn’t understand what her own anger and jealousy has done to both him and Linda. These three, like Cain and Abel, have some real feelings to work through. Every character in this episode is searching for some kind of forgiveness, every dynamic is a little shaken.
This is one of those moments where I hate how little Chloe knows in regards to Lucifer’s real identity. She’s loyal, and stubborn, and thinking Bree is still Bree, she won’t leave the woman to die.
The scene is tense as Lucifer argues with Pierce, who appears less concerned with Chloe potentially losing her life than he should.
Lucifer proves his own loyalty, that Chloe had recently questioned, by refusing to leave.
“I’m your partner,” he tells her, and it’s something she very much needed to hear.
While Abel and Lucifer watch on, Chloe removes the blasting cap and throws it as far as she can, and the result is a small explosion against a desk.
Out of the building, back down on the street, Chloe thanks Lucifer. “I couldn’t have done it without you.” But the truth is, he couldn’t do it without her either. I really hope he understands this. I know he’s been trying to push down a lot of his feelings for her, not believing her own are genuine but are instead just part of his dad’s plan.
“Without me,” he says once she’s walked away, “you wouldn’t have been in danger in the first place.”
My Deckerstar heart hurts.
My heart hurts for Charlotte too, who describes her Hell to Linda. Of her waking up, smelling coffee, pouring breakfast, watching her family killed in front of her while she smiles…
Tricia Helfer manages to emote enough through her frozen face to make me feel real sympathy for Charlotte – something I don’t feel often for this character. I do hope she makes peace with her previous life, though. She deserves redemption as much as anyone.
Cain and Abel are actively working towards forgiveness as the episode draws to a close. It’s going to take time, but they’re both slowly making peace with their past, with the Hell each has lived through. I wonder, when true forgiveness is found, will that be enough to erase the mark?
Will that be enough for God to remove the curse and allow Cain to die?
Oh, wait. Never mind. That final scene just killed that theory.
Bugger.
