

Lucifer: The Angel of San Bernardino

"Keep an eye out for our angelic witness. Hey, maybe it was one of your brothers."
"Seriously, is it one of your brothers?"

Oh, Lucifer. What am I going to do with you?

I've written three different drafts of this review, only to erase them and try again. I've slowly grown frustrated with Lucifer, both the character and the show, as this season has gone on, and I haven't necessarily been shy about that. This episode largely felt like a breaking point for me, which is ridiculous because quality wise? This may have been the best episode of the season, and is definitely in the top five best episodes of the series as a whole.

And I do mean that. I don't know if we have platinum acting stars here on Doux Reviews, but Tom Ellis certainly deserves one. His breakdown was heart wrenching to watch, and don't get me started on the interrogation room scene. Lucifer was strung out and at the end of his rope, and Ellis hit every note of it perfectly.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, so does Lesley-Ann Brandt. This may have been the first time since early season one that I remembered that Maze truly is a demon forged in the fires of hell. Her face when Lucifer realized that she had been gaslighting him was terrifying. Usually, when Maze does things that heavily cross the line of morality or legality, it's played off for laughs. That wasn't the case here.

I just wish that I knew what her endgame was here. Does she still want to go back to Hell? She has to know that after this, there's no way Lucifer is going to do anything that she wants. Or maybe she's just acting out from her place of deep anger without any care of the consequences. I'm not sure, and I'm a little wary about that. I hope that the writers establish that very soon.  

The stuff with Charlotte was really good as well. I loved how she couldn't think of an insult for Ella. Her backsliding felt realistic to me, especially considering that she thought that she had a "get out of hell" free card. Her realization that this wasn't the case was sobering to watch, as was her steadfast belief that she couldn't change.

However, Lucifer has shown time and time again that people can change. Everyone on the cast, with maybe the exceptions of Ella and Trixie, have had some kind of development and growth these past three years. Even if said growth is random, unearned, and comes out of left field.

I said at the start of this review that this episode functioned as a breaking point for me, and Cain's sudden "redemption" was what did it. It had been theorized that Cain would get a redemption and that his relationship to Chloe would be the catalyst of that. And I was okay with that, I think. I'm a sucker for a good redemption arc; you can argue that that's Lucifer's path on this show. But there was no build up to it. No real hint that Cain was having second doubts about his plan. Maze made one comment about his plan being ruthless, and that was enough for Cain to reconsider? What?

That is just so incredibly frustrating to me. Granted, we don't know how long Chloe and Pierce have been a couple. Time has always functioned as this weird, almost immaterial thing on this show. But if a month of dating Chloe and sneaking off to the evidence locker has wavered his resolve, then show it. That's all I'm asking for. Because at the moment, his sudden turn around feels incredibly unearned and like it has been done at the expense of other characters. Just stop hurting Chloe, damn it.

I will never understand why Lucifer hasn't shown Chloe his wings yet. He knows that she needs proof if she's going to acknowledge anything as truth, he said as much with regards to the angel figurine. Lucifer, you have some pretty damning proof on your back! When he said that Chloe needed to hear the truth, I wondered if maybe we would finally have progress on this front. This is the one thing that needs to happen before this season ends. If Chloe isn't clued in by then... well... I won't say that I'll stop watching, but expect a very angry review.

I do have some small measure of faith that Chloe will figure it out, though. She picked up on the fact that Maze and Pierce used the same phrasing. Maybe it's not suspicious on its own, but it could be a sign that she's finally going to put the pieces together.

Random Thoughts

Wait, Lucifer watched twelve seasons of Bones in a week? That's some serious binge-watching. ...Now I want to try that with Supernatural. That is a very, very bad idea.

I did love the Bones shoutout. I watched that for a couple of seasons.

I think the whole cast was in this episode. That doesn't normally happen.

Trixie is a gift.

The "No Sleep" bender was a blast. I loved the music choice. (I always love Lucifer's music choices.)

So why did the mark disappear? Because Cain did a selfless act? Has he seriously never done a selfless act in the thousands of years that he's been alive?


Chloe: So the intruder knew the victim.
Lucifer: The former heroin addict had nefarious friends. Shocking.

Chloe: That's incredibly insightful.
Maze: I learned it from sex.
Chloe: That's more you.

Lucifer: Look, I'm not an idiot, Doctor. Clearly, I don't love them together, but I'm also not a 16-year-old crying in my bedroom with Adele on repeat.

I wish that I wasn't so deeply annoyed with the finale of this episode, because there really was me fantastic stuff here.


Billie Doux said...

I get what you're saying, Fangirl. Totally get it. You are so right that Pierce suddenly feeling guilty for using Chloe was unearned. But I've sort of felt this way about plot developments on Lucifer for a long time. I'm really just watching it because the actors are all so good and Tom Ellis in particular is a hoot. Watching Lucifer on speed in this episode was freaking hilarious.

And maybe the season finale will bring it all together, Chloe will learn everything, and it will all be worth it. We can hope.

sunbunny said...

Catching up! Tom Ellis looked particularly tasty to me this episode. Which probably says more about about me than him. Let's not think about what that means about me.

Victoria Grossack said...

Trixie is absolutely adorable.

NomadUK said...

The original and best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aMCzRj3Syg