Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Summer DVR Dump: Lucifer 1.06: “Favorite Son”

“I have never made any one of them do anything. Never.”
- Lucifer

I have to say this may have been my favorite episode of “Lucifer” so far. It moved the narrative along in a very interesting way and is kind of giving me some of the mythology I’ve been craving. Sure we haven’t seen Hell but I don’t mind because we got some far more interesting character work for our dear Devil. While he’s wailing on the keys and singing at Lux (Tom Ellis has a great voice and I’m pretty sure he was actually playing the piano, too), a security guard is getting murdered and storage container is being stolen. While it might not seem like a very important crime to Lucifer at first (in fact once he gets to the scene, he claims boredom and runs off back to Lux to see if Maze and some hot chicks are up for a foursome. But it turns out to be quite important to him when Maze informs him that the container belonged to him.

Lucifer also isn’t having the greatest day with regards to Linda. She’s been needling him about identity and he claims he’s fine with who he is and not trying to change or become someone else. Cue Amenediel offering Linda his insights. At first I was a little distrustful of his motives but I suppose he does want Lucifer back to Hell and using Linda gets him what he wants (supposedly). He reveals that he’s quite the Biblical scholar (citing to seminary rather you know being a higher angel). He fills Linda in on some of the more key bits about Lucifer’s past and some of his other names. He also tells Linda to full commit to Lucifer’s “delusion” to try and break through to him.

Chloe is more than a little annoyed when Lucifer shows back up at the crime scene and says that the container was his and he wants his stuff back. He is very evasive about what’s in said container and so Chloe tasks Dan with digging into Lux’s books. This ties in a bit with their domestic drama going on. It’s Trixie’s birthday and also Taco Tuesday which Dan will be missing for a stake out. Chloe is less than thrilled by this but that’s kind of a constant state of being with the pair of them. Dan gets more than he bargained for when he confronts Maze at Lux alone. First she hits on him and then she flat out hits him in the back of the head and he wakes up in Chloe’s bed naked just as Chloe and Trixie come home from shopping. According to Maze, she wanted him and Chloe to hook up and get back together so Lucifer would move on. Yeah, that plan didn’t work at all!

Things get violent once Lucifer is back on the trail of the missing container. He assaults a snow cone maker who is also a criminal who runs the warehouse where the container was stolen from. He implicates a biker gang but after meeting the gang, the leader explains he’s trying to rebrand and go legit. Thanks to Lucifer’s powers, he admits he wants to own his own clothing line. Clearly, though, not everyone is happy about that change in the biker image. They found the imprint of a metal cross (associated with the gang) on the dead security guard and this tips off the leader of the gang. Lucifer and Chloe have their own stakeout where he admits he has never lied to her and never will (and then says there are Russian stacking dolls in the missing container). They end up splitting up when the leader gets shot by one of his flunkies. Lucifer gives chase in the car, leaving Chloe to follow on foot. Lucifer is having a bit of fun with hunting the guy down (even though he does have to duck out of the way until the guy’s gun runs out of bullets) until he ends up jumping off the roof. He stole the container for someone else and looked inside and saw whatever is in there. It was enough to scare him enough to make him jump to his death.

Lucifer allows Chloe to see inside the container and there are indeed Russian stacking dolls in a trunk. She’s satisfied (and even gets Dan to come over for Taco Tuesday) for now, leaving Lucifer to check for the real cargo: his wings. They’re missing and he absolutely loses it at Linda’s the next time he sees her. She tries to confront him with what God did, including naming him Samael (the light bringer). He gets really uncomfortable when she uses that name and he also gets kind of aggressive and defensive when she says that he was God’s favorite son and that’s why he was sent to Hell. Lucifer goes on quite the tirade about how he never asked to become a torturer and he’s never made a mortal commit a bad act. He hates this perception of himself. So whatever Amenediel’s plan, it seems to be working (although it leaves Linda’s office with a whole punched in it). When the episode ends, we find Lucifer on the roof of his building with the scars from where he cut off his wings clearly visible. He’s absolutely gutted that someone’s stolen his wings and he’s going to find whoever it is and punish them severely.

I was a little skeptical about making him more mortal because he was so snarky and badass as an immortal angel but I am really enjoying the vulnerability he’s bringing to the character. He’s not human by any means but he’s experiencing these new feelings and emotions for the first time. Or at the very least he’s rediscovering these feelings about his father. Because when you think about it, he’s just a boy hurt that his father didn’t want him and who can’t relate to that?

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