Monday, January 29, 2018

Lucifer 3.13: “Til Death Do Us Part”

“Your father’s all about mind games and loopholes, remember?”
- Maze

I haven’t laughed so hard at an episode of “Lucifer’ in a really long time. This was a great episode. It gave us some movement on a lot of subplots and it was just a ton of fun and you could tell at least Tom Ellis was having a blast. We open with Lucifer approaching Cain with a chainsaw which the immortal quickly dismisses as having tried everything including jumping into a volcano to die. Lucifer even tries stabbing him with one of Maze’s daggers but not even that works! And she’s kind of stab happy when she brings over some of her other tools.

A short while later, Chloe and Dan land the case of a suburban school teacher found dead in a woodchipper. Lucifer worms his way onto the case as usual when it turns out that the victim had previously died three years earlier. Some easy digging later, they discover she was cooking drugs for a Korean drug syndicate. Lucky for our team, Lucifer knows a guy who deals the stuff and he and Chloe learn who the head of the drug syndicate is. Chloe insists they go through proper channels but Lucifer has other plans. In a spectacular montage we see him taking all kinds of goons at a karaoke bar (it was really well shot and I loved how Lucifer used the weapons from the goons to take out other goons it was so well choreographed) and when next we meet the head of the syndicate, he’s happily confessing to all kinds of felonies for Chloe. But he insists he didn’t kill the victim. While she stole money from him and faked her death, he didn’t kill her because she offered to pay him back with interest. But, she wouldn’t go back to working for him. So, it seems someone in the neighborhood may have killed the victim (especially when a little more investigation reveals she was sells drugs again but this time is was geared towards the suburban market).

This leads to the most amazing sting operation in the show’s history (way better than surfer Dan last week). Lucifer and Cain go undercover in the neighborhood and learn from one couple that there’s a “Watchdog” going around enforcing all kinds of rules. Lucifer being his hilarious self, sets out to get the enforcer’s attention. And it works. It turns out to be the husband of the couple that they previously entertained. The sting isn’t over though because he didn’t write the note to the victim that led to her death. He was her biggest customer for drugs. So, Lucifer and Cain (going by the names Mark and Luke, how appropriate) throw a little party for the neighborhood and insist everyone sign the guest book. What’s even better is they start arguing like a married couple and the things they are arguing about appear to be martial but we as the viewer (and they as the characters) know it’s about their mutual frustration with not finding a way to kill Cain. Lucifer storms out but Chloe give shim quite the rousing speech to get him motivated to go back in and finish the case. He and Cain make up (and make out) and it’s pretty obvious that the killer was the wife of the couple. She thought her husband and the victim were having an affair. It seems even death couldn’t push this couple apart as cheesy and sappy as that is.

Elsewhere in the episode, Charlotte and Dan are continuing to explore their relationship which I’m liking more now that she’s not a celestial being. It’s kind of sweet and a nice distraction from the craziness of the rest of the characters. Or at least, it usually is. This week, Maze starts acting really weird and attracted to Charlotte. She even pops in on their date to offer a three-way because she’s so turned on. But when she confronts Charlotte at the bar, she realizes that the thing that attracted Maze was the lingering scent and effects of Hell on Charlotte. She realizes she doesn’t want her old life back. As bizarre as this whole encounter was, it helped Charlotte realize that her life isn’t as together as she’d hoped. Dan assures her that he can wait for her because she’s worth it! Please let someone on this show have a happy ending!

A happy ending certainly isn’t in Chloe’s future. She invites Cain to drinks with some of the guys but he declines. He straight out tells her nothing romantic can happen between them (at least we can quash that love triangle) and she says she understands but we know she doesn’t. There’s so much we still don’t know about him! He does go pay Lucifer a visit and Lucifer says they both need to be committed to solving the mystery of how to kill Cain. Lucifer posits that Cain wants to die because he’s tired of being alone. While true, Cain points out that Lucifer may be the one who doesn’t want to be alone. I got some serious sexual vibes during this conversation but maybe it was leftover from the sting. Either way, I’m all for them working together (hopefully with some help from Maze and even Amenediel) to solve this riddle. I know we only have a handful of episodes left this season but I’m really enjoying this new plot arc. I’m still waiting for Chloe to wise up to everything around her but I guess I’ll just have to keep hoping on that one. One day the writers reward us with that confrontation/realization and it will be great. For now, we’ll have to settle for all the creative ways Lucifer will try to kill Cain. And if the writers know what they’re doing, they’ll bring some of the humor of this episode into those future interactions because I loved the heightened dynamic the actors were able to deliver.

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