Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Lucifer 3.24: “A Devil of My Word”

“Hello, Pierce. It’s time for a reckoning.”
- Lucifer

We have come to the end of an era. Only a few short days ago, we got the sad news that Lucifer has been cancelled by Fox and unless another network or streaming service picks it up, this is the last we will see of Lucifer, Chloe and company. And I know I bitched about the storyline the back half of this season but after this finale, my faith in the show was renewed and I am downright pissed about not getting more. I can absolutely see now why the producer warned fans that they would be frustrated by the episode’s closing moments.

I’m going to structure this post a little differently than most of my recaps, seeing as this is the series finale. The crux of the plot is really bringing our team together to take down Caine for Charlotte’s murder. We know he did, even if he was aiming for Amenediel (side note: it seems for now, big brother has gone back to Heaven to stay). Dan is the first to accuse Cain after finding Charlotte’s Sinnerman file at home. I know it’s just a waffle iron but it broke my heart when Dan threw it against the wall and shattered it. He and Charlotte really were robbed of their happiness together. Lucifer has no trouble believing it since he’s known that Cain was the Sinnerman for ages and Chloe eventually gets on board with the theory (not the Sinnerman one necessarily but that he killed Charlotte). Ella is the last among them to be brought into the loop but only after Cain uses his Sinnerman connections to frame someone. Lucifer figures out who helped plant the evidence and the when the team uses Ella to try and draw Cain out, they get a hitman for their troubles. Before we get into the big final showdown, we also need to touch on Maze and Linda. They had their ups and downs this season with the whole love triangle nonsense but maze has finally realized that she needs Linda as a friend and she would run four miles and kill twelve guys just to get to her to make sure she was safe. I’m going to miss their odd little friendship. I was looking forward to seeing how they developed after maze accepted that emotions can make her stronger. For non-romantic pairings, this one was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed their drunken confrontation on the bachelorette bus a few weeks ago.

It turns out the hitman who promised information lied and sent Lucifer and Chloe into a trap. We know that things can get dicey for Lucifer when Chloe is around and she steps up to protect him (even as she continues to profess she doesn’t believe his metaphors). She takes a bullet and then Lucifer’s wings come out, creating a cocoon around them. The pain on Lucifer’s face as bullets hit him from all sides I horrible to watch and listen to. But he manages to save Chloe (thankfully she was wearing a vest!) and goes back to finish what he started. Despite the fact his wings are bloody and clearly causing him pain, he uses them to take out Cain’s men and ends up killing Cain with Maze’s blade. Amenediel’s theory about them making their own destiny seems to have rung true for Lucifer, but in killing a man, he gets his Devil face back, just as Chloe sees him and for the first time believes every word he’s ever told her. And that is where they leave us! What does Chloe do now that she has this information? How does it change her feelings for Lucifer (if at all)? So many questions left unanswered.

I have to admit that despite the ups and down of this past season, I have really loved this show. I really enjoyed Tom Ellis’ portrayal of the devil. Not having any background by way of the comics on which the show was originally loosely based, I came into the pilot with no expectations. And for most of the run, I wasn’t disappointed. I think they took what could have been a sort of hokey premise and made it something special. Sure, they are lots of procedural with a twist shows out there (and lord knows I’ve probably watched many of them as they tend to be in my wheelhouse) but Lucifer as a show really stood out to me. They built interesting characters that you wanted to get to know. They presented story arcs that drew out some fundamental questions and they weren’t afraid to throw you curveballs. Chloe being Lucifer’s Kryptonite? Wasn’t expecting that. Hell, I wasn’t expecting Lucifer to get his wings back or lose his Devil face. While the waiting and wanting to know the answers to some of these questions drove me nuts, I’m satisfied with the answers we got. I like that Lucifer and Amenediel figured out that the changes they went through weren’t God’s punishment or test but were their own feelings about themselves. It made the more human and relatable. And I have to admit, I miss Charlotte a lot!

If this is all we ever get of Lucifer, I’ll be disappointed because there are so many stories left to tell but I realize that many things go into renewing a show and admittedly Lucifer wasn’t owned by Fox (plus the ratings were down year over year and Fox may not exist beyond next season anyway). I have no doubt the cast will land on is feet wherever they go next and I do look forward to following them to whatever project pulls them in. So, thank you to Lucifer’s cast and crew for putting on a quality show that is gone far too soon. I know what I truly desire is more time with these characters but as in life, we don’t always get what we want.

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Lucifer 3.23: “Quintessential Deckerstar”

“I am the devil.”
“Not to me, you’re not.”
- Lucifer and Chloe

It has been a long time since we’ve had a double quote for a post but I felt this was necessary. We are making some movement forward with Chloe and Lucifer and I think we may have gotten a potential answer to why Lucifer’s wings came back. But, more on that in a minute. This week’s case drew a lot of our characters together and highlighted a lot of the reasons I do enjoy the show. Lucifer thinks because Chloe “un-chose” Cain, that it means she chose him. Linda tries and fails to get him to see that isn’t the same thing but in typical Lucifer fashion he doesn’t listen. He decides instead of just saying he wants to get things back to normal, he’s going to do normal and try to recreate some of his and Chloe’s best moments on cases, complete with a drink and playing the piano at the crime scene of a famous baseball player whose wife has been murdered.

Charlotte is still having her hell loop dreams and when she wakes up from the latest one, we see that Dan was in the picture (which is really sweet). When she gets to the precinct, she sees the baseball player who was in her dream. She swears that he has to be the guilty party. Chloe doesn’t really think there is strong evidence (he had a head injury from being knocked out and everything) but Charlotte is insistent. When she was a young lawyer years ago, her boss gave her a bloody duffel bag in the middle of the night from the player and told her to burn it. She did and she clearly feels really guilty for helping to cover up his past crimes. She just can’t prove that he’s’ the killer now. Ella, thankfully, starts to poke holes in the guy’s story about his head wound. He said it came from being clocked with a gun but Ella identifies it as a sharp force versus blunt force injury.

Enter the mistress. She corroborates his whereabouts on the night of the murder so they are back to square one. Along the way, Amenediel starts to wonder if maybe he’s responsible for losing his wings and not God. Like, there’s no test, he has to help himself. This doesn’t impress Charlotte much because she still thinks she’s going to Hell. I do really like them working together, though. They are a lot of fun. He poses as a potential client to get into Charlotte’s former firm and then she shows up as a distraction while gets files that show the baseball player paid off a lot over women over the last twenty years.

One other thing the mistress does, is say that the victim was having an affair, too. The alleged adulterer explains that they just worked late and that they were trying to thwart corporate espionage. They pass off some video footage of a hat and glasses clad figure which Chloe spends all night reviewing to try and break the case open. She turns Lucifer away when he shows up with a board came, intent on continuing their greatest hits tour. She thinks he’s making fun of her but he isn’t. Around this time, Charlotte and Amenediel figure out that one of the women the player paid off was murdered around the time Charlotte was given the bag and that the man who went to prison for the murder didn’t do it and just got out of prison. In short order, Chloe gets the recent parolee to confess to the present-day killing. Lucifer sees this and realizes that she didn’t need him to do her job.

While the rest of the drama is unfolding, Cain has moved digs and Maze shows up to end him. He proposes they kill Amenediel so he can get his mark back (I don’t quite understand why that is the case that’s what he wants) and then Lucifer will be forced to take Maze back to hell. But, Maze pulls a crying ruse on Amenediel and is surprised when he comforts her and tells her that he’ll always be there for her. I think she just hasn’t seen that the people around her still care about her. She goes to tell Cain that the deal’s off and they get into quite a fight until Cain says that he’s hurt Linda as insurance against Maze. When she goes to check her phone, h nails her with a sedative and runs off.

Thanks to some clever teamwork between Chloe, Charlotte and the player’s latest mistress, they catch the player admitting to the past murder. So, that’s two murders Chloe solved without Lucifer’s help. You expect him to be upset that he’s not needed but he realizes that Chloe works with him because she wants to. He also finally admits his feelings that he was too afraid to tell her the truth honestly before because she worried if she knew all of him, she’d run. He admits that he’s the devil and she tells him that he’s not to her. Now, Amenediel’s theory seems like it might hold some weight. What if Chloe seeing him not as the devil he thought all this time gave him his wings back? It’s a possible theory that I hope we continue to explore. And hey, we get a kiss between them, too! Unfortunately, all of the happiness is short-lived. Cain has decided to take matters into his own hands and he goes to kill Amenediel in the park as he sits with Charlotte. I really wish got to see more of them together. They’re a fun pair. They hear the approaching gunman and Charlotte throws herself in front of Amenediel, taking the bullets meant for him. She dies in Amenediel’s arms but he realizes that he has his wings back and he carries her off to Heaven. I do hope he comes back to face off against Cain with the rest of the gang and maybe be a shoulder for Dan because he’s devastated by Charlotte’s death. Poor Dan. He just finds happiness and it’s ripped away. I was honestly worried for a second they were actually going to kill Linda. Next week’s finale is going to be good.

Sunday, May 6, 2018

Lucifer 3.22: “All Hands on Decker”

“It’s one night, what could possibly go wrong?”
- Ella

This episode turned out to be more entertaining than I expected it to be. Given that at the start of the episode, Chloe and Cain were getting married in just three weeks, I’m pretty pleased with the end result. Chloe is kind of overwhelmed by the all the wedding planning so Cain convinces her to take a few days of vacation to work on it without distraction. Ella also gets to fulfill a dream of hosting a bachelorette party. Things take a weird turn though when Ella appoints Maze as co-host. Maze still thinks Cain has his mark and she’s convinced she’s going to make sure they get married so the mark will go away.

With Chloe on vacation, Lucifer gets paired with Dan and much hilarity ensues. Lucifer can’t figure out why Chloe would say “yes” and so he’s decided to get into her head by being her. Meanwhile, Amenediel is tackling the Cain angle (Charlotte is on Chloe duty at the party). Charlotte suggests that Amenediel tap into some of his own fears since turning mortal and use them to needle at Cain to try and get him to change his mind. The guys do share a drink at Lux but I don’t think our fallen angel was successful in his task.

The Bachelorette party is a bust at first, too. Maze has planned a ridiculous party with no booze, strippers or good music. Charlotte remedies the situation by hiring a party bus (and convincing some potential sexually harassing college students to strip in exchange for dropping charges). Along the way, Linda sort of figures out what Maze is up to and a fight nearly breaks out on the bus several times (not least of which because Maze literally tosses the guy Linda was making out with off the bus). Ella is also not happy that Charlotte appears to be freaking Chloe out with divorce stats and such. In the end, it appears Chloe gets some sage advice from the bus driver that leads her to make an important decision.

Before we get to the big two outcomes of the episode, I should discuss the case of the week. Dan and Lucifer end up investigating the murder of a dog show participant and along the way, find the missing show dog. Things are rather awkward at first as Lucifer tries to “be” Chloe and Dan has to remind of things like certain questions to ask. The first lead takes them to an illegal gambling den where Lucifer does a little sleight of hand and takes Dan’s gun and badge and slips a wad of cash in his pocket before leaving Dan inside. He almost gets their current suspect to confess over poker when Lucifer bursts in with SWAT. It turns out, the suspect got into dog shows while in prison. He was seen arguing with the victim because the ex-con’s dog had gotten the victim’s dog pregnant and they were negotiating over the puppies. Their next lead takes them to the vet who has to certify all the dogs in the show. She claims to not know the dog was pregnant but Lucifer’s persuasion works on another employee who admits to taking the dog. She wanted to sell the puppies because she’s strapped for cash. As Dan and Lucifer are heading back to the precinct with the dog in the front seat, Dan explains that Chloe isn’t just her job. She’s a friend, a single mom and so much more. He also acknowledges that he’s been scared to tell Charlotte what he wants and he also points out that Lucifer is scared to ask Chloe why she agreed to marry Cain because he doesn’t want to know the answer. They return the dog to the victim’s husband but things don’t seem to sit right with Dan or Lucifer (especially after Lucifer discovers in doing the paperwork for the case that the husband knew about the puppies which contradicted what he’d told them when he picked the dog up). Dan also figured it out when the dog wouldn’t go to the husband. So, he’s gone to face the killer alone and unarmed. Lucifer shows up and Dan manages to take the guy out. It would seem the husband felt displaced by the dog (and now the puppies). The death was an accident and its at this point that Lucifer realizes why Chloe would say yes to Cain. He seems safe and stable and reliable.

However, it would appear that all of Lucifer’s soul searching wasn’t really needed since Chloe ends up breaking up with Cain (after he suggests eloping). We aren’t entirely sure why she ended it but I’m just glad she did. And so is Lucifer when he sees she’s no longer sporting a ring. I’m also happy to report that Dan and Charlotte are officially back on. Dan wants her and she’s cool with that. I think I’m going to like them together more than I did when she was Mom and just being weird and using him for sex. I think he can really have a good influence on Charlotte. I’m not sure why they decided to end things as quickly as they started them with Chloe and Cain as it seems a bit contrived. If they wanted to pit Maze against everyone as it seems they are doing, it could have been accomplished another way. As it stands, it looks like she’s still going after Lucifer so that’s not going to be good. I just hope the rest of the gang is able to thwart whatever she and Cain cook up next. And for goodness sake, Lucifer needs to admit his feelings to Chloe! I want to say that him being so immature and taking whole episodes to realize what he’s doing wrong or seeing his own behavior reflected in someone else is just his jealousy of Cain because I thought he’d made some good progress emotionally last season. But, it could just be the writers are still finding ways to keep them apart.

Lucifer 3.21: “Anything Pierce Can Do, I Can Do Better”

“I’m in. You are my brother and my test, whatever needs to be done.”
- Amenediel

So, going into this episode I had a sinking feeling I wasn’t going to like where it left Lucifer and Choe and the Cain of it all. And boy was I right. I’d love to say I’m surprised by Lucifer’s actions, but at least the way he acted was in character. And hey, I wasn’t the only one disappointed in him. He was, too!

The case involves the murder of a prima ballerina. The first suspect is her understudy (whose shoe was found at the scene and was in fact the murder weapon). But, Lucifer and Chloe are quickly pointed to a new avenue of inquiry: the victim was leaving to host a reality ballet coemption (seriously, do we need any more reality show?). With a little devil mojo thrown in, we learn that the head of the show was blackmailed into hiring the victim and then when he confronted her about it, she quit. Apparently, this guy was a big-name dancer who allegedly suffered a leg injury in a car crash. Thanks to Lucifer’s persuasion, we learn he faked the whole thing. Hence, blackmail.

In the midst of the investigation, we find both Cain and Lucifer trying to win over Chloe. Lucifer won’t admit it at the start but he wants Chloe to be with him. He initially frames it as restoring their partnership to what it was pre-Cain. Linda considers stopping him but doesn’t and she comes to regret it by the end of the episode. In his effort to woo Chloe back to him, Cain orders Maze to back off their plan (although hey his mark is gone). She isn’t going to let things go. She wants to kill Cain and pin it on Lucifer so his life on earth is ruined and he’ll take her back to Hell. She tries to make amends with Chloe in order to further her own objective but I don’t think it works out so well. Lucifer quickly sees what Cain is doing (trying to win Chloe back) and decides it’s going to be a competition of who can be better.

They start with giving her “stuff”. They both give her baked goods and then Cain stuffs her car with roses. Lucifer thinks he can one-up the Lieutenant by buying Chloe a car. She’s initially amused but then when she realizes he did it to one-up Cain, she gives the keys back. I really wish lucifer got out of his own way sometimes and just told her how he felt about her! He also tasks Amenediel (and by extension Charlotte) with finding a way to prove that Cain is the Sinnerman so that they can disrupt Cain’s attempts to win Chloe back.

I will admit, I enjoy Charlotte and Amenediel working together. They are quite fun. They stalk Cain to a meeting with a known fence and then Charlotte takes off on a motorcycle when Cain leaves. She lies about why she was following him (offering to be a rebound) to try and see what he got from the fence. Unfortunately, she can’t get her hands on it and when they break into his place later on, whatever he got from the fence was gone.

Thanks to some sleuthing by the cyber crimes division, Chloe learns that the blackmail video was sent from the IP of the person who runs the ballet company. Lucifer similarly deduced this (though I’m not sure how) and he’s already there when Chloe arrives. They start snooping and Lucifer proclaims the man is a stalker. When the guy gets home and Lucifer grabs him, Chloe realizes it isn’t so nefarious. They were having an affair. Later, Cain invites Chloe over to dinner so he can explain what’s going on. Lucifer overhears and invites Chloe to his place so that he can try to dissuade her from taking his nemesis back. Again, Chloe is impressed at first until she realizes that Lucifer is just trying to beat out Cain. She’s about to head over to see her ex when Ella and Dan discover a reflection in the blackmail video of the male lead in the production.

It’s only at this point that Lucifer realizes what a big mistake he’s made. The killer didn’t want to kill the victim but he did want her out of the way so the understudy could be the lead because he loves her. He was just afraid to admit his feelings to her. So, as Lucifer wallows in his own self-pity and heartache, Linda drops by to tell him she’s sorry for not stopping him. She challenges him to confront why he doesn’t want Chloe to be with Cain. First, he rails about his father’s plan but she calls bullshit on him. It’s an excuse and he knows it. He really wants Chloe to choose him because he loves her (and if Cain’s theory is right that Chloe’s affections make them both vulnerable, then she has feelings for him, too). But, Lucifer’s revelation is too little, too late. He arrives at Chloe’s to watch from the window as Cain proposes to her and she says “yes”. Honestly, I’m not sure why she accepted. She spent most of the episode unhappy with him and saying she couldn’t trust him for what he did. I knew this was where the story was headed based on previews and some other articles I’d read and it’s partly why it took me so long to get this post up. I really have not enjoyed this part of the season because it feels like an artificial way to keep Lucifer and Chloe apart. There was so much promise at the start of the season that now, feels like such a long time ago. Let our leads get together. Let Chloe know the truth and go from there. That can still be an interesting story and quite honestly, if we don’t get to at least Chloe knowing the truth by season’s end (in 3 episodes), I may be done blogging Lucifer.