After several months in one of the weirdest scheduled hiatus moves for network television, Lucifer returned this week and we get the answer to the biggest question over these past few months:
Though it’s been months to us, in the show timeline Lucifer’s only been gone a few weeks. While not earth-shattering in itself, he’s been completely incommunicado in that time which, after the moment he and Chloe shared, is a pretty big no-no. Oh, and as an LAPD consultant as well. But none of that holds a candle to the fact that he returns with a bit of arm candy, as in a wife by the name of Candy. Candy Morningstar, exotic dancer.
Yes folks, Lucifer got hitched.
It’s a jarring revelation for yours truly but an even worse dose of reality for Chloe. Despite saying how she’s over Lucifer’s disappearance, being introduced to the newest squeeze on Lucifer’s shoulder, the hurt becomes evident in her eyes. It’s not a surprise then that she wants Lucifer as far away from their current case as possible. This week it’s the investigation of the death of Heavy Woolies frontman Ash. Found with his brains bashed in, the case leads them to a string of suspects, including Ash’s divorce mediator, his ex-wife, the bass player in the band until we finally get the culprit: the drummer (you gotta watch those drummers!).
Murder case aside, “Candy Morningstar” is less about the procedural and more about everyone coming to terms with Lucifer’s reappearance. In a word, it’s a strange and rocky return, both for our anti-hero and the show itself.
To start, the screen time between Lucifer and Chloe are well done. Though she tries keeping it together, for much of the show, Chloe’s warring with the emotional betrayal of allowing her guard down with Lucifer only to have him up and disappear on her. Much of the hour is spent with the two trying to find common ground; Chloe with equal parts anger and pain while Lucifer, as he does most things, approaches it with his usual aplomb. Though it does wear on a bit with the two finally do breach that chasm, next to Lucifer’s piano rendition of “Eternal Flame”, the best line comes early one when, after being gut-punched by Lucifer’s nuptial announcement and easy-peasy approach to his own actions, Chloe tells him “you can’t just grab what you want when you want”. In this Chloe attacks Lucifer’s greatest weakness, his cavalier way of approaching everything, the self-centered nature where, though he may never lie, chooses not to see the truth behind so many of his own actions. Or is it that he can’t see those truths?
It’s an interesting conundrum, especially when paired with his actions of the show. True, he was devastated to learn that the connection he shared with Chloe was (seemingly) orchestrated by God the Father. His natural instincts to rebel against that aren’t all self-involved. He admits to Amenadiel that putting a wall between himself and Chloe is the only way to allow her the choice, a choice Lucifer felt he never had. For someone so patently selfish, it is quite a selfless act.
Let’s be clear though; despite his feelings towards Chloe and subsequent actions to protect her from being a cosmic puppet, Lucifer’s administration of the events is not without ulterior motives. Turns out, the entire Lucifer/Candy nuptials was a charade, orchestrated to throw his mother Charlotte off-balance. It works like a charm, with Charlotte taking to heart her failures as a parent and the role she’s played in Lucifer’s current instabilities. Not only that, but she reveals the key to re-entering Heaven: Azrael’s Blade. It turns out that the Blade is one and the same with the Flaming Sword that once guarded the entrance to Eden. Talk about Lucifer’s “Eternal Flame” ballad having a double meaning if there ever was one.
At the end of the day, the question is simple: what in the hell does this all mean? Sure, it looked like Chloe got over Lucifer’s abandonment with smiles after the impromptu serenade, but is she really over it? In one conversation Lucifer harps on the need to bring things back to where they were—the two as partners-in-crime (or justice), as friends. The partner angle seems to be solidified but can they really go back to being “just friends” now? To add to that, now that Lucifer knows about God moving he and Chloe around like pawns (at least, that’s how Lucifer sees it) as well as how to re-enter Heaven, what does he do? And, more importantly for those Chlucy ‘shippers out there, will he really be able to stay the course and not succumb to his feelings for the good detective?
My thoughts are the odds are surely not in Lucifer’s favor.
Lucifer: ”Candy Morningstar”
