Time flies when you’re having fun. Or, when you’ve been somewhat disappointed in one of your biggest guilty pleasures. But, alas! Faith, dear friends, in the things you like for they may eventually return to form and again bring you joy.
At least for the most part.
This week’s installment—and penultimate episode—doesn’t waste time as television’s first Celestial family (or second, if you’re counting Supernatural) is searching for the final key needed to complete the Flaming Sword, aka their golden ticket back into Heaven. Said search throws Lucifer, his fam, and Chloe into the obligatory procedural which revolves around Bianca, a Tequila/drug queen whose hip-hop wannabe son is doing his best to dabble into the shady world of his mother. Though low on excitement, we do get one of a few surprises when Chloe and Charlotte team up to infiltrate Bianca’s party and, though they have different motivations, one thing they do vibe on is the difficulties of motherhood. And—spoiler alert—not only do they end up nabbing the drug queenpin but Charlotte gains possession of the artifact that just may guide them back to the Silver City.
One of the more disappointing things with Lucifer has been the titular character doing the same things over and over again. While such behavior works for a Michael Scott in The Office, dramas (or dramedy if you will) require more investment in character development. It finally seems that the writers had a plan for this all along. As the self-centered, narcissistic being that he is, Lucifer rarely, if ever, considers others in his actions. He’s the ultimate child, doing or saying what he wants without any sort of filter in place. Though often played for laughs, this type of behavior would absolutely be a damaging trait in many relationships and, for the first time, Lucifer is faced with how much he hurts those around him with his thoughtless actions.
Though we got to see a small aspect of emotional fallout from Lucifer’s abandonment of Chloe, Mr. Morningstar deflected much of the backlash with the fact that part of his behavior was fueled by a semi-altruistic sentiment of keeping Chloe out of the celestial squabbles. But there is nowhere to hide for Lucifer when Mazikeen confronts him–verbally and physically–about his plan to abandon her on earth. Initially, she covers her immense pain with attempting to right the life of another casualty of Lucifer’s actions—Dr. Linda, whose suspended for her role in last week’s mental institution jailbreak—but after the two come to bloody blows and visit the aforementioned Dr. Linda for a quick powwow, Maze lets her former boss/lover/partner in the decadent/friend have it. As one that has always tried to portray an attitude of nonchalance, much like Lucifer, in fact, it’s heartbreaking to see such a powerful and loyal character driven to tears. Faced with Maze’s betrayed frame of mind, Lucifer realizes, if but for a moment, that his actions have consequences and, if not careful, can destroy the ones he cares about most of all.
Whereas Lucifer and Mazikeen’s heart-to-heart is the emotional strength of the show, another unexpected conversation pairs beautifully with it. Running into a distressed Amenadiel at the station, Dan takes the former angel to lunch. Dan lends an ear and offers Amenadiel advice we can all relate to. Discover who you truly are but, to do so, you have to stop defining yourself by other people. For Amenadial, he’s constantly fought with the belief that Lucifer is the favorite. Even towards the end when the Sumerian book they recover states that the third part of the Flaming Sword was entrusted to God’s favorite son, Amenadiel’s first thought is that Lucifer holds said key. As it turns out, key rests around the neck of the fallen angel. Though we’ll have to wait until next week’s finale to catch the fallout from that discovery, there is no question that it completely flips the narrative for both Amenadiel and Lucifer.
Whether for better or worse, we’ll have to wait and see.
Post Script
- For someone who has been critical of the show these last few weeks, I must give credit where it’s due. Though the procedural was integral to the Flaming Sword plot point, the strong points were the character development aspects. Lucifer, Amenadiel, Maze, and even Charlotte had varying degrees of emotional honesty, both with themselves and others. Whereas the last few weeks had seemingly transformed them into caricatures of themselves, this week was a powerful reminder that they are three-dimensional capable of feeling genuine emotion that goes deeper than the surface persona many see. This was especially important for Lucifer and Maze who both have always had that devil may care attitude. Confronting the truth as it was should both strengthen their relationship as well as their own personal sense of self.
- Consequences was a big part of “Sympathy for the Goddess” and Dr. Linda’s professional career is in jeopardy for her part in helping the Celestial family. How much she is hurt by her involvement has yet to be seen as Mazikeen has taken it upon herself to fix things for her friend. In addition, we also saw Bianca’s son Chet discover that same lesson. First, when he tries to enter into the big boys and girls game of illegal operations and, worse for him when he tries cleaning up the mess and stabs Charlotte. The escaping light from her wound burns him to a crisp and we now see that Charlotte’s days are numbered and, unless I miss my guess, the possible vessel overload, if not tended, may be deadly for a whole helluva lot of people.
Lucifer: “Sympathy for the Goddess”
