“No one decides who I am but me.”
It’s December and for television, that means that the mid-season finales are in full effect. Out of all the genre shows I watch on network television, Lucifer is the last to air its final episode of 2017. So far, said mid-season finales have ranged the gamut from very good (The Flash, Supernatural), decent (Supergirl) to downright awful (Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow). In a season that, episode-wise, has been up-and-down with some fantastic moments sprinkled throughout, I wasn’t sure which bin Lucifer’s finale would end up in and, despite some decent moments throughout, “The Sin Bin” is made by the episode’s final 30 seconds.
But first, there’s the interrogation of the Sinnerman.
Picking up a day or so after last week’s shocker—the Sinnerman carving out his own eyes to avoid Lucifer identifying what he truly desired—we find the baddie in custody and awaiting questioning. For a guy who just lost his sight, the Sinnerman is in a pretty good mood. In fact, he’s down-right jovial at points, taunting our white hats and cracking jokes. It doesn’t take long to recognize why: he’s got an ace in the hole. With the help of an off-screen accomplice, he’s had a woman kidnapped and ready to be drowned if he doesn’t take them to her. That means releasing him into the wild and, escort or no, it’s not something Lieutenant Pierce has any desire to do. So what do you do when your leads dry up, the man in charge doesn’t want to risk the suspect getting away, and time is running short for an innocent victim?
Why, you try to pull a fast one so ridiculous only seen in outlandish comedies, let alone the consequences that would happen once your superiors discovered the ruse. Of course, if the superior is Lieutenant Pierce, who’s a bit more in tune with what’s going on in his precinct, you won’t have to worry because, as Chloe and Lucifer find out, Pierce understands that busting the Sinnerman out is the only way to save the victim. But when they finally reach her and Lucifer disappears with the Sinnerman, we realize nothing is what it seems.
Alone with his nemesis, Lucifer wants nothing more than to have his wings disappear for good and his devil face back. He threatens the Sinnerman with grievous bodily harm and taps Maze to dole out the torture. Based on dialogue, “Hell’s most brutal torturer” puts down her implements, promising Lucifer that she did her best—we won’t discuss how the Sinnerman looked like he’d only taken a brisk jog through the hills and not tortured by a sadistic demon—and there’s really no way for them to break him. But she lets slip one tiny morsel of information that sparks Lucifer’s brain: technically speaking, an angel cannot kill a human. If they do, they Fall. In Lucifer’s mind, that’s the perfect solution to his problem but then, after hemming and hawing over how to do the deed, he realizes that the Sinnerman wants to die by Lucifer’s hand. But before he discovers why, Pierce and Chloe track them down with the former putting several shots into the Sinnerman, ending him for good.
As things wind down, Chloe rails on Lucifer for not trusting her. “I had your back on this Lucifer,” she tells him “and for whatever reason, you still felt the need to go behind mine.” She walks away and, for a brief moment, it seems like the finale will end with nothing more than the two of them at odds. But then the darndest thing happens…Lucifer actually has a moment of clarity about something… or someone.
He invites Pierce to the loft and, after a brief moment of showing him an old photo, stabs Pierce in the heart. It takes a few minutes but the lieutenant rises once again, alive and well.
“The world’s first murderer,” Lucifer says, “marked by God and doomed to walk the Earth alone for a tortured eternity. “
Yes, folks, Marcus Pierce is none other than Cain.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Post Script
- While two things have been obvious from the start—the Sinnerman was not the big bad and Pierce was definitely hiding something—I never saw things ending up like this. Sure, at one point I thought Pierce may be more connected to the Sinnerman than he let on but being Cain? I’d always wondered what other Biblical persons we’d see in Lucifer and Cain’s inclusion hints at what’s to come.
- So the whole “you broke my trust” Chloe thing…is this a case of false drama or is she really going to break off from Lucifer for a bit? He does the same thing time and time again and, with Chloe out of the loop on the truth, he’s eccentricities can only be excused for so long. Personally, I’m still at a loss as to what they are trying to do with our pair of protagonists. It’s one of the more disappointing and uneven narrative points so far this season. Maybe now we have a bit of direction and some true conflict. Maybe.
- Finally, with all the seriousness going on, it was good to see a bit of levity with the Charlotte/Trixie scenes. Trixie is so awesome, giving us precocious humor and, like kids often do, pointing out the obvious to adults who can’t see past the unnecessary complexities we make of issues. Thanks to a little girl, not only may we get a true Charlotte and Dan ‘ship but Charlotte demands to see her children. They are making a concerted effort to have Charlotte become a character completely separate from what and where she was last season and it’s working.
