Lucifer spreads his wings and covers Chloe for protection

“You have to stop taking responsibility for things you can’t control.”

As it turns out, having a positive epiphany may create negative consequences on your physical appearance. That is, if you’re the devil…

Lucifer realizes that his subconscious thoughts toward himself are physically changing him.

Not long after his heartfelt confession to Dr. Linda, Lucifer’s returned to a more jovial mood as, when he arrives at the scene of the latest murder case, tells Chloe that since he’s admitted his hatred towards himself, all his problems “should just go away”. It doesn’t take a genius to realize things aren’t going to be that easy. It’s during this early leg of the case where the first blemish occurs; a rash-like patch of skin forms on the back of his hand. Over the course of the episode, Lucifer’s symptoms rapidly progress all the while he’s trying to use the murder investigation to discover more about his self-hatred.

Like Lucifer’s physical changes, the episode’s murder investigation is as personal as it gets. The victim is Megan Murphy, one half of the Murphy sisters’ real estate team with her twin, Moira, who was found standing over her sister’s body, murder weapon in hand. The idea that someone could murder a person that shares their same face intrigues Lucifer, giving him hope that he can glean an answer on his own self-hatred to arrest and reverse his own bodily transformations. But Moira is not the culprit, but Beth, her younger sister who, after bankrupting her sisters’ corporate account killed Megan in a fit of rage at being called a loser. As motives go, it’s more an in-the-moment crime of passion (she’ll probably plead temporary insanity) but, more importantly, it offers nothing for Lucifer to evaluate in regards to his own predicament.

One other hurdle the changing devil has to clear is Eve’s dedicated mission to get him back. She pulls out all the stops—from acting as if she’s moved on, faking a relationship with Maze, even channeling her inner Chloe (work attire and all)—but none of it gains Lucifer’s attention. So fixated on getting her man back, Eve completely misses the truth right in front of her: Maze has fallen hard for Eve and, for a big part of “Save Lucifer” puts her wishes aside in order to help Eve win Lucifer back. It’s an ironic turn for Eve who has, for the most part, been more focused on making Lucifer happy than identifying her own separate desires. Her singularly-focused approach is not unlike Lucifer’s oft self-absorbed ways where his figurative blinders prevent him from seeing everything else going on around him.

Everything about Lucifer’s devil face encompasses the way he sees himself: as a monster.

Yet, as the episode title explains, it’s all about saving Lucifer from himself. This truth is not discovered until the end when a fully-devil’d Lucifer faces Chloe for the first time. She’s terrified at the form he’s become and, at one point, looks up towards Heaven as if begging for the strength she needs to face this monstrosity. When she does, her words touch on all the damage within Lucifer. She points out that, throughout his time, Lucifer has hated being blamed for humanity’s sins and yet he still holds guilt for it.

When Chloe tells Lucifer the importance of forgiving himself, his pain-riddled response is that “I don’t know how”. Admitting such in addition to wanting to forgive himself is the magical elixir and his demonic features slowly fade, revealing the man underneath it all. Confronting the worst parts of himself has been Lucifer’s biggest flaw throughout the series and now that he’s willfully accepting that part of him, there’s no telling what changes are ahead for the character.

If only Lucifer had to face just his internal demons and not just the literal ones in the midst of hijacking dead bodies on Earth…

Nota Bene

  • If there’s one thing this show has nailed this year is the deconstruction of its titular character. Lucifer’s persona is a psychological mind-field, as Linda can attest, with scars from so many deep-seated tragedies many viewers can relate to. Denial and self-loathing are concepts we face every day, either from ourselves or those we interact with, and to see the courage it takes to not only acknowledge those truths within one’s self but to actively push ahead through the pain to find even the scariest answers, is no easy task. More than anything, this change in Lucifer has rectified the one thing I had issues with during Season 3; Lucifer’s decided lack of character growth. Lucifer’s growth in Season 4 has been fantastic and it will be a treat to see how things end.
  • Welcome to this wonderful and weird world, Charlie. Seeing Linda have her baby with Amenadiel and Maze at her side was such a bittersweet moment, especially knowing the pain Maze is going through at realizing Eve doesn’t share her feelings and Amenadiel’s silent commitment to take Charlie up to the Silver City. His departure has all the makings of a cliffhanger to cap off the season finale…unless someone is able to convince him otherwise.
  • This episode carried a lot of emotional pain. From Eve and Maze’s broken hearts to Lucifer’s aforementioned issues, Dan was also one to finally acknowledge his own pain. So similar to Lucifer, he harbors guilt over things he couldn’t help and, in that, really can’t move forward. Instead, he’d rather be punished than to take a look in the mirror and face the disgust in his own eyes. Like Lucifer and Maze though, he takes that all-too important step forward in order to make amends for his failures.
  • One person who did not move forward, though, is Eve. So blinded by her desire to fall lovingly back into Lucifer’s arms, she may have inadvertently created an opening for Hell to be unleashed on Earth when she killed Father Kinley. Though she had no choice in that regard, her plan to kidnap him set all of this into motion and now that a demon has possessed the good Father, who knows what Hell our protagonists will be facing in the finale.