The devil is back! After three seasons Fox, Lucifer has made his new home on Netflix for a shorter season. We’re part of the way through the drama with this third installment, and things are heating up as Lucifer fights with the Vatican for the first time.
As with the first two installments, a reminder that the entire ten-episode season is already on Netflix, but we’re taking our coverage a week at a time, because we can. You’re welcome to binge the show, come back, read or not read. You’re free to do what you wish. But if you’re still here, let’s dive into lies, babies, betrayals, and cosmology.
1. Lies and insurrection
Alright so the second episode cliffhanger with Lucifer and Father Kinley ended up being a little anti-climatic. Turns out he had an elaborately terrible plan for how to set Lucifer and Chloe at odds and kill him or send him to hell permanently or whatever. Boy needs to read some comics. He doesn’t try to harm Lucifer, he just twists the truth a little and says he’s trying to save Lucifer and Chloe is actually trying to kill him. And she is, or was. I’m not sure where he thought painting himself as the good guy was going to get him. Basing the fate of the known universe on the devil having relationship problems seems like something on The CW.
But it works, it sows some discord, Lucifer overreacts and is hella melodramatic as is his want. They try to solve the murders of former gang members, argue a lot, realize Father Kinley set up the murders, which he goes down hard for and gets excommunicated (is Pope Francis pope in this universe?) And anyway, Lucifer and Chloe finally have it out about whether she should date the devil. It’s properly horrifying, he’s a bully and she’s utterly terrified, but knows from experience her can be kind. He’s relentless, and a jerk, and I always want him to be better, but I should come to expect that won’t be the case. They have a big fight, boom, conflict
I give the ‘ol plot synopsis to point out that there’s a lot of silliness going on in part one of the episode, and less of it in part two when they confront the lies and go after Kinley. I’m a fan of the darker, more serious tone, which I will get into more, and I just keep finding myself wanting to spend less time with the side characters and the cases and more just with Chloe, Lucifer, and the Vatican fighting. It’s what I’ve been waiting for! Anyway lies and slander, Things are nah good for the couple, as it should be.
2. Something something Larry Niven for angels
Speaking of silly-ish side plots, Amenadiel and Lina are pregnant. How you ask? Comics? Who knows. Lucifer posits Amenadiel knocked her up when he didn’t have his wings and was more human. Wings here are not a metaphor for a reversible vasectomy, he is in fact an angel. What’s silly about this is just how bad Lucifer, Maze, and Amenadiel are at comforting Linda in the midst of all of this. She’s freaking out (rightfully) and they’re all like, ah well we know nothing about babies. Amenadiel tries to buy things and propose, which is hasty and silly as he’s an immortal being. It’s all played for laughs, which is fine because there was a moment there I thought Linda was going to have an abortion, and while I respect her right to choose 100%, this is not the show to tackle that very real part of life.
The side stuff this season is starting to suffer this season already, as it has in the other seasons. This, along with Ella diving into alcoholism after lapsing on God, and what we’ll talk about next, is too many side shows. This and the Ella stuff suffer a lot. The Ella thing is actually just real bad. This is a fine development, but not compared to the stakes of Lucifer and Chloe dealing with the reality that she knows he’s the devil. Sigh.
3. Darker Dan
I point out the third subplot, mostly because while the side acts have been less fun, this at least promises good in the future. Dan and Maze team up to infiltrate the Los X’s gang to get intel and just beat the crap out of a lot of people. Which is totally illegal and bad, but when has this show ever cared about police ethics. Dan loves being a bad ass again and tells Maze he wants to do more beating up criminals (which is a crime) and she’s like, “Yeah we should!” While this point out how absurd this show is when it comes to consequences sometimes, it does showcase that Dan is a much better character when he’s a dirty cop. He’s not moping about Charlotte anymore which is important, and him and Maze can now team up and have adventures, which gives them both something to do, and could lend itself to more action and some seriousness. Yay for Dan being important again!
Continued below4. Crime, Legion, supernatural, finally
This and part one may bleed together some. So Father Kinley ends up in jail trying to get at Lucifer. He gets 3 people killed, and one guy super gratuitously, so Chloe arrests him and another priests offers to testify. Kinley arranged the whole thing. I totally thought for a second when Oscar told Lucifer to “Show us,” that he was possessed by Legion (Matthew 8), and maybe hat sitll was the case, but it was clear there were some demonic things going on on the side of Kinley. I think this is the first time this show has actually mixed the perpetrator of the crime with the supernatural in a serious and real way. Like there have been cults and priests and worship and other stuff on here before, but this is the first time I think all that supernatural jazz has been blended in the crime in this way. Lucifer being the devil has kind of been an adjacent or non-serious thing for the most part before this, or, the larger cosmological conflict has had much less to do with the weekly crimes and have happened ethereally on the side with only thematic connections. I am really glad this episode married the two. It put Chloe and Lucifer in conflict in a real way and drove the season villain to a brief low point.
5. וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהִ֔ים לֹא־טֹ֛וב הֱיֹ֥ות הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְבַדֹּ֑ו אֶֽעֱשֶׂהּ־לֹּ֥ו עֵ֖זֶר כְּנֶגְדֹּֽו׃
The appletini was a cute choice. Enter Eve. This will be interesting. I’m curious if Eve can be more than just a romantic foil for Chloe, or if her and Lucifer and Chloe will have to go up against Father Kinley at all. In all honesty, a lot of the larger mythological characters have been wasted the last two seasons. Charlotte’s run as the Goddess, as God’s wife, fell flat in the middle, and Cain was really cool at the outset, and less so until closer to the end. Will Eve fall flat and only be used for kicks? Or will the more streamlined episodes of this show this season make for something more? Only time will tell!
That’s three down, seven to go folks. Sound off in the comments below and come back next week as Genesis 2.0 begins!
