The devil is back! After three seasons on Fox, Lucifer has made his new home on Netflix with a shorter ten-episode fourth season. We are down to the wire with the penultimate episode this week as things get a lot more supernatural and we start driving this puppy home. The title is a punny little bit as the Twitter movement to garner this show’s continuation used the hashtag #SaveLucifer. Very clever.
We’re nine weeks in, you all know the drill. Watch the last episode, don’t wait for me. This is why binge culture is a thing friends! Although after my Designated Survivor confession last week, I am here to let you all know that binge culture is not always your friend, and that show is an example of Netflix reviving something and it being not nearly as good. Season 1 is still the best. But you all don’t care about political television, you are here for comic book shenanigans, so with that in mind: let’s dive in.
1. Hiding in plain sight
So I have a lot of thoughts about this episode, most of them have more to do with the second part of the episode unfortunately, so this point is a bit of a catch all and an excuse to talk about the masquerade scene which I thought was very freaky. So the “case” (let’s be honest, these have mattered less and less as the seasons has moved on) revolves around a real estate firm of sisters, twins and a younger, and the death of the twin. Lucifer is trying to cover his body because his devilish features are again scarily returning. Eve is trying to get him back after their break up, but to no avail. Dan is still trying to recover, Chloe is stoically trying to solve a case like always, and Linda is very pregnant. The episode proceeds as a romantic comedy for about the first half with Eve trying to get Lucifer back and Maze helping her and also coping with her feelings about Eve. They don’t catch the killer until the masquerade where it circumstantially is revealed to be the youngest sister who stages the body at the beginning of the episode. Everyone is hiding something this episode, some of it funny, some of it not, but that’s the theme here, and one of the overarching motifs of the season. Living into who you are is the problem everyone is facing.
BUT THE MASQUERADE PARTY. Yeah anyway I thought this whole scene was really cool. We’ll talk about Maze’s bit in a sec, but Lucifer having to wear a whole devil head to hide his features and Chloe with the lacy mask was very Beauty and the Beast, but the devil. It also reminded me of V For Vendetta, but only because a handsome British dude was hiding behind a ceramic mask, not really for metaphorical reasons. The whole scene takes a shift into the horror realm, a step this show has been hesitant to do, but it flips Lucifer’s devil powers on its head and no longer plays it for laughs. As Lucifer starts to become more devilish, everyone starts spewing their desires (which also leads to the younger sister saying she needs the evidence to cover her tracks). It’s super creepy with the red lighting and the masks and it really worked for me, and was another great descent into more supernatural territory for this show, which it seems we will definitely be getting more of next episode.
2. And after all
Oh Maze. Maze and Dan, as I have said in previous reviews, have again been the outcasts of this season, but this episode is as much hers as it is Lucifer’s. And Dan’s for that matter. Lesley-Ann Brandt gets to show off her vocal skills this episode with a toned-down rendition of “Wonderwall” sung for Eve. It’s a beautiful rendition, and just makes the case for this show to do as much musical nonsense as they want to. Maze is trying to express her feelings for Eve, and it ends up backfiring spectacularly as Eve decides that Maze’s grand gesture (as proposed by Dan) was all a sign for Eve to do a similar grand thing to get Lucifer back. One track mind that one, and maybe not in a good way? But anyway, this episode did Maze a solid, and her growing into someone who has wants and needs, who has a family and wants to be with them, and is rising out of the ashes is very grand.
Continued belowDan also gets a little redemption action here, finally taking some responsibility for his life. Him and Lucifer have had parallel arcs the last nine episodes with Dan punishing himself for Charlotte’s death and being more reckless (which brought back season one Dan). A Dan that is not the butt of Lucifer’s jokes, who is also emotionally well-adjusted but slightly grey, is a good character. He seeks counseling after Ella outs him for committing a crime and goes to Linda, probably the only one who hasn’t seen her yet. Is it ethical for her to be seeing everyone on this show? I think probably not, I imagine there’s rules and all against that but whatever. Dan does good. Maze does good. Ella makes a hammer time joke. It’s a good day for the supporting cast.
3. A child is born
And Linda has her baby and Dan gets to drive her to the ER!
The first scene of baby stuff with Amenadiel suggesting baby names that end with “-iel” was very, very funny. Good ol angel humor. It’s also clear the trauma Amenadiel experienced from last episode is still somewhat present, though he is much less angry now than he was then. He still expects to take Charlie, named after Charlotte Richards, to the Silver City. That’s probably not going to go well.
Either way, Linda being surrounded by Maze on one side and Amenadiel on the other for the birth was very familial and a showcasing of how far the three of them have come from arguing over each other last season. They are a family, and them (supposedly) raising Charlie together is just the way it needs to be. It gives Maze some agency and decisiveness in choosing where she needs to be and belongs, as opposed to chasing Eve like she wants. She gets to be truly herself. I’m still not sure though why baby Charlie is a thing, and it would be unfortunate if he winds up being *only* an infant deus ex machina next episode. I would hope for more, and would expect more baby stuff next season. Still, the amount of possible angel adventures that could be had are numerous and exciting to look forward to.
4. “You blame yourself just as much if not more”
So Lucifer’s breakthrough from last episode that he hates himself is dealt with, first comically, and then very seriously by episode’s end. In full devil regalia, which is rendered very well by the fine folks at Netflix, Lucifer and Chloe have it out and you see how far both of them have come. She definitely accepts him for who he is, and gets him back to normal by admitting he wants to forgive himself. He’s finally honest with himself in a way I find very theologically interesting.
Chloe tells Lucifer that he hates himself because he blames himself for all the sins of the world. This is after he proclaims a version of everything that he touches dies or is screwed up. That’s just so fascinating to have a devil that has that level of self-awareness and remorse. A devil that as opposed to punishing folks, also, like God, wants what’s best for people, and thinks he’s the reason that that can’t happen. Think of the implications for what sin would mean, for how we treat others, for what forgiveness truly is. Original sin becomes an accident, and a failure to live up to and live into who we are as opposed to just the nature of humanity. You all may find this less captivating than I do, but this show has made some really interesting statements like this over the course of its four seasons, and I like to stew on them when they do. It’s most of the reason I watch. And also that everyone on this show is very attractive, but that’s secondary.
5. Queen of Hell
Ok, on to Eve then. I was fine for the first part of the episode with her trying to get Lucifer back. It was cute in a funny way. When she started impersonating Chloe it was funny, but bordering on hysteric. Her and Maze kidnapping Kinley was full-on unhealthy. She’s not doing ok. And this show has sold us on that over the last few episodes as Lucifer has indulged her and she’s tried to please him and be who she’s not, just like she, presumably, did for Adam. Eve has never really been herself, or gotten to be fully herself. We’ve had glimpses of it in episode’s past with her talking to Amenadiel about adventure and story and her being heroic when Lux almost got blown up, but no one has told her that.
I was a little bit disgusted that her whole arc has now slipped into her obsession with Lucifer, but I realize that’s the point. The biblical Eve’s arc doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test (and a lot of the Bible doesn’t either). So then her slipping into anxiety and madness sort of fits that, in a way that is supposed to make the viewer uncomfortable, and hopefully sets up something redemptive next episode. Eve needs to be redeemed. It’s not her fault. Her whole story isn’t her fault. Inbar Lavi has been such a welcome addition to this show this season, and I would hate for her narrative to end with her trying to figure out how to get Lucifer back only to unleash hell upon the world. Still, Father Kinley getting possessed by a demon with the possibility of more demons on the way is pretty cool. Linda’s going to hate finding a dead body in her house when she brings a newborn home though.
Anyway, one episode remains. Sound off in the comments and we’ll see you back here for the finale next week!
