Season 1 Episode 3
Note: Apologies, this is being reposted due to a technical issue.
By the third episode, Lucifer felt like a show struggling with its identity. Chloe's curiosity over Lucifer was there; the couple of scenes of Chloe's quiet investigation into him were glimpses of a show beyond the current case of the week format. Lucifer threw a suspect through a glass wall with one hand. How was Chloe supposed to reconcile that with the charming, eagerly helpful nightclub owner she knew?
Not easily. In fact, Chloe kept trying to push him off the investigation into the death of a girl named Ali in the house of star athlete Ty. It was only when she needed his help to collar Hollywood fixer Ronnie Hillman that she reached out to him.
The show worked to portray how the detecting partnership between Chloe and Lucifer would be, but it also highlighted why Lucifer would want to be a crime solver in the first place. Lucifer bitterly resented the role forced upon him in hell. Dr. Linda helped him realise that beyond punishing the guilty, he was starting to enjoy seeking justice for the innocent. That thought went well with Lucifer's belief that his evil devil reputation was not well deserved.
When Lucifer ranted at Dr. Linda's office about the guy who stole his identity, Dr. Linda astutely pointed out that his reaction seemed disproportionate to the crime. Lucifer felt guilty about his role in the mess young Ty found himself in. It was Lucifer who convinced the straightlaced Ty to drink for the first time and lose his virginity to a girl he only just met. If he had not interfered, would the tragic event that followed have happened? It was a callback to how he felt in the pilot. 'Look, if I hadn't meddled with her career, maybe she wouldn't have died', he told Chloe, about Delilah.
Lucifer was experiencing what humans often do, an awareness of the consequences of our actions. Where does free will end and the influence of the devil begin? The show did not directly address this question, but it was there, buried in Lucifer's anger.
Lucifer may find that seeking justice was a far more satisfying job than punishing the guilty, but Maze was not with him, not yet. Maze clearly missed their lives in hell. Maze was a favourite of mine when I binge watched Lucifer, and I look forward to tracking her evolution through these recaps.
Strays
♕ Lucifer to Justin, the guy pretending to be Lucifer: 'It seems you're a bit of a two-pump chump.'
♕ I am writing this with a headache, so I can't get too much into it, but did anyone else feel a bit uncomfortable with the portrayal of Debra, Ty's rather intense ex? I feel like this is the one aspect of the episode that could and should have been handled with more maturity. Ty had a restraining order against Debra. Debra appeared to be struggling with issues that may require professional assessment and help. That the two of them just reunited at the end bugged me.
♕ Here's what happened: To please Debra (before they broke up), Ty met with another agent. His current agent, Joe, found out. He hired Hollywood fixer Ronnie to hire someone to sleep with Ty and capture it on video, so Joe could blackmail Ty, who had a squeaky clean image. Ali, the girl Ronnie hired, changed her mind when she realised that Ty was a good guy, and refused to give Joe her phone where the video was. They struggled, and Joe accidentally killed Ali.
♕ 'Monkey bottoms.'
♕ Lucifer: 'You don't even have to be famous to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? You can just buy one!' According to a Time article, all star applications carry a $30,000 sponsorship fee.
Director: Louis Milito
Writers: Jason Ning and Jenn Kao
Original Air Date: February 8, 2016