Lucifer is back! In the middle of the desert, shirtless and with wings and looking fine. The wings I mean, obviously the wings. Those are some good looking wings. Yes.
He’s not particularly happy with things and irritatedly stops a stolen armoured truck and gets involved in some shenanigans with police to get himself back to civilisation.
And Dr. Linda - still recovering from last season and in a wheelchair. I really really really like Dr. Linda. She’s in the know, intelligent and insightful. She knows what it means to have the literal devil in front of her and being his therapist. She’s also, after much familiarity no longer in awe or terrified of them. Yet at the same time she’s knows that these are vastly powerful beings who could easily crush her quite by accident or in the crossfire of their family dramas: something she’s acutely aware of given her current condition. Lucifer demands she cut his wings off as he did before and she refuses. She begs Lucifer not to be rash, to stop and consider what it means to have his wings again and what the consequences could be if he removes them. Specifically she refuses to be caught in the middle of that crossfire. Which he accepts with grace. I do really like Linda and Lucifer together.#
Also snark. Lots of witty snark is always appreciated (bemusement about wings as body hair particularly)
Next step is to the police station where it’s apparent, due to his pained reaction when Dan touches his back, that Lucifer has ignored Linda and cut off his wings. Despite being kidnapped and dropped in the desert no-one noticed he’d gone: 2 days absence doesn’t cause much of a stir. He’s also concerned about the message he left Chloe last season promising to explain everything - she brushes it off. She understands that sometimes you get drunk and call someone leave a message you didn’t mean and then try to take it back. She’s not upset (oh the perils of drunk late night messages!)
But when he starts to ramble about his dad kidnapping and god and devil and wings etc etc etc Chloe isn’t impressed. She tries to follow along with his issues and family drama but how can she. It definitely doesn’t lend credibility to his claim of being kidnapped
We also have Amenadiel show up (am I the only one who finds it a little weird that random members of the public without ID even can just wander around a police station unescorted - not even just reception but just about anywhere?). Lucifer carefully doesn’t tell his brother he has his wings back since Amenadiel does not have his shiny powers again. He fears Amenadiel may not react well. He does tell him all about their mother’s moving to a new dimension since Amenadiel doesn’t speak Lucifer emoji speach
And we have a new character - Lieutenant Pierce, their boss. Ella loves him (and Ella is always quirky and cool - and greets Amenadiel who she’s never met before with a hug, because Ella) but he’s completely dismissive of Chloe, decides Lucifer’s sex life is worthy of comment and disgust and decides to talk about Dan’s crooked copness (ok, the latter case he kind of has a point). So, arsehole.
To the crime of the week! So, when Lucifer drags Chloe to the scene of his kidnapping they find a body! Actually no-one suspects Lucifer of being involved which you think they kind of would since he led them to the body and all - apparently not. They follow a line of clues to a guy who arranged to have the dead man kidnapped - ok side note. This character makes comments on Chloe’s attractiveness specifically her breasts and backside… which Lucifer takes offence to and throws the man off a balcony.
Note that this episode opened with Lucifer not knowing Chloe’s badge number so he decides to identify her by her cup size. Lucifer your show can present a man as outrageous and disrespectful for reducing Chloe to her body parts when your protagonist does the same thing and we’re supposed to find it quirky and adorable.
Lucifer does finally admit that all the nonsense he’s talking about his kidnapping would make more sense if he could prove to Chloe he’s the devil so she could believe him. He tries… but he’s lost his devil face (personally I assumed, like his immortality, it just doesn’t work around her, but apparently he’s lost it). Chloe is deeply upset that he’s messing with her again and playing with her feelings, setting up this big, emotional reveal and then pulling silly faces
So the crime - turns out these are rich people with nothing better to do who prank each other with delightful things like fake kidnappings. And there’s apparently a company that will do that for you. I’m not going to google this to find out if this is a thing or the kind of legal liability paperwork you’d have to sign for this nonsense because my faith in humanity is already at a low ebb. Let me believe this ludicrous thing doesn’t exist. Please.
Lucifer realises that if these professional kidnappers dropped a body where he was dropped then maybe they’re behind his kidnapping as well. So when Chloe and Dan set up a sting to have Dan kidnapped so they can question the people involved (Lieutenant Pierce dubs Dan… expendable. Which is harsh and also hits on his already bruised ego since Charlotte, his lover, no longer acknowledges his existence now she’s depossessed. Poor Dan) he completely hijacks the whole process and has himself kidnapped instead
The kidnappers are normal humans and completely incapable of doing anything to Lucifer who frees himself, menaces them a little and finds out there’s also Sam, a third member of the organisation. He tracks down Sam who tells the whole story - someone called the Sinnerman, a big bad person, paid him to kidnap Lucifer. Which he did but when he looked in the van and saw Lucifer all bewinged he panicked and ran - possibly leaving the other fake-but-real-prank-thing kidnapped guy in the desert to die. Oops.
Lucifer won’t accept that Sam is ignorant of the supernatural and keeps asking the panicked and confused Sam what he is and how he stole Lucifer’s devil face until Lucifer’s wings pop out. Again. Yes they’ve regrown. Again. Lucifer is NOT happy.
Following other clues provided by Ella, Dan and Chloe catch up and take Sam into custody while Lucifer is still all bemused by the regrowing wings.
Meanwhile Amenadiel continues to hang around the least secure police station in the world, have another conversation with Ella who is, as we briefly remember, a committed Christian and she gives him a fun little speech which is basically “god has a plan and works in mysterious ways” variations of which I’m sure we’ve all heard ad nauseum. This helps Amenadiel deal with him still being depowered and even when he goes to Lucifer’s place and finds Lucifer’s severed wings
When Lucifer returns he confronts his brother - and sees the new wings - but isn’t angry. Not with Lucifer. He’s cross with himself because Lucifer was afraid to tell him about the restored wings because of his ego and pride. Which are totally unangelic thoughts, especially for God’s favourite (which, as Lucifer points out, he’s not getting over any time soon). Lucifer shouldn’t have been so wary of his pride that he couldn’t confide in him and Amenadiel is just being tested and he’s going to pass this time. God’s will, mysterious ways, through the glass darkly and all that. He’s going to be insufferable with that and it’s waaaaaaaay past time that Amenadiel got his mojo back
Amenadiel is super happy that Lucifer has his wings as well - because it means he has been forgiven! He can be redeemed! And if Lucifer can be, anyone can be!
Lucifer is less rainbows and joy about the returning wings and absent devil face. I actually really like how Lucifer articulates his rage here since it seems odd he could be this worked up about his wings. But Lucifer is defined by free will. This is what he is. Yes a lot of it comes off as the angry teen telling his dad he can’t be told what to do - but this is ultimately the core of who Lucifer is. Free, self-defined, self-determined, not controlled or manipulated by daddy dearest. Cutting off his wings was the ultimate rejection of that control and assumption of his own identity - the devil face. And now god (presumably) has just stomped all of his agency, his identity, everything he stands for and holds dear for thousands of years. Throwing in forgiveness and redemption is further insulting and offensive to Lucifer who rejects both. Kind of like when someone tells you “Jesus died for your sins” when you aren’t buying into the idea you have sinned in the first place. Or when your partner accepts your apology when you totally haven’t said sorry because you’re RIGHT damn it and this is not the end of this!
He’s also concerned about this Sinnerman guy who he thinks, for some reason, may be even darker than he imagined. Ooookay… why? Because he impales Sam, the guy he hired presumably to silence him, after using major pull to get him out on bail? But a bit of impaling on rebar is hardly the depth of darkness. And when you’re Lucifer aren’t you kind of Darkest? Does it get much darker? Haven’t you kind of done darkness already?
