So Lucifer is going back to his roots - which begins with him having sex with a random woman (whose desire is to have sex at the ball pit at Chucky Cheese and while a ball pit sounds intriguing I am reliably informed that those particular ball pits are chemical weapons labs where the worst diseases in the world are marinated in these cesspits of filth).
Her husband arrives home, furious to catch his wife cheating until Lucifer throws in his mojo and charm and soon the man is saying how he doesn’t actually desire his much younger wife, because the parties and sex et al are exhausting to him and he really wishes he was still with his ex wife. Lucifer woo-woos this into the judge owing him a favour, of course he does.
And then to this episode to which we have Lucifer, yet again, making everything about him, deciding to make random people surrogates for his issues and generally be quite tiresome. Honestly I’m getting kind of bored of this schtick; Lucifer snarling and convolutedly twisting everything is not fun.
Anyway, to the murder - given by Pierce to Chloe in between treating her in his usual arseholish ways (Ella believes he likes her. I believe he’s just an arsehole even if he does like her - because the level of contempt he’s showing her, the best detective in the unit, is unacceptable). We have a councillor at a drug and alcohol rehab centre who has been murdered.
Lucifer instantly self-inserts that evil people cannot be redeemed. Criminals cannot change. Once bad is always bad. Why? Well, I’d like to say that maybe this could be an analysis of the morality of Hell and how torturing people eternally is always dubious and even more dubious when you consider the possibility of redemption. But in reality it’s because Lucifer is still playing with identity issues and the fact he’s growing wings and being all angelic and he wants to stay all devilish. Basically he’s clinging to the idea that bad humans can’t reform so that he, the bad angel, can’t reform
There’s never any logic to all this and at very least before we had Dr. Linda unpicking this nonsense
So he goes around accusing random people as we move from obligatory red herring to obligatory red herring while Lucifer rampages over every right he can, threatens violence and uses lots of woo-woo. He gets praised from Pierce for abusing one teen red herring who had an argument with the dead woman, who already had his life threatened by Lucifer in a rather awesome car scene (while Chloe gets more contempt from him). This teen points to someone the councillor was going to expel from the program so Lucifer decides to go back to the facility and teach all the kids how to deal drugs
Of course he does (one moment: when Lucifer uses his “desire” power on the crowd of kids we have a lot of shallow answers but some rather deeper ones that are brushed over - like the kid who wants his dad’s approval). Only to find one of them is waaaay better at it and has a thriving marijuana plantation already. So he gets all those kids to pack marijuana while he rides a horse and gets thoroughly high
When Chloe arrives and is a) not pleased but b) not nearly as enraged as she should be (honestly yes I know Lucifer has shenanigans and Chloe is used to them. And ye gods I am not someone who thinks cannabis is terribad awful. But taking any kind of drug to a rehab facility is an arsehole move).
She’s looking for the teen who was going to be expelled by the murder victim - and lo it’s the woman growing all the cannabis, unsurprisingly. So back to the police station for more questioning and Lucifer eating crisps and chocolate spread with marijuana munchies. This is red herring number 2 who points them to a murder weapon which, when found, points back at red herring number 1. Lucifer considers the job done and returns to his life of casual sex, leaving Chloe to keep following her leads - because she can see a lot of holes in the investigation
Pierce goes with her for funsies and gets shot by the guy running the project, fellow drug dealer. Chloe calls for help to save his life while we have to have a terribad storyline where Pierce reveals *gasp* he thinks Chloe is awesome but decided to treat her like shit because reasons
Honestly I don’t even care what these reasons are, I just loathe this whole concept. It’s terrible in a romance and it’s terrible in the work place - it’s gaslighting and manipulative and bullying and it will only get worse if we drop a romance in there as well. Don’t do it Lucifer.
He still hates Dan though - because poor Dan.
Lucifer catches up with the man who shot Pierce and nearly killed Chloe and unleashes unholy hell on him before Amenadiel stops him murdering him. He points out Lucifer isn’t evil and never was - he punishes the evil. Lucifer’s own words and it’s past time Lucifer remembered this lesson. And since he’s still doing that it doesn’t matter whether he has wings or not because Lucifer still hasn’t change. Lucifer’s thrilled by the revelation and desists from beating people to death
Personally I think this is ridiculous because Lucifer rejected his angel heritage and became a REBEL (his identity) and then god FORCED him to run hell and punish the wicked which was a role FORCED ON HIM which he then escaped from. The show’s logic here is shaky to say the least.
But let’s catch up with Amenadiel. After telling Lucifer that his mission from god involves doing… something with Lucifer, Lucifer suggests that he needs to go be him for a while. Which is not actually possible without Lucifer’s woo-woo or charm (which HAS to raise some severe issues about consent with everyone who has sex with Lucifer) so ends up with him shot down and then in prison for accidentally hiring a prostitute and rescued by Dan. Beyond being ridiculous comic relief, Amendaiel ends with a conclusion that his job is to back Lucifer no matter what
To which Lucifer savagely attacks him - comparing him to a soul in hell who had so little self-worth and was so pathetic that he cried when Lucifer didn’t torture him because it meant he was being forgotten. He calls Amenadiel utterly pathetic clinging to Lucifer’s life.
Which is savage and vile - and Amenadiel knows he’s clearly being driven off and he’s not buying it
But Lucifer’s right. We have Amenadiel whose entire life revolves around his brother. Amenadiel needs a storyline like Maze’s last episode where he has some focus on himself rather than just being an extension of Lucifer. Amenadiel cannot continue to be the much abused, forgotten, comic relief tacked onto the story. This applies to Amenadiel. This applies to Maze (and hopefully changing). This applies to Dan. That’s 3 out of 4 POC (and Ella is not a main character) which is a Problem, made worse if Amenadiel is going to continue following Lucifer even in the face of abuse.
